What Is Inescapable Data?

Computing technology surrounds us. More is coming. However, computing technology is not necessarily Inescapable Data technology. In the world of Inescapable Data, most of the following attributes must be at play:

• Data rich

• Wireless

• Real time

• Leverage historical data

• Combine data streams for new values

• Asynchronous but immediate

• Self-describing and trivially interfaced with other streams

• Crossing traditionally business control boundaries

Often, we will find the following technologies at play:

• Wireless data networks

• Cellular networks

• RFID

• GPS

• Video

• XML

Are cell phones themselves Inescapable Data elements? No, cell phones are just better phones in that they are untethered, far more so than your cordless home phone. But if it can take and transmit a picture, it takes a step closer. If it can do that and send and receive asynchronous messages (text), it gets closer again. If it does all this and integrates with your calendar and scans embedded product tags for details or is used to pay for purchases, it definitely is.

Is your furnace an Inescapable Data element? Just having a programmable thermostat would not be enough. However, if the thermostat communicates with your home network, it gets closer. If the furnace has an embedded processor and can store historical data such as operating statistics, it gets closer still. If that data is self-describing and announced to your home computing network via a Web interface, it arrives. If you can build value-add programs and Web views to monitor, control, and automate your furnace, it attains full citizenship.

Merely being electronic and having a computer with a networking interface is not enough to be an Inescapable Data element. We are looking for the magic that comes when a historical approach to solving a problem is catapulted to a new level in utility by mixing multiple data streams, exploiting real-time information, distilling tons of data into meaningful information, and in general using technology in creative and "mixed" ways.

So, whereas a toaster with advanced settings does not exemplify Inescapable Data, one that is wirelessly interconnected to your heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system via your home network and can thus adjust itself by exploiting collected humidity data does (perhaps to cook longer in higher humidity to provide a more consistent "toast" experience). Whereas a business system that reduces time through internal record simplification does not exemplify Inescapable Data, one that ties directly to suppliers' systems and avoids management worry over inventory levels by instead automatically re-ordering components does. Whereas a doctor's office that uses a high-tech gadget to instantly measure glucose level is not Inescapable Data, one that wirelessly updates your personal health record with the information and is then used properly by a pharmacy for prescription refill is.

It is a crossing of boundaries seamlessly, sharing information wirelessly, with other information sources, and without any delays or gaps (Muda). That's Inescapable Data. The art of combining these technologies will produce the significant twenty-first-century advances. Businesses and manufacturers are seeing this, too, and steadily creating products and connections along this theme.