[LINK] Big Data - bad or otherwise

[Jan Whitaker]

This issue of Cutter's newsletter has a couple articles on this subject:
http://www.cutter.com/research.html


Big, Bad Data?
by Ken Orr, Fellow, Cutter Business Technology Council

The Middle Ages used a phrase to describe a term that was not 
meaningful as "a distinction without a difference." Oftentimes, in 
the desire to catch a technological/marketing wave, salespeople and 
consultants overuse terms coined to describe one thing to mean 
something entirely different. Recently, I was reading an article in 
the New York Times about department stores tracking their customers 
by using their wireless devices, using their movement through their 
stores to predict what they were interested in and what they bought. 
The article described this as yet another instance of the importance 
of Big Data. The more I read, the more I found this reference both 
comical and disturbing.

Applying Big Data in Higher Education
Editor's Pick by Kara Letourneau, Group Publisher

Is your organization using big data solutions to help it meet 
business goals? Discover the lessons learned as Cutter Fellow Vince 
Kellen led the University of Kentucky in putting big data analytics 
to work to improve student success.



The Perception, the Power, and the Promise of Social Media Analytics
by Matt Ganis, Avinash Kohirkar, Guest Editors

Clearly there are tremendous possibilities for insights and 
revelations within the sheer volume of data generated by billions of 
people worldwide. In this issue we explore -- and, we believe, answer 
-- the question "How do we measure the value of social media 
insights?" At one end of the spectrum we can simply understand how 
much people are talking about a particular product or service. And 
there is value in knowing that. At the other extreme, we see 
organizations analyzing this data to uncover entirely new and 
promising business models. The next step is yours -- what new and 
insightful information will social media analysis reveal about your 
organization?



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com

Sooner or later, I hate to break it to you, you're gonna die, so how 
do you fill in the space between here and there? It's yours. Seize your space.
~Margaret Atwood, writer

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