Your smartphone creates data constantly, and now a few companies are leveraging it to give Wall Street traders a leg up on market movements. So-called alternative data includes a range of information, from credit-card charges to construction permits. Thasos is one of the leading companies reaping such data from about 1,000 apps, which share the user’s location. Beginning this month, AI-based data analytics firm Thasos Group will offer its data through Bloomberg terminals. Company founder/chief executive Greg Skibiski calls the smartphone a “beacon.” Continue reading Alternative Data Company Thasos to Offer Info to Bloomberg

A group of academics, business executives and journalists recently gathered at the MIT Media Lab to discuss the concept of Data-Driven Societies. Alex Pentland, a computational social scientist at the Media Lab and a leading mind in the area of Big Data, hosted the meeting and discussed how increasing amounts of important information are becoming readily available on vast scales and are often all about consumer behavior. Continue reading Meeting of the Minds: Discussion on Data-Driven Societies

Alex ‘Sandy’ Pentland is one of the world’s most-cited computer scientists and was also named one of the world’s seven most powerful data scientists by Forbes. As a pioneer in Big Data, he discusses his distinctive view of the field, revealing his belief in the power of Big Data to inform about people’s behavior rather than just about their beliefs. Pentland is also interested in how that concept relates to business. Continue reading Big Data Pioneer Excited About Reinventing Human Society