What is Physical Data and how can it be generated?

Data production becomes the core of all contemporary ecosystems. Make no question, that to put your business forward you have to become friends with data collection. Physical data is everywhere: whether you go for shopping at the mall, get papers signed in administrative buildings, drive your car down the road, use electrical terminals and traffic signs, organize your journeys or simply locate yourself — names, addresses, telephone numbers, geolocation of all of these objects and places you visit present Physical Data.

This type of data is sought for map development and updating ; but also used by companies offering product and services to retailers and thus, looking to complete databases for prospecting, mailing, telemarketing or statistics ; or for B2C geolocated services linking users to local interests ; and public and governmental services for statistical, census or urban landscape development purposes.

Although physical data is essential to the economic and technological development, its collection remains imperfect. Generally, there are several ways to reach it:

External databases

Examples: Acxiom, Infogroup
How it works: data brokers collect data and compile information from different databases and individuals in order to sell that information to others.
Data: information about local businesses including business name, address, phone number, website, description, opening hours
Advantages: multiple locations under one account, easy to navigate
Drawbacks: verification of data is based on their redundancies from external sources and not on their own

Computer robots

Examples: GoogleBot, AdsBot, Factual
How it works: bots (also known as spiders) crawl and rank trillions of web pages, gather information and serve up the data for you to retrieve it. The webcrawlers use algorithms to determine what sites to browse, what rates to browse at and how many pages to fetch from.
Data: web index data
Advantages: search robots can access any file in the root directory and all its subdirectories
Drawbacks: contents are sometimes inaccessible or do not exist

Collaborative tools

Examples: Foursquare, Google guides, Waze
How it works: social networking services offer apps that help you to discover, share and update information about the community to your friends online. In this way users compile a massive database of locations.
Data: information, geolocation of businesses, attractions and objects around
Advantages: easy way to see what’s happening around or tips people have left for locations
Drawbacks: users are not always thrilled with obsessive online updating 24/7

Image recognition technologies

Examples: Google Street view
How it works: photos are made by car with data capturing equipment, and some are taken by trekker, tricycle, walking, boat, snowmobile, and underwater apparatus.
Data: panoramic views from positions along streets all over the world including cities and rural areas.
Advantages: attracts local target audience
Drawbacks: information is often invisible, inaccessible or unavailable due to lack of higher resolution, poor colors and stitching errors. The images may be pixelated or with muddy colours

Self-registration

Examples: GoogleMaps, Moz, Yext
How it works: merchants register themselves on maps, social networks or databases.
Data:names, addresses, telephone numbers, opening hours, geolocation
Advantages: self-management
Drawbacks: the process becomes too complicated and multistaged with long and confusing log-ins

Crowdsourcing

Examples: Dataeum
How it works: the members of crowdsourcing community collect physical data through mobile app and get Tokens in return. The generated data is stored on the Blockchain and the Smart Contract guarantee the collectors’ retribution. This data becomes accessible on a decentralized marketplace and can be consulted and used in navigation services, B2B canvassing, updating of listings, prospecting and telemarketing or statistics.
Data: names, addresses, phone numbers, geolocation of restaurants, stores, ATMs, schools, campsites, gas stations or any other visual element.
Advantages: users are motivated by Token rewards, data security and integrity for data acquirers, collaborative and decentralized approach to guarantee data accuracy and constant update

As technology and business community constantly evolve, so does the data collection. Choosing the right approach for physical data generation today will definitely influence your competitive advantage and sustainability.