In the last year, your location and personal medical information have become the latest streams in the river of data, joining email, clicks, searches, social networking, and buying patterns. Gathering, sharing, and storing data has become trivial. But what shall we collect, and what applications can we build that users really need?

Data mining is no longer the process of digging through data morgues to uncover scraps of still-viable information. Success in the online marketplace now hinges on people and the data they create. E-business is no longer about selling books.