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Information Evolution reached its fifth anniversary at the end of 2012. I’d like to take a moment to talk about where we came from and where we are going.

Partners not Vendors

Our model from the beginning was to be more than just a trusted partner for our customers. We would act as a seamless extension of our customers’ firms despite the many time zones separating us. Our reporting would be “transparent” with no bad news swept under the carpet and we would exceed our customers’ expectations across the board (quality, price, responsiveness, advance planning, etc.). The fact that our oldest customer is still with us and that this start-up firm is having its best year ever is one of many testaments to the success of our efforts to transform customer-vendor relationships into partnerships built on working toward common goals and shared values.

Real-Time Data

We embraced the principle of databases updated in real time (event-driven updating) as one of the core assumptions of our business. The exclusive partnership we announced with Connotate last year was, therefore, a major milestone for us and our customers. The integration of current awareness news alert services and other tools added yet another layer to our systems. Now every one of our customers’ databases are updated as soon as data changes, sometimes in a matter of only minutes.

The Crowd

In 2010 we realized that the power of “artificial artificial intelligence” — otherwise known as crowdsourcing — needed to be a core part of our toolbox. The incredible throughput speed that crowdsourcing offers continues to amaze us and delight our customers. We’re happy to be partnered with the best in the business (Amazon and Crowd Computing Systems) as we continue our exploration of the bleeding edge of distributed workforces. (Email us to request our exclusive white paper on crowdsourcing methodologies.*)

India

As challenging as doing business in the world’s largest democracy can sometimes be, we are very proud to be based in the land of Gandhi, Bose, and Tagore (not to mention Rajnikanth and Bachchan). Our employment policies are among the most generous in the industry and have helped us to attract the best and brightest to our fast-growing enterprise.

Austin

The expansion of our Austin presence in 2011 to accommodate new project management and business development managers was another important milestone for us. Austin is at the very center of American innovation and exposes us to all kinds of fascinating emerging technologies that we can apply to our projects. The larger office also allows us to spend more time face-to-face with our customers, which in turn allows us to anticipate and meet their needs more quickly.

The Next Five Years

As we look forward, we intend to recommit ourselves to our core principles and to expand our capacity across the board. Among those initiatives will be increased foreign language capacity, the growth of satellite operations in Singapore and Kenya, and the expansion of our data analysis teams.

Thanks!

Last but not least I would like to thank our senior leadership for the blood, sweat, and tears it took for us to grow to our current size, our staff for their commitment to our customers’ success, and our customers for their continued support of our firm. Onwards and upwards!

* Available to qualified companies and individuals only.

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posted by Shyamali Ghosh on January 30, 2013

The explosion of data-driven reporting, recent data privacy legislation, and the unfortunate loss of one of the Internet’s leading lights have brought the definition of “public” data back to the forefront of discussions about the information industry.

At this late date in the game, it is astounding that there is so little understanding of “public” content and the rules that govern its use. A consensus seems to be emerging, however, that most of the data created and curated by the government and its employees should be accessible to the public. That sounds simple enough, but the devil is in the definitions of the words in that short declarative sentence.

“Most” Data

Personal financial and health data, specific data on children, and national security info comprise just a small sample of the types of public data only available to government employees with the appropriate mandates. So we may all look to the Feist decision on copyright to cover access to address data on government facilities, but location data on sensitive military and nuclear facilities is sometimes suppressed from publicly available databases. Another de facto consensual compromise involves the purveyors of consumer data who routinely sell “presence of children,” average household incomes, and other aggregated data.

Created v. Curated Data

The government creates and gathers information (political contributions, contact info for various license holders, etc.) and allows access to this essentially user-generated data under a variety of models. In just the company data space, there is IRS data, which is 100% off-limits, and SEC filing data, which are both licensed and made public on-demand. Overall, the expectations of privacy for data supplied to the government is undefined and wildly inconsistent.

Accessibility

Publishers of accurate public information often face jail time and death threats. Just a few recent examples include: Bradley Manning and Julian Assange (WikiLeaks); Kostas Vaxevanis (list of tax-dodging Greeks); the White Plains “Journal News” (handgun owners in Westchester); and, Gawker (licensed gun owners in NYC). So, if you publish what appears to be public data, you had better be sure that you obtained it through “proper” channels and that you are on the popular side of the current rough consensus about “fair use.” That is not a very hospitable environment for those who would make more data accessible and it is only going to get more confusing over time. It is a small wonder then that growing firms like Cortera have been aggregating “inferential” data from private, not public, sources.

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posted by Shyamali Ghosh on January 21, 2013