Democratizing Big Data: Expanding Knowledge and Empowering Entrepreneurs

For all the talk about Big Data, and despite the multitude of conflicting definitions about this term, there is nonetheless a movement underway to “democratize” this issue; to automate and analyze information for small to medium-sized companies, thereby enabling these businesses to be more responsive to the needs of consumers and the wants of would-be customers worldwide.

This milestone is important because it levels the proverbial playing field between global corporations, with whole departments and experts dedicated to translating the language of the Web into customized messaging, and businesses with fewer resources – with much fewer dollars – necessary to otherwise stay competitive in this contest for the attention (and money) of consumers in the Americas, Europe, Asia and elsewhere.

I write these words from experience, where, in my role as Founder of Ocoos.com, I seek to make data more affordable and accessible to a variety of companies in a range of industries.

I also write these words as a friend of the academy, inspired by the belief that information – that the data of commerce and communications, and of insight and intelligence – should not be the exclusive province of a monopoly, or a billionaires’ oligopoly of power and privilege.

Data can redound to the benefit of the everyone, delivering value to consumers and savings to companies. It can make advertising and promotions more precise, sales and outreach more exact, and revenues and profits more predictable.

Now is the time for data to thrive in a democracy of online talent.