Rory O'byrne on data terminology
From What If We Generate Our Own Data? | Rory Byrne · · Data Natives
“I say we ditch the word collect and call it what it really is: data generation. Because if we're honest, the word collection is extremely misleading. It gives us this impression that we are generating data and that we own it and that we make it available to the companies. It simply doesn't work like that.”
On , Rory O'byrne, Senior Vice President & Chief People Officer at ADVANCED ENERGY INDS INC, spoke about data terminology during What If We Generate Our Own Data? | Rory Byrne on Data Natives.
About Rory O'byrne
Rory Byrne, founder of Metro, gave a presentation in September 2019 in which he criticized the current model of data collection by internet companies. He argued that the traditional "corporate model," where platform owners generate data about users in real time, was "built for the advertising era" and "not built for the AI era." Byrne described the term "data collection" as "extremely misleading," asserting that data is generated by corporations behind a "silicon curtain" and that users do not truly own or control it. He cited issues such as the rise of organizations like Cambridge Analytica and surveillance programs like Prism as consequences of this lack of transparency. Byrne proposed an alternative system called "self-generation," which he said Metro is implementing. This model allows users to generate their own data across platforms and exchange it with businesses on their own terms. He described the system as "user-centric," "mutually beneficial," and "transparent," adding that Metro is an "open platform" where anyone can build data generation code. Byrne stated that users could be paid multiple times for each data point they produceched, and he envisioned a future decentralized data transfer system built with a distributed ledger. He contrasted this with the current model, which he said "sucks for everybody who is not a tech giant."