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for ins tance, wanted homem akers toknow tha t i t sells a range of cleaningprodu cts beyond bleach. I t in t roduce dTimeW ise, a Web program wherecons um ers could schedule remind ersfor cleaning tasks and kids' chores . Thebrand nam e was prominen t on the s i te ,naturally, as were offers for c om ple me ntary products . Clorox wo n't d iscussthe prom otion 's efficacy, but i t has bee ndiscont inued.

Appearing useful is of part icular i nterest to marketers keen to place ads onmobi le phones , a t r icky prospect s incethe pote ntial annoyance factor is sohigh. H oping to sell more of i ts Joh nnieWalker whisky in Singapore, l iquor g iant Diageo, with th e help of OgilvyOneWorldwide, created a "digital personalass is tant" for drinkers ' mobi le phon es .An avatar named "J ennie" sends outVIP invi tat ions , informat ion about hotnight sp ots , and Johnnie Walker pro mo tions . For the inebriated, the serviceincludes a " take me home" but to n th at ,wh en pres sed, uses GPS to call a cab.

Compan ies are even wrapping ad saround com mun ity outreach. Eager toreinvigorate its image as a bask etballbrand, Converse this fall began organizing games for Miami 's inner-ci ty youth .Kids got to t ry out new shoes an d me etMiami Heat guard Dwyane Wade , whosigned autographs and refereed. Theprogram is moving to more ci t ies and ,to get kids interested , Converse c reatedan applicatio n on Facebook th at allowspeople to sign up friends to play anonline basketball game. Converse saysit now h as more than 40 ,00 0 peop le toadd to it s database of potent ial cus tom ers, as well as inform ation o n whe rethey live. Now that's useful. 1BW1

L I N K SCan You Hear Me Now?A recent issue of Contagious, aBritish advertising trade magazine,looks at Blyk, a mobile carrier thatgives free service to subscriberswho agree to receive several ads aday. To better target ads a nd lureadvertisers, B lyk limits the offer to1 6 - to 24-year-olds who submitpersonal profiles.

A R ich Vein forReality Mining'Researchers and compan ies are finding novel uses forinformation extracted from cell-phone dataBy Arik HesseldahlIn the afterm ath of the S eptemb er 11attacks, U.S. officials quickly turnedtheir at tent ion to other potent ialtargets , including Cal i fornia 's GoldenGate Bridge. W ha t would happ enif terroris ts took dow n the b ridgebetwe en San Francisco and M arinCounty? H ow muc h of the regionwould be affected and for how long?

For ins ights , the Ho me land Securi tyDept . turne d to a Microsoft spin-offcal led Inrix . The s ta rtup analyzes datafrom satelli te navigation gear that 'swidely ins tal led on t rucks an d som ecars to produ ce real - t im e traff ic informa t ion, which i t sells comm ercial ly .Pars ing years of stored traffic d ata us -ing prop rietary software, Inrix was ableto model no t on ly the imm edia te im

pact of a Golden Gate Bridge cata s t ro phe, bu t also ho w drivers in the reg ionwould work aro und i t . In the m odel ,the B ay Area pulls off an a maz inglyquick recovery. W ithin a few days ,d r ivers unders t and w hat i s happen ingand adapt to the new reality, says InrixChief Executive Bryan Mistele.

The tec hniq ue Inrix used is cal ledreal i ty m ining . I t 's a twis t on data m ining tha t al lows researchers to ex tractin fo rmat ion f rom the usage pa t t e rnsof mobi le phones and othe r w irelessdevices . Because these machines arealmo st always switched on and areconstant ly in contact wi th cel lu lar bases t a t ions , t hey p roduce a pers i s t en tdigi tal record of where the u sers aregoing, how long they s tay, and w hothey come in con tac t w i th . P ar t i cu -

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W H A T ' S N E X T

larly when phone s a re equ ipped wi thglobal posi t ion ing sys tem chips , theycan generate precise locat ion maps inphone company databases . Such t rai lsare far more accu rate than hum anbeings ' subject ive acc ounts of thei rcomings and goings .

The real i ty miners excel at dr eam ing up exot ic appl icat ions . In addi t ionto helping cities prepare for possibleterroris t at tack s , they have devisedways to ease traffic co nges tion; h elpe dcity planners find the best locationsfor schools , hospi tals , and c onve ntion cen ters; and ena bled all type s ofbusinessesnot l eas t, phone c om paniesto improve custom er service.In the future, real i ty mining may alsoallow hea lth officials to track and co ntain outbreaks of infectious diseases."There is so much societal good tha tcan come from this," says Alex "Sandy"Pen t l and , a Mass achuse t t s Ins t i tu t eof Technology professor and realitymining pioneer. "Suddenly we have theabi li ty to know wh at is happe ning withthe mass of humani ty ."A MA R K E T IN G B ON A N ZASignals among phon es and base s t a t ions can be detected by com mercialsensing devices . But the detai ledrecords of who is cal ling whom belongent i rely to the pho ne com panies . Rightnow, they m ake li t t le use of that data ,in part beca use they fear al ienat ingsubscribers worried about privacyinfringement. But cellular operatorshave begun s igning deals wi th busine sspartne rs who are eager to mark et pr od ucts based on specif ic phone use rs 'locatio n an d calling habit s. If reality

min ing ca tches on , phone co mpa n ies 'cal l ing records wi l l becom e preciousass ets. And thes e will only grow invalue as custom ers use their phone s tob rowse the Web , pu rchase p ro duct s ,and upd ate thei r Facebook pages andas marketers apply reali ty minin g 'stoolki t to thes e act iv i t ies .In academia, real i ty miners areinteres ted in applying the tec hno logy to areas such as disease ma nag ement. Suppose health officials in aci ty suspect passengers arr iv ing at anairport have been exposed to avian flu.In the not-too-distant future, theymight be able to enlist cellular operators and use real i ty mining to mon i torclus ters of individuals though t to be atr isk . Phone records could reveal thatan unus ual numb er of passenge rs onthe flight are staying home from workor are in the hospi tal . With further digging, officials cou ld uncover a recordof contacts w i th taxi drivers , wai ters ,even random peop le in a sup ermarke t .In such a cris is , the technology couldsave lives. "It 's one of the app licatio nareas that [works] wel l both on th eindividu al and on large groups," saysAlex Kass , a researcher at co nsul t ingfirmAccenture.

Even in an imagined cris is , however,such scenarios would raise red f lagsamon g p r ivacy advoca tes . Gu i lhermeRoschke, a staff at tor ney at the E lect ronic Privacy Informat ion Center , anonprofi t in Washington, D.C. , worr ies whenever people are moni toredwithout thei r consent . "There is a lo tof new informat ion being col lected,and i t brings s ignif icant new ca pabi l i t ies ," he says . "W henev er i t 's put to a

W H A T C E L L U L A R S I G N A L S R E V E A L Real i t y min ing producesa surfei t of useful dataR O A DC O N G E S T I O NReal i t y minersderive real- t imetra f f i c data byanal y z i ng t h edensi ty of cel lularsignals onh i g h w a y s .

D I S E A S EO U T B R E A K SPatterns inm ob i l e -phoneusag e showwhe t her l a r g enumbers ofapar tmentdwel lers ares t ay i ng hom efrom work orv isi t ing th e ER .

S O C I A LN E T W O R K SP eopl e wh ospend t h e m os tt ime on mobi lephones o f tenin f luence howothers use suchdevices. Phonec om pan i est reasure suchc us t om ers .

G O O DT E A M W O R KWire less devic esproduce recordso f where t eammembers meetand how of ten.Lack of ph ys ic a lproximity maymean trouble isbrewing .

HWorkplace ConfidentialDo you really understand the groupdynamics at your company? Abranch of reality mining studies"subtle signals" to see how peopleget along and get things done.Tones of voice, changes in facialexpression, and body languagemay indicate that a team member isrunning into trouble with his peers,say, or that he's not fully enga gedwhile m aking a sales call. Writing inthe Aug. 2 9, 2007, issue of BoozAllen Ham ilton's strategy +business, Mark Buchanandescribes how companies can useelectronic sensors to track suchsignals, which may be below theradar to bosses and co-workers.

new use , i t mus t be disclosed."Academ ic researchers acknowledgethe r isks and have begun set t ing rulesfor how data should be collected andused . "Our f irs t assu mption is thatpeople ow n their own data," says M IT's

Pent lan d. But companies m ay f ind i tdifficult to com ply w ith the new rules .Na than Eagle, one of Pent lan d 's M ITcol leagues , has access to a databasethat holds an ent i re m onth 's w orthof calling data for a whole Europeancountryhe wo n't say which one.The data set contains informat ion on250 million cell pho ne s and land linesand some 12 billion phon e ca lls. Forresearch purposes , the data has be enscrubb ed of all informat ion th at migh tbe used to identify in dividuals .

In Eagle's lab, which i s funded part lyby Nokia, he and his col leagues use thedata to test th e power of their algo -r i thms . They 've observed phe nome nathat may interes t the phone companiesthat ow n the unsc rubbe d data. Forexample, each neighborh ood has heavyusers who influence other p eople, say,by proselytizing for new phone ap pl icat ions . Eagle says phon e com paniescan identify these "influencers," andthey ' l l bend over backw ards to makesure these subscribers don 't jump torival carr iers . "If som eone w ho mak es alot of calls walks away, ther e's a higherpotent ial that they ' l l take mo re peop lealong with them," Eagle says . 1 B W 1

MAY 5, 2008 I BUSINESSWEEK