There is a mind-boggling amount of data floating around our society. Physicists at CERN have been pondering how to store and share their increasingly massive data for decades—stimulating globalization of the Internet along the way, while "solving" their big data problem. Tim Smith plots CERN's involvement with big data from 50 years ago to today.
In this unit, you'll discover that everything we say and do in our everyday lives can be quantized, categorized, and analyzed in minute detail. And not only does all of that data encapsulate who we are, what we do, what we like, what we think, who we know, and where we go, but it also manages to capture many of the subtle details of our lives that we may not even be aware of ourselves.
Through clever and sophisticated analysis of large volumes of finely detailed information, data scientists are able to tease out hidden patterns and reveal connections that might not be so obvoius at first glance.
For example, many businesses collect, analyze, and use big data in an attempt to better understand their customers and improve the service they provide to those customers. However, this doesn't always go quite according to plan.
In this unit, you'll discover that everything we say and do in our everyday lives can be quantized, categorized, and analyzed in minute detail. And not only does all of that data encapsulate who we are, what we do, what we like, what we think, who we know, and where we go, but it also manages to capture many of the subtle details of our lives that we may not even be aware of ourselves.
Through clever and sophisticated analysis of large volumes of finely detailed information, data scientists are able to tease out hidden patterns and reveal connections that might not be so obvoius at first glance.
For example, many businesses collect, analyze, and use big data in an attempt to better understand their customers and improve the service they provide to those customers. However, this doesn't always go quite according to plan.
Unemployment Data Analysis
This data is based on the whole United States of America and graphs the unemployment rate of women and is seasonally adjusted. The graph above shows the unemployment rate for women in the United States throughout the years prior to this year’s data. We are interested in this data because it not only reflects the data of women and their voice for equality and the trend of this rising through the years to come, it also reflects some the major recessions and depressions that occurred during the past years. This information is important and meaningful for others to understand because it reflects the unemployment rate of women in the United States, while it does not give any reason, we can infer most of the high points were caused by major recessions and past history can back up this assumption.
The unemployment rate during these large peaks are relatively the same for both genders and the current unemployment rate for both genders are steadily at ~5% which is the equilibrium of the United States economy.
The unemployment rate during these large peaks are relatively the same for both genders and the current unemployment rate for both genders are steadily at ~5% which is the equilibrium of the United States economy.
Useful and Usable Data
What makes data useful?
Data is useful if somebody would want to use it, in essence making it valuable for some purpose or another (not necessarily financially). The usefulness of data is also directly related to what somebody can do with it.
Common misconception: If data are being collected, they are being utilized.
Data is useful if somebody would want to use it, in essence making it valuable for some purpose or another (not necessarily financially). The usefulness of data is also directly related to what somebody can do with it.
Common misconception: If data are being collected, they are being utilized.
- Data are being collected, because they can possibly be utilized. However, just because data exist does not mean that they _are_ being used or utilized.