Future Trends in Big Data

As you have read our blogs throughout this semester, you have learned that Big Data is becoming a top priority to enterprises small and large.  With machine learning continuing to advance, it will only become easier to obtain highly accurate predictive patterns and anomalies, which will help companies achieve higher operational efficiency and effectiveness.After doing research on the future tends of Big Data, I have found that many companies will use cloud services to apply Big Data, personalization will become personal through the use of big data, and that more security will be in place to protect the privacy of consumers and organizations.

  

According to Smart Data Collective, we will see more and more companies move to a Big-Data-as-a-Service solution which will help enterprises apply Big Data without the heavy costs involved.  If a company were to use Bid-Data-as-a-Service, you would be using an outside source that helps organizations understand insights from large information sets.  This is extremely helpful to small or medium sized organizations that would like to take advantage of their Big Data, but do not have the capacity or funds to do so.  IIA calls this adoption “ready-made analytics in the cloud”.  Smart Data Collective predicts that 2014 will be a turning point in the acceptance of the cloud as part of a Big Data strategy.

As each consumer clicks, likes, tweets, calls, purchases, or uses self-tracking applications, tremendous amounts of data are being created.  So, why have all companies not used this data to create a personal online shopping experience that personalizes what it thinks each consumer will be interested in?  Well, according to Smart Data Collective, 2014 will be the year that enterprises will see how valuable the personalized approach can be.  Personalized discounts could be used by the organizations to sway the consumers to cooperate and share their data.  It is a win/win for both the consumer and organization, as far as the buying experience goes.

Amazon was one of the first to use personalization, and have had much success.  Amazon uses Big Data to create a personal online shopping experience with recommendations, personal homepages, personal discounts, or personally targeted mass-email campaigns.  Shoes of Prey, another company using personalization, uses Big Data to look at how much each customer spends and how profitable they are.  With this information, the organization can upsell based on the tastes of its consumers.

As of right now, NSA document have shown, that many governments across the world have access to data from a large amount of organizations and consumers.  Here recently, enterprises have sent high-ranking employees to try and win the right to privacy for their consumers.  It will be a focus for most companies in the future to increase security measures so that their client’s information is not as easily accessible.

Big Data is the way of the future.  As time goes on, companies will become more and more dependent on the analytics-derived insights which are key to business operations; diminishing the need of intuitive decision making in enterprises.  How do you think Big Data will impact future business decisions?

http://www.cio.com/slideshow/detail/111961
http://smartdatacollective.com/bigdatastartups/174741/seven-big-data-trends-2014

The Connected Home

Do you remember the Disney movie Smart House? It was about a father, son, and daughter that won a house that was fully automated. The computer system that made the house "smart" was able to prepare meals, set appointments and reminders, and anything you could imagine with just the simple command of a voice. While not to this extreme the market for the "Smart House" concept is becoming larger especially in luxury homes. Since society is so technologically advanced why not use it to manage our daily  lives? 

The connected home by a loose definition is a house wired to receive and distribute throughout the house a variety of music, video and data signals. It also is equipped to connect to services outside the home. For example, Sonos allows you to play different music in different parts of your home through their system. The connected home is a way to monitor the activity of your home and your personal behavior all through a network of connected devices.  

iControl is the company that powers connected home solutions through many leading security and service providers worldwide.CPI and ADT are two of the most common which allow you to monitor the activity of your house through a mobile app. Time Warner has also got in the market with their Intelligent Home system which allows you to arm and disarm your alarm, adjust the temperature and lights, or turn on and off your appliances from anywhere. All of these systems are continually sending data to you to let you know what kind of activity is going on. iControl provides these companies with the technology to offer us the ability to do this. 

The future of the connected home is more likely to engage all aspects of your life. Could you imagine stepping into your bathroom and a scale generating data about your health? This could help with your health in hopes that it would motivate you to live a healthy lifestyle. It could detect dramatic weight change in a short period and suggest that you might have a serious medical issue.  The data could then be passed along to your healthcare provider who would call you to check-up on you. iControl on wearables, such as watches, would allow you to adjust different aspects of your house while out exercising or whatever activity you might be doing. Have you ever poured a bowl and cereal and realized there was no milk? That problem could be fixed with a fridge that keeps inventory of what is in it and sends you a list of things that need to be replenished. 

Privacy is the one thing that stands in the way of a fully connected home because of the accumulation of personal data that it has the potential to collect. There are many aspects of your life that everybody does not need to know such as your health records or your daily routines. Even though iControl does not own or share the data they still analyze it to help  them enhance their solutions. These systems can be hacked and then all your personal data is out there for someone to use for who knows what. 

There's a Big Data App for That

That’s right. You’ve heard the phrase “There’s an app for that” numerous times. Now, Big Data is becoming a key component in creating applications for consumers, like me and you, and businesses. From fitness apps that let you compare your fitness levels with others, to Datameer’s user friendly application for generating and organizing businesses’ data.

Are you a big traveler? Websites like Expedia, Orbitz, Priceline, and Hotwire used to do the trick. Skyscanner has taken the choice of flights and hotels to another level. While the websites work out deals with certain airlines, Skyscanner searches millions of flights and compares them for the user’s best deal.

For the bargain shopper, RetailMeNot is an up and coming application that collects massive amounts of coupon data. As the user, you can select your favorite stores or allow the app to provide you with deals that are within 5 miles of your location.


How are these application developers gaining access to all of this big data? Companies release their API (Application Programming Interface) to the public. The big boys, Facebook, Twitter, and Google, allow software makers to have access to their data and use it in their own applications.  APIs allow different applications to talk to each other by using a set of programming instructions and standards. In 2008, Facebook released Facebook Connect API. It is common to be asked for your Facebook username and password when you download an application on your phone or tablet.  This platform allows developers to link their customers to their Facebook data. When an application is downloaded, an option to sign in with Facebook may appear. This is how the application gathers information about the user’s friends, location, and other data.

Big data applications are also becoming available to small businesses. Due to the shortage of data analytics professionals, Hadoop big data analytics pioneer Datameer has created a user-friendly application to help businesses with their big data. Datameer was created by Hadoop, an open source software framework for storage and large-scale processing of data-sets.  A simple point, click, and drop allows the user to use analytics without having to be able to write code.  A trained analyst is also able to use the program.

Datameer 2.1 was launched in 2012. With plenty of upgrades, professional analysts can now create big data apps and provide them to other users in the Analytics Application Market. The goal of the Analytics Application Market is to save users time by not having to recreated and start fresh whenever they start a new analytic project. Customers of the market can now browse hundreds of apps and search for one to fill their needs. Types of apps in the market include Facebook Network App, LinkedIn Pro Network App, Earthquake Data Analysis, Sales Trajectory, Twitter Trending Topics, and Website Traffic.  There is a free version of Datameer 2.1 that allows the creation of apps. The creators of the apps are able to set the price at any number they would like. In order to actually charge for the app, you must purchase Datameer 2.1. A single user costs $299, a workgroup version of 50 users for $2,999, and an enterprise version for unlimited users is negotiable.

Sources:
http://www.datameer.com/product/index.html

http://www.informationweek.com/big-data/big-data-analytics/big-data-app-store-opens-for-business/d/d-id/1106966

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303369904579423383203100794?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702303369904579423383203100794.html

 

How Big Data will Change Sports for everyone

Most of the time when you hear about big data it has to do with corporations, but they are not the only ones benefitting from these vast volumes of data. Professional Sports are now starting to use big data, helping the coaches, players and fans change the game.

Adidas has developed a system called miCoach that can allow players to attach a wearable device to their jersey. By adding this wearable device, data will reveal to the coach who are the top performers, heart rate, speed and acceleration. This can help coaches give certain players rest time to recover by analyzing the data that is given to them by this system. Major League Soccer (MLS) partnered with Adidas for their 2013 season, calling it "The Worlds First Smart Soccer Game." This system is meant for coaches to make better decisions when it comes to choosing their players for games.

Big data can help sports teams with their fans preference and their
at-home experience. They can cater better to their fans when it comes
to game times and even bathroom wait times. The New England Patriots
have a mobile app that fans can use to give them feed back and give
 them a better game experience. This app as well allows fans to order
 concession food to their seats!

Other ways fans can keep up with their favorite players are now through websites that keep track of their statistics. These websites organize the data in a way an average person can understand it. For example, fans "can see how pitchers performance has changed in a certain game." An example of a website that can do this is BrooksBaseball.net .

Big data is a tool that can help athletes improve their skills, pushing them during practice and performing at a higher level during games. Athletes can use live on field data collection that tracks the speed of balls and the equipment, even the speed and distance of the player. A company doing this is MotionWorks Sport Solution, they do this by attaching RFID tags on the equipment and players. These tags can "25 times per second and deliver data in 120 milliseconds. SportUV is collecting more live on field data by having "six cameras in each NBA arena that collect data on the movements on every player and movements of the basketball 25x per second." These tools are very useful for athletes in improving their game and stepping up.

Big data can be used in many activities and not just corporations and it is very beneficial in many ways, big data is not all negative with privacy issues. Big data is the key to having successful elite athletic teams in the future. Since Big data is so critical for sports teams, it is crucial for the sports teams to invest plenty of money into big data in order to help their team to be successful. These sports teams will have plenty of knowledge to tackle their opponents and to challenge them. This is a sporting revolution and "there is no doubt That Big Data is big news for sports."


Sources: http://www.thesportsoffice.com/news-videos/big-data/
http://www.cio.com/article/749650/8_Ways_Big_Data_and_Analytics_Will_Change_Sports?page=2&taxonomyId=3006

Big Data..BIG deal? Big data from Social Media is gaining attention from the Federal Reserve

Big data is a big deal, especially in terms of research. The quality of the research, as well as the impact the knowledge gained from the collection of information has  once it's been analyzed is what gives big data such an importance. 

So where does the data come from? Everywhere. "Big data" is vast in terms of its locations and where it's gathered. Anywhere from the data base of Google's search engine, to businesses and corporations, social media, and even down to the storage of a personal cell phone. For a company or analysis to be able to discover the value of their collected data, it must first be extracted.

This is done by using multiple big data tools and techniques. These tools are also referred to as high-performance analytics; which is "a technology solution used by businesses who need to solve complex problems requiring analysis of big data at a detailed level". A few examples of these tools include data mining, advanced analytics, and data visualization. Based upon the type and volume of the data thus determines which tools are to be used. Then once the data has been extracted, the actual value of the information for the company or industry can be established.

So why does the Federal Reserve care about social media?

The Federal Reserve is wanting to monitor and regulate Facebook and Twitter in attempts to better understand and influence the public's opinion, and why wouldn't they? Social media such as Twitter and Facebook are direct links to gaining an insight on what the general population is doing, feeling, and what their current views are about anything and everything. Of course an argument would include that it's an "invasion of privacy," but on the other side Twitter and Facebook are public records and both are easily accessed.

The Federal Reserve isn't the first to implement this idea. Wallstreet and even political parties are using this technology to correlate events such as campaigns or drops in stock prices, and then comparing them to "tweets" or "news feeds" that have been posted in direct regards to them. This information is valuable for those in higher power to retrieve and analyze, because proper actions can be implemented to meet the desired majority of the population. By Twitter and Facebook being monitored and regulated, more of the population can voice their opinions and be heard.

Because our generation is so technologically advanced, nothing is a secret. Especially if something is being posted on social media sites. Once the posts have been submitted, it then belongs in the mass database which can then be analyzed rapidly and efficiently by the use of high-performance tools, which were mentioned prior. The accessibility of social media and the direct link to the publics opinions and moods make it almost impossible for social media not to be regulated.

The Federal Reserve is aware of the controversy, but they also see the growing importance of social media, and the capabilities that would be presented upon analytical research of the information. Which makes sense for why they propose to regulate Twitter and Facebook.


http://www.mobiledia.com/news/143891.html
http://www.mobiledia.com/news/110208.html
http://www.sas.com/offices/europe/uk/downloads/data-equity-cebr.pdf

Welcome to the vast, giant, colossal world of Big Data!!!

Big Data is the term for a collection of data sets so large and complex that it becomes difficult to process using on-hand database management tools or traditional data processing applications. The challenges include capture, curation, storage, search, sharing, transfer, analysis and visualization. The trend to larger data sets is due to the additional information derivable from analysis of a single large set of related data, as compared to separate smaller sets with the same total amount of data, allowing correlations to be found to "spot business trends, determine quality of research, prevent diseases, link legal citations, combat crime, and determine real-time roadway traffic conditions."
            So how important is Big Data in the business world? Big Data is becoming a top priority to enterprises small and large. According to Network World, 19% of companies have already implemented their big data projects, 25% are in the process, 16% plan to deploy their projects over the next 12 months, and 16% within the next 13-24 months.  The other 23% are struggling to find the right strategy or solutions.  

  Enterprises are investing a lot of money and time into these Big Data projects.  In 2017, the Big Data market is expecting to reach 32.4 billion dollars, growing at a rate of 27% each year. (IDC)  Goals include improving the quality and speed of decision-making, forecasting, developing new products and services, acquiring new customers, and building partnerships. There are a multitude of uses and reasons for acquiring data on such a grand scale. For the first time in the history of man, we have the ability to gather information as vast as space and use it to benefit our lives, our business, and our world. But with this great power comes great responsibility with not everyone feeling the same about how it should be used. Having said that, I think this "Big Data" business should be discussed with a positive vs. negative approach. First the positives.
            Big Data has assisted us in rapid advancements in innovation, productivity, and competition. Increasing volume and detail of information captured by enterprise, the rise of multimedia, social media, the internet, and our modern day  purchasing and transaction habits are fueling this exponential growth of data with no slowing predicted for the future. There are five domains which have been found to enjoy great value generation from Big Data - U.S. Healthcare, The European Public Sector, retailers of all kinds in the U.S., and Global Manufacturing and Personal- Location Data.
            A few great examples of Big Data at work would be, an average of 60% increase in operating margin by the retailers who learned how to utilize Big Data to the fullest, and a $300 Billion creation in value for the Healthcare sector in the U.S. each year. That could translate to reductions of health care expenditures in the U.S. by 8%. Big Data can also be used by Governments and the I.R.S. to reduce fraud and errors, and boost the collection of tax revenues. Data has become an important factor in every industry and business globally for production, forecasting, labor and cost just to name a few. By making data more transparent and usable at higher frequencies, they can collect more accurate and detailed performance information on every aspect of business operations, product inventories, and even employee attendance.
           Big Data is rapidly becoming a necessity for any company wishing to remain competitive and retain any hope of future growth of real size. Individual firms are using Big Data to find out information about how to gain and retain customer loyalty, and also how to make your loyal customers theirs. Now the negatives.
          Big Data has brought with it a great threat to our privacy and basic human rights of personal control. Companies and Government agencies are collecting uncountable amounts of personal information about people every day mining databases to discover subtle patterns, correlations, or relationships that our brains can't perceive on their own because the scales involved are beyond our ability to process. This type of Data Mining is called "Macro-scope" because it makes things visible to them about us that could never be seen before. Target Retail Stores have been found to be using a combination of personal data with external data sets to infer new facts about customers that even their own families might not know yet like whether they are sick, or pregnant, or a widow or recently divorced just by recording our buying patterns. They even can tell if you have a subconscious attraction to a particular color or material. 
          Target and other retailers take this data and use it to decide what to advertise and how to customize the advertisements to exactly your desires on a individual subconscious level without you even knowing. This way, they can manipulate your buying patterns based on fear or other life events and strong emotions. This is a violation of basic human principles of personal control and privacy. Big Data is also used by companies for what they call "risk analysis", although it should be called unfair profiling. This "behavior scoring"goes on in Insurance companies or banks or companies offering credit as a sort of guilt by association grouping of people of the same race, or area, or economic background and has no real bearing on their true individual credit worthiness or payment history, or income.        
      

Sources: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2014/020514-big-data-278471.html

               http://www.idc.com/prodserv/FourPillars/bigData/index.jsp