Just coincidence that I read Fast algorithms for mining association rules (in Mining Basket Data) the same day I read: Big Data Lessons for Big Government by Julie Ginches.
The points Julie pulls out from a study by DateXu could have easily been from 1994.
The dates and names have changed, the challenges have not.
- Employees need new skills, new technologies, and new ways to combine information from multiple sources so they can make sense of all the data pouring in so they can add more value and be effective. This new way of working directly applies to and will benefit both private industry and government.
- Organizations need departmental specialists to work with IT to create systems that are better at collecting, managing, and analyzing data. If the government is going to succeed with big data, it will need to find better ways to communicate and collaborate across organizations, with tools that can be used by technical and non-technical staff in order to make discoveries and quickly act.
- Enterprise businesses need a single, cross-channel platform to manage their data flows. The same is likely to hold true for government agencies that have typically been hamstrung in their data analysis because information is spread across multiple different, disconnected silos and multiple public and private organizations.
- Seventy-five percent indicate that data has the potential to dramatically improve their business; however, 58 percent report that their organizations don’t have the quantitative skills and technology needed to analyze the data. More than 70 percent report they can’t effectively leverage the full value of their customer data….
- 90% indicate that digital marketing can reduce customer acquisition costs through increased efficiency, but 46% report that they lack the information they need to communicate the benefits of big data to management….
If we are recycling old problems, that means solutions to those problems failed.
If we use the same solutions for the same problems this time, what result would you expect? (Careful, you only get one answer.)
Look for Let’s Party Like It’s 1994 II, to read about the one commonality of Julie’s five points. The one that topic maps can address, effectively.