Big Data – A Resource in Analysis and Decision-making

Yesterday morning the Technology Association of Oregon hosted a Technology Forum titled Big Data Now – but How to discuss the opportunities and challenges that come with this exponential growth of data, and mainly how do we use this data effectively? Three speakers from the top local analytics companies helped lead the discussion, one being Thetus’ Data, Analysis and Training team lead, Dan Vizzini. Below is a summary of Dan’s presentation on the perspective that Big Data is merely a resource in the service of good analysis and decision-making.

Focusing on big data is akin to the perspective of a sculler rowing upstream

The arc of human development is fundamentally a reflection of the human capacity to gather, store, analyze and act upon information. Transformational leaps in society, economy, culture and science coincide with revolutionary changes in communications and information technologies. While computers and related technologies have radically expanded the human capacity for processing information (and has begun to replace humans entirely in some decision-making), the most important decisions in the life of human societies and enterprises remain in the hands of human beings. The pace of technologies, processes and regulations that drive the creation of big data is outdistancing the development of technologies, processes and practices required to extract understanding and insights in support of effective decision-making. The past is not necessarily prologue in a world beset with wickedly complex problems. Focusing on big data is akin to the perspective of a sculler rowing upstream.

Effective analysis looks beyond the bounds of known and knowable data; extending the reach of discovery, understanding and anticipation to unmapped domains of economic, social and ecological risk and opportunity.

Thetus software is built for this unmapped landscape of risk, opportunity and resilience. Thetus’ core product, Savanna, is a suite of analysis tools that encourage the formulation of knowledge models and tested hypotheses; enable the fusing of structured and unstructured data; and facilitate visualizations and fully-sourced productions for decision-makers.

Thetus provides solutions to organizations with complex and wicked problems, problems devoid of obvious pathways to solutions and subject to dynamic forces that require adaptable and resilient management strategies. Such problems require the kind of modeling, analysis and synthesis that only a well-trained and disciplined human being can perform. Our job is to facilitate that human intervention. Thetus begins with the problem, and considers big data as one type of resource in the hands of a competent team of analysts.

In the final analysis, Thetus answers the question of how to make the most of big data by asking… to what end? Our software facilitates the analysis to help our clients navigate their way to a desired reality by means of model-enabled and adaptive policies and practices. For Thetus, big data is an important resource to help human beings solve complex, wicked problems.

Below is information on the two other presenters.

Nitin Mayande, Co-founder and Chief Scientist of Tellagence – Tellagence is used to organize and analyze public and private data to empower businesses to improve the decision they make in marketing, operations, and investments.

Eimar Boesjes, Chief Operations Officer and Chief Technology Officer at Moonshadow Mobile – Moonshadow Mobile works with large databases, from tens of thousands to hundreds of millions of records to visualize “big data” over maps.