A Big Deal: New York Times opens up their data

A few weeks ago, New York Times has opened up a series of API's (the Campaign Finance, Community, MovieReviews, and TimesTags APIs). This is a very big deal for me, as it shows further proof (as I said several times in previous posts) that having data is not as useful as doing something with it (in terms of processing it). From this respect, I've always viewed New York Times (or any other Big Media companies) and their content as perfect example of Big Data Owners. From this perspective, any company that collects user/consumer behavior data as BYPRODUCT of a direct-to-user value proposition should seriously consider monetizing their data by opening it up, and allowing developers to mesh it with other data, to provide users/consumers with valuable services. Let me explain what I mean by that.

Your local grocery store, Walmart (both your local physical store and walmart.com), your credit card issuer, media content companies (New York Times is an example of this, obviously), your phone company, etc. etc. are examples of companies who built their value proposition and core business model NOT on data, but on retail, consumer credit, content production, communication (in the order I mentioned these companies above). By virtue, and in the process of delivering their market value, they have collected lots of data for purposes of operational efficiency, etc. etc. So their data is NOT their core business but a byproduct. The Web 2.0 world has opened up possibilities for these companies to consider data they own as assets in and of themselves. I seriously think that moving forward, the next generation business and monetization models are data-driven on a virtual network level, in this way:

1. Data owners open up their data (New York Times is a great example of yet another company, aside from Yahoo, etc. etc., that gets it);

2. By virtue of data APIs, developers are able to deliver applications to users that integrate this data with others, in novel and interesting ways;

3. Data owners then monetize this data as asset (in other words, this is not simply monetization=advertising/targeting), but monetizing as knowledge access. E.g.: in the grand scheme of things, no matter how big your site is (whether content or advertiser/brand site), most of the time consumers spend OUTSIDE your site. On the other hand, and because of this, your knowledge of your consumer is substantively limited to the data you own (plus some third party appends). But you will never know how valuable a consumer is (and be able to deliver valuable services to her) by understanding (with her permission) what their interests are OUTSIDE/BEFORE/AFTER they land on your site (which most often is short, very goal-oriented behavior in nature). So, you DO need other people's data.

This means that data should be monetized in and of itself as asset. This is the platformization/network-ization of everything, really. And this is a good thing. New York Times is one of the most recent examples of "old" media/content companies that gets it. I also discussed with various (but not so many) advertisers/data owners from various verticals that have shown interest in this topic, and I think this is great!

But I think, once more, that we as developers and technologists must leverage this growing demand and be able to explain how this works, and why they should do it, and even design the next generation data monetization models. I am interested in your thoughts on this, especially since I have been working on this and think I have a pretty decent idea of how to do it.