I believe the human factor is and always will be the key differentiator for successful businesses. Somebody will figure out how to decipher the endless bytes of data in the world, and yes they will make a boat load of money. However, once that problem is solved, all companies (that can afford it) will no longer have the same issues they have today, nor will they be able to justify higher prices without giving more value.

In my experience value is in the eye of the beholder. If a company spent the extra time to develop processes and systems that proved their added value versus their competitors, they would stand out from the pack and have a better chance of long term success.

@B2BMaven

Over the next few years, someone is going to figure out how to separate the wheat from the chafe. That's when two things will happen:

1) They'll become very wealthy.
2) I'm going to say, “Man, why didn't I think of that? It was so obvious!”

R~

You’re post is the tip of the iceberg and we could probably spend several hours and destroy a couple of nice cabs on this subject. I finished a masters program in information services last year and one of the classes I participated in was ‘Data and Knowledge Management’ – a decidedly dry title to actually quite an interesting pursuit.

Data, information, knowledge – one begets the next. We have tons of data – terabytes, petabytes, and many companies (Google is one, I’m sure) are well into exabyte territory.

As your post illustrates however, without separating the ‘wheat from the chaf’, the data is useless – it just takes up a lot of (usually expensive) space. We need to know how to use (what to look for in) the data and thus create information and, after percolating the information, hopefully gain knowledge that is of some use. Of course, with that knowledge gain, we tend to open new cans of worms which create more data and thus the recursive behavior starts another cycle.

Your example of price chasing is one that is not only enabled by corporate crunching mainframes but by the consumer as well. (As you mentioned in your book – Orson was almost right except that the many will be watching the few – not the other way around!). With smartphone in hand, consumers can snap a pic of the UPC barcode on a product, do an on-the-spot price comparison and if they find a better deal online, order it and probably have it delivered to their house before they finish shopping and picking the kids up from school!

I certainly agree though, it is the unknown possibilities that are most exciting. What will happen say, when product pricing becomes so close as to not be a differentiator? How will companies differentiate themselves? What will they chose as a model? Could it be the human factor? I was on a web site the other day perusing some products when a window popped up asking if they could be of assistance with anything. I IM’d for a bit with them and they were quite helpful. Not exactly like being in a brick and mortar, but still a nice blend of tech and flesh – made me feel like they actually cared I was there.

Thanks Ron for your intriguing posts and your book. New Media and specifically RSS feeds have certainly changed how, where, and when I find relevant data and information and, once in a while, I even gain a little knowledge! 

- Ryan