Pulse: The New Science of Harnessing Internet Buzz to Track Threats and Opportunities [ハードカバー]

I suppose I'm the pragmatist in the group, who mostly enjoys reading when it provides meaningful and measurable results to what I do in my life and work. Doug Hubbard consistently provides practical science in everything he writes; and, in "Pulse: The New Science of Harnessing Internet Buzz to Track Threats and Opportunities" he helps me stay ahead of the incoming wave far enough to make the difference.

Doug Hubbard has continued where he has left off with his other works, specifically "How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business", and has proven the information needed to make the critical, fast-paced, informed descisions for today is available online and can be quickly interpreted. For folks like me, he walks through the process of breaking down the cultural and conceptual obstacles that stands in the way and gives step-by-step advice on how to implement the Pulse as part of a Decision-Making process. His other best-selling books are 5 stars (user-reviewed!) in difficult and critical business categories; Pulse will join that elite group.

I purchased the Kindle version for my iPad so that I could bookmark, highlight and have it close by as a reference tool. As a Searchologist, I recommend it highly.

First came the high-speed growth of the Internet. Then the even faster growth of social networking sites.

Is it any wonder that this level of success would leave clues? In this case, what is left behind is the sheer magnitude of data generated by technology users.

In "Pulse: The New Science of Harnessing Internet Buzz to Track Threats and Opportunities", Douglas Hubbard shows how our daily tweeting, "friending" and even searching on Google provides data that accurately shows trends long before any surveys have been taken, calculated and made public. While each of us may blog, post in Facebook, buy from Ebay and do so for any number of different reasons, the sheer magnitude of data from all users consistently shows trends and outcomes as accurately as surveys, opinion polls and other traditional research that has been relied on for years.

Hubbard opens with a clear definition of what Pulse is and how it has evolved from more traditional, historical methods of data gathering. More fascinating though, are the chapters describing how it works. Many examples in the book walk us through how our tweets, blogs, wall posts, video watching and so on, all contribute to the big picture. In Part ll, Hubbard breaks down the various areas that make up our "digital footprint" where "surf, friend, say, go, buy, play" are elaborated on.

My favorite parts of "Pulse" are the final chapters that discusses how this tool could be used in the future. Where historically, we have been more accustomed to static, two-dimensional facts and figures gathered months, or even years ago, we have now moved into gathering up-to-the-minute data that easily translates into future trends and predictions. This will offer new opportunities as well as new challenges, and the author brings up many ideas on both the good and the not-so-good aspects to take into account. (For example, playing online games could very well be a future source of a very rich data stream to track all sorts of trends.)

This book is a fascinating and thorough look into how our internet actions are the basis for a dynamic new technology sure to become more useful as we learn how to use, measure and tweak the Pulse. It will be interesting to see how quickly governments and corporate America will jump onto this concept and upgrade to this new, innovative approach of information gathering.

Highly recommended reading for forward thinkers in business and government, but a must-read for anyone interested in trends and history in the making.

Hubbard once again presents fascinating revelations based on meticulously
researched scientific sources. This time it is the "Social Data Revolution"
which will fundamentally change how social science is done and how leaders
and even the average citizen will track what is going on in the world.

Pulse illustrates how a recent flurry of research has shown that by analyzing
millions of data points available to anyone we can track and predict a range
of social phenomenon. Trends that used to be visible only weeks or even
years after they occur are now available almost immediately and perhaps even
more accurately. Hubbard's analytical thinking leads us to see how
harnessing such events as the relatively recent explosion in social media
and the vast amount of data generated by it can be leveraged for practical
decisions. For the cost of the book and the investment of time to read it,
business executives could easily begin to make positive dynamic decisions,
based on real-time data, to vault their companies to the forefront of their
respective fields.

As with his previous publications, Hubbard has arranged this book in an
intuitive fashion. He explains his methodology and provides the facts that
underpin his findings. Any business leader not using the predictive power of
the Internet will be left behind in what may be the biggest revolution in
business, society and social science since the start of the Internet itself.