Big Data

[YankeeFan]

New York Times article focuses on New York City's, "Office of Policy and Strategic Planning, a geek squad of civic-minded number-crunchers working from a pair of cluttered cubicles across from City Hall in the Municipal Building."

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/nyregion/mayor-bloombergs-geek-squad.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimes&_r=0&pagewanted=all

Data — or Big Data, as quantitative analysts will call it — is the tool du jour for tech-savvy companies that have realized that lurking in the vast pools of unprocessed information in their networks are solutions to some of today’s most pressing and convoluted problems. A few years ago, Google, for example, took the 50 million most common keywords that Americans typed in search bars and tried to figure out, by comparing them with federal health statistics, where the H1N1 flu virus was to likely strike next.

According to a new book, “Big Data: A Revolution that Will Transform How We Live, Work and Think,” the enormous quantity of information whirling through the ether can affect and enhance our quality of life. As the authors put it, “The change of scale has led to a change of state.”

Now the city has brought this quantitative method to the exceedingly complicated machine that is New York. For the modest sum of $1 million, and at a moment when decreasing budgets have required increased efficiency, the in-house geek squad has over the last three years leveraged the power of computers to double the city’s hit rate in finding stores selling bootleg cigarettes; sped the removal of trees destroyed by Hurricane Sandy; and helped steer overburdened housing inspectors — working with more than 20,000 options — directly to lawbreaking buildings where catastrophic fires were likeliest to occur.

I think this kind of stuff has great potential.

Are you excited by what it might bring? Does it concern you?

 

[JakeandElwood]

It's fascinating. And absolutely there are privacy concerns etc. but there's a whole lot of potential for good.

 

[cranberry]

The underpinnings of Mayor Bloomberg's business empire are the accumulation and analysis of information, so I see no surprise that he would bring "big data" to bear in his administration. I'm just a little surprised this story wasn't written 11 or 12 years ago.

 

[LongTimeListener]

WAR is not the answer.

 

[YankeeFan]

Well, the NYPD's CompStat was sort of an early version of this. It got a lot of credit for reducing crime, and got a ton of press.

And, the NSA has been using data mining to combat terrorism for years.

I'd like to think it could be used to predict and prevent the next person who might want to shoot up a school, or help to evaluate schools and teachers.

But, done well, and with the right people in charge, it probably can do a million little things -- like figure out who is dumping grease into the sewer -- that will improve lives.

 

[dooley_womack1]

I thought this would be a thread about the worst athlete nickname ever.

 

[nmmetsfan]

If Trout gains any more weight

 

[KJIM]

I'm not sure if this is what the OP is referring to, but my sister had told me about this and it is fairly creepy.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/

There is a link in the above to a NYT magazine story from last month that talks in-depth about the data mining.

So Target started sending coupons for baby items to customers according to their pregnancy scores. Duhigg [NYT] shares an anecdote — so good that it sounds made up — that conveys how eerily accurate the targeting is. An angry man went into a Target outside of Minneapolis, demanding to talk to a manager:

“My daughter got this in the mail!” he said. “She’s still in high school, and you’re sending her coupons for baby clothes and cribs? Are you trying to encourage her to get pregnant?”

The manager didn’t have any idea what the man was talking about. He looked at the mailer. Sure enough, it was addressed to the man’s daughter and contained advertisements for maternity clothing, nursery furniture and pictures of smiling infants. The manager apologized and then called a few days later to apologize again.

On the phone, though, the father was somewhat abashed. “I had a talk with my daughter,” he said. “It turns out there’s been some activities in my house I haven’t been completely aware of. She’s due in August. I owe you an apology.”

Of course, it bothers me when I'm pricing flights and then I log on here and get a Google ad that says "Fly Delta from YYY to ZZZ for $467."

 

[Riptide]

Think of all the jobs lost to computers here. AUTOMATION BAD!!!

 

[Mystery Meat II]

He likes it when you call him this:

 

[LongTimeListener]

We should start calling RickStain Big Data.

 

[RickStain]

Somewhere, 13-year-old RickStain who had just discovered Star Trek TNG is getting a boner, and it may or may not be related to that suggestion.

 

[JosephC.Myers]

I thought this would be a thread about the worst athlete nickname ever.

I, too, thought this was about an athlete and their somewhat goofy choice of nicknames. I was sadly disappointed.

 

[JosephC.Myers]

Is The Big Unit metric or US?

I'll say U.S. If he were British, he'd be metric.

 

[RickStain]

I'm calling shenanigans on the Target story.

 

[Captain Obvious]

Have a discount card for a grocery store? That's a treasure trove of data.

 

[YankeeFan]

You might want to close your Facebook account if you commit armed robberies:

Socializing online is landing criminals in custody.

Police are searching for suspects' photos on Instagram and Facebook, then running them through the NYPD’s new Facial Recognition Unit to put a face to a name, DNAinfo New York has learned.

Detectives are now breaking cases across the city thanks to the futuristic technology that marries mug shots of known criminals with pictures gleaned from social media, surveillance cameras and anywhere else cops can find images.

“It is the one time something you see on a television show is actually working in the real world,” said one top police official who went from a tech skeptic to a fan.

The official explained how the new technology worked after a recent street robbery where a woman reported her jewelry stolen by her gal pal’s boyfriend. She did not know his name, only that he was likely in photos on his girlfriend's Facebook page.

“We did not have his name, but we found a photo and the Facial Recognition Unit got a hit,” the NYPD official said.

“It saved a ton of time and potentially dangerous investigative legwork.”

The new technology is the latest weapon in the NYPD's crime-solving arsenal that already includes DNA databases, radiological detectors and sophisticated license plate readers. The new investigative entity was formally launched late last year, with eight cops working in teams of four manning the operations.

http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20130325/new-york-city/high-tech-nypd-unit-tracks-criminals-through-facebook-instragram-photos#ixzz2OaGYLTIC

 

[LongTimeListener]

Some of the marketing stuff you get targeted with is actually pretty good and helpful. So, on the one hand, total loss of privacy and civil liberties. On the other hand, cheaper hotel rooms in Vegas.

Tough call.

 

[93Devil]

When you are asked to fill out your name in certain areas, use "King" or "Majesty" and see if that ever pops back up in your spam.

And, yes, every time we slide our card we are being tracked. Some of you have not noticed this yet? Shop at a different grocery store once or twice and see how many coupons the other grocer sends you.

My wife missed a couple local votes, and guess who the Obama supporter wanted to speak with at the house? Not me.

And Target will send you coupons for formula when they "think" you should be having your next child.

 

[93Devil]

Oh, and the side ads on this site are driven by what I had already searched on Google Chrome.

I doubt many of you are getting Disney and Kings Dominion ads, right?