I think Big Data is like a car, a very
useful way to go places fast, but still needs a person in charge.
Kerry
From:
wiki-research-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org
[mailto:wiki-research-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Everton Zanella Alvarenga
Sent: Thursday, 3 January 2013
12:12 AM
To: Research into Wikimedia
content and communities
Cc: wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org;
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org; Mailing list do Capítulo brasileiro da
Wikimedia.
Subject: Re: [Wiki-research-l]
"Big data" benefits and limitations (relevance: WMF editor
engagement, fundraising, and HR practices)
Dear Pine,
thank you for sharing these links. I cannot read everything now, but
one of these warticles was also recommended by a friend, Sure,
Big Data Is Great. But So Is Intuition., by Steve Lohr, that reminded me a
case in
"It’s encouraging that thoughtful data scientists like Ms.
Perlich and Ms. Schutt recognize the limits and shortcomings of the Big Data
technology that they are building. Listening to the data is important, they
say, but so is experience and intuition. After all, what is intuition at its
best but large amounts of data of all kinds filtered through a human brain
rather than a math model?"
As Alexandre
Abdo pointed out in this not so old discussion, we, the Brazilian
community, were being handled as "consummated facts", and the
community experience and intuition was not being taken into account as it could
- although I must tell a lot of efforts were done in this direction. I hope a
lesson was /learned/ and this can help to the direction the organization is
taking with its grantmaking and learnings. :)
This also reminds me that there is no mathematical model that explains
now (maybe there never will...) the kind of system Wikimedia projects deal with
and sometimes lovely graphics and data interpretations are assumed as
scientific statements, regardless of their scientifically underpinnings.
Have a good year,
Tom
On Sun, Dec 30, 2012 at 1:26 AM, ENWP Pine <deyntestiss@hotmail.com>
wrote:
I'm sending this to Wikimedia-l, Wikitech-l, and Research-l in case
other people in the Wikimedia movement or staff are interested in "big
data" as it relates to Wikimedia. I hope that those who are interested in
discussions about WMF editor engagement efforts, WMF fundraising, or WMF HR
practices will also find that this email interests them. Feel free to skip
straight to the links in the latter portion of this email if you're already
familiar with "big data" and its analysis and if you just want to see
what other people are writing about the subject.
* Introductory comments / my personal opinion
"Big data" refers to large quantities of information that are so
large that they are difficult to analyze and may not be related internally in
an obvious way. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_data
I think that most of us would agree that moving much of an organization's
information into "the Cloud", and/or directing people to analyze
massive quantities of information, will not automatically result in better, or
even good, decisions based on that information. Also, I think that most of us
would agree that bigger and/or more accessible quantities of data does not
necessarily imply that the data are more accurate or more relevant for a
particular purpose. Another concern is the possibility of unwelcome intrusions
into sensitive information, including the possibility of data breaches; imagine
the possible consequences if a hacker broke into supposedly secure databases
held by Facebook or the Securities and Exchange Commission.
We have an enormous quantity of data on Wikimedia projects, and many ways that
we can examine those data. As this Dilbert strip points out, context is
important, and looking at statistics devoid of their larger contexts can be
problematic. http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1993-02-07/
Since data analysis is also something that Wikipedia does in the areas I
mentioned previously, I'm passing along a few links for those who may be
interested about the benefits and limitations of big data.
* Links:
>From the Harvard Business Review
http://hbr.org/2012/04/good-data-wont-guarantee-good-decisions/ar/1
>From the New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/30/technology/big-data-is-great-but-dont-forget-intuition.html
and
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/sunday-review/big-datas-impact-in-the-world.html
>From the Wall Street Journal. This may be especially interesting to those who
are participating in the discussions on Wikimedia-l regarding how Wikimedia
selects, pays, and manages its staff.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443890304578006252019616768.html
And from English Wikipedia (:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_data
and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_mining
and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_intelligence
Cheers,
Pine
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--
Everton Zanella Alvarenga (also Tom)
"A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful
than a life spent doing nothing."