[LINK] Trends 2014

[Frank O'Connor]

So, I was 'before my time'.

I remember days 20 years ago, sucking corporate data off mainframes on my multi-CPU portable (well, 'portable' for the time) called Big Hoover, only to transfer the mainframe data over to Humungo my multi-boot data analysis box. and massage the hoovered data using little numbers like Monarch to give it some structure, then Audit Command Language (ACL) to delve into the accounts and run various audit tests and the like, then examining reprocessed data using Auditor's WorkBench to establish things like corporate connections and structures along the lines that the finances were supposedly travelling, and then producing an Excel spreadsheet for the 'real auditor' with my results so they could get to work.

Those were the days. I had to be legally entitled to get the data and pretty judicious about how I used my powers, and I, more often than not, had to have a court order allowing me to collect the data, and requiring them to co-operate,  from uncooperative corporates ... but I was an embryonic data scientist.       :)

Of course, nowadays the data is meta-data ... so there's no moral or other problems with collecting it, collating it, storing it, analysing it and using it for whatever purposes you want.

And obviously court supervision of the process isn't required, because government and private enterprise is only concerned about what's good for us.

And anyway ... who needs those privacy and personal-aspects-of-life thingies, anyway ... what I want to see is jobs for all the data collectors, collaters and analysers - because jobs are important. 

And who cares if 95% of the process is automated anyway, meaning less jobs-for-the-boys I suppose, because its important that we continue to escalate the budgets and increase the size of the Empires of our intelligence community (both government and private) until they cost more than that devoted to the welfare of the citizenry ... because it's important that our intelligence community and private sector are happy.

I mean ... without that I wouldn't be able to sleep nights.

Suffice it to say, I have a bit more jaundiced view than most about data-science.         :)

Just my 2 cents worth ...
...
On 3 Jan 2014, at 12:54 pm, stephen at melbpc.org.au wrote:

> This time of year, with the turning points and new beginnings, & combined
> with a little holiday reflection time, seems to engender reflections upon
> what technology and social trends might characterize our coming 2014 year.
> 
> Seems to me that the world has now produced and disseminated many personal
> data-collection technology devices. The 'Internet of Things' is being more
> and more established.  Each of these new technology devices has its unique
> and specific purpose, but many also are in effect little sensors recording
> social activity and environment data. Because of the Internet of Things it
> means they now interconnect more and more, producing and enabling Big-Data.
> 
> For the first time, many people now carry sensors of all kinds that report
> back to home-base. This is either socially intentional like navigation, or
> a secondary function and owner unknown, and, simply an operational fact of
> normal utilization. Here my main point point is the world now has billions
> of electronic sensors, all reporting back both specific-data and meta-data.
> 
> And, all this data is being collected.
> 
> Hence in my view, 2014 will be the year of the data-scientist.
> 
> By that I mean, we will begin to see the rapid and extensive rise of folks
> whose whole career involves the collection, and, data analysis, of all our
> Internet of Things. Thars is gold in them thar hills of world digital data.
> 
> So, IT people will not only run machines anymore, but fundamentally gather
> accurate information to help business make best-business decisions so that
> they can adjust their business in real time, based on this information. If
> used well they'll be able to spot trends and opportunities far faster than
> they could in the past. Also of course thus greatly applies to governments.
> 
> Secondly privacy will also play a role in the evolution of the Internet of
> Things and in which consumers and business currently don't see eye to eye. 
> 
> According to one ISACA report consumers are mostly concerned about hackers
> accessing their information whereas most IT professionals surveyed believe
> consumers should be concerned about not knowing whom can access their data
> information and how data will be used by the companies collecting it. This
> means businesses selling tech devices and services will need to be calming
> a customers fear in two ways: assuring them that their products are secure,
> and also establishing trust in how they'll use this data. With the growing
> attention on the use of customer's data this will be one key issue for the
> 2014 tech market's future imho.
> 
> www.arnnet.com.au/article/535081/gadgets_can_hear_track_watch_dominate_ces
> 
> Cheers,
> Stephen
> 
> 
> 
> Message sent using MelbPC WebMail Server
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Link mailing list
> Link at mailman.anu.edu.au
> http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link