What is Data Science ???

In the 21st century huge quantities of data are generated every minute. These data are available to those who want it  at a very reasonable cost. Top notch companies(not only the Fortune 500) in every  sector are focusing their energies on exploiting data for competitive advantage to gain leverage over their competitors in the  hyper  competitive,dynamic business environment of the modern world. 

In the not so distant  past, firms employed teams of statisticians, modelers, and analysts to explore data sets manually, but today  the volume and variety of data has far outstripped the capacity of manual analysis. At the same time, computers have become ultra powerful, networking is present everywhere, and algorithms that can connect data sets have been developed. This has led to broader

and deeper analyses  of the data compared to earlier times. The convergence of these phenomena has given rise to the increasingly widespread business application of data science principles.

Data science refers to all those activities concerned with the collection, preparation, analysis, visualization, management and preservation of large amounts of information.It is not just statistics or machine learning in the context of technology industry.

The profile of a data scientist includes the following:

Computer science,Mathematics,Statistics,Machine learning, Domain Expertise,Scientific instinct, Communication and presentation skills,Data visualization. 

Another way to look at  data science:

The  world wide web is full of applications(apps) which are data centric. One example is  e-commerce.  The different components include a database in the back end and middleware that communicates with a number of other databases and data services . Simply  using data isn’t  “data science.”
A data application acquires its core value from the data used, and in the process creates more data. Therefore it can be called a data product. Data science facilitates the creation of data products.

The  revolutionary phenomenon of big data is closely linked to the emergence of data science. Benefiting from big data implies development of  core teams in the organisation with this unique skill set, and making them understand the management philosophy which is the  readiness of organization to comprehend
 and use data for gaining an ever increasing market share to the benefit of all shareholders.

References:
1.Data Science for Business by Foster Provost and Tom Fawcett, O’Reilly 2013
2.An Introduction to Data Science:Jeffrey Stanton,Syracuse University,2012
3..Doing Data Science" Rachel Schutt and Cathy O'Neil, O'REILLY Second Indian Reprint,September 2014
4.Big Data Now :by O’Reilly Media,First Edition  September 2011
5.Big Data Now: 2012 Edition O’Reilly Media

Daily News -Part 2

Association with a daily newspaper (black and white, not electronic version) : If i do not read it on a general holiday, i literally go crazy. That's the emotion attached. Some people may call it addiction. I associate myself psychologically with the newspaper. When reading the content i just forget myself and get deeply involved. I come to know the happenings in the world at my own pace,without depending on the world wide web. No need to strain the muscles and nerves of my palm . Less strain on my eyes. These are not trivial benefits. In fact they are major benefits. I am not consuming electricity to read the newspaper. Reading newspaper has become a sacred ritual in itself. 

It is not just the news but the way it is presented that is crucial in capturing reader's attention. Sensationalism in news reporting has worked very well for certain newspapers in the short term. Once the readers became wise,they switched towards other newspapers which focus on objective news analysis. Editorial column is  very powerful  in moulding public opinion on various issues. If it is scripted by prejudiced,biased individuals with vested interests, then the society as a whole is misled.

Daily News -Part 1

How do i get to know what's happening in the world ? Newspapers of course. Is it the printed version or the electronic version? Each one has its own pros and cons. Let us consider the printed version of newspaper. Not so long ago most of us  started the day with a cup of coffee reading a daily newspaper.What did we generally like while reading it?  There were occasions when we read the entire newspaper more than once inviting comments " Why are you revising the newspaper" ?
What made the newspaper such interesting to read ? It was not just the coverage of  general  information,sports news,gossip about films that made the newspaper. There are other aspects that make the newspaper ideal for reading.What are those aspects?
I will tell about them in my next blog.