Chen, Chiang & Storey, 2015
Big Data
Instructions:-
Evaluate Big Data in a minimum 1,400-word report and include the following:
Analyze Big Data and its relation to Volume, Velocity and Variety.
Assess the importance of Big Data within government organizations.
Evaluate two examples of information that the government is collecting.
Cite a minimum of 1 reference from Chapter 1 of the textbook assigned for this course.
Format your assignment consistent with APA guidelines.Case https://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=2271187
Solution
Big Data
Introduction
The US government from the past has been involved in the collection and storage of huge data ranging from the satellite images to census record. However, in the present environment, the government has been experiencing the explosion of data that needs effective management. As such, the federal agencies store a minimum of 2.65 petabytes. Therefore, it has become fundamental for the government to adopt greater responsiveness coupled with efficiency in big data management. Consequently, this paper will examine big data in the government institutions through an analysis of the various elements of the topic as per the case questions.
Big Data’s Relation to Volume, Velocity, and Variety
In the technologic-centric environment, big data has become an issue of concern. With the prospect of big data entailing data that too large for the adoption of the traditional data management approaches, an evaluation of big data from the public and private sector has become imperative. Therefore, in the description of big data, terms such as velocity, volume, and variety are incorporated. From the private to the public sector, big data is related to volume, velocity, and variety in the following ways:
Volume
Volume in reference to Chen, Chiang & Storey, (2015) is associated with the concept of big data due to the prospect that the data handled is big. When analyzing the vector volume, the analysis of the data handled can reach an almost incomprehensible proportion. As a clear example, Facebook undertakes the storage of photographs. The volume of photographs stored by Facebook is staggering considering that the social site has more users than the Chinese population. Each of the user’s stored numerous photographs which translate over 200 billion images stored on the social site. Therefore, in the global or US environment, speaking about volume entails huge amounts of data.
Velocity
In the analysis of big data, it is evident that the volume as per the example of Facebook is staggering. What is extensively astounding is the prospect that information on the DMV records across the US is updated on a day to day manner. As such, it can entail over 100 million bytes of information daily or monthly which can translate into billion or trillions of bytes of information within a year (Chen, Chiang & Storey, 2015). Therefore, velocity denotes the measure of the speed at which data is coming into a management system. As another example, in running a campaign, partnering with social sites such as Twitter can enable accessibility to information about the stream of tweets concerning the running candidate. The emergent feed of tweet data is at a fast rate in regards to speed and rate at which the information is retrieved.
Variety
Variety denotes sifting through the
distinctive information from the relevant to irrelevant. Not all the
information required plays a pivotal role. Therefore, it is important to
examine the data to determine the structured from the unstructured to enable
ease in fitting into the fields of the database application. From the research
by Chen, Chiang &
Storey, (2015) as a clear example,
email messages denote evaluation of the millions of messages into a collection.
The email messages comprise of the sender email address, destination coupled
with a time stamp that requires to be effectively placed in a collection to
ensure variety and specificity in the retrieval process.
The Importance of Big Data within Government Organizations
In the present environment, the advancement in technology and the increasing information are transforming the manner in which organizations conduct their operations inclusive of the government. In a fast paced social, economic and political environment, it has become imperative for the government to adopt various technologies such as smart devices, smart sensors coupled with citizen portals to enable effective service delivery (Chen, Chiang & Storey, 2015). With the expansion of the digital information translating into a complex environment, it has become advisable for the government to capture, search or adopt new tools towards gaining insight into big data and its successful adoption. Therefore from the analysis of the public sector, the main importance of big data within the government entails:
Ensure Information Sharing across Departments for Service Delivery
Big data is important for the government agencies. As such, the agencies embarking on open data coupled with content are a viable approach towards ensuring high-value data is availed towards service delivery. As such, creating more information and development customer centric government is integral towards sustenance of an environment in which information sharing is in a transparent manner (Chen, Chiang & Storey, 2015). As a clear example, the US Census department releases information or data to the public to enable ease in accessing important statistics about the social, economic, demographic or housing rates. Availability of data ensures effectiveness by the public in decision making coupled with management of personal affairs.
Developing a Shared Platform towards the Management of Public Welfare
Adoption of technology is imperative towards ensuring ease in cross-sector service delivery. Through the big data, it is evident that there is the potential for interagency support in the management of the public affairs. As such, flexibility as a result of big data management is bound to prevail. Big data enables the government to develop a platform whereby there is accessibility to large amounts of data that can be used in the multiple agencies to necessitate flexibility in tackling public affairs.
Ensuring Effective Records Management
Big data ensures that the government embarks on efforts geared towards automation of the records management process. The burden of records about the public is an aspect of concern. With technology constantly evolving, it has become imperative to adopt effective initiatives towards data backup, recovery and archiving (Chen, Chiang & Storey, 2015). Therefore, big data management entails that the government has to focus its efforts towards ensuring that meeting the service demands of the public is through the management of data volume, velocity, and variety.
Evaluate Two Examples of Information that the Government is Collecting
The government is reliant on multiple data emanating from the public to assist in decision making or policy formulation. In the American society, the government collects statistical information about the nation’s population, age, and spread of population across different states through the Census Bureau (Chen, Chiang & Storey, 2015). As one of the avenues in which the government collects information, the Census Bureau provides the government with big data about the demographic characteristics of the diverse cities or States for effecting comprehensive decision making.
Further, the Federal Reserve collects significant information about the economic trends of the US. As such, through the Federal Reserve, there is the collection of information regarding inflation, consumer price index, income per capita and interest rates across the nation. A collection of the information is fundamental towards ensuring that the government can adopt any decisions that can positively affect the economy. As big data, information that Federal Reserve accumulates is essential towards ensuring a positive economy prevails.
Conclusion
Big data has become an important aspect for governments across the globe. As such, from the above analysis, the US government is handling large amounts of data that is fundamental towards the decision making process. The investment into big data, therefore, is fundamental towards ensuring the provision of end-to-end solutions in service delivery through mitigating the various challenges that emanate from velocity, variety, and volume. The government should appreciate the influence of the vectors of velocity, variety, and volume that impact big data hence translating into effectiveness in management and relay of information or services to the public.
References
Chen, H., Chiang, R. H., & Storey, V. C. (2015). Business intelligence and analytics: From big data to the big impact. MIS quarterly, 36(4).