Mining for gold... in the Big Data Hills

There's gold in them there hills!  The hills are mounds filled with gold [data] and mining has become exponentially more efficient.... pulling microscopic bits of data from the virtual and real worlds.


Steve Lohr wrote a great piece on Big Data in the NYTimes.  Here's an excerpt:

"The microscope, invented four centuries ago, allowed people to see and measure things as never before — at the cellular level. It was a revolution in measurement.Data measurement, Professor Brynjolfsson explains, is the modern equivalent of the microscope. Google searches, Facebook posts and Twitter messages, for example, make it possible to measure behavior and sentiment in fine detail and as it happens."

With data flow increasing at such a dramatic rate there is a commensurate need for individuals with the skill to gather, analyze and interpret the data... and more importantly, with the real-world experience, skill and instinct to react, reinterpret and readjust.

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."                                                   Mark Twain (attributed to Benjamin Disraeli)