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"Josh Jones-Dilworth\u00A0is the founder and CEO of Jones-Dilworth, Inc. a PR consultancy focused on bringing early stage technologies to market. He blogs at\u00A0joshdilworth.com.\nA lot has changed since this post\u2019s forbearer last December, so much so that I think it\u2019s safe to say that data, particularly as it relates to marketing and social media, is no longer an annual topic, but rather a daily one.\nBelow, I outline five data-driven trends that will shape our coming year.\n1. \u201CData scientist\u201D Is the New Community Manager\n\n\n\n\nIn 2011, data science job openings will see a rise in numbers similar to the gaggle of community management and social media marketing gigs that materialized out of the ether nearly three years ago. Data scientists are officially the hot new hire of choice even though their particular mix of formal skills is still rare.\nNow, community managers will not become data scientists per se \u2014 true data science involves a heavy dose of machine learning, code skills, math chops and deep domain expertise. \nBut because demand for data knowledge and practicum will outpace supply for the foreseeable future, data science tutorials will be popular events, and lightweight data science skills will trickle down and meaningfully impact marketing roles everywhere. \nFurther, the very best data scientists and data-driven marketers will find themselves collaborating frequently, cross-pollinating best practices and earning a seat at most every table.\nSome people have openly wondered whether the social media expert will go the way of the webmaster, as common social media skills spread horizontally across an organization.\nCommunity managers and social media marketers, for their part, absolutely can make themselves more valuable and relevant despite commoditization by learning lightweight data science basics and forwarding clever, data-driven campaigns. \nFor all of us marketers, the newfound fame of data science should, regardless, be considered an opportunity, not a threat.\n2. Data Management Will Become a Real Industry\nFacebook\u2019s highly publicized move to allow users to download their data in bulk is a stand-in for any kind of real change (with all due respect to Dave Recordon and others). It\u2019s a gesture at best, far from any notion of true portability.\nBut, it\u2019s still an indicator that we\u2019re getting closer to our long-held vision of data that is accessible and transportable and managed by its rightful owner \u2014 you (whether \u201Cyou\u201D is an individual, a family, a group, or an organization).\nCompanies like Backupify speak to the same future. Backing up your data is just the first step, of course, a function that saves a seat for an entirely different function eventually. \nWhen I am finally able to join my data from disparate services with a unified view and the right accompanying toolset, I\u2019ll be able to do all kinds of derivation and detection. We\u2019ll open up new fields and use cases ranging from personalized medicine to a new kind of data marketplace where I set my own price for those who want access to my history, preferences or predilections (something that Infochimps is already pioneering).\nJeremie Miller\u2019s new vault-like open source project for collating, securing and sharing personal data is an especially promising new direction. More players will emerge in this space in the next year, and investors should look to place bets in the next six months, if they haven\u2019t already.\nSimilarly, data availability and portability, done well, can bolster a brand and command new audiences. Helping this vision along is an investment of another kind.\nWho will be the eTrade or the Google Health of my data? Will we have data advisors who look after our portfolio? Will we manage our data daily, weekly or monthly? Will it be exhilarating or more like cleaning out a closet?\nEsther Dyson spoke to this idea back in 2008 in fact, remarking that \u201CIf you\u2019d said 10 years ago that people are going to be managing data about themselves at a very granular level, people would have said 'No, this is crazy.'\" \nTwo years later, that vision is getting closer to reality, although only just.\n3. The Floodgates Are Opening\nData has long been left abandoned in dark recesses and behind firewalls, either forgotten or hidden. The increasingly obvious value that can be gleaned from data is coaxing it back out into the open (thriving black markets not withstanding).\nBundle is one example of how major sources of data are starting to open. Born out of Citibank, Bundle has access to anonymized transaction records from more than 20 million people (compared to 3 million for Mint Data) that allows them to produce all kinds of useful magic for everyday people.\nBundle is, I think, exemplary, but there are plenty of other major corporations and data sources making their wares available in one form or another. I\u2019d argue that the tide is shifting, dramatically. The question from large data producers is no longer \u201CWhy would I make my data available?\u201D but rather, \u201CHow do I make my data available?\u201D and \u201CWhat do I need to know to do I do it right?\u201D\nIn fact, the size of Factual\u2019s recent $25 million venture round is as much a testament to its technical chops and high-fidelity data as it is a nod to the major brands it's managed to get off the sidelines and into the game \u2014 something I admit I thought would take much, much longer.\n80legs\u2019 Shion Deysarkar on the other hand would argue that acquiring data via crawling and scraping (bottom up, instead of top down) is far more effective than waiting for someone to, at long last, provide it in bulk or via an API. The tension between data that is sold or bestowed and data that is found or acquired is, for now, a productive dynamic.\n4. Big Data Will Become a Regulated Industry\n\n\n\n\nThis one is definitely happening \u2014 you can just feel it. You don\u2019t spend this kind of money (ahem, Google) lobbying unless you\u2019re worried about the cards falling the wrong way (Facebook, naturally). \nI think that Better Advertising is actually a good idea because it will, at a minimum, take the online privacy conversation to everyday web users. But there\u2019s no doubt that its critics are barking up the right tree \u2014 namely, that the group\u2019s motives are potentially flawed (read: the advertising industry is regulating itself on its own terms in order to avoid being regulated by the government, under other auspices).\nSeveral high profile screw-ups have led, for better or worse, to some vendetta-like muckraking and many millions of pageviews, not to mention an increasing fear of privacy erosion.\nWhether that fear (and fear-mongering) is justified is grounds for another post, as is whether regulation is itself a good or bad idea.\nBut in 2011, the government will step in and start regulating the acquisition, use and distribution of data by Internet companies, starting with the low-hanging fruit, but quickly moving on to less obvious candidates.  \nEither Facebook or Google will be first, of course.\nFacebook is a target because of its cultural prominence post-Sorkin, a widely perceived disregard for privacy, both in its features and policy and a certain inelegance that is a byproduct of its engineer-driven culture.\nGoogle will be on the hook because of its insatiable hunger for more data \u2014 ITA being the latest target. That is, if you don\u2019t count Groupon, which called off the proposed GOOG deal over purported regulatory fears and associated kill fee negotiations.\n5. You\u2019ll Be Sick of Hearing About Data (If You're Not Already)\nI have spoken to no fewer than three journalists in the past week who have complained of a recent deluge of data-related pitches full of jargon their senders don\u2019t fully grasp. And those journalists are also getting savvier about examining the reality and assumptions behind those sexy infographics and the methodology of data capture in those pageview-grabbing studies.\nData is cool, people. Data is having its moment in the sun. \nData is also increasingly available (see number three, above). Growing numbers of us know how to play with data and bend it to our will. And as a result, 2011 will bring with it both good and bad effects of data\u2019s newfound popularity. \nExpect to see more data meetups and data conferences, more data-driven jobs and data-driven purchasing decisions. Expect more bloviating too, and a healthy dose of \u201Cthe data told me to do it\u201D excuse making.\nWe\u2019ll see open data disrupt industries and verticals ranging from air travel to journalism to religion. We\u2019ll see new kinds of museum displays, classrooms and advertisements, all moved and shaped by data. We\u2019ll also see more data on lockdown, secreted away because of the competitive advantage it affords, and more lies and obfuscation.\nMark Zuckerberg said at the recent Web 2.0 Summit that \u201Ceverything that can be social, will.\u201D Much the same can be said of data \u2014 anything that can be data-driven will be.\nBut we\u2019re likely heading for a data hangover, too. They might not even let me write this post again next year.\nSummary\nIn the midst of all the data-driven innovation we are seeing, this will be also the year of separating the non-trivial from the trivial. \nIt\u2019s one thing to acquire terabytes of data, and it\u2019s quite another to cleanse, disambiguate and mobilize that data in service of real-time insights into markets young and old.\nThe intellectual and experiential barrier to entry in social media, I think it\u2019s fair to argue, is relatively low. It\u2019s therefore harder to distinguish oneself, but certainly easy to get started. That\u2019s been the beauty of the experiment all along.\nUntil now, data science and data marketing have been relegated to the realm of a self-selecting and highly motivated few, but as new tools democratize access, we\u2019ll start to see a different dynamic.\nBut with great power comes... well, the Mark Twain quote I used last time still applies: \u201CThere are three kinds of lies \u2014 lies, damned lies, and statistics.\u201D\nData can create new insights and open new opportunities, but it can also be twisted to serve an agenda or simply tell us what we want to hear. \nIt\u2019s all in there, though \u2014 there in the data somewhere, if you know what you\u2019re doing and how to do it well. Data knows everything we know, everything we don\u2019t know, and, as it turns out, even a few things we don\u2019t know we don\u2019t know.\nDisclosure: 80legs, Infochimps and Bundle are clients of Jones-Dilworth, Inc.\nMore Data Resources from Mashable:\n- Facebook vs. Google and the Battle for Identity on the Web [OP-ED]- How a Physically Aware Internet Will Change the World- What You Need To Know About Data Portability- How Online Retailers Can Leverage Facebook\u2019s Open Graph- How Real-Time Data is Changing Business Optimization\nImages courtesy of iStockphoto, rev606, Flickr, The Planet, Jon McGovern."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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