Grooveshark using Data Mining

Earlier this month, Universal Music Group, the largest of the four top record companies, filed a copyright law suit in federal court against Escape Media Group, parent company of Groove-shark, a music service that enables users to share songs with other users. In the complaint, Universal Music accuses Groove-shark's leadership of copyright infringement and claims that managers uploaded pirated songs themselves.The company said that through using the free music they can gain information about who is listening to what and then to use that data to pay the music companies back. 

Very cool story

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-57332246-261/grooveshark-email-how-we-built-a-music-service-without-um-paying-for-music/?tag=mncol;1n

Data Mining Jobs

Every wonder how much money a person in the Data Mining field make? What is the demand for the job position? What are the main IT skills needed to be hired as a Data Miner?

Well here is the perfect link! 


It shows you all the information that you would need to know about any position.

If you extra time check it out!

http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/jobs/uk/data%20mining.do

The name seems to make people think that data mining is used for only business needs, but it can have uses in more the just a business sense. Recently a gamer data mined through the file for the game Diablo 3 to show people what can be unlocked later in the game through crafting. 


Here are the links to show you what he found:

http://www.diablofans.com/news/1001-diablo-3-mystic-and-item-enhancements-preview/
http://www.diablofans.com/news/1000-diablo-3-jeweler-preview/

Certificate in Data Mining

Turns out you can get a certificate in data mining!  Stanford Universtiy along with other colleges offer classes for this particular subject.  It is split into two certificates:  Mining massive data sets and  data mining and applications.  Mining massive data sets involve powerful programming techniques and algorithms to transform large quantities of information into business intelligence.  The other involves using predictive models and analytics to extract meaning from large data sets and inform sound strategic decisions.  So the question is are you ready to get your certificate in data mining?

Here is a list of some of the courses:

http://scpd.stanford.edu/ppc/massive-datasets-courses.jsp?_vsrefdom=Adwords-Other&_s_ref=znK6APw3S&kw=data%20mining%20solutions&creative=6784049181&gclid=CN_Souv02awCFYFT7AodTUcGsQ

Supreme Court takedown

http://www.npr.org/2011/04/26/135703500/supreme-court-weighs-whether-to-limit-data-mining




This court case is the first one that will test the limits of the government on data mining for commercial use. This article describes how doctors give out information to data miners from which they give out to people like sales reps to then attempt to sell you more drugs. So this is how it pretty much happens:

Doctors  sell prescription information to data miners from which the information obtained is the doctor's name, number of  the number of prescriptions written for each drug, prescriptions for similar drugs, and changes from one drug to another. Then the  data miners then sell that information to drug manufacturers, to help sales representatives target doctors for sales pitches and try to get them to prescribe.  Because of this the state enacted a law that bars the selling and buying of prescription information without a doctor's consent. Under the law, doctors must fill out a form as part of their license renewal application that indicates whether they agree to have their prescription information sold for marketing purposes.

This law is the reason why we are taking this to the supreme court because one side is trying to prevent this and the other side doesn't need this law because it shall lower the amount of information they usually obtain.

Customer Acquisition and Data Mining

For most businesses, the primary goal is to find new customers that have never purchase your product or service. Or customers you want to persuade to change to your product. Some of these customers might have been your customers previously, which could be an advantage (more data might be available about them) or a disadvantage (they might have switched as a result of poor service). However, data mining allows companies to research potential customers and increase their purchase power response.

The traditional approach included mass marketing such as magazine advertising, billboard, etc. and direct marketing (mail, telemarketing, etc)

The service bureaus have large databases containing millions of prospective customers that can be segmented based on specific demographic criteria (age, gender, interest in particular subjects, etc.).  For which it provided the information to the marketer with a computer file containing personal information such as names and address to which they want to target.

If you want to read more click on the link below:

http://www.thearling.com/text/chapter10/chapter10.htm

Excerpted from the Book Building Data Mining Applications for CRM
by Alex Berson, Stephen Smith, and Kurt Thearling

Data Mining vs. Piracy

Browser Beware: Washington Weighs Online Consumer Privacy by Stephen Gray

Since 2007, Sears was encouraging consumers to download a software that according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was asking them to keep a journal of their shopping habits and purchasing behavior. The software was allowing companies to review customers' bank accounts, library loans, pharmacy prescriptions, as well as access to their email accounts and text messages. Many of these consumers were not aware of the invasion of privacy since they did not read the fine print on the bottom of the page. Last June, the FTC ordered Sears to destroy all data acquired. If you want to read more about this case and many others click on the link below:

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2059237,00.html#ixzz1eIUsCVas