Welcome to the Insight Age

We are in the midst of the Insight Age.  In other words the end of the Information Age.  This has been explained on HPCwire quoting HP Labs distinguished technologist Parthasarathy Ranganathan.  No longer are we seeking ways to process information.  We are seeking ways to disseminate and draw conclusions from the information we already hold.

Does this sound familiar to anyone in Operations Research?  It should because this is what Operations Research has been doing for years.  I think I sound like a broken record sometimes.  Yet I guess the story needs to be told again.  But perhaps I'm being a little too snarky.  It could just mean that the Information Age is catching up to the decision science analysts.

The crux of the article is technology meeting the demands of information overload.  Yet that is not what the definition of insight is to me.  Insight is drawing conclusions based on the evidence.  The Operations Research analyst will undoubtedly be well prepared for this evolutionary advancement.  I'm sure HP is aware that technology alone will not help the Insight Age revolution. 

I hope we've all seen this new age coming.  The Insight Age is here and is ready to be tackled.  My next inclination is to think what will define the Insight Age.  The Information Age was defined by the internet, computing power, and globalization.  My prognostication to define the Insight Age is open data and decision science.  Open data is about having no barriers to information.  Data will be freely accessible and easy to disseminate.  Decision science is already here and will make an even bigger impact.  Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Optimization Algorithms will all be the cogs of the Insight Age mechanism. 

Insight Age is such a fitting name.  I'm really liking it the more I think about it.  I'm going to try to remember that in some of my future conversations.