Big data – the future…
Howard Lake | 8 October 2012 | Blogs
What is Big Data? There are many different descriptions, but in the session I attended at BBCON in Washington DC last week – they described it as Volume, Velocity and Variety. It could be a Facebook post, a video download, a donation, an email, a website visit. It’s varied and it’s unstructured – how do we analyse it and use it and where do we start?
In other sectors Big Data is being analysed and used – Netflix, Amazon and Apple make recommendations to you based on data. Obama used Big Data to help target the right message to the right person to get elected as president. An interesting example mentioned was that Walmart did an analysis on what people buy when a storm comes. Batteries and flashlights were the most popular which was kind of expected, but they also found Poptarts sales were big. Which raises the question – what are the Poptarts in your data?
In the new iOS6 on Apple iPhones, if you have loyalty card for Walgreens (US chain of chemists like Boots) in your passbook – when you get near a store it will pop up on your phone and encourage you to go into the shop and then to purchase something they think you would like – all based on Big Data.
Advertisement
What does Big Data mean to charities? What data are you collecting and how are you consolidating it? Everyone has constituents and some form of CRM, but data about our most engaged supporters is normally scattered across different systems. So we don’t really have that 360 degree view.
Some people will also question “what about privacy?” As you can see from the retail examples above, Apple and others are already pushing this and we as consumers are accepting it. Therefore charities should get on board now or else they will be left behind.
Big Data is not a technology problem, but a business problem. It can feel overwhelming, but it is also a huge opportunity. Imagine a world where you could achieve significant improvement in performance thanks to Big Data… Excited?
Vicky Reeves, Founder & MD – Chameleon – The Digital Experts for the Charity Sector
Photo: mikecogh on Flickr.com
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.