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Big Data in Higher Education

Titled “Big Data and the Evolving Corporation”, this presentation by Jim Stogdill, is apt for higher education as well.

Key Takeaways:

  • Big Data is very frequently about predicting what’s going to happen rather than describing what’s already happened. Today, when we talk about business intelligence it is mostly saying “This is what happened” verses Big Data which is about saying “This is what we think is going to happen”
  • As companies figure out Big Data and try to find ways to obtain value from data, watch for privacy issues as these companies are now able to use data for predictive behavior e.g. Target’s Pregnancy Prediction Score.
  • Watch for companies that use data obtained from cellphones via mobile apps on the phone or via GSM sensors reporting data to applications developed using GNU Radio (e.g. shopkick or Path Intelligence) to track how people interact and move around in malls and stores and then offer promotions based on the stores you’re likely to visit
  • The classic mobile HTML5 vs. native mobile app question continues to read its head as companies opt to develop an HTML5 mobile app over a native app purely to obtain more click-stream data
  • The future belongs to the companies and people that can turn data into products