Will every recruiter eventually have access to ALL contact data?

I’ve seen several speakers recently comment on the fact that it is coming to a world where everyone has access to ALL the contact data. The concept was furthered in saying that since everyone will have all the data, the playing field will be leveled as everyone will have total access, ergo, it will come down to the ability to network as the sole determiner of success.

The second part of this concept, (ability to network) has always has been dead on. A poor salesperson or recruiter will not do well even if given a great list. A great networker can do wonders starting with one point of contact.

However, the idea about everyone having access to ALL the data… This is a pipe dream of the uninformed. It may be a great material to pontificate on, but it is pure fiction. The science and trends behind information and going the opposite direction. I don’t know where this concept was started, but it’s taken off with all the indications of mob mentality (great conviction, but little facts to back it up).

Some facts:

-The Internet and information in general is growing faster than our ability to index it.

-Corporations are starting to silo their own data, vs. use public databases. These are closed systems that are not being shared and the are diverging like mammals and marsupials.

-A UC Berkeley study details that search engines like Google index less than 1% of the Internet.

-The Internet contains 46 billion web pages, as of this writing according to http://worldwidewebsize.com/

Who are these people that have access to ALL the information? Methinks it’s the great Oz.

1984 is not here yet. Good networking starts with your own unique knowledge of where to start your research. Dig in and roll up the sleaves. Being given a great database does not make you a great recruiter, being able to create a great database makes you a great recruiter.

originally posted on: www.iDonato.com

Comment by Cherese DeJesus on March 15, 2008 at 12:45pm: Cheers to creating!

Thanks for sharing Donato,

~Cherese~

Comment by Gene Leshinsky on March 15, 2008 at 1:31pm: A couple of points…

Who really needs all the information? You wouldn’t know what to do with it. Even complex BI is not always accurate so while contact information is nice, if you can’t use it doesn’t matter if you have it.

The feds already have a great deal of information that they can and do use for various purposes some against the constitution and some to uphold it. As far as I’m concerned, the info the IRS has is more then enough to create 1984 “Ministry of Justice”.

Google may index only 1%, but that’s precisely because it’s indexed. The whole idea behind an index is to allow faster retrieval time; if Google actually stored all the data contained in the sites it indexed it would go out of business. Thus with a 1% index, Google leverages a vast amount of data. As the web becomes more interactive, Google will have access to more even information…

Eventually, “something” will have access to all information. Any network not tied to this entity will be a huge disadvantage to everyone else and will therefore be forced into the network or cease to be relevant( to exist). Even internal networks are accessible if properly hacked.  It’s no science fiction, just wait…

Cheers!

Gene
Please check out my recruiting blog and join the discussion!
http://www.boston-technical-recruiter.com

Comment by Donato Diorio on March 18, 2008 at 6:18pm: The facts of the trends are going in the other direction. Information is growing on the Internet faster than the ability to index it. Information is growing near-logarythmically (ok, not quite but real fast), whereas memory and bandwidth are following moore's law and kryders law (About 50% each per year). In addition, of what a search engines could possibly index, they only have access to .2 percent of the Internet. The rest of the Intenet is the "dark web" which exists inside databases.
So right now, "something" does not exist and it is still in the realm of science fiction.
Hey..everyone knows that I will be one of the first to talk about a break-through that would allow total access. It would be beautiful. Interesting topic, this would be a great technology panel to put together at a conference. "Where science meets science fiction in recruitment"
DD

Comment by Gene Leshinsky on March 18, 2008 at 6:36pm: LOL... What happens then the logarithmic data growth meets the arithmetic storage capacity?