Make an appointment

We are looking for a data analyst! Check the job posting.

Big data example: Game changer in the labor market

Online Dialogue

Online Dialogue

13-07-2012 - minutes reading time

Our Online Dialogue colleague and analyst Arend Zwaneveld is for Webanalists.com started a series of articles. He looks at several real-world cases of Big Data examples and what we can learn from them. Today his third article: Big data example: Game changer in the labor market

As I describe in the article “Big Data example: better medical care with big data physician assistant” Big Data is changing the role of physicians. For now, physician assistant Watson is still working in a supporting role and provides physicians with a second opinion. But how BETTER the opinions of physician assistant Watson, how heavier the -big data-based advice- will be included in the treatment prescription of the ultimately responsible physician.

The status quo of the medical world is often enthusiastic about innovative techniques, but less so about developments that could detract from the status of their profession. Therefore, I expect that there will be some resistance from the medical profession to the unstoppable advance of ‘know-it-all’ physician assistant Watson ... My guess is that this battle of some doctors will end up the same as that of airline pilots against the auto-pilot 🙂

Big Data: game-changer for doctors, pilots, cab drivers...

Physicians, influenced by this “second wave of automation,” will have to redefine their role and added value and reshape their honorable profession. If physician assistant Watson is promoted to Dr. Watson in a few years and yourself medical advice, flesh-and-blood doctors will have more time for innovation and research. The results can be used as ‘input’ for Dr. Watson, so that he can give even better medical advice! Plenty of opportunities for research-oriented physicians!

Which Big Data auto-pilot threatens to change your job?

Bookkeepers, managers, personal assistants, cab drivers, lawyers, judges, patent attorneys... even the profession of web analyst will -I expect- change under the influence of Big Data! In all professions [craftsmen excepted] more and more ‘advanced’ tasks will be able to be performed by computers.

However, what is true for physicians will become true for many more professions:

  1. Knowledge will be increasingly shared thanks to Big Data
  2. More and more ‘advanced’ tasks will be able to be automated by Big Data anyway

To share information is to move forward together.

@duivestein

Big Data: a game changer and an opportunity for web analysts!

Web analytics is an “art AND a science,” but it also includes -let's face it- a lot of ‘manual labor. Web analysts are now looking for ’manually’ in web statistics to the most important visitor flows, weakest links of a website and peculiarities in visitor behavior of websites. Then, in collaboration with other online specialists, they carefully (!) set up A/B tests. After completion, they analyze the test, check the outcome, test it against the original hypotheses and translate the insights gained into ‘Learnings‘ [1] which they then try to communicate as best they can within their client's organization (SAMEN).

The web analyst profession will also change under the influence of Big Data

My expectation is that web statistics programs such as Google Analytics will take over much of the tasks of web analysts in the future[3]. Web analysts (and other knowledge workers) will soon have only three main tasks:

  1. Innovate: invent completely new pages and site concepts
  2. Perform even more advanced tasks yourself, think Conversion Optimization
  3. Understanding and applying big data

An example of understanding and applying Big Data is the ‘’enrich' of web statistics with data from other sources: CRM, social media, weather, AEX index, etc. Recently, Google offers BigQuery to: a service especially suited for linking and analyzing web statistics with other sources[1].

Conclusions

  1. Big Data will begin to improve knowledge sharing in many professions
  2. More and more professions will change content under the influence of Big Data
  3. Also, the profession of web analyst will change under the influence of Big Data
  4. For web analysts, Big Data especially offers many opportunities
  5. More and more “big data & web analytics” tools are becoming available [4]

Originally posted on July 13, 2012 at webanalists.com

Resources

[1] With testing you optimize, with learning you make magic!

[2] Google first for Dutch Big Data company

[3] The Future of Website Optimization

[4] Self-optimizing AB testing tools

Online Dialogue

Online Dialogue

You may also find these blogs interesting