November 2015
Beginner to intermediate
256 pages
6h 24m
English
Content preview from Too Big to Ignore
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CHAPTER 6
Taking the Big Plunge
I don’t see the logic of rejecting data just because they seem incredible.
—Fred Hoyle
In the previous chapter, we moved from theory to practice. We saw how three organizations have used Big Data and related solutions to move their needles. Much can be extrapolated from those case studies and the other examples discussed in the book—and that’s the point of this chapter. The following pages offer sage advice for getting started with Big Data.
BEFORE STARTING
Perhaps the three case studies in Chapter 5 inspired you to take action. Maybe your brain is overwhelmed with possibilities right now about what Big Data can mean for your organization, and you just can’t wait to get started. If so, I’m glad. Now, I don’t want to rain on your parade, but before continuing, don’t start just yet. Airplanes don’t take off without undergoing a swath of diagnostics. By the same token, on an enterprise level, jumping into Big Data without first asking a few questions is ill advised. Consider these four things before starting the ignition.
Infonomics Revisited
How can an organization possibly benefit from Big Data if its culture and employees only rely upon empiricism? What if they don’t recognize the inherent value of information? (See the discussion in the Introduction titled “Google and Infonomics.”) Short answer: they can’t. Unfortunately, employees in many organizations regularly ignore or reject information and data. Instead, they rely exclusively on hunches, ...
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.