One of the most recurring discussions we’ve had this year has been around the value of data. Why have we had this discussion so many times? In a network economy, data is the glue that ties it all together. In such an economy the relationships are the front-end and data is the back-end. And there is value to be found in both ends.

However, the public discussion tend to focus on the front-end, the social media part of it all. Which is fine. Although, the back-end stuff, the data, contains lots of value that is too often forgotten about. Let’s talk a bit about this.

Yesterday, news arrived that Twitter will be profitable in 2009. Wait, the same company that has been mocked for two years because it doesn’t have a business model? Yes, that company. So, how did they do it? They identified and exploited value found in the back-end; they sold access to their data. It’s as if data just made it past the chasm. The proof of concept just got delivered.

So why is Twitter profitable? Reportedly they’ve made deals with Google ($15 million) and Microsoft ($10 million) that allows both search engines to index real-time results from Twitter. With expenditures expected at $20 million it’s all good times (although it’s not clear whether they are one-time payment, annual fees or something else).

So, the data from around 58 million users is worth $25 million annually (if that’s the hypotheses). The value is primarily based on the intensity of usage, the speed of updates and the semantic content.

Umair Haque points out that we’re living in an interaction age. Where we interact more than ever with digital things such as our iPhone apps, connected devices and the internet as a whole. The post-digital age, where everything is digital, makes us interact with much more intensity than earlier. The by-product of this intense interaction is…wait for it…data. And loads of it.

In order for data to be valuable, someone or something has to analyze it. Or even better, mine it. Data mining tools helps you slice and dice data, learn more about your users. It’s possible to become friends with your users really fast. Knowing what they like and how they like it. It’s as if you know that they want their stake medium-rare, french fries on the side and lots of BBQ sauce all over it. Without even asking.

The everyday tool Google Analytics has taken a big leap this year and incorporates functionality which transforms the tool from a simple web analytics tool into a easy to use data mining tool. This represent a shift not only in the tool but in how creators of these tools value data.

At the same time the data mining and analysis market is maturing. Fast. Increasingly we will see that these tools are becoming commoditized. However, access to unique data is not.

When the analysis of data is being commoditized, access to unique data is and will be an increasingly important scarcity. Just the type of scarcity that creates value. Which makes data a haystack in which you should be looking for new revenue streams in 2010.