In this video from the session “The Brain and the Data: How Accurately Can We Predict?” at Techonomy 2011 in Tucson, Ariz., Techonomy’s David Kirkpatrick talks to TIBCO CEO Vivek Ranadivé about a new model for data access and organization that gives data context, and removes information into more accessible options like cloud storage.
Kirkpatrick: So Vivek, you talk about a new model of information technology that you think needs to emerge.  What do you mean by that?
Ranadivé: Well the old model, David, is based on storing information into a database, trying to build the mother of all databases, and then having to find that information after the fact.  That is the 20th century model.  The new model will be based on a bus where the information finds you, and rather than finding out that you have lost a customer after the customer is gone or rather than finding out that a terrorist act took place after it took place, you are able to take advantage of opportunities and prevent problems before they happen.
Kirkpatrick: You really think we can prevent terrorist acts that way?
Ranadivé: I’ll give you a simple example.  Say your passport gets stolen and a couple of days later some guy shows up at a border crossing with a passport that says David Kirkpatrick on it.  They don’t know.  The information is sitting locked up in a database somewhere.  So the information exists to solve virtually every problem.  You just have to get it to the right place.
Kirkpatrick: If that’s the case then—you know, we are never going to get to that every bit of information solving every problem.  But what you are really saying is that we are on the border of a breakthrough to do far more with intelligence software for achieving decision-making intelligence, right?
Ranadivé: Exactly.  Exactly.  If content was king of the 20th century, then in the 21st century context will be king.  There is a lot of data, but you have to, as you say, get the right data, and you have to get it to the right place.  I have a saying, and the reason that I founded my company is that I have a belief that if you get the right information to the right place at the right time and you put it in the right context, then you can make the world a better place.  I believe that the technologies now exist, with the rise of mobility, the rise of the cloud, the rise of social platforms, to actually be able to do that.