Why Big Data is Out of This World?
It has been said, ad nauseum, we sent a man to the moon and got him back home using less data than is found on an average PC or laptop today. The reality is, like processing speed, the amount of data collected these days is rapidly expanding. Some say it is doubling every two years. Yes, doubling. And, so far, the speed at which data is generated outpaces the speed at which it can be analyzed.
How wide is that gap? A recent article in Business Insider quoted Professor Patrick Wolfe, Executive Director of the University College of London’s Big Data Institute, as saying we only analyze about half of one percent of all data collected. Half of one percent! And Wolfe says as collection methods increase, that percentage will continue to shrink.
But even with all this data being left on the digital cutting room floor, the potential to use the data we can use is all but limitless. Data scientists are already using Big Data to help in medical research and treatment, to decode DNA strands to prevent disease and help people stay healthy.
Big Data is also being used to address energy costs in buildings and across corporations with multiple locations. That cost savings not only helps the profit margins and stock prices of these businesses, it keeps billions of dollars of energy from being wasted.
Big Data is being leveraged in myriad ways to sell to us and entertain us.
Consider, just a few examples:
When you shop for something online but don’t buy it, social media sites have algorithms that keep that product in front of you… While you might not buy today, it’s more likely you will buy that item or something similar than you would a random item without you making a real-time search engine analysis.
Streaming content services use data science to help us find movies or music that fits our interests. Sure, it’s not perfect, but it beats the old method of standing in the store, searching and searching, but finding “nothing” to take home.
But even given all the benefits of Big Data, what can data scientists do to leverage all that data that is currently being wasted? Well, build faster analysis machines, certainly, but another answer is to ask better questions.
All the advances in data science to date, everything we learned or use, comes back to someone asking the right question in the right way to make the connections necessary to generate benefits we currently enjoy.
As scientists continue to ask these questions and get these answers, more data will be picked up from that discard pile and put back into play, to everyone’s benefit.
Roman Temkin is a leading New York based Real Estate developer who understands the importance and business implications of using Big Data properly.
