Erik Brynjolfsson on Big Data: A revolution in decision-making improves productivity

There is a fundamental change underway in the way that companies make decisions. Instead of relying on a leader’s gut instincts, an increasing number of companies are embracing a new method that involves data-based analytics. This ‘Big Data’ revolution is occurring mainly because technology enables firms to gather extremely detailed information from and propagate knowledge […]

Erik Brynjolfsson: New e-book outlines promise and peril of digital revolution

From Economics of Information Blog Andy McAfee and I have just released a short e-book, Race Against the Machine. In it, we try to reconcile two important facts. 1) Technology continues to progress rapidly. In fact, the past decade has seen the fastest productivity growth since the 1960s, but 2) median wages and employment have both […]

Paul Osterman: ‘Moneyball’ lessons for the economy

From USA Today In the book (and now film) Moneyball, general manager Billy Beane transforms the Oakland Athletics by recognizing that overlooked players contribute value to a team. He overturns conventional wisdom, indeed upends baseball’s domination by wealthier teams,by using data to measure performance. What he learns can also apply to the economic challenges we face today. When people think and […]

Obama and jobs — focus on quality, not just numbers

President Obama’s job plan has triggered lots of talk if not action. With the economy struggling, any conversation about job creation is good news. But from the President on down, we sometimes pay too much attention to the number of jobs being produced and not nearly enough attention to the quality of those jobs. In […]

Riding the Rising Information Wave–Are you swamped or swimming? MIT hosts experts

This week, two conferences on related topics are scheduled for successive days at MIT—the annual MIT Sloan CIO Symposium today and the annual meeting of the MIT Center for Digital Business Thursday. Attendees at both events will include executives responsible for their organizations’ information services. These leaders have very important jobs these days. Information management […]