Matters of Life and Data: The Remarkable Journey of a Big Data Visionary Whose Work Impacted Millions (Including You) - Softcover

Morgan, Charles D.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1630474657 ISBN 13: 9781630474652

Publisher: Morgan James Publishing, 2015

Synopsis

“I didn’t set out to become a collector of your and your neighbors’ information. When I was growing up, nobody but egghead scientists talked about ‘data.’ It was the mechanical age, and I was a gadget geek, taking apart my cousin’s toys and trying to put them back together again. I was especially crazy about cars and engines, and had it not been for a fateful encounter during college recruiting season, I might’ve lived my life as a race car mechanic instead of learning about computers at IBM. As it turned out, pursuing Big Data allowed me the resources to become a professional race car driver on the side, competing against the likes of Paul Newman, who makes appearances in these pages as well.

“Such are the wonders of this journey we’re all on. Mine has taken me from the frontier of western Arkansas, where my ancestors owned a hardware store selling iron tools to westbound travelers, to the frontier of the digital age, where room-size computers have become eclipsed by the power of smart phones. And in a sense, the story you’re about to read isn’t so different from those of the colorful adventurers who stocked up their wagons at my family’s hardware emporium and headed west to make their fortunes. Data mining is the new gold rush, and we were there at first strike, dragging with us all our human frailties and foibles. In this book’s cast of characters you’ll find ambition, arrogance, jealousy, pride, fear, recklessness, anger, lust, viciousness, greed, revenge, betrayal, and then some."

“It is a messy story. In the big picture, this could be called a narrative of America since World War II. But in the micro telling, think of it this way: The man who opened your lives to Big Data finally bares his own.”

About this title

Book Description:

The man who opened your life to Big Data finally bares his own.

From the Back Cover:

Charles D. Morgan's Matters of Life and Data is the story of a life lived fully, on motorcycles, in the cockpits of jets and race cars, and in the executive suite.Through a fluke, this self-proclaimed "gadget geek" found his life's calling in computers, leading to the building of Acxiom Corporation - world leader in data gathering technology with 1500 separate pieces of information on some half a billion people around the globe.In a narrative as spirited - and candid - as the author himself, Morgan...

• sheds light on the controversial topic of Big Data and data privacy;
• reveals his own personal struggles to keep up as a leader as Acxiom grows from 25 employees to 7,000 employees, running the largest database marketing programs in the U.S. and Europe, with $1.5 billion in revenue;
• takes us inside the world of software coding, as he and his team seek the ultimate in data-gathering technology and invent cloud computing;
• recounts Acxiom's secret help to the U.S. Government in the wake of 9/11;
• humanizes the executive suite, with its flirtations, feuds, and vendettas.

A son of the Arkansas frontier, Charles D. Morgan embodies America's transition from the rusty Mechanical Age to the new frontier of the Digital Age.  Matters of Life and Data is therefore much more than one man's life story. It also reflects America's relentless path over the past six decades from local life to global life.

About this edition

• Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1630474657
• ISBN 13: 9781630474652
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400