The CIO Insight Research report on Emergent Technologies for 2011 groups XBRL with 3 other other synergistic software technologies: the Semantic Web, Predictive Analytics and Pattern Recognition. While Gartner identifies pattern-based strategy as one its 4 converging trends that will change the face of IT and business. XBRL has long been associated with the growth of the Semantic Web but it’s the emerging and rapidly growing financial information ecosystem based on millions of XBRL-tagged data points that is likely to drive new kinds of pattern recognition and predictive analytics that eventually will impact corporate strategy.
Both pattern recognition and predictive analytics thrive on large datasets that grow significantly over time. They also both benefit from data that is relatively consistent because that makes deviations easier to identify. A rapidly growing and consistent dataset are characteristics of XBRL data such as US S.E.C. filings. By mid 2011 some 10,000 US companies will be required to file in XBRL and that means millions of new datapoints added to the XBRL data ecosystem every quarter. And as the range of XBRL tags also expands to encompass different or new types of data demanded by the S.E.C., the scope for pattern recognition and predictive analytics also expands.
I predict that XBRL tag usage patterns will power a new source of pattern recognition that will in turn drive new kinds of predictive analytics. These will feed into a new generation of ‘agile’ corporate strategies designed to proactively respond to the patterns and predictions that emerge from key 21st century data streams like XBRL financial data. The result will be that the jaundiced view of XBRL as a one-way compliance process and burden will be transformed when it becomes clear that XBRL in fact empowers a strategically influential feedback loop that any business can use to its advantage.
Pingback: Tweets that mention Tag Patterns | Rivet Software -- Topsy.com