5 Things You Should Know About Data Mining

The majority of people spend about twenty-four hours online every week. In that time they give out enough information for big data to know a lot about them. Having people collecting and compiling your data might seem scary but it might have been helpful for you in the past.

If you have ever been surprised to find an ad targeted toward something you were talking about earlier or an invention made based on something you were googling, then you already know that data mining can be helpful. Advanced education in data mining can be an awesome resource, so it may pay to have a personal tutor skilled in the area to help you understand. 

It is understandable to be unsure of a system that collects all of the information online so that they can learn more about you. Luckily, so much data is put out every day it is unlikely data mining is focusing on any of your important information. Here are a few statistics you should know about mining.

1. Data Mining Is Used In Crime Scenes

Using a variation of earthquake prediction software and data, the Los Angeles police department and researchers were able to predict crime within five hundred feet. As they learn how to compile and understand more data patterns, crime detecting will become more accurate.

Using their data the Los Angeles police department was able to stop thief activity by thirty-three percent. They were also able to predict violent crime by about twenty-one percent. Those are not perfect numbers, but they are better than before and will get even more impressive as time goes on. 

The fact that data mining is able to pick up on crime statistics and compile all of that data to give an accurate picture of where crime is likely to occur is amazing. It gives a place to look and is able to help stop crime as it starts.

2. Data Mining Helps With Sales

A great story about data mining in sales is the example of Walmart putting beer near the diapers. The story claims that through measuring statistics and mining data it was found that when men purchase diapers they are also likely to buy a pack of beer. Walmart collected that data and put it to good use by putting the beer next to the diapers.

The amount of truth in that story/example is debatable, but it has made data mining popular in most retail stores. Finding which products are often bought together can give insight into where to put products in a store. This practice has increased sales in both items immensely just because people tend to purchase items near one another more than they would if they had to walk to get the second item. 

Putting a lot of stock in the data-gathering teams that big stores build does not always work. There have been plenty of times when data teams failed and sales plummeted. Often, the benefits outweigh the potential failure, however, and many stores now use data mining to make a lot of big decisions about their sales.

3. It’s Helping With Predicting Disease 

In 2009 Google began work to be able to predict the winter flu. Google went through the fifty million most searched words and then compared them with what the CDC was finding during the 2003-2008 flu seasons. With that information google was able to help predict the next winter flu outbreak even down to the states it hit the hardest. 

Since 2009, data mining has gotten much better at predicting disease. Since the internet is a newer invention it is still growing and data mining is still getting better. Hopefully, in the future, we will be able to predict disease breakouts quickly and accurately. 

With new data mining techniques and research in the medical field, there is hope that doctors will be able to narrow down problems in the heart. As the information grows and more data is entered the medical field gets closer to solving problems through data. It is something that is going to help cure diseases more quickly and find the root of a problem.

4. Some Data Mining Gets Ignored

Interestingly, very little of the data that companies collect from you is actually used. “Big data Companies” do not use about eighty-eight percent of the data they have. It is incredibly difficult to use all of the millions of bits of data that go through big data companies every day.

The more people that are used for data mining and the more data companies are actually able to filter through, the better the online experience will be. It might be a bit frightening to think of someone going through what you are doing online, but no one is touching any of the information that you keep private. Big data is using the information you put out into the world and using that data to come to conclusions and make the world a better place.

There is so much information being put onto the internet at all times. Twenty-four hours a week is the average amount of time a single person spends on the internet, but there are plenty of people who spend more time than that. All of that information takes a lot of people to sift through and there are not enough people in the data mining industry to currently actually go through the majority of the data being put online.

5. Too Many Data Mining Jobs

Interestingly, the data industry is booming. In general, there are an amazing amount of careers opening on the internet every day. The industry is growing so quickly that there are not enough people to fill the jobs that are being created.

The lack of talent in the industry means there is plenty of room for new people who want to go into the data mining industry. It was predicted that by 2018 there would be a shortage of 140,000 with deep analytical skills. With the lack of jobs that are being discussed, it is amazing that there is such a shortage in the data industry. 

If big data is only able to wade through less than half of the data being collected then we are wasting a resource. The more people who go into an analytics or computer career the more information we will be able to collect and utilize. There are currently more jobs than there are people in the data mining field and that needs to be corrected.

To Conclude

The data mining industry is making great strides. Big data is trying to use the information they collect to sell more things to you but also to improve the world. Also, there is something very convenient about your computer knowing the type of things you want to buy and showing you them immediately. 

Data mining has been able to help predict crime in Los Angeles and lower crime rates. It has also helped companies know what items are commonly purchased together so that stores can be organized more efficiently. Data mining has even been able to predict the outbreak of disease down to the state.

Even with so much data being ignored and so many jobs left empty, data mining is doing incredible things. The entire internet is constantly growing and the data mining is growing right along with it. As the data mining industry climbs and more people find their careers mining data the more we will learn and the more facts we will find.

Halley Johnson

Halley Johnson is a software freelance writer and editor. Who is currently employed with Chicagohometutor. She has a few published pieces under pseudonyms. They mostly consist of below-average poems. Halley is currently in the process of writing her first full-length novel (it will actually be under her real name). Her greatest accomplishments are being a good mom to her pig and an average daughter to her parents.