Great book on using data to drive solutions . . .

Viktor Mayer-Schonberger and Kenneth Cukier’s Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work and Think unveils the future possibilities of building on the analysis of vast amounts of data. Hypothetical correlation goes out the window, and the new methodology behind datafication opens new possibilities for companies and governments (and schools) in the 21st century. The authors explain the importance of this data-driven approach, how messiness trumps exactitude, and the unlimited potential for many of data completeness. They also illustrate how searches on Google open new possibilities, but caution of the dark future of shattered privacy that could prevail as depicted in movies like Minority Report.

Each of the 10 chapters makes a main point about “Big Data” and its implications. The authors discuss the significance of sampling vast amounts of data, the prominence of datafication, the value of data, the risks of data, and the tools needed to control a data-driven society that is able to intrude on everyone’s privacy. They suggest that Farecast, a company that tells online buyers if prices are more likely to rise or fall before their scheduled trips “is the epitome of a big-data company and an example of where the world is headed” (p. 5). If all goes well, data companies will generate greater growth and affluence globally.

Very much worth a read . . .