Mo Data Mo Money: Open Source Business Models

According to O'Grady, the four generations are:
- First Generation (IBM) "The money is in the hardware, not the software"
- Second Generation (MSFT) "Actually, the money is in the software"
- Third Generation (GOOG) "The money is not in the software, but it is differentiating"
- Fourth Generation (Facebook/Twitter) "Software is not even differentiating, the value is the data"
O'Grady has some interesting insights into how this progression has worked. Here is his slidedeck from the presentation:
Open Source + Big Data = Big Money
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Making money from software is all well and good, but I can't help but worry about the privacy implications of a technology industry based entirely around selling or using data. Personal data isn't the only kind of valuable data, of course, but I can't help but wonder what a "data economy" will look like.
The other problem is in actually extracting value from this data. Facebook has yet to turn its mountains of big data into a truly useful advertising platform, and it's not for lack of trying.
What do you think about the future of software companies?
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