Big-data techniques arrive, as exemplified by Obama

By John Agsalud

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Jan 08, 2013

~~<p>The concept of "Big Data" has been bandied about for a couple of years now. Many organizations have explored, if not implemented, methods to take advantage of this idea. While it is widely believed that predictive analytics based on big data is useful only for marketing purposes or to increase sales, the fact of the matter is that it is being used for a variety of other purposes.</p>
<p>By now many have heard of examples like the following true story. A large national retailer tracks the purchases of all of its female customers signed up on its baby registry. The retailer figures out that these customers buy large quantities of unscented lotion around the beginning of their second trimester and, in the first 20 weeks, stock up on supplements like calcium, magnesium and zinc.</p>
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The concept of "Big Data" has been bandied about for a couple of years now. Many organizations have explored, if not implemented, methods to take advantage of this idea. While it is widely believed that predictive analytics based on big data is useful only for marketing purposes or to increase sales, the fact of the matter is that it is being used for a variety of other purposes.

By now many have heard of examples like the following true story. A large national retailer tracks the purchases of all of its female customers signed up on its baby registry. The retailer figures out that these customers buy large quantities of unscented lotion around the beginning of their second trimester and, in the first 20 weeks, stock up on supplements like calcium, magnesium and zinc. Login for more...