It’s a Data World

I saw this blog about a report from CITA (wireless industry group) that people tend to use their cell phones more for data (text, email, etc.) than for phone calls.

I know that I do a lot more data, primarily through wi-fi, than I do phone calls on my phone. At least on a daily basis. I have some long calls to my business partner and family at times, but most of the communications that I do through my phone are data comms (sending pictures, Twitter/Facebook, texts with family, etc.)

In my mind this means that data is becoming more important, and that as data professionals, we ought to be aware and finding ways to integrate or read these data streams. Things like StreamInsight, to me, are going to become more important.

I also think that the wireless industry needs to figure out new models of business. Rather than trying to change habits of data consumers or incenting them to use less data, they ought to embrace it and build their networks to deal with it. They need to plan for, and charge appropriately, for data usage.

And in some sense, I think that means warning people about their data usage. I know I can check what I’ve used, but I don’t know what that means in terms of “what” I do. When I check tweets, what does that mean? Or send a series of emails. Better reporting and education for people, and perhaps warning them of large transfers, rather than trying to stop it.