First came the high-speed growth of the Internet. Then the even faster growth of social networking sites.
Is it any wonder that this level of success would leave clues? In this case, what is left behind is the sheer magnitude of data generated by technology users.
In "Pulse: The New Science of Harnessing Internet Buzz to Track Threats and Opportunities", Douglas Hubbard shows how our daily tweeting, "friending" and even searching on Google provides data that accurately shows trends long before any surveys have been taken, calculated and made public. While each of us may blog, post in Facebook, buy from Ebay and do so for any number of different reasons, the sheer magnitude of data from all users consistently shows trends and outcomes as accurately as surveys, opinion polls and other traditional research that has been relied on for years.
Hubbard opens with a clear definition of what Pulse is and how it has evolved from more traditional, historical methods of data gathering. More fascinating though, are the chapters describing how it works. Many examples in the book walk us through how our tweets, blogs, wall posts, video watching and so on, all contribute to the big picture. In Part ll, Hubbard breaks down the various areas that make up our "digital footprint" where "surf, friend, say, go, buy, play" are elaborated on.
My favorite parts of "Pulse" are the final chapters that discusses how this tool could be used in the future. Where historically, we have been more accustomed to static, two-dimensional facts and figures gathered months, or even years ago, we have now moved into gathering up-to-the-minute data that easily translates into future trends and predictions. This will offer new opportunities as well as new challenges, and the author brings up many ideas on both the good and the not-so-good aspects to take into account. (For example, playing online games could very well be a future source of a very rich data stream to track all sorts of trends.)
This book is a fascinating and thorough look into how our internet actions are the basis for a dynamic new technology sure to become more useful as we learn how to use, measure and tweak the Pulse. It will be interesting to see how quickly governments and corporate America will jump onto this concept and upgrade to this new, innovative approach of information gathering.
Highly recommended reading for forward thinkers in business and government, but a must-read for anyone interested in trends and history in the making.
