Your daily digest of “All Things Big Data” gathered, collected and researched by your very own 10Fold Big Data Practice team.
Big Data
The Zika virus is forecasted to effect four million people in the next year as it spreads across America. Big Data and analytics might be the saving grace to the outbreak as they have played a major role in containing previous viral outbreaks. To tackle the Zika virus, scientist are going to need to look into a variety of sources of data from clinical trials, surveillance activities and provider networks. Although the public health surveillance system is already facing problems, it is hard for vaccine developers to access the data from different sources to accelerate their drugs development process. Jamie Powers, a consultant from the healthcare industry with SAS suggests a new platform that allows users to analyze “multiple different data sources, along all of the stakeholders” and he suggest this can be done through crowd sourcing. This will help vaccine developers identify the correct data then design and implement solutions faster.
Smart cities are becoming more of a reality. Smart cities are using information and communication technology (ICT) to improve the efficiency of urban services, reduce cost and resources consumption, improve transportation and traffic, healthcare, energy and waste management. AT&T is seen as a large investor in smart cities technology. Their general manager of AT&T Smart Cities Organization explains that AT&T has already had a lot of success with IoT business and the next natural step is to work on developing smart city technologies. He hopes that AT&T can “drive smart city applications that can solve problems for the cities and the citizens.” Currently, smart cities allow big data to help citizens with the persistent issue of finding parking in large urban areas, as well as assisting cities to reduce pollution through the deployments of street sensors.
Can Big Data help fight the Zika Virus? – Forbes
In Depth: Big Data, smart cities – RCR Wireless New
IoT
There was wide coverage today surrounding a report titled “Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S Intelligence Community” that announced IoT as a major, global threat. James Clapper, U.S Director of National Intelligences, claims that IoT devices provide hackers with more opportunities to extract sensitive information from users. China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are countries that are not experiencing any restriction to their cyber operations, and Russia and China are seen as having the most sophisticated cyber programs around.
IoT needs standardization to continue to grow properly and satisfy the consumer’s needs. InformationWeek profiles IoT home security system, Scout Alarm, as an example of some of the pitfalls and benefits IoT devices are facing. Scout Alarm is an easy to install system with a well-designed app, but the hardware isn’t very flexible, making integrating new features difficult. For example, adding in a different alarm siren is far more difficult than it should be – in order to create a different alarm siren, you have to buy a third-party product. If IoT brands wish to continue and not lose customers, standardization needs to occur so different devices can seamlessly work together with ease.
US Intelligence Chief Lists Main Global Threats Warns of IoT as Tools for Spying on You – Tech Times
IoT Reality: Smart homes not smart enough yet – Information Week
eCommerce
With Amazon and Ebay dominating the online retail sector for consumers, smaller businesses are getting left out of the game. Many have started to sell directly on Amazon, while others are lobbying the government for changes. Unfortunately, the future seems bleak for smaller eCommerce stores. Businesses can no longer rely on a passing trade; they will need to figure out how to transform into a destination shop in order to survive.
What is the future for small ecommerce retailers? – Practical Ecommerce
Personalization
The concept of personalization is like walking on a tight rope. While personalization is no longer just a demand, but an assumed feature of online shopping, concerns still arise around the “creepy” factor – or rather, engaging consumers too far. B2C examines how to find the perfect middle ground by keeping personalized marketing in context, focus on transparency and building customer trust, observe customer response to personalized marketing and adjust accordingly, and give customers the keys to their customization through personalized defaults or through loyalty accounts.