Business Intelligence, KDD and Data Mining News

What Your Cell Phone Knows About You Friday, May 23, 2008 Source: Forbes Can your cell phone tell if you're happy or overworked? Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology think it can do that and more--separate the rich from the poor, the sick from the healthy, even the outgoing from the introverted. Sandy Pentland, director of MIT's Human Dynamics Research program, has focused his work on that unlikely task: using gadgets as simple as a cell phone to better understand the quirks and patterns of human behavior. [Read more...] We have met the enemy, and he is us Thursday, May 8, 2008 Source: Computerworld.com Who can forget the classic line uttered by Commodore Perry during the War of 1812's Battle of Lake Erie: "We have met the enemy and they are ours!" Perry, then age 28, kicked serious British naval butt in that decisive victory. Nearly two centuries later, the famed comic strip creator Walt Kelly twisted that line for the benefit of his seminal character, the possum Pogo. On an Earth Day poster in 1971, Pogo, looking at a polluted stream proclaimed, "We have met the enemy and he is us!" The same line was also used in a cartoon to lampoon the Nixon Administration, so the creator's use was to point a critical finger at things government, in Kelly's opinion, was doing wrong. You, dear Reader, are probably asking, Why are we going through this lesson? [Read more...] Microsoft Sets Sights on Data Mining Dominance Wednesday, May 7, 2008 Source: MCP Magazine Online When it comes to data mining and predictive analytics, Microsoft Corp. might not be the first company that comes to mind. That could change, however, especially if Donald Farmer, Redmond's principal program manager for SQL Server Data Mining, has his way. Microsoft has come a long way in the data mining and predictive analytics segment, Farmer says, and with a game-changing Excel 2007 release under its belt -- and a promising SQL Server 2008 revision in the pipeline -- Redmond hopes to challenge established powers SAS Institute Inc. and SPSS Inc. for data mining and predictive analytic bragging rights. [Read more...] Jaeger invests in data mining to cut stock loss Wednesday, February 6, 2008 Source: silicon.com Classic fashion retailer Jaeger is about to start a data-mining project as part of a £120,000 effort to curb the loss of stock from crime or waste - known in the industry as shrinkage. [Read more...] House debates drug 'data mining' law Tuesday, February 5, 2008 Source: VPR The law in question limits the ability of marketing firms to obtain specific information about which drugs Vermont doctors are prescribing to their patients - this practice is known as data mining. Drug companies then use this information to target marketing campaigns to physicians who don't use their products. The Vermont law keeps this information private unless a doctor chooses to make it available. [Read more...] New Thoughts On Language Acquisition: Toddlers As Data Miners Monday, February 4, 2008 Source: ScienceDaily Indiana University researchers are studying a ground-breaking theory that young children are able to learn large groups of words rapidly by data-mining. [Read more...] Social Networking for Zebras Saturday, December 1, 2007 Source: Science News Facebook hasn't yet opened up a site for zebras. Even so, social networking is taking off for them, too. By using social network theory to understand how zebras interact, scientists hope to explain why the plains zebra is thriving while the Grevy's zebra is endangered. [Read more...] Digging for Data Gold Friday, November 30, 2007 Source: CRMBuyer Focused advertising and upselling may be in the rudimentary stage now, but it is not out of the realm of possibility to one day see a level of directed advertisements as those seen in the futuristic movie "Minority Report," in which advertisements in public areas changed based on who was passing by them. [Read more...] Data Mining for the Bad Guys Tuesday, September 11, 2007 Source: Technocrat Spidering and linguistic analysis are just some of the tools being used now by enforcement and intelligence researchers to trawl the web looking for terrorist related information and contacts. Advanced computational power being thrown at this project is needed, due to the sheer volume of webtraffic that has to be looked at. [Read more...] FBI Data Mining Reached Beyond Initial Targets Saturday, September 8, 2007 Source: New York Times WASHINGTON, Sept. 8 — The F.B.I. cast a much wider net in its terrorism investigations than it has previously acknowledged by relying on telecommunications companies to analyze phone-call patterns of the associates of Americans who had come under suspicion, according to newly obtained bureau records. [Read more...]

Information overdrive Thursday, March 15, 2007 Source: What PC? Information is the lifeblood of the modern organisation. Critical decisions depend on data from business intelligence systems about customers’ buying habits, product sales or the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. [Read more...] New York Schools Turn To Business Intelligence For Help Monday, March 12, 2007 Source: iT News In New York city's public school system, the largest in the nation, four out of 10 students don't graduate on time. Last week, school officials signed a five-year, US$80 million deal with IBM to develop a business intelligence system that can track and analyze performance by student and by school, to help spot problem areas. Whether it will result in better education--or just more finger-pointing and recriminations--remains to be seen. [Read more...] Will Machines Ever Be Conscious? Monday, March 12, 2007 Source: MIT Technology Review If only political debates were this interesting. A quick-witted moderator, two opposing but well-behaved thinkers, and a central question any MIT loyalist would love: will humans ever build conscious, volitional, or spiritual machines? [Read more...] Data mining: How to unearth a wealth of information from corporate annual reports Sunday, March 4, 2007 Source: Eagle Tribune Corporate annual reports might seem a bit outdated in the Internet age, but the documents are rich in valuable information for investors. As thousands of publicly traded companies prepare to issue annual reports - many will hit shareholder mailboxes between early March and May - it's a good time for a primer. [Read more...] Data mining program raises concerns Thursday, March 1, 2007 Source: The Spokesman Review The Department of Homeland Security is testing a data-mining program that would attempt to spot terrorists by combing vast amounts of information about average Americans, such as flight and hotel reservations. Similar to a Pentagon program killed by Congress in 2003 over concerns about civil liberties, the new program could take effect as soon as next year. [Read more...] City of Atlanta Standardizes on Cognos 8 Business Intelligence Thursday, December 21, 2006 Source: WebWire BURLINGTON, MA, December 21, 2006— Cognos (Nasdaq: COGN; TSX: CSN), the world leader in business intelligence and performance management solutions, today announced that the City of Atlanta has standardized on Cognos 8 Business Intelligence (BI) for Atlanta Stat, its city-wide performance management initiative in a multi-million dollar partnership. [Read more...] Pune gets institute for artificial intelligence Thursday, December 21, 2006 Source: Business Standard Intelligent Business Systems (IBS), an artificial intelligence (AI)-based business competitiveness solutions company, launched its subsidiary IBS Education, a training institute. IBS is currently developing the IBS Education campus in Pune. "The campus will be ready in the next 12-18 months at an investment of Rs 100-150 crore," said Kaustabh Chowkshi, CEO, IBS. Rolling out its courses through franchisees in Mumbai currently, Chowkshi said, "In the next two years, we will have 100 franchisees and invest an additional Rs 100 crore for setting up institutes in Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai at a cost of Rs 25 crore each." [Read more...] British Study Says In The Future Robots Could Demand Legal Rights Thursday, December 21, 2006 Source: All Headline News According to a study by the British government, the thin line between human and robot legal rights will apparently merge in future as the mechanic devices could one day demand the same legal rights assigned to people. The report, written by British research company Ipsos-MOR for the U.K. Office of Science and Technology, said that the rights - if granted to the robots, would force countries to provide social benefits including housing and even "robo-healthcare." [Read more...] What it means to be human Thursday, December 21, 2006 Source: EurekAlert Approximately six per cent of human and chimp genes are unique to those species, report scientists from the University of Bristol and three other institutions. The new estimate takes into account something that other measures of genetic difference do not – the genes that are no longer there. The research is reported in the inaugural issue of Public Library of Science ONE (Dec. 2006). The team studied "gene families" that are shared by humans, common chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), mice, rats and dogs. Gene families are sets of genes in every organism's genome that are similar (or identical) because they share a common origin. [Read more...] DHS Sued by EFF over ATS Data-Mining System Wednesday, December 20, 2006 Source: CIO The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), demanding the agency turn over information about an "invasive" data-mining system used to assess the terrorist threat posed by U.S. travelers. The EFF, an advocacy group focused on privacy and civil liberties, asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for the expedited release of records related to the DHS Automated Targeting System, or ATS, a program DHS unveiled in a November privacy notice in the Federal Register. [Read more...]