Analysis from the Bottom Up

An important point was brought up in this article in regards to the negative connotation the term “data mining” often has for people. This stems from users’ prior history with data mining tools that were ineffectual, difficult to use, and provided results that were more abstract than actionable.

Linda Koontz, information management issues director at the Government Accountability Office, said some agencies she interviewed about programs that mine data refuse to identity their programs as such.

“Different people sometimes mean different things by the term data mining,” she said. “There isn’t one definition that everyone agrees with. A lot of people feel aversion to using the word ‘data mining’ because they think that casts a negative pall over what they are doing.”

GAO defines data mining as the application of database technology and techniques to uncover hidden patterns and subtle relationships in data and infer rules that allow for the prediction of future results. Koontz said she doesn’t understand why data mining has a negative connotation. “Analysis is not evil,” she said.

Read more about the CDC’s BioSense initiative

This recent article about the GAO’s investigation into fraudulent use of government assistance following Hurricane’s Katrina and Rita illustrates why it is becoming increasingly important to develop data analysis techniques that are proactive in real-time instead of reactive in the wrong time. What could have been done differently in this situation to help the government avoid paying out on bogus claims? While certainly there is a balance to be maintained between the need to distribute aid quickly and the need to have thorough checks into a person’s identity, surely there must be a better way to manage the situation than what was done by the government after these two disasters occurred.

A government watchdog relied on data mining to uncover an estimated $1 billion of improper or fraudulent payments for assistance in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita last year.

The Government Accountability Office reported its findings on the fraud to the House Homeland Security Investigations Subcommittee on Wednesday. GAO found that the lack of “upfront controls” and inadequate data checks at the Federal Emergency Management Agency led to the improper disbursement of anywhere from $600 million to $1.4 billion to alleged hurricane victims who registered for federal assistance.

In one case, an individual using 13 different Social Security numbers, one of which belonged to the person, received 26 payments totaling $139,000. By searching public records, GAO found that of the 13 addresses that person claimed as damaged property, eight were bogus addresses or were publicly owned.

Matching information from FEMA registrations to a database of federal and state prison inmates, furthermore, GAO found more than 1,000 registrants used names and Social Security numbers belonging to prisoners who were not displaced by the storms. In one case, a Louisiana inmate received more than $20,000 for registering a post-office box as damaged property.

An interesting article in the Washington Post today.

Industry executives, analysts and watchdog groups say the federal government has significantly increased what it spends to buy personal data from the private sector, along with the software to make sense of it, since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. They expect the sums to keep rising far into the future.

The hope is that the technology can help to discern and thwart threats just as businesses have used it for years to predict consumer behavior on buying cosmetics or repaying mortgages, for example.

Companies keep an increasing amount of data about everyone — tracking their buying, travel, bank transactions and bill-paying habits. Data mining uses mathematical formulas to look for patterns in those behaviors. The results could enable the grocery store to send out targeted coupons, or, in theory, help the government decide how likely it may be that someone is linked to terrorist groups.

Another interesting article coming off the UPI wire regarding the NSA going after MySpace and Facebook type sites in order to discover new patterns of behavior that may point to illicit activities when combined with other data sources.

This information, if collected and filtered correctly, can be combined with other harvested data to reveal information as to banking, retail and property records and eventually help fill in the picture of a potential terror suspect’s activities. Such an aid may prove extremely helpful to the intelligence community in its hunt for both terror suspects and criminals.

Are they barking up the wrong tree here? Or is it simply a matter of having access to as many data sources as possible, leaving options open for different analytical paths to follow?

Business Objects has released the results of survey that suggests that most business executives suffer from presentation fatigue, a direct result of the vast amounts of time they spend preparing for and giving presentations each month.

Most business executives suffer from “presentation fatigue,” a direct result of the vast amounts of time they spend preparing for and giving presentations each month, according to a survey from Business Objects. The survey indicated that while executives have improved access to data, they need solutions that can help them quickly and easily present that information in a visually appealing format.

A recent online poll of 382 executives found that over half of the respondents give one or more presentations per month. Of those respondents, 36 percent found presenting data to the board or senior management “tedious,” with a further 24 percent stating they “dread it each time it comes around.”

The poll results reveal that preparing for presentations is time-consuming and stressful for most executives. Survey participants admitted (45 percent) that it often takes them one or more hours to convert data in Excel spreadsheets into a format for a meeting or presentation. An additional 34 percent of the executives surveyed have pulled an all-nighter to prepare for a big presentation.

As more and more is demanded of executives at board meetings, customer events, and financial reviews, they need to find ways to make the data presentation process simpler and more compelling.

“As we all know, presentations can either lull an audience to sleep, or they can energize them to act,” said Donald MacCormick, vice president of product marketing for Business Objects.