Data, Data, Data. Data is not a new word, but now, it seems to be everywhere. It’s there when I wake up in the morning staring at me as I hit the snooze button on my iPhone. I know the weather in Somalia and the value of the Yen, before I brush my teeth. I’m being crushed by the sheer weight of data. Please, please, please, just give me what I want, when I want it and in a way that makes my life simpler, not more complicated.
Image courtesy of stockimages. Published on 08 November 2012 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
To give you an idea of how my world has changed, when I started practicing law, nearly 40 years ago, all the paper from a single case could fit in one manilla folder. We were trained to put pleadings on the right side and everything else on the left…. or was it pleadings on the left and……. anyway, with the proliferation of copiers, (yes, I am that old), I needed multiple folders which I organized into pockets that held multiple folders. Soon the pockets filled bankers boxes that filled my office. Soon came accurate scanners, which allowed me to store everything on my computer. Now my computer doesn’t have enough storage so I have multiple terabyte hard drives and cloud storage that allows me to store enough data that could fill a 3 story building if still in paper format. Today, I can stare at more data on my computer screen, in one day then I actually had available to me in the prior ten years. I’ve got information that I never knew I needed. PLEASE, JUST GIVE ME WHAT I WANT, SO I CAN USE IT!!!!
This is what Sabeer Bhatia has set out to do. The co-founder of Hotmail, one of the first, truly useful email applications developed in the 90’s. He is now focused on making software applications that work, that make your life better and most importantly, more meaningful.
When the recession hit in 2008, being the smart person that he is, and with a few coins in his pocket, Sabeer began investing in commercial real estate. You know the old saying, “buy low and sell high”. As he acquired more real estate he realized that he needed more information to better manage his properties. He didn’t just need more information, he needed to access it in a way that was intuitive and made sense to him. Not satisfied with the technology and systems that existed at the time, and with a better understanding of technology than any of us will ever have, he and his partner, Neel Naicker developed AMP Technologies, a software system that, not only collects all of the relevant and useful information about a property, but presents the information in a way that is meaningful. Remember, it’s not the data, but how you use it.
Watch this video to hear how, one of our technology leaders is trying to improve our lives.
The post Real Estate Data and the Quest to Make it Meaningful ~ An interview with Sabeer Bhatia, co-founder of Hotmail appeared first on CRE Radio & TV - Commercial Real Estate with Howard Kline.
