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TopHistory Of Data Analytics
Data analytics has existed before 1854. Snow (1854) had a theory on how cholera outbreaks occur, and he was able to use that theory to remove the pump handle off of a water pump, where that water pump had been contaminated in the summer of 1854. He had set out to prove that his hypothesis on how cholera epidemics originated from was correct, so he then drew his famous spot maps for the Board of Guardians of St. James’ parish in December 1854. These maps were showed in his eventual 2nd edition of his book “On the Mode of Communication of Cholera” (Brody, Rip, Vinten-Johansen, Paneth, & Rachman, 2000; Snow, 1855). As Brody et al. (2000) stated, this case was one of the first famous examples of the theory being proven by data, but the earlier usage of spot maps has existed.
However, the use of just geospatial data analytics can be quite limiting in finding a conclusive result if there is no underlying theory as to why the data is being recorded (Brody et al., 2000). Through the addition of subject matter knowledge and subject matter relationships before data analytics, context can be added to the data for which it can help yield better results (Garcia, Ferraz, & Vivacqua, 2009). In the case of Snow’s analysis, it could have been argued by anyone that the atmosphere in that region of London was causing the outbreak. However, Snow’s original hypothesis was about the transmission of cholera through water distribution systems, the data then helped support his hypothesis (Brody et al., 2000; Snow 1854). Thus, the suboptimal results generated from the outdated Edisonian-esque, which is a test-and-fail methodology, can prove to be very costly regarding Research and Development, compared to the results and insights gained from text mining and manipulation techniques (Chonde & Kumara, 2014).