Stream Your Event | Partners | Speakers CART ITEMS: - | CHECKOUT

The Information Marketplace: Is Data the Next Bubble?

Watch Full Video | free previews

The Ideas Economy: Information 2011

The Economist

Info
Bio
Chapters
Preview
Zoom In

Partner:: Economist
Location:: Santa Clara Convention Center
Santa Clara, CA
Event Date:: 06.08.11
Speakers:: Kenneth Cukier,; Sean Gourley,; Alex Karp,; Flip Kromer
Tags:: Technology; data

Summary: The Information Marketplace: Is Data the Next Bubble?

DR. ALEX KARP
Chief Executive Officer, Palantir Technologies

FLIP KROMER
Chief Technology Officer, Infochimps

SEAN GOURLEY
Chief Technology Officer, Quid

Moderator:KENNETH CUKIER
Business Correspondent, The Economist

The era of big data presents incredible opportunities -- smarter cities, stronger companies, faster medicine -- but just as many challenges. Storage is scarce, systems overloaded, governments and businesses know too much. The world now contains unimaginably vast amounts of digital information, which is growing exponentially. Managed well, this data can be used to engineer new engines of economic value, unlock scientific breakthroughs, and hold politicians accountable. Managed poorly, it can cause great harm.

The financial crisis showed that complex models that analyze large quantities of data do not always reflect financial risk in the real world. The financial crisis was sparked by big data -- and there will be others. But the data deluge will also generate millions of new ideas for how to solve big problems, build new markets, and expand existing ones. Ideas Economy: Information is a fresh look at knowledge management for the information age.

The Economist will bring together theorists, strategists, and innovators who understand how to harness data to create value and advance individual, corporate, and social good. We will sift through the vast quantities of current thinking on data to uncover the best ways forward. And we will apply the lessons of the Ideas Economy, about innovation, human capital, and intelligent infrastructure, to uncover new sources of growth and accelerate human progress across the globe.

Bio

Kenneth Cukier

Kenneth Cukier is the Japan business correspondent of The Economist in Tokyo. He is the author of a 14-page cover story in 2010 called "The Data Deluge." Earlier, he was the paper's technology correspondent in London, focusing on intellectual property and Internet governance. Previously, he was the technology editor of The Wall Street Journal Asia in Hong Kong and the European Editor of Red Herring. From 1992 to 1996 he worked at The International Herald Tribune in Paris. From 2002 to 2004 Mr. Cukier was a research fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, where he worked on the Internet and international relations. His writings have also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Financial Times and Foreign Affairs, among others. Additionally, Mr. Cukier serves on the board of directors of International Bridges to Justice, a Geneva-based NGO promoting legal rights in developing countries.

Sean Gourley

Sean Gourley is Chief Technology Officer of Quid. Gourley did research into the mathematics of war for his PhD thesis at Balliol College, Oxford. His findings appeared as the featured article in Nature (December 2009) and were the subject of a popular TED talk he presented in May, 2009. These findings as related to statistical analysis, probability, and algorithm development applied to complex systems and large datasets provided the impetus for important Quid core technology. Gourley is a Rhodes Scholar with a PhD in Physics (Complexity) from the University of Oxford. His undergraduate degree in Physics is from the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Alex Karp

Dr. Alex Karp is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Palantir Technologies. Prior to Palantir, Dr. Karp founded the Caedmon Group. He earned his law degree from Stanford University and his Ph.D. from the University of Frankfurt, Germany. A U.S. citizen, Dr. Karp is bilingual in English and German, and also speaks French.

Flip Kromer

Flip Kromer is the Founder and CTO of Infochimps, a data marketplace to find any data-set in the world. He holds a B.S. in Physics and Computer Science from Cornell University and attended graduate school in Physics at the University of Texas at Austin. The idea for Infochimps was inspired by his abhorrence of redundancy and desire to make the world a happier place for data lovers of all kinds.

Social Data Reveals Lynyrd Skynyrd's Link to... Taxidermy

02 min 52 sec

Add to Profile

Flip Kromer, CTO of Infochimps, discusses the wealth of statistical correlations that are possible as a result of online data.
Watch Full Program

28 min 39 sec

Add to Profile