Data Science For Dummies

Chapter 1

Wrapping Your Head around Data Science

In This Chapter

Defining data science

Defining data science by its key components

Identifying viable data science solutions to your own data challenges

For quite some time now, we’ve all been absolutely deluged by data. It’s coming off of every computer, every mobile device, every camera, and every sensor — and now it’s even coming off of watches and other wearable technologies. It’s generated in every social media interaction we make, every file we save, every picture we take, every query we submit; it’s even generated when we do something as simple as get directions to the closest ice cream shop from Google.

Although data immersion is nothing new, you may have noticed that the phenomenon is accelerating. Lakes, puddles, and rivers of data have turned to floods and veritable tsunamis of structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data that’s streaming from almost every activity that takes place in both the digital and physical worlds. Welcome to the world of big data!

If you’re anything like me, then you may have wondered, “What’s the point of all this data? Why use valuable resources to generate and collect it?” Although even ...