Business Intelligence Network - The Vision for BI and Beyond

When I was a child, the number one attractive nuisance in the house was the aging black and white television that my brother and I fought over, until one day our fight turned violent enough to the point that in our struggle over the dial, we flipped the TV over on its side and completely shattered the screen. Even considering the limited options (the over-the-air tuner with rabbit-ear antenna brought in about 5 or 6 broadcast stations, two of which continuously replayed Looney Tunes or Popeye cartoons), the attraction of the (limited) resource was enough to create a significant demand for it.

Flash forward a few years to today. My brother and I both have children of our own, yet their turf-wars over the limited resource are drastically different than the one that we experienced. In contrast to the limits of over-the-air broadcast stations, we are blessed with digital cable, fiber optic Internet, and/or satellite dishes that stream hundreds of channels of content to our television, wildly expanding the choice (if perhaps not the quality) of programming available to our kids (most of whom are still aged in single digits). My children have become adept at manipulating the 4-in-1 remote control and are able to surf the selections more quickly than I ever imagined. However, this bonanza of entertainment is not the home’s most attractive nuisance.

Instead, it is the computer that is the battleground. Actually, it is the connection to the Internet that has become the limited resource, providing an avenue for their absorption into networked interaction through the various online communities designed specifically for kids their age. The ones my kids have used include clubpenguin.com, webkinz.com, postopia.com and millsberry.com.

Each account is represented by an avatar having access to the different activities across the virtual world, and at any time there may be hundreds or thousands of different individuals interacting at the same time. They have limited means for communication – in some, each individual is limited to canned communications, although many of them do allow for establishing connections with other players. These communities also have economies. The individual may take on work to earn the local currency, which can be spent on various products to enhance the avatar’s looks (e.g., clothes, hats) or home (e.g., furniture, plants, radios).

Clever enough, but why is this relevant as a topic for business intelligence? A few reasons, actually, all with respect to underlying subtexts relating to how this upcoming generation interfaces with technology. My first question relating to these kinds of activities revolves around the business model – how do these sites make money? In fact, a number of them are blatantly commercial, associated with some brands of cereal or connected to alternate media channels (such as Millsberry or Nicktropolis). The non-aligned ones may be making money through subscription, since one must buy and support an account with monthly fees. But what else is possibly going on?

The obvious first issue is activity tracking. In terms of collected information and its use, even though the sites promise to protect privacy, they must be doing something with their data. One of the sites, unaligned with any external products, says in its privacy policy, “The information we collect will only be used to improve the design and content of our site, and to occasionally offer relevant products, programs, and services.”

So clearly, they are looking to optimize the experience, but also to seek opportunities for upsells or cross-sells. Actually, in the full write-up of the privacy policy, it also says, “We also may use this information in the aggregate to analyze site usage, as well as to offer products, programs, or services.” A little more detail here, but they are saying that they are analyzing site usage and aggregating it. Of course, nothing in the language prohibits them from selling that aggregate information in ways that can be used for alternate tween marketing purposes.

Another business intelligence concept is the social network. My kids have friends who also have accounts, and at school they arrange times to meet in particular locations to “play” together online. This is one form of network interaction, which is more explicit in the way that the kids can contact others and “become friends” online – sort of a protected junior MySpace, with numerous guards placed around the methods of information exchange. Since the site overseers know who everyone is in real life, they are able to piece together the emerging social networks of children – information that also can be used later for marketing purposes.

But perhaps the most intriguing concept is the interaction model itself. Children today are bored with the 500-channel television because through their online experience, they have access to millions of web sites offering them something, and as the ones directing where the browser goes, they have absolute control over their own environment. If they become bored with what they see, they can change their view immediately to something else that they can control, at their own speed and on their own terms. The interactive sites are both models and training grounds for this generation.

Our parents wrestled with programming a VCR (already archaic technology). We suffered through carrying around mobile telephones the size of our shoes. Today’s 8 and 9 year-olds think nothing of having alternate (essentially “vaporous”) identities representing themselves anonymously within a worldwide network of other children of similar age and capabilities, and don’t blink an eye at the fact that it doesn’t matter that their online counterparts may be thousands of miles away, in different time zones, or may speak different languages.

That flashing 12:00 on the VCR may have taught us something about technology: Develop it in a way that provides autonomic training. As the privacy policy implies: Monitoring the interaction allows us to “to improve the design and content.” This provides the final tie-in to business intelligence, since it is our business intelligence tools that allow us to monitor the activity and integrate what we learn to improve the design.

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