海量資料研究對個人有何好處？
摘錄自：天下雜誌 經濟學人電子報 2013/12/20
2013-12-06 Web only 作者：經濟學人
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| 圖片來源：flickr.com/photos/fortunelivemedia/ |
城市創造了工作、住屋和資料。從公車路線到購物習慣，群眾不停地創造大量資訊軌跡，描繪他們的偏好和選擇。而在智慧城市之中，官方會利用這些資料讓城市的運轉更為平順。
《經濟學人》最近舉行了一場辯論，探討智慧城市是否真的有那麼聰明。IBM等部分企業認為，收集並分析人類創造的巨量資料非常有價值。
IBM執行長羅梅蒂（Virginia Rometty）在《2014全球大趨勢》中，解釋了該如何處理這些資訊：
「有項預估指出，到了2020年，平均地球上每個人將擁有5,200GB的資料。強大的新式運算系統，可以幾近即時地儲存並理解這些資料。新一代『認知』系統專為大數據而建立，它們可以跟上如此洪流，原因在於它們並不倚賴程式，它們可以學習──從它們自身的經驗、從我們與它們的互動中學習。」
認知系統可以檢視資料庫等結構性資訊，以及醫療造影、社群媒體內容等非結構性資訊，雲端運算也讓它們的速度快上許多。因此，羅梅蒂認為，公司將成為「智慧型企業」：
「這些企業所做的事，就和每個組織過去所做的事一樣：決策、創造價值並傳送價值。但它們會用新的方式完成這些工作：
1.智慧型性企業的決策將出自捕捉資料和預測性分析，而非僅僅倚賴過去的經驗。今日的先進式決策輔助系統，已經讓里約熱內盧、新加坡等城市變得更聰明。而在我自己的公司裡，我們也將分析理論應用於併購、降低員工流失和不動產決策。
2.智慧型企業會將智慧灌注於它們的產品、以及產品的製造流程之中，並藉此創造價值。從汽車到農作物，你我所熟悉的產品都會變得更聰明。
3.智慧型企業並不會將價值傳送給某個人口區隔，而是傳送到每一個人手中。以企業與客戶的關係來看，這代表著『一般性之終結』……」
或許在2014年，企業真的會將每位員工、顧客和客戶視為獨立個體，並滿足他們各自的需求。認知系統和大數據將帶來重大改變。（黃維德譯）
©The Economist Newspaper Limited 2013
The Economist
IBM'S Virginia Rometty
Deep thought
on big data
By The Economist
From The Economist
Published: December 06, 2013
Dec 3rd 2013, 11:59 by M.S.L.J.
CITIES create jobs, housing and data. From bus routes to shopping
habits, large clusters of people produce huge trails of information about their
preferences and choices in any given week. Smart cities are ones in which
authorities use these data to inform schemes for their smooth running.
An Economist debate starts todayon whether smart cities are in fact as
clever as they're cracked up to be. Some companies, such as IBM, see huge value
in collecting and analysing the vast quantities of data people produce.
IBM's chief executive, Virginia Rometty, writing in The World in 2014,
explains how the information can be processed:
"By one estimate there will be 5,200 gigabytes of data for every
human on the planet by 2020. And powerful new computing systems can store and
make sense of it nearly instantaneously. A new generation of
"cognitive" systems, built for big data, can keep up with the flood
because they aren't programmed, they learn—from their own experience and from
our interactions with them."
Cognitive systems can scrutinise structured information, such as
databases, and unstructured information such as medical imaging and social
media content, much faster thanks to cloud computing. Firms will become
"smarter enterprises" as a result, according to Ms Rometty:
"These firms will do the things that organisations have always
done: make decisions, create value and deliver value. But they will do them in
new ways.
1 Smarter enterprises will make decisions by capturing data and
applying predictive analytics, rather than just relying on past experience. We
see this today in advanced decision-support systems like those enabling Rio de
Janeiro, Singapore and other cities to become smarter. In my own company we are
applying analytics to acquisitions, employee retention and real-estate
decisions.
2 Smarter enterprises will create value by infusing intelligence into
what they produce and how they produce it. Familiar products will become
smarter, from cars to crops.
3 Smarter enterprises will deliver value not to demographic segments,
but to individual human beings. This signals "the end of the average"
in a firm's relationships with customers…"
2014 may be the year which sees firms truly tailor themselves to
employees, customers and clients as individuals. Cognitive systems, and their
big data, will bring big change.
©The Economist Newspaper Limited 2013
