Would You Use Big Data If You Could?

[Duncan Taylor]

I'm a big fan of big data. You might even call me a fanboy when it comes to the benefits of big data as an investor. With big data I am able to reduce my costs, better manage my assets and as was recently pointed out to me, even make better purchases. I'm not trying to convince anyone of the benefits of big data because to me it is self-evident.

But, what happens if you don't have access to big data?

I am trying to convince a techie type I know to provide a way for smaller investors to access and use big data. He already provides this service for some of his clients but like me, they have big data available to use.

I'm not trying to promote this. Not trying to advertise it, him or a possible service. But, I am trying to convince him there is a market. In case you haven't noticed, I can be kind of pushy at times. ;-)

Therefore, my question to the members here is...

Would you be willing to have your anonymous data aggregated with data from other investors to gain the benefits of big data?

I'm sending him a link to this thread in the hopes the members here will be brutally honest and that he will actually click through and view it.

[Rick Baggenstoss]

@Duncan Taylor Ingesting massive amounts of unformatted data is only the beginning and easiest part of big data. Creating a meaningful algorithm to make sense of the data is really hard. Typically it means making multiple passes at the data.

The real killer is that the algorithm or rules quickly become obsolete as new information is available. Maintenance of the rules is cumbersome and therefore costly.

I just don't see a practical or useful application in real estate yet.