Data Mining

The amount of data now stored has increased dramatically. This increase is due, in part, to improvements in electronic data gathering methods and a fall in price of electronic storage mediums. This level of increase has outstripped the abilities of human analysts to analyse the data on their own. New tools are needed.

These tools can automate and provide intelligent assistance to the organisations holding this vast amount of data. The organisations can range from business to government. The whole breadth of human activity can be searched. If the data exists, new, unknown trends can be discovered.

• Automated prediction of trends in global weather using data from previous years.
• Automated discovery of previously unknown patterns in human behaviour from database tables.

Knowledge discovery in databases (KDD) provides for the identification and extraction of data from corporate databases to make informed business decisions.

Supermarkets

The introduction of barcodes and loyalty cards give supermarkets powerful tools. They can discover which products are bought by which households. They can monitor the effectiveness of special promotions.

They have effective control over stock levels. Perishable goods are particularly important to monitor. Supermarkets can reduce wastage by not supplying where a demand has fallen.

What other uses the knowledge can be used for is open for debate!

Comments, suggestions, ideas to
Stuart Banner