The Data Deluge

The Economist has a special report in their latest magazine that talks about the data deluge that many companies are dealing with. Some companies, such as credit cards, mine the data to look for trends. For example, the credit card companies sift through their data looking for trends that might point to fraud. Insurance companies look through their data for claims that might also be fraudulent. Other companies are receiving so much data that they do not even look at it, and thus are leaving opportunities on the table. It is an interesting article, but they could have talked a bit more about how visualization can help.

Everywhere you look, the quantity of information in the world is soaring. According to one estimate, mankind created 150 exabytes (billion gigabytes) of data in 2005. This year, it will create 1,200 exabytes. Merely keeping up with this flood, and storing the bits that might be useful, is difficult enough. Analysing it, to spot patterns and extract useful information, is harder still.

via : Show me: New ways of visualising data
via : Data, data everywhere

This story written by Paul Adams

Paul Adams leads an award-winning, diverse contractor team that runs a federal high performance computing facility where he has worked for 17 years. He loves getting his hands on the latest visualization and computer hardware, astronomy, aerospace engineering, working with the poor, and ringing cowbells.