GC: n
CT: Data Mining: What is Data Mining?
- Overview
Generally, data mining (sometimes called data or knowledge discovery) is the process of analyzing data from different perspectives and summarizing it into useful information – information that can be used to increase revenue, cuts costs, or both. Data mining software is one of a number of analytical tools for analyzing data. It allows users to analyze data from many different dimensions or angles, categorize it, and summarize the relationships identified. Technically, data mining is the process of finding correlations or patterns among dozens of fields in large relational databases.
- Continuous Innovation
Although data mining is a relatively new term, the technology is not. Companies have used powerful computers to sift through volumes of supermarket scanner data and analyze market research reports for years. However, continuous innovations in computer processing power, disk storage, and statistical software are dramatically increasing the accuracy of analysis while driving down the cost.
- Example
For example, one Midwest grocery chain used the data mining capacity of Oracle software to analyze local buying patterns. They discovered that when men bought diapers on Thursdays and Saturdays, they also tended to buy beer. Further analysis showed that these shoppers typically did their weekly grocery shopping on Saturdays. On Thursdays, however, they only bought a few items. The retailer concluded that they purchased the beer to have it available for the upcoming weekend. The grocery chain could use this newly discovered information in various ways to increase revenue. For example, they could move the beer display closer to the diaper display. And, they could make sure beer and diapers were sold at full price on Thursdays.
S: http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty/jason.frand/teacher/technologies/palace/datamining.htm (last access: 24 December 2014)
N: 1. – data (n): 1640s, plural of datum, from Latin datum “(thing) given,” neuter past participle of dare “to give”. Meaning “transmittable and storable computer information” first recorded 1946. Data processing is from 1954.
– mining (n): 1520s, verbal noun from mine (“pit or tunnel in the earth for obtaining metals and minerals,” c.1300, from Old French mine “vein, lode; tunnel, shaft; mineral ore; mine” (for coal, tin, etc,), of uncertain origin, probably from a Celtic source (compare Welsh mwyn, Irish mein “ore, mine”), from Old Celtic meini-. Italy and Greece were relatively poor in minerals, thus they did not contribute a word for this to English, but there was extensive mining from an early date in Celtic lands (Cornwall, etc.). From c.1400 as “a tunnel under fortifications to overthrow them.”).
2. The process of discovering previously unknown information from the data stored in data warehouses.
3. Sifting through very large amounts of data for useful information. Data mining uses artificial intelligence techniques, neural networks, and advanced statistical tools (such as cluster analysis) to reveal trends, patterns, and relationships, which might otherwise have remained undetected. In contrast to an expert system (which draws inferences from the given data on the basis of a given set of rules) data mining attempts to discover hidden rules underlying the data. Also called data surfing.
S: 1. OED – http://goo.gl/HMmEXZ; http://goo.gl/iOSEyT (last access: 24 December 2014). 2. TERMIUM PLUS – http://goo.gl/t8LXcs (last access: 24 December 2014). 3. http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/data-mining.html (last access: 24 December 2014).
OV: 1. datamining. 2. data-mining.
S: 1. TERMIUM PLUS – http://goo.gl/t8LXcs (last access: 24 December 2014): GDT – http://goo.gl/TculMX (last access: 24 December 2014). 2. TERMIUM PLUS – http://goo.gl/t8LXcs (last access: 24 December 2014).
SYN: 1. DM, data drilling. 2. data harvesting.
S: 1. GDT – http://goo.gl/TculMX (last access: 24 December 2014); TERMIUM PLUS – http://goo.gl/t8LXcs (last access: 24 December 2014). 2. GDT – http://goo.gl/TculMX(last access: 24 December 2014).
