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[ontolog-forum] FW: Looking to the Future of Data Science - NYTimes.com

To: "[ontolog-forum] " <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: "Hans Polzer" <hpolzer@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 17:27:18 -0400
Message-id: <01e801cfc3d0$02f1f920$08d5eb60$@verizon.net>

Patrik,    (01)

One major issue with Big Data (and any data, for that matter) is the issue of 
the scope of the data sets, which is usually left implicit and often inferred 
from external knowledge about the data source. By scope of the data sets I mean 
what portion of reality does the data set purport to represent. Sometimes the 
complexity of the data representation in a data set is due to explicit 
inclusion of scope information, but usually scope is left unspecified in the 
data representation.     (02)

For example, if one is trying to determine air traffic patterns from data sets 
provided by the various national/regional air traffic authorities or airlines, 
aside from all the differences in representation and complexity of such data by 
the different sources, one has to determine what portion of the overall air 
traffic is captured by the aggregate sources one has access to, and whether 
there is any overlap among the sources (and what the nature of the overlap 
might signify with respect to one's objective for accessing the data sources).  
Do some of the sources include general aviation traffic or only scheduled 
commercial (passenger?) traffic. What portion of the world's air traffic (of a 
particular set of types) do we not have data sources for? Are the time ranges 
of the data sources compatible with the data access objectives?  Does a 
particular source include military aircraft traffic? Does it include charters. 
Does it include Government executive aircraft?     (03)

What about helicopter traffic or lighter than air traffic or UAVs? Up and down 
to what vehicle size ranges? What about sub-orbital or orbital traffic (even if 
one excludes "space" traffic as not being "air" traffic, space and orbital 
traffic typically traverses the atmosphere when launched and often returns 
through the atmosphere)? Are hovercraft considered air traffic? What about 
gliders, paragliders, and "airsuits", or are we only interested in powered 
aircraft or fuel-burning aircraft (not all powered craft burn fuel)? Note that 
there are fuel-burning paragliders. Are rockets/missiles and artillery 
considered "air" traffic?     (04)

When one accesses Big Data for some purpose, what has one really accessed? How 
big is "Big"? More importantly, how big a portion of what one is looking for 
does Big Data represent? And what can one safely conclude for the purposes at 
hand, given that scope information (assuming it is available or can be 
inferred)? I'm not sure this is totally a question of logic.    (05)

Hans Polzer    (06)

-----Original Message-----
From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
[mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Patrik Eklund
Sent: Friday, August 29, 2014 2:42 PM
To: ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Looking to the Future of Data Science - 
NYTimes.com - 2014.08.27    (07)

On 2014-08-29 20:47, Peter Yim wrote:
> ...
> http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/08/27/looking-to-the-future-of-data
> -science/    (08)

> ... The “big” in big data tends to get all the attention, Mr. Etzioni 
> said, ... involves both grammar and background knowledge.
> And the latter is something humans acquire through experience of the 
> world.    (09)

Being new to this forum I may hit an "out of bounds", but my I7 tells me "big 
data" should not even be about that "big". Size doesn't matter. 
It's the complexity of data, and it's not even that. It's the complexity of the 
structure of the data, like it's all about the complexity of the anatomy of the 
swing, not just the complexity of the swing. A "big swing" mostly brings you 
out of bounds, in particular when you focus on that "big". Or at least, it 
produces a huge slice.    (010)

Data "mining" is really silly, if you ask me, and I for one think we should 
reserve "mining" just for minerals, not for knowledge.    (011)

It's all about what logic really is, and isn't, isn't it?    (012)

Cheers,    (013)

Patrik    (014)



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