Three Big Data links – What to ask of Big Data, and how?

Today I’d like to highlight three Big Data posts that I happened to run across this week. Especially the last link is very interesting: an overview of the detailed workings of Social Analytics. Big Data is a solution in search of a problem. A short post that does a very high level overview of Big Data and highlights the most important considerations when thinking about Big Data: –        What is the Business Problem that you think Big Data can help you solve? –        Which questions can Big Data help you answer? –        Which algorithm will you use to find these answers? It feels to me as if these are the first steps of a strategy or methodology for Big Data: after learning about the generics of Big Data and reading up on the theoretical potential, it’s now time to turn inwards and consider the applicability of Big Data in your organization. In the phrasing is mention of the ‘problem’, but you can easily substitute ‘opportunity’ of course. Link.  Three questions to ask of data. On a related note, a blog post on Forbes looked at the type of questions you can ‘ask’ your data. In an earlier post the author already noted that data does not speak, it only responds (which may change over time, but that’s another matter). The questions you ask determine the value you may get out. According to this post, there are only three types of questions that you can ask: Link. Zooming in on Customer Analysis. Focus presently is very much on getting better insight into customer behavior and preferences, the field of Social Analytics. Dr. Freimut Bodendorf from the university of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany has posted a great deck that not only does a great introduction, but then shows some more examples of HOW social analytics is actually done, using text-sentiment analyses, network analyses and classification systems. A great deck! Link.