November 8th, 2012,
The only winner that day was not only re-elected US President Barrack Obama, but a man of another name, Nate Silver.
Seen above on the left is 538, Silver’s Blog’s, predictions, and on the right is the actual results of the 2012 Presidential election.
Little would dare to say it was an uncanny coincidence that Silver was able to predict every single state perfectly. This is what a High School math teacher would brag to his kids about Statistical analysis, probabilities, etc. However, at the same time, enterprises are keen on understanding the potential of using big data and algorithms in future opportunities.
There is little excuse now that companies do not implement these big data changes, be it data analysis, predictions, information systems, its crucial for companies looking for a step ahead of the competition to take hold of the opportunities at hand. Silver doesn’t hold his recipe to success as a secret though, he has posted his methodology on his NY Times blog seen here. He gives us all the steps, but not the numbers he used in calculation, that’s the secret ingredients necessary for a successful prediction.
Little doubt there is a lot of value in these big data analysis in the future, but how companies utilizes them in the future will be what’s important
Source: Fivethirtyeight (blog) | InformationWeek | Mashable