midata kickstarts a collective inflection point in business

"What would you like for Christmas?", DMossEsq asked his maternal grandmother about 25 years ago.

"I want one of those typewriters with a television on top."

Word processing. That was a killer app. Its value was clear even to an old woman RIP who grew up 85 years before, travelling the highways and by-ways of Jamaica in a pony and trap.

And spreadsheets. Visicalc. Supercalc. Lotus 1-2-3. Excel. That was another killer app. All those book-keepers and auditors with their seven-column analysis paper. They didn't need to be told twice. It was obvious. The spreadsheet sold itself. And the microcomputer it ran on.

We've been promised killer apps for midata. Apps whose worth is so obvious that you just have to have them and you'll take midata as well, unthinkingly, because that's just the typewriter with a television on top that the apps run on.

"Hi I’m Dan, Director of the midata Innovation Lab, part of the midata voluntary [?] programme. I wanted take this opportunity to share my vision for the lab, or mIL as we call it", Dan Bates told us on 23 May 2013 when he was still Working with business to fan the flames of innovation. (He's left now.)

"I want some really interesting apps and services to come out of the mIL", Dan told Ctrl-Shift News back on 1 August 2013, "we want the mIL to be transformative. We want to kick start a collective inflection point in business ...".

Well?

What's happened?

You won't find out from Craig Belsham's blog ("information about midata"). We haven't heard anything from Craig since 1 October 2013 when he went to Glastonbury.

But don't be fooled by the silence. There are not one, not two, but five prototype apps midata are working on. Including MI FINANCES which gives you advice like

Save £70 a month by buying your own ingredients and cooking yourself. Your health may improve too!

and

You're having an average of 4 takeaways a month. Why not make it a special treat? Cut down to once a month and save £100.

Is that a killer app?

Ask Granny. She'll tell you. "Call that an inflection point in business? I don't think so. It's an electronic Mary Poppins. It's digital nagging and you can already be nagged through any number of channels. You great mooncalf, you don't need midata. How much is that Dan charging you for his re-heated apps? And why's he trying to put all the takeaways out of business?"