GOLDEN MEANS: TECHNOLOGY AND THE STATUS QUO
by Inderpal Bhandari, executive editor at large

Inderpal Bhandari is widely recognized as a leading researcher in data mining and computer science. He is one of the few experts who have successfully demonstrated how the emerging technology of data mining can be translated into useful applications that offer a competitive advantage. Recently, he formed Virtual Gold, Inc. to implement his technical vision. Virtual Gold also offers a consulting service to help clients differentiate themselves from their competitors via the use of data mining technology.

From 1990-1997, Dr. Bhandari was a member of the research staff at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, where he received several awards for his pioneering work in data mining and in software engineering. He was the creator and project director of IBM's Advanced Scout, a data mining program used extensively by coaches of the National Basketball Association to devise new strategies based on the automatic identification of hidden patterns in game data and video.

He was educated at Carnegie Mellon University (Ph.D, Electrical & Computer Engineering, 1990), the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (M.S.) and the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India (B.Engg). He has published extensively in leading computer-related journals and conferences and has deployed several cutting-edge technological solutions to business problems.

Dr. Bhandari comments: "In October 1997 my company, Virtual Gold, Inc., and I hosted a conference entitled 'The Evolution of Data Mining: Technical Strategies to Beat your Competition by Year 2000'. It was held at the Millenium Hilton in New York, a location aptly named for a Y2K event. It was not only a good place but also a good time for such a conference. Most of us who had initiated projects that helped jump-start the field of data mining had seen our work come full circle."

DATA MINING WITH THE EXPLORATION WAREHOUSE: PART II
by W H Inmon

Bill Inmon has over 26 years of database technology management experience and data warehouse design expertise, and has published 35 books and more than 300 articles in major computer journals. His books have been translated into nine languages. He is known globally for his seminars on developing data warehouses and has been a keynote speaker for every major computing association.

Before founding Pine Cone Systems, Inmon was a co-founder of Prism Solutions. He is responsible for the high-level design of Pine Cone products, as well as for the architecture of planned and future products. Inmon has consulted with a large number of Fortune 1000 clients, offering data warehouse design and database management services. He also worked for American Management Services and Coopers & Lybrand.

Bill Inmon's latest book is Managing the Data Warehouse: Practical techniques for Monitoring Operations and Performance, Administering Data and Tools, Managing Change and Growth, (1997) co-authored with J. D. Welch and Katherine L. Glassey. Publisher: New York, NY: John Wiley ISBN: 0-471-16310-4

In the second installment of a three-part series Inmon writes: "The exploration warehouse has the property of being physically much smaller than an enterprise data warehouse because the exploration warehouse is based on token based technology. With token based technology data can be represented and stored inside a computer in a much more compact manner than in a standard relational data base. In fact, token based technology compresses data to the extent that the data in the exploration warehouse can be placed entirely in memory, including indexes."

DATA MINING WITH THE EXPLORATION WAREHOUSE: PART I

A PRIMER ON THE PROCESS OF DATA MINING
by John K. Thompson, Vice President Marketing, Magnify Inc

Founded in 1991, Magnify, Inc. provides innovative data mining solutions to maximize the intrinsic value of the rapidly expanding data resources of Global 2000 companies. Based in Chicago, Magnify's mission is to continue to produce award-winning software and complete applications that will discover, explain, and predict rare and critical patterns in databases up to and including multiple terabytes.

Magnify maintains partnerships with Tandem Computers Inc., Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: SUNSW), Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL), Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HWP) and Informix Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: IFMX). Magnify, Inc. and Magnify Research, Inc., which develops products and integrates systems for the federal government, are subsidiaries of Magnify Holdings Corporation.

For more information access Magnify's Web site at http://www.magnify.com , or send e-mail to info@magnify.com

Thompson observes: "The term 'data-mining' has become quite popular in the business world recently, and it is used interchangeably to describe either of two concepts. In the first context, data-mining refers to the mathematical approach used to discover patterns, associations, changes, and anomalies within a defined set of data. The other interpretation refers to the entire process of data-mining -- the set of activities which begins with the preparation of data for the purpose of applying data-mining algorithms, and ends with an analysis of the resulting information."

ACTION ITEMS

Trajecta Provides Direct Marketing Solutions for Extrafilm Scandanavia
Trajecta, Inc. has partnered with ExtraFilm Scandinavia, an international mail order photo service company, to deliver superior direct marketing solutions. ExtraFilm engaged Trajecta's modeling services to predict individual consumer behavior in order to effectively target market to a mailing of 300,000 Swedish customers.

Influence Software to Integrate Aperio with Silicon Graphics MineSet for Web-Based Data Mining/Data Warehouse Suite Business Intelligence Solution
Influence Software, Inc. has announced that it has formed an alliance with Silicon Graphics (SGI) to deliver a complete web-based business intelligence solution. The unique offering will fully integrate data mining, data visualization, reporting, querying, and online analytical processing (OLAP) in a web-based solution designed for the manufacturing vertical market.

Federal Execs and SAS Institute Show a Data Warehouse Solution for GPRA Compliance
At a GPRA (Government Performance Results Act) Open House in the Crystal City Marriott, Arlington, Va., leaders representing government contractors, vendors and government officials focused on the "how-to" of meeting the GPRA challenge. SAS Institute Federal Solutions demonstrated a data warehouse-based solution for federal performance management.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"(T)he patterns and relationships that the data miner is looking for are very adept at hiding."
-- Bill Inmon

CONFERENCES & SEMINARS 04.21.98

D S * INFORMATION

• Subscriptions & Removal information
• D S * STAFF
• INDEX OF D S * BACK ISSUES

All comments regarding editorial content should be sent to: dseditor@tgc.com