The Numerati

Another part of this class is to read a book from the given list and write a brief reflection. The class is an entrepreneurship class, but it is very much geared toward the technology space, and how to use technology as a resource in all aspects of being an entrepreneur. I blindly chose the book "The Numerati" by Stephen Baker, so here is my review; it will most likely not be as in depth as my reviews about electronic music (lol) because I simply hate reading - the book, however, was pretty interesting.

Stephen Baker, a writer for BusinessWeek, uses to book to describe how the type of individual you are can be determined and classified by series of equations and algorithms dictated by your behavior, interests, purchases and trends. The book discusses how various agencies, anywhere from marketing firms and advertising companies to politicians use multiple hubs of information to track individuals and target them by offering to them specific aspects of their respective institutions which would appeal more to that individual. They grab information about individuals from surveys, recent searches in search engines, websites and "fan" pages that are frequented per IP address, all kinds of online subscriptions, and previous purchases. Agencies then tailor their advertisements to the each individual in order to raise their chances of getting the individuals attention. For example, perhaps every time you log onto your homepage you see various advertisements for Macy's. If you have recently purchased a few items of men's clothing on the Internet, the Macy's advertisement's would begin to shift more towards mensware.

Baker takes this whole concept to another level to discuss legal activity in the sense of trending behavior of individuals involved in terrorist activity. The topic begins to get hairy here because profiling does not guarantee anything and it can be argued that some rights begin to get violated when individuals are treated as if they are terrorists solely because some computer print out shows trending. Growing up in a post 9-11 society, we each have our own individual opinions of profiling for the overall protection of many, so I will let this discussion end here. Over all the book was pretty interesting, and discussed in depth a concept which many of us are aware of on a surface level.