3
The Data Economy

Recently, one of the chandeliers at my home got faulty and the electric circuit had some weird wiring issues. The bulbs attached to the chandelier started flickering, and within an hour or two all the bulbs had fused out following a few dangerous sparks. We had to get it fixed, but something else happened as well. My five-year-old, who saw it happen mentioned "Appa, this chandelier is losing internet connection, see, even the bulbs are not glowing anymore, can we please check the internet?"

I was surprised by the comment, and it made me realize the world we lived in. The next generation are so immersed in a world that is seamlessly connected, that they might not imagine it ever being otherwise. Such connectivity has its own challenges. Connectivity results in interactions, and interactions in turn result in data – really big data. Data resulting from these interactions is only valuable, however, if it can be sourced, managed, and analyzed efficiently. The connectivity that has resulted in the past few years via the internet as a data network has now seen a major upgrade. Thanks to Blockchain we now have value networks, where connectivity can result in peer-to-peer exchange of value.

This rise in peer-to-peer interactions (be it data or value) has some challenges and risks, including cybersecurity, data privacy, and self-sovereign identities. Over the years we have seen several firms that have lost or mis-managed customer data and have been exposed to reputational and regulatory risks as a result. On the same lines, we have seen capital markets prove inadequate in creating inclusive value frameworks, allowing the rich to become richer when the poor get poorer.

Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, Blockchain, and quantum computing can help in managing the new data economy. They can also help the world transition into a peer-to-peer value exchange network.

This chapter will take you through the advent of the internet, followed by the birth of technology firms that built their businesses on top of the internet. I describe how this subsequently led to social media and big data, which meant that we needed ways to manage the data explosion that followed. The rise of cloud and artificial intelligence on such huge volumes of data were logical next steps. Using Blockchain to manage data integrity, and quantum computing to better utilize data are currently in progress. Let us start with the internet.