Big Data
Patrick Cunningham
ITM220-J
November 8, 2013
Big Data
Big Data, an inspirational novel about the collection and processing of massive amounts of data was eye-opening and encouraging. This collection of data over a long period of time has been processed and used towards many different aspects throughout the world. Dilemmas such as tracking the H1N1 virus, to buying the most inexpensive plane tickets, all the way to predicting dangerous manholes explosions have all been processed and tabulated for our own benefit with the use of big data. One of the most practical and fundamental portions of Big Data included a excerpt on an individual named Oren Etzioni. Etzioni, co-founder of one of the internet’s first search engines MetaCrawler, is responsible for “Project Hamlet,” an application that used a sample of 12,000 price observations to help customers buy the cheapest flight tickets available at a certain time and place. This ingenious idea dawned on Etzioni after booking a flight in advance expecting the ticket price to be the lowest at that point in time. Only after boarding the plane and curiously asking his fellow passengers did Etzioni come to his realization that he had not only paid more than a majority of the other passengers, but most had also purchased their tickets substantially later than he had for his. Infuriated by this newly found information Etzioni gathered large amount of data by “‘scraping’ information from a travel website over a 41-day period.” After years and years of of the system being fed more data and becoming more efficient Project Hamlet “was making the correct call 75 percent of the time and saving travelers, on average, $50 per ticket,” by the year 2012. The Silicon Valley startup 23andMe analyzes an individual’s DNA for a reasonable price. The benefit of having an analysis on your DNA is miraculous. “It can reveal traits in people’s genetic codes that may make them more sustainable to certain diseases like breast cancer or
ITM220-J
November 8, 2013
Big Data
Big Data, an inspirational novel about the collection and processing of massive amounts of data was eye-opening and encouraging. This collection of data over a long period of time has been processed and used towards many different aspects throughout the world. Dilemmas such as tracking the H1N1 virus, to buying the most inexpensive plane tickets, all the way to predicting dangerous manholes explosions have all been processed and tabulated for our own benefit with the use of big data. One of the most practical and fundamental portions of Big Data included a excerpt on an individual named Oren Etzioni. Etzioni, co-founder of one of the internet’s first search engines MetaCrawler, is responsible for “Project Hamlet,” an application that used a sample of 12,000 price observations to help customers buy the cheapest flight tickets available at a certain time and place. This ingenious idea dawned on Etzioni after booking a flight in advance expecting the ticket price to be the lowest at that point in time. Only after boarding the plane and curiously asking his fellow passengers did Etzioni come to his realization that he had not only paid more than a majority of the other passengers, but most had also purchased their tickets substantially later than he had for his. Infuriated by this newly found information Etzioni gathered large amount of data by “‘scraping’ information from a travel website over a 41-day period.” After years and years of of the system being fed more data and becoming more efficient Project Hamlet “was making the correct call 75 percent of the time and saving travelers, on average, $50 per ticket,” by the year 2012. The Silicon Valley startup 23andMe analyzes an individual’s DNA for a reasonable price. The benefit of having an analysis on your DNA is miraculous. “It can reveal traits in people’s genetic codes that may make them more sustainable to certain diseases like breast cancer or
Cited: 1. Viktor Mayer-Schonberger and Kenneth Cukier. “Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think.” Publisher:Eamon Dolan/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, March 5, 2013