Predictive Analytics Becoming an Important Governance Tool
March 31, 2013
Many of our cities need help right now. Those destined for default may need software to help with planning the future, and predictive analytics may be the answer. That is but one area where analytics could help our municipalities; GCN examines the relationship between such software and government agencies in “Analytics: Predicting the Future (and Past and Present).”
Though police are still a long way from the predictive power of 2002’s “Minority Report,” notes writer Rutrell Yasin, police departments in a number of places are using analytics software to forecast trouble. And the advantages are not limited to law-enforcement.
The article begins with a basic explanation of “predictive analytics,” but quickly moves on to some illustrations. Miami-Dade County, Florida, for example, uses products from IBM to manage water resources, traffic, and crime. One key advantage—interdepartmental collaboration. See the article for the details on that county’s use of this technology.
Though perhaps not the most popular of applications, predictive analysis is also now being used to enhance tax collection. So far, the IRS and the Australian Taxation Authority have embraced the tools, but certainly more tax agencies must be eyeing the possibilities. Any tax cheats out there—you have been warned.
Leave it to the CIA‘s head technology guy to capture the essence of the predictive analysis picture as we move into the future. Yasin writes:
“The real power of big data analytics will be unlocked when analytic tools are in the hands of everybody, not just among data scientists who will tell people how to use it, according to Gus Hunt, the CIA’s CTO, during a recent seminar on Big Data in Washington, D.C.
“‘We are going to have to get analytics and visualization [tools] that are so dead-simple easy to use, anybody can take advantage of them, anybody can use them,’ Hunt said.”
Are we there yet?
Cynthia Murrell, March 31, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Comments
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
