Chasing Value in Big Data
October 2, 2013
That the term “big data” has become a huge buzzword is clearly an understatement. Yet, in all the hype, one crucial point may get overlooked—that collecting silos of data means nothing without good data analysis. Network Computing reminds us of this crucial fact in, “Text Analytics Key to Unlocking Big Data Value.”
Blogger David Hill was inspired to write this article after attending the Text and Social Media Analytics Summit in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He cites a talk by Harvard’s Gary King who, after citing examples, declares analysis to be more important than data itself. Hill mostly agrees, but notes:
“Although King makes a strong point, the answer is that both data and analytics are important. All the analytics in the world will be of no help if the data does not exist or you cannot access the data for use. Still, King’s thesis really speaks to the need for creativity in the use of analytics to take advantage of data.”
The post goes on to discuss the integration of structured and unstructured data. Hill also mentions some examples of text analytics’ practical uses. See the article for details. The piece concludes:
“We have been subject to an application-driven software intelligence perspective of IT. . . for most of our lives. So a data-driven software intelligence perspective such as big data, where value in IT is squeezed from the data itself, is not only unfamiliar and hard to comprehend but also a little uncomfortable. Yet the world of data-driven software intelligence is the world of text analytics and will transform our view of how to get value from the IT infrastructure.”
As we have mentioned before, big data (and the analysis thereof) are not necessarily important for every business. But for many, especially large corporations, it can be a useful tool indeed. Companies should take as much care with their analysis strategy as they do with their data collection, and they should start by identifying their business’ particular needs.
Cynthia Murrell, October 02, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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