I'll be honest, before this I have never heard of the term "big data". But now it surprises me that such a term can have such a big impact on the way the internet operates. It has impacts on targeted marketing, taking nonsensical data from all over the web, from all kinds of people and putting them to use for businesses. But it doesn't have to do with the internet, because "over the course of the past four years, we’ve seen big data move from its birthplace in the consumer Internet to more traditional enterprises. Banks are doing a better job identifying fraud and watching for money laundering. Retailers have better models of their customers’ tastes and preferences. Telecommunications vendors are analyzing traffic patterns and content in more detail than ever before, and are building and running more efficient networks as a result. Doctors have more accurate pictures of the genetic and environmental causes of disease, and are discovering more effective
treatments as a result" (Cloudera).
But this "big data" is just that, all kinds of data, almost randomized. This is why companies like the Apache Hadoop tries to analyze, and even more importantly, organizes it. This open-source project is helping a lot of organizations organize all their data that they acquire. But all that it does today, all the problems its can solve today, is nothing that can compare to what it can do in the future. And that is what interests me, because even now it can detect fraud, create targeted marketing, and even help doctors detect cause of diseases. Think of the potential it will have in the future, and because of the growing data in the foreseeable future, it will be even more useful than it is today.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Tom Slee
Before reading Tom Slee's blog I always thought that the Egypt - Facebook phenomenon was incredible, and that I couldn't think of any other way that these people could be able to get together and accomplish something without this social network. But as Tom Slee stated, it is just the medium in which the people were able to use to accomplish this task, and if this were to occur in any other era without the aspect of social networking, it would use whatever was available. What we did was only take advantage of the capabilities of Facebook, but the fact is that Facebook is not a supporter of either parties, rather it only provides a method.
As Tom Slee stated, "If Facebook is a technology that delivers democracy, then we can trust it: more of it can only lead to more democracy. But if Facebook is a cultural phenomenon, then its meaning and role will change...". His point of the fact that Facebook does not exclusively align itself with any parties involved, it is merely a means to an end. In this sense, it cannot be trusted as anyone can make accounts, even fake accounts with aliases, to use it to do whatever they wished. Its effect on this event happened but was only because the mainstream crowd deemed its uses, and this role changes depending on a specific situation, which makes Facebook actually playing for both teams.
Of course this does not detract from the fact that it did play an extremely large role in deciding the outcome of the overall situation, but it is only that, and no more. It could have been done with any other method if Facebook was not available, but of course it was great that it does exist.
As Tom Slee stated, "If Facebook is a technology that delivers democracy, then we can trust it: more of it can only lead to more democracy. But if Facebook is a cultural phenomenon, then its meaning and role will change...". His point of the fact that Facebook does not exclusively align itself with any parties involved, it is merely a means to an end. In this sense, it cannot be trusted as anyone can make accounts, even fake accounts with aliases, to use it to do whatever they wished. Its effect on this event happened but was only because the mainstream crowd deemed its uses, and this role changes depending on a specific situation, which makes Facebook actually playing for both teams.
Of course this does not detract from the fact that it did play an extremely large role in deciding the outcome of the overall situation, but it is only that, and no more. It could have been done with any other method if Facebook was not available, but of course it was great that it does exist.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Knowledge Map of the Information Economy
"Humanity now seems bent on creating a world economy primarily based on goods that take no material
form. In doing so, we may be eliminating any predictable connection between creators and a fair reward
for the utility or pleasure others may find in their works" (Barlow 4). This economy is what we are striving for in many different digital industries. Have User created and generated content that can directly arrive at the consumers' "hands" without a middle man, or someone who profits from providing the resources. In the material world there is manufacturing, production, and transportation, which makes it so that the average creator will have extremely limited access to this type of market, the is very difficult to penetrate into that type of market. The need for existing wealth and connections makes it difficult.
But with digital user created content distribution, the goal is to get rid of the middle man. "The user-created virtual goods segment consists of activities for producing and selling user-generated virtual items, textures and other artificially scarce virtual objects for virtual environments such as Second Life and Instant Messaging Virtual Universe (IMVU)" (Infodev). This type of digital economy allows those without existing wealth or connections to be able to share their products within a system or online game in order to hopefully make a profit. Of course at this time there is always the middle man, those that provide the service, will take a percentage of the money earned .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAoDsOV_a3Y
Some of the games that support this type of economy at this moment are the Dota 2 (Valve) that can be made for a profit. If one were to make a desirable virtual item, it will be picked by the company to be put up for sale, and Valve will take a portion of the profit. Games such as Little Bit Planet or Infamous 2 also support user created content, but are all offered for free, and creators will not make any profit. Something more different but also ties into the idea of a virtual user created economy is from Diablo 3, where the in-game auction house can be used for in-game currency or real-world money. This creates people who are called "'gold farmers' refers to a game laborer who plays an online game in order to produce virtual currency that can be sold for real money. The first “gold farms”, offices where multiple farmers sit at rows of computers and earn wages by producing virtual currency, probably evolved from gaming cafés" (Infordev). This essentially creates entire teams of people who do nothing, not even really play the game but just try to collect money in game so they can sell that for real money. There are many other types of virtual economy that is bound to surface in the foreseeable future, but what this means is that this is what companies should focus on because its potential is massive, in many industries, not just gaming.
form. In doing so, we may be eliminating any predictable connection between creators and a fair reward
for the utility or pleasure others may find in their works" (Barlow 4). This economy is what we are striving for in many different digital industries. Have User created and generated content that can directly arrive at the consumers' "hands" without a middle man, or someone who profits from providing the resources. In the material world there is manufacturing, production, and transportation, which makes it so that the average creator will have extremely limited access to this type of market, the is very difficult to penetrate into that type of market. The need for existing wealth and connections makes it difficult.
But with digital user created content distribution, the goal is to get rid of the middle man. "The user-created virtual goods segment consists of activities for producing and selling user-generated virtual items, textures and other artificially scarce virtual objects for virtual environments such as Second Life and Instant Messaging Virtual Universe (IMVU)" (Infodev). This type of digital economy allows those without existing wealth or connections to be able to share their products within a system or online game in order to hopefully make a profit. Of course at this time there is always the middle man, those that provide the service, will take a percentage of the money earned .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAoDsOV_a3Y
Some of the games that support this type of economy at this moment are the Dota 2 (Valve) that can be made for a profit. If one were to make a desirable virtual item, it will be picked by the company to be put up for sale, and Valve will take a portion of the profit. Games such as Little Bit Planet or Infamous 2 also support user created content, but are all offered for free, and creators will not make any profit. Something more different but also ties into the idea of a virtual user created economy is from Diablo 3, where the in-game auction house can be used for in-game currency or real-world money. This creates people who are called "'gold farmers' refers to a game laborer who plays an online game in order to produce virtual currency that can be sold for real money. The first “gold farms”, offices where multiple farmers sit at rows of computers and earn wages by producing virtual currency, probably evolved from gaming cafés" (Infordev). This essentially creates entire teams of people who do nothing, not even really play the game but just try to collect money in game so they can sell that for real money. There are many other types of virtual economy that is bound to surface in the foreseeable future, but what this means is that this is what companies should focus on because its potential is massive, in many industries, not just gaming.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)