(See part 2 of the post here)
It is my deep belief that data driven businesses will become more and more prevalent in this networked economy. Converting the masses of data in social networks into powerful applications that help the community be better at what they are passionate about is one manifestation.
This NYtimes article suggests how this can be done. It talks about how a site, PatientsLikeMe, is using data about its users to create powerful management tools, similar to how Amazon create useful recommendations based on their users' clicking behavior.
The members of PatientsLikeMe don’t just share their experiences anecdotally; they quantify them, breaking down their symptoms and treatments into hard data. They note what hurts, where and for how long. They list their drugs and dosages and score how well they alleviate their symptoms. All this gets compiled over time, aggregated and crunched into tidy bar graphs and progress curves by the software behind the site. And it’s all open for comparison and analysis.
This leads me to think about how other niche social networks can used this model to provide real use to its users. More importantly, if these networks can improve and transform the current broken practices of many incumbents industries. PatientsLikeMe for example has the potential to transform the whole healthcare drug industry by dentralising the drug testing activities.
Next post will suggest what other social networks can transform industries if they reply on data driven mechanisms.
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