We've all heard or used the phrase, "Knowledge is power." For years, people and businesses valued their assets at the level of information they had and what secrets they kept. Data and information were doled out sparingly, with people holding back on the juiciest pieces.

Then the Web took root and soon new successes were found among those companies that could provide access to information easily and quickly. "Mash-ups," the creative combination of services, features and functionalities where the whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts, became the catalyst for the development of social media.

All of a sudden we found ourselves confronted not only with a thousand cable channels on TV but a limitless stream of online stuff—from websites of every kind to blogs written by self-described experts on one topic or another to the growth of online videos that could be described as fueling a data pandemic.

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