Big Data: Friend, Phantom or Foe?

www.johngirard.net [email protected] 1

John P. Girard, Ph.D.

h�ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL1dQuK5Wsg


Big Data in your organiza�on?

Leaders in my organiza�on are _________ Big Data.

B. interested in C. bored with D. confused about

A. excited about

Some History

Many leaders were (are) very skep�cal about the

real value of KM


Big Data = KM by another name?

Big Data is Everywhere


Is Big Data New?

www.google.com/trends/

Teradata, 1991 (Osco Drug)

www.�nyurl.com/GirardBD

Prairie Business Magazine, 7(1) -‐ 2008

Is data mining synonymous with

Big Data?

No. Big Data is the data set (or asset).

Data mining is the process (or handler).


Big Data = KM by another name?

The History of Big Data

Informa�on Overload

Informa�on overload occurs when the amount of input to a system exceeds its processing capacity. (Speier et al, 1999)

Informa�on Overload

Informa�on overload is that state in which available, and poten�ally useful, informa�on is a hindrance rather than a help. (Bawden, 2001)

Personal Informa�on Overload

A percep�on on the part of the individual (or observers of that person) that the flow of informa�on associated with work tasks is greater than can be managed effec�vely. (Wilson, 2001)

Organiza�onal Informa�on Overload

A situa�on in which the extent of perceived informa�on overload is sufficiently widespread within an organiza�on as to reduce the overall effec�veness of management opera�ons.(Wilson, 2001)


Overload is not new!

The Roman Philosopher Seneca worried about informa�on overload nearly 2,000 years before it was cool. “What is the point of having countless books and libraries whose �tles the owner could scarcely read through in a whole life�me?” he wondered.

Michael Grunwald @MikeGrunwald Aug. 28, 2014


2/3 of managers complained of Informa�on overload (KPMG, 2000)

38% of the surveyed managers waste a substan�al amount of �me loca�ng informa�on (Wilson, 2001)

Managers “dwell on informa�on that is entertaining but not informa�ve, or easily available but not of high quality” (Linden, 2001)

43% of the managers delayed decisions because of too much informa�on. (Wilson, 2001)

The total accumulated codified database of the world, which includes all books and all electronic files, doubles every seven years and some predict this will double twice a day by 2010 (Bon�s, 2000).

What we knew a decade ago:


Exhibit at NAFA School of Art & Design

KM 1.0 (According to John)

Knowledge

Information

Data

Data to Information

 Context  Categorize  Calculate  Correct  Condense

Information to Knowledge

 Compare  Consequences  Connects  Conversation


KM 2.0

Ikujiro Nonaka

Socializ

ation Externalization

Interna

lization C

ombination

TACIT

EXPLIC

IT

EXPLICIT

TACIT

Seek Wisdom

Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past, wisdom is of the future. ~ Lumbee Proverb

The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina is a state recognized tribe of approximately 55,000 enrolled members, most of them living in Robeson and the adjacent counties in southeastern North Carolina.


The Cogni�ve Hierarchy

10 Years

Knowledge

Information

Data

Ackoff’s Apex Wisdom

Understanding

Knowledge

Seek Wisdom not Knowledge (KM 2.5?)

Big Data – Some Defini�ons

A term coined to reflect very large and very complex data sets. (Sultanow & Chircu, 2015)

Big data is a term for any collec�on of large and complex data sets that it becomes difficult to process. (Gordon, 2015)

Data set that is beyond the capacity of rela�onal database applica�ons. (Joseph, 2015)

Term for a collec�on of large and complex data sets that it becomes difficult to process with tradi�onal tools. (Klepac & Berg, 2015)

Large Complex Dif�icult

Strategic Data-‐based Wisdom in the Big Data Era


Complex: A Defini�on

Large Complex Dif�icult

“a group of obviously related units of which the degree and nature of the rela�onship is imperfectly known”

An early example of Big Data (KM 3.0)

Knowledge

Information

Data

Wisdom

Understanding

Knowledge

Know

ledge

Cre

ation

“With 3,600 stores in the United States and roughly 100 million customers walking through the doors each week, Wal-Mart has access to information about a broad slice of America . . . The data are gathered item by item at the checkout aisle, then recorded, mapped and updated by store, by state, by region . . . By its own account Wal-Mart has 460 terabytes of data.”

14 November 2004

Hurricane


A more recent example

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiFPjUTw_qM

Big Data Can Provide Decision Support

Slamtracker's Keys to the Match mines over 8 years of Grand Slam Tennis data (~41 million data points) to determine pa�erns and style. Prior to each match, the system runs an analysis of both compe�tors’ to determine what the data indicates each player must do to do well in the match.


An Example

Big Data

What do we know about Big Data?


Big Data is Global and Mul�disciplinary


Big Data is NOT just technology



The newest technology

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSJm3nIicK4

The right technology

Branson’s secret weapon is carrying an old-‐fashioned notebook with him everywhere he goes.


Google Flu Trends

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6111nS66Dpk

Did Google get is wrong?


Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies

www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3114217 www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2819918

Big Data is no longer there!

Data Conerns

www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/mar/18/twi�er-‐puts-‐trillions-‐tweets-‐for-‐sale-‐data-‐miners


The Size of Big Data

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B27SpLOOhWw

http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/infrastructure/3433595/boeing-‐787s-‐create-‐half-‐terabyte-‐of-‐data-‐per-‐�light-‐says-‐virgin-‐atlantic/

Decide later …



2/3 of managers complained of Informa�on overload (KPMG, 2000)

38% of the surveyed managers waste a substan�al amount of �me loca�ng informa�on (Wilson, 2001)

Managers “dwell on informa�on that is entertaining but not informa�ve, or easily available but not of high quality” (Linden, 2001)

43% of the managers delayed decisions because of too much informa�on. (Wilson, 2001)

The total accumulated codified database of the world, which includes all books and all electronic files, doubles every seven years and some predict this will double twice a day by 2010 (Bon�s, 2000).

What we knew a decade ago:

Michael Jordan on the “Delusions” of Big Data

http://spectrum.ieee.org/robotics/arti�icial-‐intelligence/machinelearning-‐maestro-‐michael-‐jordan-‐on-‐the-‐delusions-‐of-‐big-‐data-‐and-‐other-‐huge-‐engineering-‐efforts

When you have large amounts of data, your appe�te for hypotheses tends to get even larger. And if it’s growing faster than the sta�s�cal strength of the data, then many of your inferences are likely to be false. They are likely to be white noise.


"More data increases our confidence, not our accuracy"

Image Credit: Kris Krug h�p://www.kriskrug.com

h�p://www.tylervigen.com/





What did happen?

h�ps://www.linkedin.com/pulse/whatever-‐happened-‐knowledge-‐management-‐tom-‐davenport

What did happen?

h�ps://www.linkedin.com/pulse/whatever-‐happened-‐knowledge-‐management-‐tom-‐davenport

KM never incorporated knowledge derived from data and analytics. I tried to get my knowledge management friends to incorporate analytical insights into their worlds, but most had an antipathy to that topic. It seems that in this world you either like text or you like numbers, and few people like both. I shifted into focusing on analytics and Big Data, but few of the KM crowd joined me.


The Future …

The Marketer’s task is to help the CEO/COO see …


John P. Girard, Ph.D.