Leveraging Big Data Why and How ?

Louis WEHENKEL Montefiore Institute - University of Liège - Belgium

Three main messages

A. To exploit Big Data opportunities, we first need to model the concerned Ecosystem

- Internal and external data generating processes - The exogenous actors: customers, governments, competition - Our key performance indicators and targets

A. The concerned Technology and Science are both moving very fast

B. We need to synergize Short-term and Long-term goals to develop a viable strategy

Weather, Environment

Rest of the society & economy

Electric Power System

T&D Operators

Regulators

Consumers Producers Markets Suppliers

Example: the “Electric Energy” ecosystem…

The Ecosystem of Journalism ?

The Ecosystem of Journalism !

“Exogenous” Data Sources

People in their

Bubbles

Technology and Science

Trends in Technology The main tools becoming available at low cost

Sensors and the Internet of Things High-throughput data collection empowered

Cloud storage, GPUs, and HPC Massive computational data exploitation empowered

Virtual reality and Computer vision Versatile Human-Computer interaction empowered

Trends in Science The main results in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence The ‘Machine Learning wave’ The ‘Natural Language Processing wave’ The ‘Robotics wave’ The ‘Augmented Intelligence wave’

WHY ?

First, we need to understand the expectations of

consumers

Consumer Expectations What is expected from the media industry by individuals, social groups, governments, and economies ? The shorter-term practical utility of Big-Data to consumers How we would like the world to be for us now and here…

The longer-term impact in terms of ethical aspects How we prepare the world for our children and grand-children…

What can/should the ‘Media industry’ offer to encounter these expectations ?

Second, we need to understand the rest of the data intensive

industry

Producer Expectations Who are the likely game-changers in terms of service and product offers ? Data centric industry Google, Facebook, Hubber, Amazone…

All other industries Opportunities for many operators to exploit their data

Governments Moral obligation to produce value for the society

What is the position of the ‘Media industry’ in this triangle ?

HOW ?

Step 1: Understand the relevant available data sources WEB archives (Wikipedia, Google Scholar,…) Media (Reuters, Press, Broadcasters,…) Social networks (Twitter, Facebook, …) User clicks and commenting on Media web sites

Need to understand the quality and the various dynamics of all these data sources to be able to exploit them !

Step 2: Define a big data project in terms of its objectives Define a specific context and a specific problem Define the “short-term” goals (1 – 3 years) Define the “long-term” goals (5 – 10 years)

NB: both types of goals must be associated a priori with their

KPIs, and their horizon of evaluation Need to synergize the possibility to exploit low hanging fruits with the wish to fulfill the intrinsic mission !

Step 3: Implement the project and collect customer feedback Use agile methods to exploit early feedback from developers

and from customers Carefully choose what technology has to be developed ‘in-

house’ and what technology should be ‘imported’ Define strategic ‘alliances’ in terms of technology development

and CRM strategy

Need to ensure fast success stories to enable sustainability

Summary

We need to build on 4 exogenous trends to define a business model

Trends in the world of Science what we will able to do in principle

Trends in the world of Technology what kind of affordable tools will be available to do this

Trends in the world of Producers who will be able to provide the set of services and products

Trends in the world of Consumers what would the utility of these services/products be to society

Quick wins / low hanging fruits, and Sustainable business models

Ensure a synergy between

Understand the ecosystem Data sources, actors, trends in science and tech Explicit KPIs and evaluation horizon

We need to

Some possible services/products

Real-time journalism Based on the rapid propagation of opinions (e.g. TWITTER) How to build a fast and very well instrumented journalist ?

Ex-post journalism Need for packaging and digesting the news How to create a press service à la BOOKING.COM ?

Hubber journalism There is a multitude of free-lance ‘amateurs’ who are able to provide

excellent analyses of topics of interest to the general public How to build on the contributions of this wealth of topical expertise ?