World Business Forum Sydney 6: Getting the most out of big data

Andreas Weigend, former Chief Scientist at Amazon.com

We are now creating more data than mankind did from the beginning through to the year 2000. How can companies manage this data and make sense of it?

Four key tips to managing data

1. Start with the question, not the data
2. Focus on decisions and actions
3. Base your fitness function on metrics that matter to your customers
4. Embrace transparency

What sort of data companies would pay the most for?

1. Geolocation: where do people go?
2. Search history: what did people search for?
3. Purchase history: what did people buy?
4. Social graph: who are their friends?
5. What are their demographics?

The value of data is proportional to the impact it has on a decision. Asking the right questions of the data is pivotal. Think of customers not as audiences but connected individuals.

More at Business Research and Insights blog of NAB