Professor of Network Supervision and Management, Network College, Oxford University, majoring in network economy. He used to be the head of information supervision research project of Kennedy College of Harvard University and the head of network supervision project of Harvard National E-commerce Research Center. He used to be the director of the Information and Innovation Strategy Research Center of Lee Kuan Yew College of the National University of Singapore. He is also a visiting professor at Yale University, University of Chicago, University of Virginia, University of San Diego and University of Vienna.
He has published more than 100 papers in famous academic journals such as Science and Nature, and is also a special commentator of many publishing institutions such as Harvard University Press, MIT Press, Communication Policy Journal and American Sociology Journal.
Information authority and consultant, consulting clients include top enterprises in the world such as Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and IBM. As early as 1986 and 1995, he was the president and CEO of two software companies. 199 1 ranked among the top 5 software entrepreneurs in Austria, and was named the person of the year in Salzburg, Austria in 2000.
The information policy think tank at the highest level of institutions and national governments focuses on information security and information policies and strategies. He is one of the experts in the European Union and a consultant to the World Economic Forum, Marshall Plan Foundation and other institutions. He has served as a senior consultant for Singapore Ministry of Commerce, Brunei Ministry of Defence, Kuwait Ministry of Commerce, Dubai and the Middle East.
Clothes that have not been worn for more than two years will be given away, and ugly photos will be deleted immediately.
Schoenberg, Father of Big Data: The Internet knows you better than yourself.
Time Weekly reporter Wei Han is from Shanghai.
Schoenberg came to China again with his trademark John Lennon round glasses.
On September 25th, Time Weekly held the 20 15 Autumn Summit of "Influencing China", and Schoenberg will be invited to attend and talk about his best big data.
In the last two years, this authoritative scholar in the field of data science has appeared in China every few months, surrounded by media and readers everywhere.
Schoenberg's fame in China mainly stems from his two best-selling books, Big Data: A Revolution that Will Change the Way We Live, Work and Think, which is the first book on big data. The Chinese version is also called "big data era" and "deletion: the forgotten virtue in the digital age". The former reveals the great changes that big data has brought to human beings, while the latter tries to explore how human beings should build an active and safe future in the era of big data.
As the first data scientist to understand the development trend of big data, it is not surprising that Schoenberg is sought after in China. After all, at this moment, China-the State Council has just released the Action Plan for Promoting the Development of Big Data, which puts forward the goals and main tasks for promoting the development and application of big data in the next 5- 10 years. The domestic big data industry is welcoming a period of great development.
Because big data is too hot, in this new gold rush era, people's interest in Schoenberg no longer stays in his research, but extends to him and his process of obtaining a series of academic achievements.
As it happens, Schoenberg is an interesting and experienced person. For example, because he didn't want to inherit the family business, he argued with his father for decades and finally embarked on the academic road.
Coded boy
"My mother used to run a cinema. I ask her every year, what was the best movie in the past year? She always said, I know, it's XXX. But she is always wrong. "
Schoenberg often mentioned this example in his speeches. Although it is only to prove that most people need data analysis tools, it inadvertently leads many people's interest to his past.
This famous scientist in the field of global data science is actually a "rich second generation". He was born in a small town two hours' drive from Mozart's hometown Salzburg, Austria. His father is a local tax lawyer and has his own office. Mother runs small cinemas, flower shops and other businesses.
1966, when Schoenberg was born, his father bought the first computer in town, which was expensive. At that time, everyone in the town thought he was crazy and would definitely go bankrupt. The hum of this huge personal computer accompanied Schoenberg throughout his childhood.
As a child, Schoenberg liked to read Astrid Lindegren's fairy tales. The most famous work of the late Swedish writer is the imaginative Pippi Longstocking. At that time, Schoenberg dreamed of becoming an inventor, because it was particularly tempting to make ideas come true.
"If * * * can have lunch with Lin Deren, I want to ask her, how did she stimulate her imagination? Einstein said that imagination is more important than knowledge. " Schoenberg said.
Schoenberg's favorite subjects at school were physics and mathematics, and he was fascinated by computers. When he was eleven or twelve, he wanted to program with that buzzing computer.
"At that time, only universities had computers, so I went to the local university to sign up for a programming class. But the teacher thought it was impossible for me to learn, so he let me play by myself. So I taught myself in the corner. " In high school, this talented boy won the prize in the international physics olympiad and Austrian Young Programmer Competition.
17 years old, Schoenberg first touched the net. At that time, he accidentally got a sound coupler, but it was actually a simple modem-the user had to connect the telephone handset to it to activate data transmission through voice transmission.
Before that, Schoenberg had heard of the Internet, but had never experienced it. So, he fiddled with it for several months, tried a lot of telephone charges, and finally connected to a radio communication website "The Source" that provided primary business online services such as mail and forums. Since then, Schoenberg has been out of control and hooked on the Internet.
1986, Schoenberg, who was only 20 years old and didn't finish college, "started his own business"-he founded the antivirus software company Ikarus and developed an Austrian best-selling software Virus Utilities. So far, Baidu Encyclopedia's introduction to virus utility tools says it is a fierce antivirus software. 199 1 year, the young Schoenberg was also selected as one of the top five software entrepreneurs in Austria.
This programmer's experience laid the foundation for Schoenberg's future. Many years later, in the era of big data, Schoenberg wrote that a real data scientist is a combination of statisticians, software programmers, graphic designers and writers.
Father and son
On Schoenberg's academic road, it is hard to avoid a figure, that is, his father who bought the first computer in town.
Schoenberg has a good relationship with his father. Up to now, the most unforgettable detail about parents is that after dinner every day, my father will patiently listen to what happened that day and some of his thoughts. Schoenberg thinks this is his father's "super power".
However, my father always didn't want Schoenberg to concentrate on how to become a computer scientist, even though he indulged his son's interest in computers. The outstanding tax lawyer in this small town always persuades his children to finish their legal studies as soon as possible and inherit the family business. Between inheriting his father's career and joining in computational science, Schoenberg argued with his father for decades until the latter died.
Around the age of 20, Schoenberg listened to his father and studied law at the University of Salzburg. It is said that because the law is too boring, this schoolmaster only finished seven years in three and a half years.
Then, his father asked Schoenberg to continue studying law, but the young man didn't want to do so, so he angrily applied to only one school-Harvard. He felt that he would definitely fail the exam.
On the day of receiving the admission notice, Brother Xun thought it was a friend's joke, so he called him and called him "this is a stupid joke!" " A voice on the other end of the phone said, "No, this is Harvard. Can I help you? "
This is not the only time Schoenberg has accumulated a lot of money. In fact, Schoenberg was excellent for most of his student days, but he was not the best. But in the last school year, he seemed to suddenly understand that what he had learned in the past suddenly "integrated". So, to everyone's surprise, including himself, he got the only straight A in his student career in the last exam before graduation.
At Harvard Law School, the oldest law school in the United States, Schoenberg began to feel that the law he studied was no longer as boring as when he was an undergraduate. Still, he doesn't want to take over his father's company after finishing his studies.
When a reporter interviewed Schoenberg, he asked, "Why did you become a university professor later?" He said: "I always wanted to be an inventor until one day my father was' forcing' me to take over the family business. He asked me what you wanted to do if you didn't want to be a tax lawyer, so I made up my mind to be a university professor. At least, for my parents, this will be a job that is more acceptable and respected than an inventor. "
After graduating from Harvard, Schoenberg received a doctor of law from Salzburg University and a master's degree from London School of Economics and Political Science, and according to his promise to his father, he got a teaching post in a university in London.
At that time, Xun's father still felt a little lost in the face of such a situation, and finally died suddenly. The day after his father's death, Schoenberg chose to leave London, give up his career and studies, and return to his own town to become a tax lawyer who had been rejected countless times before.
"Like most people, my life is not only coherent, but also has many twists and turns. I liked physics and mathematics at first, then I became interested in computers, then I paid attention to data security and data coding, and I liked to study privacy law, intellectual property law and network law. According to this path, data has gradually become the focus of my attention. But my life has been disrupted again and again. For example, my father's death made me give up my original career plan and return to my hometown; But a year later, I sold my father's company and struggled to return to the academic circle; Later, by chance, I was able to teach at the Kennedy School of Harvard University. In a sense, these twists and turns have caused me unexpected difficulties, but they have also brought unexpected opportunities. " Schoenberg told the Times Weekly reporter.
Father of big data
Schoenberg's academic research started from 1998. He entered the Kennedy School of Harvard University, where he spent 10 years. Since then, he has served as an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Policy at the National University of Singapore for three years, taking the opportunity to observe the information policy in Asia. Now he is a professor of governance and supervision at the Internet Institute of Oxford University.
10 years, the internet developed rapidly, and people began to use their mobile phones to surf the internet, chat and shop, completing many things that were offline before. These changes have been recorded by Schoenberg in his works.
In 20 10, at a seminar organized by Schoenberg, almost all the participants began to mention that the social operation mode was changing, but no one could tell the essence of this change. At that time, Ken Kukil, the data editor of The Economist, was also at the meeting. He just made a special issue of "The Impact of Big Data" not long ago.
After the seminar, Schoenberg and Cookeye had many in-depth conversations. "Then, we decided to write a book together to discuss the significance of big data for the present and the essence of the era of big data."
20 12 12 in February, The Age of Big Data written by Schoenberg and Cookeye was published. This pioneering work of big data research not only won unanimous praise from the media, but also made Schoenberg famous.
In the book, Schoenberg shows the changes brought by big data through various examples. For example, a company named Farecast predicts the fares of domestic flights in the United States through nearly 10 trillion price records. By 20 12, the accuracy of fare prediction reached 75%, and passengers using Farecast fare prediction tool could save an average of $50 per ticket.
"The core of big data is prediction. It is usually considered as a part of artificial intelligence or a kind of machine learning. But in fact, this definition is misleading. Big data is not about teaching machines to think like people. Instead, it applies mathematical algorithms to massive data to predict the possibility of things happening. " Schoenberg wrote.
In this book, Schoenberg also put forward a widely quoted view that big data focuses not on random samples, but on all data; Not accurate, but mixed; Not causality, but correlation.
"Specifically, the purpose of big data is comprehensive data collection and analysis; At the same time, we must understand that there must be a balance between data quality and data quantity, so' not accuracy, but heterozygosity' and' not causality, but correlation' make us realize that causality is no longer the only logic to explain the world. " Schoenberg told the Times Weekly reporter.
In addition, Schoenberg is the first person to advocate the commercial application of big data. In the era of big data, he pointed out that today's data has become a commercial capital and an important economic input, which can create new economic benefits. This is one of the reasons why he is regarded as a guest of honor by China people who are vigorously promoting the development of big data industry.
In addition to paying attention to the value of data, another important area that Schoenberg is interested in is how to avoid data abuse. In the book "Delete: How to Choose Big Data" published earlier than "Big Data Age", Schoenberg raised the biggest problem in the digital age: the Internet remembers what people want to forget. When forgetting becomes the exception and memory becomes the norm, the ability of human rational decision-making will be threatened. Therefore, in the era of big data, everyone should enjoy the "right to be forgotten".
In fact, Schoenberg himself established a set of life rules about deletion very early. For example, those clothes that have not been worn for more than two years will be given away or disposed of by him; He will delete those ugly photos. Because, "if you don't delete it, in the digital age, the Internet may know you better than yourself."
Schoenberg's novel concept once opened readers' eyes. At present, he told Time Weekly that his interest has shifted to small drones. In fact, Schoenberg has always been interested in flying and unmanned driving based on big data analysis. I just don't know what kind of thinking this data scientist will bring to this problem in the future.
Dialogue with Schoenberg:
"As long as they don't abuse their power, they don't have to monopolize the data oligarchy."
Time Weekly reporter Wei Han is from Shanghai.
On September 13, in an exclusive interview with Time Weekly, Schoenberg talked about his understanding of big data and the process of harvesting these understandings.
The most influential person is the high school physics teacher.
Time Weekly: This summer, the biographical film "The Imitation Game" based on alan turing was released in China, which touched many people. Have you seen this movie? Alan turing is the father of computer science. Does he have any influence on your data science research?
Schoenberg: I have seen this movie. In fact, many years ago, I read some works by Turing. You may remember that I used to need coding when I was a software company, so Turing's books must be read.
However, the person who influenced me the most was not Turing, but my high school physics teacher. He introduced me to the concept of entropy, relativity, quantum theory and so on. For me, it's like he opened the door to a new world for me.
Time Weekly: Everyone thinks that you are one of the most important data scientists today. I am particularly curious, has big data brought changes to your daily life?
Schoenberg: I am a big user of big data services. I usually wear Apple Watch, which has always provided a lot of help to my health. I also like e-commerce companies such as Amazon, and I often use Google Maps. In addition, Wikipedia is a rare good helper for me, which helps me get useful information more easily than in the past.
Time Weekly: This year, I interviewed Taylor Cowen, an American economist and author of the best-selling book The Great Stagnation. When talking about his views on big data, he told me, "Big data is overrated because most people don't know what they want to do with it, and so do enterprises. Big data can help us improve efficiency in some marginal areas, such as targeted advertising, but it can't change the overall situation. Among them, the most difficult thing is to ask the correct question, find the specific pattern behind the question, and then match it with data. This is very difficult to achieve. " Do you agree with him?
Schoenberg: I admire Taylor Cowen very much. The Great Stagnation is a great book. I also quoted some ideas from this book. But on the issue of big data, I think his point of view is wrong, probably because this aspect is not his core professional field.
Big data can reduce the harm of unfair resources.
Time Weekly: Now when most industries mention big data, they all say "this is an industry revolution, and it is necessary to subvert the past". Do you think big data will really subvert those traditional industries?
Schoenberg: Yes, this kind of subversion has happened and is going on rapidly. John Seely Brown, former director of Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, found that the life span of super-large enterprises has been shortened in the past decades. At the same time, we have seen that in recent years, Internet companies driven by big data and valued at more than tens of billions of dollars have emerged. In the history of mankind, no period has witnessed faster changes in more fields than today.
Time Weekly: At present, there are three Internet giants in China, Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, which are dominant in the fields of search, e-commerce and social networking respectively. They are constantly absorbing the data of users' online behavior, and will almost certainly become a data oligarch in China. Do you think antitrust is necessary at the data level?
Schoenberg: I think it is necessary to keep the Internet open to new innovative topics. As long as big companies don't abuse their power and drive smaller but better start-ups out of the market, they won't pose much threat. So I am more concerned about the actual behavior of these enterprises than their scale.
Time Weekly: In addition to data, I know that you also have in-depth research on education. On June 5438+ 10 this year, you published a new book, Walking with Big Data: the Future of Learning and Education, which specifically discussed the application of big data research in the field of education, so as to truly teach students in accordance with their aptitude. The main problem of education in China is the unfair distribution of educational resources. Can big data solve this problem?
Schoenberg: Big data can't fundamentally eliminate this unfairness, but through the means of big data, we can provide highly personalized education at a relatively low cost, thus reducing the harm caused by this unfairness. In other words, big data allows students to get customized education at least like "private tutoring" at a very low cost. Therefore, big data can be a factor that changes the whole game.
That's what Bian Xiao shared for you about Schoenberg, the father of big data: the Internet knows more about you than you do. For more information, you can pay attention to the global ivy and share more dry goods.