Big Data Talk

Front row, third from left: Dr Choo with the audience

A talk titled “Big Data: Towards Data-Driven Decision Making for Enterprises” was organised by the Centre for Extension Education in collaboration with The Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia on 24 July 2018 at Sungai Long Campus.

The talk aimed to promote awareness and provide understanding on the challenges and opportunities of big data. Invited to deliver the talk was Faculty of Information and Communication Technology (FICT) lecturer Dr Choo Peng Yin.

During the talk, Dr Choo introduced big data and shared its successful implementation cases through some video screenings. He also discussed the role of big data analytics in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, such as the predictive manufacturing system. The video clips showed the audience how the police force was able to predict crimes before it actually takes place, how President Obama Campaign team tapped into big data to help former President Obama win the election and how big data was widely used in Amazon’s recommendation systems. 

Dr Choo talk about the function of big data

“Big data is a data that exceeds the storage capacity and processing capacity of conventional database systems, for example Relational Database Management System (RDBMS). In 2005, big data, which had been used without a name, was labelled by Roger Mougalas. He was referring to a large set of data which is almost impossible to manage and process using the traditional business intelligence tools available. In February 2001 Doug Laney, an analyst, with META Group (now Gartner) published a research note titled ‘3D Data Management: Controlling Data Volume, Velocity and Variety’. A decade later, the ‘3Vs’ have become the generally-accepted three defining dimensions of big data, although the term itself did not appear on Laney’s note,” said Dr Choo.

He then continued, “Big data is a powerful tool. It is like network hacking, you try to learn how to hack into someone’s computer in an ethical, moral and responsible way. However, big data becomes very sensitive because it involves personality issues and private data. The controversial side is people would often try to use this data to redirect your behaviour like sending messages that you are more inclined to listen. All this can be done using a computer programme.  In fact, Facebook users are actually contributing to big data every day. It can just sweep your data and try to predict who you are, what is your next action, what is your preference and what you dislike. Other than Facebook, the same thing also occurs in e-commerce websites. When you log on to Amazon, YouTube, Netflix or some other e-commerce sites, you will get suggested videos or products.”

Audience listening attentively

He also talked about another aspect of big data which is called the Public Sentiment Analysis.Sentiment analysis, also known as opinion mining, uses new technologies and algorithms to collect and analyse opinions about a person, product, service, organisation or even an entire brand. “Big data analytics together with sentiment analysis would result in something surprisingly simple yet universally coveted by marketers in the enterprise. It is gained through feedback from the public. The Web Crawler technology “sweeps” the news websites and social media sites, and performs text analytics. This is very important for the public relations of a product and event company,” said Dr Choo.

According to Dr Choo, the key idea of big data is about data-driven decision making, which is to convert data, big or small, into actionable insights for enterprises to remain competitive in the rapidly changing market. “Big data by itself has no value. Big data must go through the analytic phase to generate information and insights. These insights will lead to better decisions which will deliver better outcomes or results. Without data-driven insights, humans would have to rely on experience, gut feelings or common sense to make decisions. Sometimes, insights can be contrary to experience.”

He concluded, “It is good to have Google analytic if you own an e-commerce company or site that sells and promotes your webpage. By simply putting up your company’s profile and contact information on a webpage, you should be able to see the traffic, who has visited your webpage and what they watched. You can also direct them to watch a video and sign up for your promotional activity.  This is how you basically enjoy this data economy.”

The talk ended with an interactive Q&A session followed by the presentation of a certificate of appreciation to Dr Choo by FICT Dean Assoc Prof Dr Liew Soung Yue.

Dr Liew (right) presenting the certificate of appreciation to Dr Choo