Category: Conferences/Events (Page 6 of 80)

Derrick Harris, Senior Writer at Gigaom, is doing this final session: "For the first time, Gigaom presents its selections of the best and brightest big data startups" and gives each of them an award. Each founder is onstage for a four-minute interview before we break for a reception.

We're now hearing from David Soloff, CEO of Premise, about how microdata can make a big impact on macroeconomics. His company is using crowdsourcing to bring economic indicators into the age of globalization and real-time data. Armed only with smartphones, Premise’s volunteers take pictures that are potentially worth – you guessed it – billions of dollars. I told you this Big Data thing could be monetized, didn't I?

A new computing paradigm is entering the commercial market: quantum computing. GigaOM says it has real potential to solve currently unsolvable big data problems, without increasing energy consumption.

Vern Brownell, CEO of D-Wave, is giving us a hint of how it will change what’s possible for big data. Think in terms of leaving Moore's Law far, far behind and a unit being a "qubit", the quantum computing analog of the classical bit.

Fascinating interview — and, yes, there was talk that quantum computing as a service (QCaaS) will be happening! Here's the video.

(UPDATE: For more on quantum computing, read this detailed interview that appeared recently in The Washington Post — natch, as Jeff Bezos is an investor in D-Wave and now owns the paper!: This company sold Google a quantum computer. Here’s how it works.

But, before you believe all the hype, also read an article that my smart friend Jason Baker, CTO of Asset Record Co., shared with me in real time via Facebook message while I was blogging about this session. It was published just a month ago in IEEE Spectrum: D-Wave's Quantum Computing Claim Disputed Again.)

Next on-stage chat is Colin Coleman, Sr. Director, Analytics Products Strategy and Data Governance, at Turner Broadcasting System, with Mike Dauber of Battery Ventures. Colin is an ex-NASA rocket scientist and says media analytics is actually harder than rocket science. How do you measure multiple channels in real time, for example? Attribution is another problem he admits is not solved.