Big Data
Big data is an emerging and evolving IT term that describes a massive gathering of structured, semi-structured and unstructured data which can be potential mined for information. Big data can be characterized by 3Vs: volume, variety and velocity. Big data analytics is usually associated with cloud computing because the analysis of large amount of data in real-time needs a platform such as Hadoop to store the data. By utilizing big data, Companies such as Amazon, YouTube can gain competitive advantages, because they can acquire useful data such as predicting their customers’ preference and future behavior.
Even big data can collect a great deal of data, it is not useful if we cannot analyze and read the data as well as understand the data. In order to get actual benefits from the big data, we need to use the data to help us make a better and accurate decision. In MIS2502, we learned how to analyze and read the data through SAS. Also, we learned concepts such as decision trees, clustering and segmentation, and association rules. By applying these concepts to the big data analytics, we can make more accurate and proper decisions based on the data.
In the 2002, the predicting and effectively preventing of crime sounded like the science fiction. However, things have changed now. Los Angeles and Santa Cruz Police Departments have successfully used predictive software to reduce 33% in burglaries, 21% in violent crimes and 12% in property crime in the areas. This actually started with predicting earthquakes. LAPD used a mathematical model which was used to predict aftershocks during earthquakes to analyze crime data. Just like prediction of aftershocks, the data shows similar patterns and they are capable to feed the model with 13 million crimes over the past 80 years. By utilizing big data, they can identify crime hotspots where crime is likely to happen on a given day now. Police officers are assigned to a 500 square feet geographical area where the software predicts crime that is likely to occur in a 12-hour shift, so they can try to prevent crime. Today, the model is continuously updated with new crime data and it can help LAPD make more accurate predictions.
Works Cited
“Big Data – What is it & why it matters.” SAS. Web. 23 Apr. 2015.
Rijmenam, Mark. “The Los Angeles Police Department Is Predicting and Fighting Crime With Big Data.” DataFloq. Web. 23 Apr. 2015.
Rouse, Margaret. “Big Data.” TechTarget. Web. 23 Apr. 2015.