By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
SmartData Collective
  • Analytics
    AnalyticsShow More
    predictive analytics in dropshipping
    Predictive Analytics Helps New Dropshipping Businesses Thrive
    12 Min Read
    data-driven approach in healthcare
    The Importance of Data-Driven Approaches to Improving Healthcare in Rural Areas
    6 Min Read
    analytics for tax compliance
    Analytics Changes the Calculus of Business Tax Compliance
    8 Min Read
    big data analytics in gaming
    The Role of Big Data Analytics in Gaming
    10 Min Read
    analyst,women,looking,at,kpi,data,on,computer,screen
    Promising Benefits of Predictive Analytics in Asset Management
    11 Min Read
  • Big Data
  • BI
  • Exclusive
  • IT
  • Marketing
  • Software
Search
© 2008-23 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Mok Oh’s New Big Data Venture
Share
Notification Show More
Latest News
ai software development
Key Strategies to Develop AI Software Cost-Effectively
Artificial Intelligence
ai in omnichannel marketing
AI is Driving Huge Changes in Omnichannel Marketing
Artificial Intelligence
ai for small business tax planning
Maximize Tax Deductions as a Business Owner with AI
Artificial Intelligence
ai in marketing with 3D rendering
Marketers Use AI to Take Advantage of 3D Rendering
Artificial Intelligence
How Big Data Is Transforming the Maritime Industry
How Big Data Is Transforming the Maritime Industry
Big Data
Aa
SmartData Collective
Aa
Search
  • About
  • Help
  • Privacy
Follow US
© 2008-23 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
SmartData Collective > Big Data > Mok Oh’s New Big Data Venture
Big Data

Mok Oh’s New Big Data Venture

gilpress
Last updated: 2013/02/10 at 9:00 AM
gilpress
7 Min Read
Mok Oh new venture in big data
SHARE

Where’s the value in big data? Marcel Proust believed he could regain time lost through his writing, using art to overcome the corroding power of time. Mok Oh believes he can find the ultimate value of big data by preserving our memories and providing a nonintrusive way for us to define what’s important.

Where’s the value in big data? Marcel Proust believed he could regain time lost through his writing, using art to overcome the corroding power of time. Mok Oh believes he can find the ultimate value of big data by preserving our memories and providing a nonintrusive way for us to define what’s important.

As first reported by Xconomy and Boston Business Journal, Oh, former Chief Scientist with PayPal, recently joined North Bridge Venture Partners and is contemplating a new venture, one focused on “consumer big data.”

Mok Oh new venture in big data

More Read

become a data scientist

Boosting Your Chances for Landing a Job as a Data Scientist

Four Strategies For Effective Database Compliance
Discover the Power of Analytical Insights in Your Business Data
365 Data Science Courses Free Until November 21
Roles of Python Developer in Data Science Teams

When I talked to Mok last June, he told me that he likes to create things that are useful. It looks like he believes the next opportunity for him to do so will be related to our personal data. “Big data’s use case,” says Mok, “has been for the enterprise. At the end of the day, everybody is trying to understand consumers from their own business perspective. But there’s a new breed of companies coming out that are more focused on being pro-consumer. Can we understand consumers from the consumer perspective?”

big data venture Mok OhWorking initially with Silicon Valley “rock star” Jonathan Heiliger, Mok is at the idea-incubation stage, asking questions and formulating hypotheses.  He thinks that “data is dumb” and that we should turn quantity into quality. The companies that collect data on us today, Mok argues, focus on the quantity of data they collect, but don’t necessarily understand how we value this data and what we consider important: “A picture of my kids—does anyone really know how significant it is to me? Google doesn’t know that, I know that.”  He adds: “I take thousands of photos a month, most of which I will not look at again. Is there a way to have the system better understand which of these is more important to me?”

Today, our personal data is fragmented, residing in different Web silos. Mok wants to bring it all together and provide services that address three problems that consumers currently face:

  1. Preservation services, allowing our data to be accessible everywhere: “It solves a huge problem but it’s still just dumb data.”
  2. Augmentation services, presenting data in the right context: “There’s got to be some sort of augmentation service that helps fill in what’s missing from our memories, the data we tend to forget.”
  3. Prediction services: “You’ve done this in the past, so what are the things you might like?”

With his “pro-consumer” approach, Mok contemplates providing these services as a subscription, avoiding some of the pitfalls other companies face when they try to make money based on the data users give them. He says: “Many times monetization conflicts with consumer needs or values. I want these things to be well-aligned. If there’s value, you pay.”

The key to make these services work and to finding the value for each user, is to develop an easy-to-use mechanism that elicits from users what’s important for them, a subjective assessment that may change over time or in a different context. Given his background as a data scientist, I thought Mok would mostly rely on machine learning to crack this nut, but he surprised me: “It’s really about teasing out the right data then about a machine learning algorithm. Data is the hard part, that’s the key to everything. The creativity here is teasing out this information in a frictionless way. What are simple, frictionless ways for consumers not just to check in but add information about parameter X?”

I like it. Here’s a data scientist who understands where the machine can’t help. But he is also confident about where it can provide assistance: “The brain is limited. A lot of people are trying to mimic the brain and make the machine mimic the brain. Machines are far superior in doing certain things and brains are not so. How to add these two together in a collaborative way, that’s the key. I’m not trying to re-create you, I’m trying to supplement, augment, make the memories last.”

Making memories last is what seems to be the key personal driver behind Mok’s new venture and where he thinks he can find the value in personal data. He says:

“I want to preserve, as long as I can, what made me me, or what have been some of the significant things in my life. If you put stuff in Dropbox, no one is going to guarantee to you that it’s going to last 100 years. Many times, it’s just deleted. I saw a picture of my mother with her parents when she was four—I want that data to last forever. Memories that are in my parents’ heads will go away when they die—is there a way to preserve them? Would it be possible for my grandparents to have a conversation, maybe a one-way conversation, with my kids’ kids?”

A dozen or so years ago, I wrote in the introduction to The EMC Map of Information Preservation (deleted from the Web, alas), ”we are what we remember.” If Mok and his collaborators pull it off, defining who we are may be supported and supplemented by a Web service. We may not all become talented writers like Marcel Proust, but like him, we will have a tool that will help us overcome the limitations of our memory, even transcend time.

TAGGED: data collection, data preservation, Data Science, mok oh
gilpress February 10, 2013
Share this Article
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn
Share

Follow us on Facebook

Latest News

ai software development
Key Strategies to Develop AI Software Cost-Effectively
Artificial Intelligence
ai in omnichannel marketing
AI is Driving Huge Changes in Omnichannel Marketing
Artificial Intelligence
ai for small business tax planning
Maximize Tax Deductions as a Business Owner with AI
Artificial Intelligence
ai in marketing with 3D rendering
Marketers Use AI to Take Advantage of 3D Rendering
Artificial Intelligence

Stay Connected

1.2k Followers Like
33.7k Followers Follow
222 Followers Pin

You Might also Like

become a data scientist
Jobs

Boosting Your Chances for Landing a Job as a Data Scientist

9 Min Read
database compliance guide
Data Management

Four Strategies For Effective Database Compliance

8 Min Read
analytical insights for business data
Analytics

Discover the Power of Analytical Insights in Your Business Data

5 Min Read
365 Data Science
Data Science

365 Data Science Courses Free Until November 21

4 Min Read

SmartData Collective is one of the largest & trusted community covering technical content about Big Data, BI, Cloud, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, IoT & more.

giveaway chatbots
How To Get An Award Winning Giveaway Bot
Big Data Chatbots Exclusive
AI chatbots
AI Chatbots Can Help Retailers Convert Live Broadcast Viewers into Sales!
Chatbots

Quick Link

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Follow US

© 2008-23 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.

Removed from reading list

Undo
Go to mobile version
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?