Any contemporary business person today is likely bored and tired of hearing about Big Data, Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence. These are buzzwords being bandied about nearly every publication – and no, not just IT publications. Look at a current running magazine and you’ll see a comparison of best GPS tracking devices, heart rate monitors and more. These devices collect and share data. They contribute to big data and ultimately to artificial intelligence.
But do we really understand these terms or are they still somewhat mysterious?
Let’s take a simplified view of what it is in order to get a better understanding.
Access this link and you will see a counter showing a large number growing faster than your eyes can track. It’s showing the number of searches on Google ‘today’. When I accessed the page it was over 3.7billion and growing, FAST.
Google’s Search Statistics page shows a visual representation of other interesting data, like the amount of data shared in 1 second broken down by Tweets, Instagram photos uploaded, Tumblr Posts, Skype Calls, Gigabytes of Internet Traffic, Google searches and more.
Another great stats page is the number of Internet users by country.
Fascinating stuff. But why would we want to know all of this?
Well, if you can see how much information is being shared in just 1 second, then you can begin to comprehend the amount of stored data that is considered “Big Data” and how much big data can teach us.
Think about the number of smartphones, tablets and smart watches being used today. If you don’t know the numbers, take a look at http://www.internetlivestats.com/watch/smartphones-sold/ and http://www.internetlivestats.com/watch/tablets-sold/
That’s just the amount sold in one day. Every smart device is used primarily to GET information, but the way in which the user tries to get the information, the user’s location and other demographic information all contribute more to big data.
Everyone using Google Maps, Waze, Tom Tom or other popular GPS system to get to their destination on time is contributing to big data.
More and more software application vendors are incorporating Bots into their products. These bots allow users to interact with the bot (a piece of software) in the same way they would with another human being on a social media platform. The bot is programmed to respond to certain requests and is able to ‘learn’ based on user feedback.
Of course, having access to big data is one thing, but finding creative ways to analyse and learn from the data is an entirely different story.
I’m not sure we can comprehend the computing power required to analyse such enormous volumes of data, but it exists and it is causing a stir in the form of Artificial Intelligence.
Of course, these are just some simple, everyday examples to help get you thinking about other applications. Perhaps you have some interesting examples to share with us in the comments below?
