Data and information, they determine our daily life and also our future. If you really look at your everyday life, you first become aware of the quantities of information we not only produce, but also use. Whether via our smartphone, the computer or while we move through the day. We leave our individual data fingerprints everywhere. In my contribution to the Blog Parade of the Intelligent-Information-Blog I take you on a journey through the world of data and intelligent information.
You could say we live in an information revolution. Not only advertisements and knowledge are pelting down on us, every day we also create 2.5 trillion bytes of new information. By 2020, we will be at 35 zetabytes. To comprehend this amount, you almost have to resort to the stars in the firmament.
But as a future strategist and innovation profiler, I look further than just next year – or the next five years. Information will play a central role in our future. Whether in the company, in private life or in interaction with our environment.
data and information in the company
For companies, intelligent information means a better understanding of consumer and employee behaviour, better management decisions and, of course, completely new innovation potential. Nearly 60% of companies even see data and information as the core of their work and generate sales and added value from this.
But what does this mean for the future of work? In futurology one often learns from the events of the past. Even with intelligent data, you can learn a lot from the industrial revolution. While machines made completely new processes possible back then, we can also make processes more efficient, more profitable and faster in the information and data revolution. The Internet of Things is a development that in the near future will bundle all the data that exists in a company and make effective use of this information. Until now, this information has often been nothing but unused treasures.
Intelligent information in private life
There will also be some changes in the private household. A conscious look at daily usage shows us that we are already very information-driven today. Facebook, Spotify, fitness apps and wearables. They all collect information and often make our lives easier with this data. In the near future, the trend towards information collection and further processing will continue to increase. For example, the medical industry is becoming more and more networked and our physicians, thanks to the information collected by wearables, are always well informed about our state of health. But whether or not this is questionable under data protection law should not be ignored in these scenarios. The fact that this picture of the future is probable, however, shows alone that there are currently already about 2 billion health apps active worldwide. And the trend is rising.
The way we shop and consume content is also driven by the information we provide and the data is used in a smart way. Amazon always gives us the best information, individually tailored to us. Netflix and Co know our taste in film and bring us closer to the latest trends. Through smart meters, our electricity provider knows when we are not in the house and can reduce our energy costs. And these are just a few fields of application for intelligent information in our everyday lives.
In some areas this is still a dream of the future in many areas and even if there are technological possibilities, we, especially in Germany, are often many years away from implementation. Despite everything, these data treasures will determine and shape our lives in the future.
A look into the future
Data and information are the oil of the 21st century, they say so beautifully. A statement that has been used up a little, but has not lost its relevance and significance. With the rise of autonomous driving, the internet of things and industry 4.0, information is the key to the world of tomorrow.
In order to get the most out of them, the attitude towards the information we reveal every day must change. Value for money must develop and a proverbial barter trade must be established. This is the only way that users will continue to willingly share their information with companies.
I believe that intelligent information, data and technologies will shape our future and change it centrally. It is up to us, as private individuals and as entrepreneurs, to find an optimal solution.
