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Big Data: Prospects and Challenges: Colloquium
Big Data: Prospects and Challenges: Colloquium
INTRODUCTION
Janakiraman Moorthy
We don’t need more data weenies and we don’t need more strategic marketing planners.
What we really need are more people with a foot in each camp who can make some sense
of all of this new technology.
–Don E. Schlutz1
W
e are living in an era of data deluge. Data that the human race has accu-
mulated in the past one decade, far exceeds the data that was available
to mankind during the preceding century. McKinsey & Co. foresees that
the society is ‘on the cusp of a tremendous wave of innovation, productivity, and
growth as well as new modes of competition and value capture—all driven by Big
Data’.2 They also expect that different stakeholders such as consumers, companies
and businesses are likely to exploit the potential of Big Data. Eric Siegel, founder
Themes of Predictive Analytics World, estimates that on an average day we accumulate
2.5 quintillion bytes of data.3 Another important character of the ‘datafication’, as
Big Data Analytics Viktor Mayor–Schonborge and Kenneth Cukier call it, is that ‘Data can frequently
Marketing be collected passively, without much effort or even awareness on the part of those
being recorded. And because the cost of storage has fallen so much, it is easier to
Customer Privacy
justify keeping data than discard it.’4 As the cost of storage has fallen and computing
Social Media power has increased, the size of data that was challenging before, can be easily
Proof of Concept (POC) handled with a desktop computer now. Several estimates about the accumulation of
data have challenged our earlier imagination. Data scientists are increasingly using
Corporate Governance data quantities in Peta and Zeta bytes. Businesses, governments and developmental
Food Security organizations—all are foreseeing that Big Data is likely to create value in multiple
Defence
1
Schlutz, Don E. (2012). Can Big Data do it all? Marketing News, 46(15), 9.
Healthcare 2
Manyika, J. et al. (2011). Big Data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity. McKinsey
Global Institute, McKinsey & Co.
Government of India 3
Siegel, E. (2013). Predictive analytics: The power to predict who will click, buy, lie, or die. Hoboken, New
Cloud Computing Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
4
Mayer-Schönberger, V., & Cukier, K. (2014). Big Data: A revolution that will transform how we live, work,
Hype Cycle and think. London: John Murray.
74COLLOQUIUM
ways. Such a huge potential and disparity in access to into areas as diverse as cancer research, terrorism and
data can create considerable tensions among different climate change. On the other, Big Data is seen as a
sections of the society. troubling manifestation of Big Brother, enabling inva-
sions of privacy, decreased civil freedoms, widening of
Let us look at the business perspective here. There is no inequality and increased state and corporate control.
doubt now that organizations, especially larger corpo- As with all socio-technical phenomena, the currents
rations have started accumulating large amounts of of hope and fear often obscure the more nuanced and
data. However, the data is unstructured, voluminous subtle shifts that are underway.
and of high speed. For example, the corporations have
access to multiple sources such as call centre logs, client
chats, SMS texts, Instagram pictures, Click Stream on WHAT IS ‘BIG DATA’?
the web, social media such as Facebook, Blogs, CCTV, The term Big Data is to a large extent vague and amor-
RFID, Barcode Scanner, Geographic Information phous. As different stakeholders look at Big Data
Systems (GIS), Genomics, Youtube, Internet of phenomenon from a multitude of perspectives, it is
Things (IoT), and the list is further expanding. As not easy to pen down a precise definition. Information
Moldoveanu5 claims, the real problem with Big Data technology professionals look at Big Data as large data
is not storage, analysis, etc., but, how do the organi- sets that require supercomputers to collate, process and
zations effectively and efficiently transform relevant analyse to draw meaningful conclusions.
data reliably into useful information? Perhaps, this is
the culmination of a number of complex problems that Francis Diebold was perhaps the first to use the term
the manager/client is more likely to face in the wake ‘Big Data’ in 2003 for the current phenomenon or explo-
of Big Data deployment. sive growth of data. He stated,
If we look at McKinsey’s Dominic Barton and David Recently much good science, whether physical, biolog-
Court, or Thomas Davenport or Moldoveanu, the ical, or social, has been forced to confront—and has
problem seems to be at two levels—one is individuals often benefited from—the Big Data phenomenon. Big
(data scientists) with relevant competency, capability Data refers to the explosion in the quantity (and some-
and attributes and the second one is transformation times, quality) of available and potentially relevant data,
of organization to harness the potential of Big Data. largely the result of recent and unprecedented advance-
ments in data recording and storage technology.7
Hence, the organization may not be able to analyse and
gain insights using traditional ways and means. Based
Douglas Laney8 of META Group (Gartner now)
on their research, Davenport and Kim claim that the
wrote a white paper entitled ‘3D Data Management:
organizations utilize Big Data in a profitable manner,
Controlling Data Volume, Velocity, and Variety’ which
distinguishing themselves from the traditional data
became the hallmark of attempting to characterize and
analytical environment. The distinctions are: (a) focus
visualize the changes that are likely to emerge in the
of attention shifting from stock to flow; (b) data scien-
future. Though for almost a decade, it was in oblivion,
tists, product development and process development
it gained popularity with Laney’s update, ‘The impor-
gaining control over data analysts; and (c) the epicentre
tance of ‘Big Data’: A Definition’. It has become Gartner’s
of data analytics shifting from IT department to core
updated definition—‘Big Data is high volume, high
business functions such as marketing, operations
velocity, and/or high variety information assets that
and production.6
require new forms of processing to enable enhanced
Like other socio-technical phenomena, Big Data trig- decision-making, insight discovery and process optimi-
gers both utopian and dystopian rhetoric. On one hand,
Big Data is seen as a powerful tool to address various 7
Diebold, F.X. (2012). On the origin(s) and development of the
societal issues, offering the potential of new insights term ‘Big Data’. PIER Working Paper 12-037. Penn Institute for
Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of
Pennsylvania.
5
Moldoveanu, M. C. (2013). The ingenuity imperative: What Big 8
Laney, D. (2001). 3D data management: Controlling data volume,
Data means for big business. Rotman Magazine, 59–63. velocity, and variety, Application Delivery Strategies, META
6
Davenport, Thomas H., & Kim, J. (2013). Keeping up with the Group. Retrieved from http://blogs.gartner.com/doug-laney/
quants: Your guide to understanding and using analytics. Boston, files/2012/01/ad949-3D-Data-Management-Controlling-Da-
Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Publishing. ta-Volume-Velocity-and-Variety.pdf1
76 COLLOQUIUM
The Foundation also qualifies that Big Data requires · HBase started with an objective of strong large
‘advanced techniques and technologies to enable the tables extending to billions of rows and millions of
capture, storage, distribution, management, and anal- columns. It is an open source non-relational data-
ysis of the information’. Andrea De Mauro, Marco Greco, base designed based on Google’s Bigtables.
and Michele Grimaldi13 reviewed a number of defini- · HIVE is a data warehouse which facilitates querying
tions and proposed a consensual definition—‘Big Data and manages large volume data sets residing in the
represents the Information assets characterized by such distributed storages. It is built on top of Hadoop to
a High Volume, Velocity and Variety to require specific provide easy ETL tools, structuring different data
Technology and Analytical Methods for its transforma- formats, accessing data in Apache HDFS (HBase),
tion into Value.’ We slightly modify by incorporating and executing query through MapReduce. Hive
some new facets into the definition. ‘Big Data refers uses a simple query language called QL similar to
to information assets characterized by high Volume, SQL (Structured Query Language).
Velocity, Variety, Variability with Veracity subjected · CASSANDRA is a scalable database.
to specific Technology and Analytical Methods for · PIG is a high level data flow language. It can be used
deriving Value with Virtue.’ The new character added for expressing data analytical programmes along
in this definition is ‘Virtue’ to integrate ethical and with capability for evaluating these programmes. It
piracy concerns into the deployment consciously as it is capable of substantial parallelization for handling
is being increasingly recognized that these issues are an very high volumes of data. PIG is used for inter-
inherent part of the Big Data phenomenon. facing HDFS and ETL. PIG uses PigLatin a text
based language.
Big Data Technologies · ZOOKEEPER is a centralized software coordination
Big Data became a reality with the development of service with a single interface. It documents, tracks
certain computing technologies such as Hadoop, HDFS, configuration information, naming, distributed
MapReduce, IoT, etc. Here we provide a simple expla- synchronization and group services.
nation of these technologies, though it is not a compre- · MAHOUT is a scalable machine learning library.
hensive listing of technologies for a Data Scientist. From April 2014, MAHOUT replaced MapReduce
for algorithm implementation with its new code
· Hadoop is a disruptive Big Data technology origi- base. It is a richer and efficient execution than
nally initiated by Yahoo to build an advanced search MapReduce.
engine and process the generated data. Hadoop has · YARN (Yet Another Resource Negotiator) is a more
evolved into a large-scale data processing environ- distributed and faster Architecture.
ment. It has two components: MapReduce for data · METADATA refers to ‘data about data’. Structural
processing and Distributed File System (DFS). metadata contains data about database design,
· HDFS is Hadoop Distributed File System, which specification of data structure, containers of data.
is a combination of massive parallel computing Descriptive metadata contains data about indi-
and tolerance to fault while running software on a vidual instances of data application and control.
commodity hardware. · NoSQL (Not Only SQL) is a database environment
· Google’s Bigtables is a very large distributed storage which is non-relational distributed database system.
system for structured data. It can manage petabyte It provides ease in speedy organization of data anal-
of data on more than thousands of servers. It is a ysis with high volume of data, with desperate data
‘sparse, distributed, persistent, multidimensional types. Sometimes it is also referred to as Cloud data-
sorted map. The map is indexed by a new row key base, non-relational database.
and column key and a timestamp, and each value in
· IoT (Internet of Things) is interconnected uniquely
the map is treated as uninterpreted array of bytes.’
identifiable embedded devices and software. Things
can be a wide range of devices that are implants into
the living organisms, or embedded in small and
large machines such as cars, turbines, sensors in
13
De Mauro, A., Greco, M., & Grimaldi, M. (2014). What is Big
Data? A consensual definition and a review of key research topics, buoys, etc. Information generated from such inter-
presented at the 4th International Conference on Integrated connected devices can be used for large-scale effi-
Information. cient automation.
78 COLLOQUIUM
of meals and as she had the fewest loyalty points on the common. Organizational ingenuity is likely to deter-
flight, they can’t serve her lunch. Though it is a clear mine the ability to harness the value from Big Data, as
data driven decision, it is devoid of reality. Perhaps the Moldoveanu puts it, ‘New masters of Big Data will be
flight attendants are not empowered to take in to the masters of ingenuity.’20
reality that, ‘she was six months pregnant’; or are they
just an integral component of a computer/data analyt- Introduction to Colloquium Contributions
ical engine? One of her fellow passengers resolved the
issue by donating his meal to her. Rangin Lahiri and Neelanjan Biswas provide an account
of Big Data application in the marketing domain.
John Bradshaw, the author of Reclaiming Virtue, claims Marketers globally have always been challenged as to
that practical wisdom ‘is the ability to do the right thing, how to reach the right audience, how to get a prospect
at the right time, for the right reason’. It is based on of who has a higher chance of becoming a customer or
Aristotle’s belief that ‘practical wisdom was the virtue how to make a customer come for repeat purchases. As
that made all the other virtues possible. Without the we move forward to the new dimension of data-driven
correct application of practical wisdom, the other virtues marketing strategies, more and more complex business
would be lived too much or too little and turn into vices.’18 decisions are being made based on data, rather than
on previous experiences and marketing hunches. This
Waze,19 a mobile application, integrates GPS, social document elaborates how Data and particularly Big
media networks and active or passive participation of Data concepts can be utilized to make sound marketing
the individual driver reports to create a visual advise/ decisions. The document also provides sound industry-
guidance application. It wants to improve the quality of specific business cases that can substantiate the use of
driving by providing real-time information on the map. data for marketing strategies with top and bottom line
Controversial claims and data that it generates and growth for an organization.
shares with the users provide a clue about the police
trap ahead. The US police have been asking Google Dipyaman Sanyal and Jayanthi Ranjan explore the
to disable this option due to the potential risk that it potential of Big Data applications in the government.
creates for the officers. Another side of the story is that Historically, governments have been some of the
the application is encouraging, perhaps unintention- largest repositories of data and have utilized traditional
ally, to violate rules or is warning criminals about the data analysis techniques to dictate public policy and
police surveillance. Such cases and issues may become aid governance. However, with data volumes reaching
Exabytes, the scope of data analysis has expanded expo-
nentially. While some countries, like Singapore and
18
Bradshaw, J. (2009). Reclaiming virtue: How we can develop the moral the United States, have already started the use of Big
intelligence to do the right thing at the right time for the right reason. Data analytics to help aid their decision-making, India
New York: Bantam.
has barely begun the process. As the Big Data initia-
19
Retrieved 27 January 2015 from https://www.waze.com/about
The description about Waze’s offer as on their website is as
tive recently launched by the Government of India is
follows: still in its early stages, this article considers potential
‘Waze is all about contributing to the ‘common good’ out there on policy uses for Big Data Analytics by governments
the road. (with a focus on India) while also scrutinizing compar-
By connecting drivers to one another, we help people create
ative policies by different countries and their relative
local driving communities that work together to improve the
quality of everyone’s daily driving. That might mean helping
successes and failures. Moreover, since governments
them avoid the frustration of sitting in traffic, cluing them in to a have easy access to confidential data, questions of data
police trap or shaving five minutes off of their regular commute ethics are examined.
by showing them new routes they never even knew about.
So, how does it work? Krishnadas Nanath integrates emerging new technol-
After typing in their destination address, users just drive
ogies—Cloud Computing, Big Data and marketing
with the app open on their phone to passively contribute traffic
and other road data, but they can also take a more active role
possibilities. With the growth of technologies like
by sharing road reports on accidents, police traps, or any other Cloud Computing and Big Data, many people believe
hazards along the way, helping to give other users in the area a that their implementation has become mainstream and
‘heads-up’ about what’s to come.
In addition to the local communities of drivers using the app,
Waze is also home to an active community of online map editors 20
Moldoveanu, M. C. (2013). The ingenuity imperative: What Big
who ensure that the data in their areas is as up-to-date as possible. Data means for big business. Rotman Magazine, 59–63.
IMPORTANCE OF BIG DATA IN AN ENTERPRISE The biggest complexity of managing Big Data is the
PLATFORM fact that it is generated from many sources and in
different formats as shown in Figure 2. Storing the data
D
etermining the real value of the information and performing analytics on the same makes it a more
or data collected for decision-making is one of complex activity.
the biggest questions marketing intelligence
groups are trying to identify. Big Data is one of the signif- Figure 3 depicts how organizations are using Big Data
icant inputs for data; however, owing to the disparate for the purpose of understanding customers better and
channels and sources, it is imperative to differentiate providing better products and services.
between what information is useful and what is not for
the purpose. A single Big Data platform is now enabling Marketing
Intelligence and Business Intelligence divisions churn out
Figure 2: Sources of Big Data meaningful analytics which can drive business decisions.
Big Data capabilities are helping large data set crunching
for insights which were never understood earlier due
to lack of measurement techniques and data collection
avenues. Big Data is thus enabling business transforma-
tions purely based on data-driven conclusions.
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WHAT IF I KNEW? A CASE IN POINT
’If I knew’ is a particularly effective approach to Case Study: How a leading French Telecom Operator
discover opportunities in Big Data. It is the responsi- embraced Big Data to reduce operational cost, increase
bility of the Chief Data Scientist to educate the rest of operational feasibility and enhance cross-sell/upsell
the organization and more importantly the marketing opportunities.
group on how to utilize data to boost revenue. Big
Data is primarily used to solve specific business prob- Business Problem: The telecom operator was facing
lems; however, knowing what data is available can high operational customer service cost and falling
help us think out of the box and use it creatively. This cross-sell/upsell revenues. The CRM system had
can help marketing groups to understand and unravel 10,000 users from 15 different source systems servicing
new opportunities. 38 million service requests per year.
‘What if I knew’ approach is helping organizations to: The Solution: Flexible architecture based Enterprise
Data Management solution with Master Data
· Analyse data and find out new patterns that yield Management and Big D ata applications. This was
new product segments and features. At times clubbed with proven Search and Analytics platform
new products are introduced based on these data with most connectors available off the shelf.
patterns. These result in new marketing opportuni-
ties. Analyses like ‘People who bought also bought..’ SOLUTION BENEFITS
are enabling, among other things, bundling of prod-
· Operational efficiency for frontline customer service
ucts, discount campaigns and test marketing for
agents and marketing group
new products.
· 360 degree customer view enabled by Master Data
· Retain and Xsell/Upsell existing customers—in Management
fact it has been one of the foremost business cases · Better cross-sell and upsell based on customer
of Big Data in Marketing. Enabling customers profile information availability and analytical
to put in review comments, rating products/ predictions
services, discussing in social sites and empowering · Access to all relevant information by one single
customers can act as effective strategies for reten- application
tion and upsell opportunities. · Reduction in churn by anticipation and qualifying
· Empower a move to one-to-one marketing based customer expectation
upon consumers’ actual behaviours and prefer- · Increased customer experience resulting in reduction
ences; additionally, it can also help to find new in average call length (ACL), reduction in call back
audiences and new groups/segments with different rate (CBR) and increase in first call resolution (FCR)
interests. Behavioural mapping can identify new · Consistent service between all channels and accu-
customer clusters moving away from traditional racy of information for all customer interactions
customer groups. This can result in identifying new · Lower IT cost due to centralization of data, better
customers’ segments. data quality and analytics results based on single
source of data
· Understand better how to target precisely a
· Flexibility to upgrade, increase source systems,
particular group of customers/prospects and which
incorporation of new business rules, new products
media to use for communication. This drastically
and changes in analytical rules.
reduces the expenditure for marketing and helps to
get better responses from the target segment.
· Measure marketing channel effectiveness and FRONTLINE BUSINESS BENEFITS
campaign results. By funneling data on impres- · Customer Service Agents reduced average customer
sions, clicks, conversions, social actions and more interaction time by 30–40 per cent as they had all
into attribution and media-mix models, results can information available on their screen and did not
be obtained to measure effectiveness. It has already have to ask questions to the customers for informa-
been proved that data-driven decision-making tion. This resulted in every agent handling 30 per
helps high-performing businesses. cent more customers per day.
CONCLUSION
Big Data and Analytics are changing the way busi-
nesses are taking decisions. From traditional Business
Intelligence and Analytics, the world is changing more
towards Predictive Analytics and Big Data centric busi-
ness decision models. But the biggest questions are:
82 COLLOQUIUM
· Gives a real feel to the Management as Big Data is · It is also instrumental in identifying if the approach
still a concept for organizations that have not imple- for Big Data taken is right and, if not, what steps
mented or used it should be taken to make necessary corrections
· Gives a clear indication of the efforts required as it is · Finally, it is more like a dry run of the real imple-
more in the simulated environment and efforts can mentation and can be used to set expectations and
be extrapolated for correct estimates outcome of the real implementation.
T
o begin a discussion on Big Data Analytics (BDA) unstructured data from non-traditional sources that
for governments, we need to first define BDA require more than simple queries and data slicing, this
and then distinguish it from Big Data (BD) itself. non-linear rise in computing time becomes particularly
We use a simple definition of Big Data in this article— relevant. Despite substantial analysis costs, govern-
as a generic term for data whose size and complexity is ments (or corporations) cannot ignore this data deluge
such that it cannot be analysed using traditional rela- any longer.
tional database methods. This implies that Big Data
Moreover, BDA is evolving in tandem with the IoT. IoT
technology needs to allow for parallel processing of
makes it possible for ‘things’ (not including computers,
information in multiple servers and thus, the definition phones or tablets) to be connected to other ‘things’,
of Big Data is ever-changing since according to Moore’s computers or mobile devices, which provides a vast
Law,21 the computing power of devices will double array of information about choices and decisions.
approximately every two years. Currently, devices interlinked via the IoT number 12.5
billion and by 2020, this global network is estimated to
However, this definition also indicates that volume reach 26 billion. In comparison, the number of computers
alone is not adequate to define Big Data; the analysis and mobile devices in 2020 will be 7.3 billion.24
of the data is a crucial component. Thus, technology
needs to address not simply the storage of large data Following the lead of larger corporations, national
sets but also its exploration. Experiments on data- governments have started investing in Big Data and there
base management have highlighted the difference is a growing awareness within the public sector that Big
between the computing powers needed for storage Data can provide significant support to policy making.
and that of analysis. Jacobs22 used PostGre SQL to According to the Tech America Foundation and SAP
compare computing times for data storage and data Survey (2013), ‘82% of public IT officials say the effective
queries. His experiment demonstrated that as data use of real-time Big Data is the way of the future’.
volume increases, the time required to perform a query
increases by a factor greater than one. Since more than Globally, the utilization of Big Data technology and
80 per cent of the data is estimated to be unstructured, analytics for government is not a theoretical debate
which is expected to double every three months,23 any longer but is now in the early stages of a practical
and as companies and governments move to analyse implementation. In this article, we hope to address
India’s tentative foray into the global Big Data commu-
nity. Looking beyond the realms of technology, we
21
Original observation was that the number of transistors in an inte- address issues of decision-making, policy implementa-
grated circuit doubles every two years. tion, measurements, monitoring and ethics.
22
Jacobs, A. (2009). The pathologies of Big Data. Databases ACM
Queue, 7(6).
23
Gartner (2005, May 16). Introducing the high-performance work-
place: Improving competitive advantage and employee impact. 24
Gartner (2013, December 12). Forecast: The internet of things,
Gartner. Retrieved from https://www.gartner.com/doc/481145/ Worldwide. Gartner. Retrieved from https://www.gartner.com/
introducing-highperformance-workplace-improving-competitive doc/2625419/forecast-internet-things-worldwide-
84 COLLOQUIUM
2012, the US government has been one of the leaders in the US, which is used to help the government and
in government expenditure on Big Data. To launch this corporations in most aspects of their interaction with
initiative, six departments and agencies of the US Federal an individual—from credit ratings, loan applications
Government announced additional budgets of more than and fraud to healthcare records, doctor visits and insur-
$200 million to improve Big Data tool and techniques. ance claims. While in a country as diverse and popu-
The plan for the initiative had three broad dimensions: lated as India, implementing the UID is a complex chal-
lenge, its real benefits will only be visible when there is
· Advance state-of-the-art core technologies needed near complete coverage.
to collect, store, preserve, manage, analyse and
share huge quantities of data.
· Harness these technologies to accelerate the pace Food Security
of discovery in science and engineering, strengthen
our national security, and transform teaching Nutrition deficiency, especially in the young, is one of
and learning. the leading concerns facing India, where 29.5 per cent
of the population lives below the poverty line.31 While
· Expand the workforce needed to develop and use
the fast-growing population definitely contributes
Big Data technologies.29
to this problem, there are other factors affecting food
The broad sector outlays were in scientific research, security, like agricultural productivity, distribution and
health care, defence, energy and geology. Likewise, the weather. Advanced systems that make use of BDA can
UK government announced a cumulative new expend- not only help predict the weather, but also recommend
iture of GBP 73 million for Big Data research and devel- improvements to the distribution system and merge
opment from 2014 to 2017 and estimated that this will existing information to create social safety nets to
create 58,000 jobs in the UK in that period, contributing combat hunger at a fraction of the cost now incurred.
GBP 216 billion to the economy.30 In the UK, the sectors
with funding for Big Data research include the environ- · Agricultural Productivity: Precision agriculture is
mental sciences and arts and humanities. the ability to use maps, GPS enabled tractors, auto-
mated irrigation systems, satellite and drone images,
etc., to map the current crop yield rates and ascer-
THE INDIAN SCENARIO
tain optimal cropping patterns by utilizing data
The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has points on soil quality, weather forecasts, fertilizers,
announced a Big Data Initiative (BDI) that specifically water availability, etc. Moreover, techniques for
distinguishes between BDA and Big Data. The initiative water management and ground water monitoring
is looking to support and fund any aspect of Big Data are used in conjunction to determine water avail-
and BDA, including Science/Technology, Infrastruc- ability through ground and rainwater harvesting.
ture, Search/Mining, Security/Privacy and broader The US has been an early mover in mechanized
Applications. While the BDI is still in its early days, it agriculture production and despite a surprisingly
is encouraging to note that the DST seems to support a low technology penetration in certain parts of that
broad mandate—from ‘Mining Indian Tweets to Under- country, larger corporations are already using BDA
standing Food Price Crises’ to ‘Population Migration’. to help implement precision agriculture. Intel has
taken a lead in California to encourage farmers to
collect and share data to help create solutions that
OPTIMIZING BIG DATA EXPENDITURE IN INDIA transcend the individual farmer and create posi-
tive externalities for all.32 While these methods have
The UID will create a unique key for every Indian. This primarily been the domain of the larger farms in the
will be similar to the Social Security Number (SSN)
31
Planning Commission. (2014). Report of the expert group to
review the methodology for measurement of poverty. Planning
29
Press Release, Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), Commission, June.
Executive Office of the President of the USA. 32
Gilpin, L. (2014, June 13). How Intel is using IoT and Big Data
30
Passingham, M. (2014, February 6). Public sector Big Data projects get to improve food and water security. TechRepublic. Retrieved 30
£73m government investment. V3.co.uk. Retrieved 30 November 2014, November 2014 from http://www.techrepublic.com/article/
from http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2327364/public-sector- how-intel-is-using-iot-and-big-data-to-improve-food-and-water-
big-data-projects-get-gbp73m-government-investment security/
86 COLLOQUIUM
the list of countries with maximum number of deaths population health management, and patient engage-
from terror incidents—significantly ahead of recog- ment and outreach.’ Big Data can be used in India to
nized terrorism-affected countries like Somalia (Rank significantly reduce costs by collating data about an
6) and Israel (Rank 20). A recent book Indian Mujahideen: individual patient to successfully predict and thus,
Computational Analysis and Public Policy uses mathemat- prevent health tragedies. An estimated 80 per cent of
ical models to study Indian terrorism;38 however, this the health system costs in the US were from chroni-
has not yet translated into policy prescriptions. cally ill patients with diseases such as hypertension,
diabetes or heart failure.40 A UID based public health
The US Department of Defense (DOD) has been on the care system, with direct information interchange
cutting edge of defence research since the Second World between schools, private hospitals, primary health
War. From techniques like Game Theory and Modern clinics, workplaces, doctors and insurance companies,
Optimization Techniques to technologies like Laser and with tight checks on data security, can provide a relief
Sonar, the US defence establishment has been a leader to the system by early intervention for such diseases.
in strategic defence techniques. In the last few years, An organized streamlining of the system will ensure
the DOD has been ‘placing a big bet on Big Data’,39 that the money saved can then be pumped back into
investing USD 250 million annually across departments the health care system of the country to help it tackle
in this area. A prime focus of the DOD’s spending is the bigger issues. Other application include epidemic
on analytical and scientific techniques, which can also management, doctor–patient matching, kidney (or
be used for internal and external defence. The ADAMS organ donation) matching programmes (success-
(Anomaly Detection at Multiple Scales) programme is fully used in the United States) or free healthcare and
developing technologies for detecting data anomalies medical access for Below Poverty Line (BPL) patients.
and cues in massive datasets, which potentially can
help in fraud detection, but the DOD is exploiting it for
insider threat detection. The DOD has also announced CONCLUSION
programmes on Machine Reading, Resilient Clouds Governments help create and can be the biggest bene-
and Encrypted Data. ficiaries of the data that is generated by a country. In a
country like India, with its 1.2 billion people spawning
India, too, should rely on state-of-the-art research and
enormous amounts of data every day, there is a unique
enable its defence establishment to ethically collate data
opportunity to use Big Data Analytics to control the
to analyse and predict potential terror incidents. Web ana-
data behemoth and tame it for the country’s benefit.
lytics and text mining in regional languages can be handy
From healthcare to defence and the all-important food
tools that can support anti-terrorism undertakings.
security issue, Big Data Analytics can help reduce
costs, provide insights and policy prescriptions, and
Healthcare help oversee the implementation of policy and assist
in monitoring their effects. While a significant body of
According to a 2013 World Health Organization report knowledge already exists on the subject of Big Data,
on healthcare systems, India ranks 112th among the international research cannot substitute the need for
190 countries in the study. It is far behind countries organic, localized investigation. From local language
with significantly lower per capita GDP or national search and text mining to finding patterns in disease
growth numbers, stressing the challenges due to propagation, the answers can only come from within
inequality, regional imbalances and lack of basic the country of interest.
medical facilities. According to IBM, ‘Healthcare
organizations are leveraging Big Data technology to The Government of India’s Big Data Initiative is still
capture all of the information about a patient to get in its early days and is certainly a stride in the right
a more complete view for insight into care coordi- direction; however, different sections of the govern-
nation and outcomes-based reimbursement models, ment, other than the Department of Science and
38
Subrahmanian, V. S., Mannes, A., Roul, A., & Raghavan, R. K. 40
Groves, P., Kayyali, B., Knott, D., & Kuiken, S. V. (2010). The
(2013). Indian Mujahideen: Computational analysis and public policy. Big Data revolution in healthcare: Accelerating value and innova-
Springer. Retrieved from http://link.springer.com/book/10.100 tion. McKinsey Insights & Publications. Retrieved from http://
7%2F978-3-319-02818-7 www.mckinsey.com/insights/health_systems_and_services/
39
OSTP (2014). Executive Office of the President of the USA. the_big-data_revolution_in_us_health_care
W
hile there is a misconception that Cloud getting ready to penetrate the market. Peak of inflated
Computing is still a buzz word, Google expectations, on the other hand, is the next level where
Trends and Gartner’s Hype cycle reveal there is a lot of interest and media reports about a tech-
a different picture altogether. A quick comparison nology and the awareness level reaches a marginal
of search trends on Cloud Computing and Big Data difference when compared to the previous stage.
reveals interesting perspectives. As of December 2014, Cloud Computing, on the other hand, had moved
down the curve from ‘Peak of Inflated Expectations’ to
Big Data overtook Cloud Computing in terms of popu-
‘Trough of Disillusionment’. The results of hype cycle
larity, news events, and search index (Figure 5). It is
are also consistent with the Google trends. However,
interesting to note that during initial stages (2006–
a quick look at the Hype Cycle of 2014 reveals inter-
2007), Big Data had higher search index than Cloud esting insights again. While both the technologies
Computing which repeated itself in 2014. The search moved forward in the hype cycle, the predictions for
trends have a lot to reveal about the two technologies. the number of years needed to reach the plateau of
The reason for longitudinal interest of two technolo- productivity was not consistent for Big Data. While it
gies transcends the technology itself and highlights was predicted that Big Data would require 2–5 years (in
the marketing and adoption of these technologies in 2012) to reach the plateau of productivity, this number
various industries today. The positive and negative changed to 5–10 years in 2014. Therefore, combining
interpretation of this graph for each technology will be Google Trends and Gartner hype cycle, there are a
discussed separately. few concerns that the associated stakeholders should
ponder upon. An overview of progression in Hype
Cycle is provided in Table 1.
Figure 5: Comparing Cloud Computing and Big Data
Table 1: Hype Cycle Progress for Cloud Computing and Big
Data from 2012 to 2014
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The first concern as evident from Table 1 is that perspective that calls for defining more standards in
Cloud Computing has almost reached the Trough of the industry.
Disillusionment. This does not necessarily mean that
people are losing interest or that the technology is Race to be a ‘Cloud’ Company/Product: The
fading away. However, trends of interest from Google
Problem
also reveal that the interest is declining as of 2014. This
is the right time for the industry and associated stake- Often the association of word ‘Cloud’ adds value to
holders to work collectively for defining standards and a product/company and portrays an image of being
best practices in Cloud Computing for it to reach the updated with the recent trends in industry. However,
plateau of productivity. an end-user hardly takes any effort to understand the
technical implementation of Cloud or even to find
The second concern is the progress of Big Data on Hype out if a service is Cloud based or not. Several compa-
Cycle. The progression along the curve had been quite nies face the pressure of entering into Cloud market
slow and it still lies in the peak of inflated expectation to keep up to the competition and on many occasions
stage as of 2014. While pace of progression is not a real they end up with associating just the name ‘Cloud’ on
concern, the actual problem lies in the prediction of a simple Client/Service model. This concept of associ-
Big Data reaching the plateau of productivity which ating ‘Cloud’ with all possible services without really
has changed from 2–5 years (in 2012) to 5–10 years in implementing technologies like virtualization came to
2014. This indicates a lack of maturity and implementa- be known as ‘Cloud Washing’.
tion standards in the technology and a lot of vagueness
about the definition of Big Data itself. Cloud Washing is derived from a word well associated
with sustainability, named Green Washing. Famous
This article takes up each technology to understand the hotel chains would recommend their customers to put
current problems in the industry and implementation their used towels on a shelf to avoid washing. While
from a management perspective. It also highlights the the intentions were to save costs and increase reve-
practice of several firms associating names like Cloud nues, it was associated with sustainability and green.
and Big Data with their products and services, with no Similarly, the idea in Cloud Washing is to associate
real implementation of the same. The question of what the word ‘Cloud’ with all possible services irrespec-
qualifies as Cloud Computing is still better answered tive of the underlying technologies and properties of
today, but it is not the same for Big Data. Cloud Computing. The National Institute of Standards
and Technology (NIST) specifies several properties of
Cloud Computing that enable ubiquitous, convenient,
‘BUZZ’ WORDS NO MORE? on-demand network access to a shared pool of config-
While it is true that Big Data and Cloud Computing urable resources that can be rapidly provisioned.43 The
have made major leaps in technological advancement, association of word ‘Cloud’ with several applications
the real issue to be addressed is the disassociation of the and services is quite easy, but not many succeed in
word ‘Buzz’ with these technologies. Drawing insights providing associated properties.
from Porter’s strategies of competitive advantage, IT
industry is no alien to the race for market share. Cloud Mell and Grance (2011)44 defined three service models
Computing has been perceived as a highly disruptive initially—Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a
technology41 and the future is envisaged to be a plat- Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).
form where computation moves from local computers However, with the growth of tech nology and technical
to centralized facilities operated by a third party.42 This offerings, the term ‘as a Service’ also started getting
section attempts to discuss the technologies from a associated with all possible offerings internet had to
make. Examples include Backend as a Service (BaaS),
Security as a Service (SecaaS), Data as a Service (DaaS)
41
Rimal, B. P., Choi, E., & Lumb, I. (2009). A taxonomy and survey 43
Yang, H., & Tate, M. (2009). Where are we at with cloud computing?
of cloud computing systems. In INC, IMS and IDC, August 2009. A descriptive literature review, 20th Australasian Conference on
NCM’09. Fifth International Joint Conference, 44–51. Information Systems, Melbourne, 2–4 December. Retrieved from
42
Foster, I., Zhao, Y., Raicu, I., & Lu, S. (2008). Cloud computing http://www.academia.edu/1325008/
and grid computing 360-degree compared. In Grid Computing 44
Mell, P., & Grance, T. (2011). The NIST definition of cloud computing.
Environments Workshop. GCE’08, 1–10. National Institute of Standards and Technology, 53(6), 50.
90 COLLOQUIUM
interest. From a marketing perspective, it has been a One of the most important solutions for the sustenance
popular trend to gain from the updraft of a powerful of emerging technologies like Cloud Computing and
trend. However, with the rise of Big Data washing will Big Data is the strengthening of industry standards.
come many problems that will question the maturity Starting from defining the technology to sustaining its
and adoption of Big Data. usage in the industry, standards play an important role
in the use of technology. While it would be a bit early to
In a survey conducted by Luth Research for Platfora, set standards in Big Data, Cloud Computing definitely
it was reported that 55 per cent of the respondents felt needs collaboration from industry partners to set tech-
that small data solutions were repackaged as Big Data. nology standards. Big Data needs more work from IT
DataRPM, for example, describes itself as a Big Data Giants like IBM, Google, Microsoft and Oracle to define
company and it solves the top of the funnel BI problem the technology first and enable qualifiers to name a
using natural language and semantic modelling of product/service as Big Data.
data. The only relationship with Big Data as described
in Woods47 is the possibility of accessing queries against It is well known that the benefits of Cloud Computing
Big Data repositories from this product (also possible and the standard processes that emerge from the tech-
with spreadsheet). Hence, this world is not short of nology are not tailored for all organizations.48 There
fake associations of trending technologies with tradi- are several processes and recommendations available,
tional execution, but this needs to be addressed before but most of them are simply the guidelines. Several
the bubble gets busted. Cloud players should collaborate and develop a clear
method for each user to yield the best possible results
‘To me, an analysis becomes a Big Data analysis when in Cloud. There is a need for solid vision, and research
new, massive data sets are included and dots are would then suggest that Cloud potential will surpass
connected to know more about patterns and outcomes,’ IT expectation eventually.49 Such technologies demand
said Ben Werther, CEO and Founder of Platfora. ‘When good understanding of business coupled with multi-do-
you combine the usually distinct silos of customer main expertise allowing companies to design, build
interactions, transactions, and machine data, you and operate efficient IT.50 These technologies must
are in the realm of Big Data. We think that the crit- seamlessly integrate with the existing environment of
ical challenge is making it possible for every business the organizations and leverage rigorous automation to
analyst to ask questions that matter right away without deliver value.51
an IT bottleneck’.
C
onsumer privacy, collection of personal data, ment and aftermath of predictive analytics in Target
analysis and utilization are long standing Retail Stores. Andrew Pole, Statistician at Target was
concerns of marketers. These concerns form an posed with a question by his Marketing Department,
integral part of the technologies that have a growing ‘If we want to figure out if a customer is pregnant, even
influence on the society. More than a century ago, if she doesn’t want us to know, can we do that?’ The
Warren and Brandeis, legal scholars in their work inquiry started with that question, Pole and colleagues
on potential impacts of the use of new photographic ran several tests and models and developed a method
technologies on media business, made an interesting to assign a predictive score for pregnancy based on the
observation: ‘What is whispered in the closet shall be purchase patterns of the products. Using the scores,
they started targeted communication and promotions
proclaimed from the house-tops.’52 These concerns are
such as coupon distribution. Duhigg narrates how an
much more widespread and significant, with the ubiq-
angry parent approached the Target store Manager at
uitous deployment of technologies such as the Internet,
Minneapolis and questioned the mailer that was sent
mobile technology, smart phones, Google Glass to his daughter. He questioned the Manager about
and convergence. Advancements in Big Data pose a Target’s intentions, ‘She’s still in high school, and
number of new challenges in terms of ways and means you’re sending her coupons for baby clothes and cribs?
of data collection, analysis, interpretation and its use. Are you trying to encourage her to get pregnant?’ The
Let us look at some of the cases where consumers are Store Manager was perplexed about the claim as he
outraged. was caught unawares. He could only confirm that the
mailer was from Target and that it did carry advertise-
Dana Mattioli53 reported in Wall Street Journal that ments for maternity clothing, nursery furniture, etc.
Orbitz.com an online travel search engine was
displaying different, and costlier hotel search results to Netflix, a known on-demand and Internet movie
online consumers who were using their Apple devices streaming company, also delivers DVDs on mail.
when compared to their PCs. Consumer presumption Netflix announced a predictive analytics contest for
is that the search engine provides best options based on recommending movies based on movie rating and
the parameters specified by them. What Orbitz pushes customer profile. It released anonymized data sets to
to the user is a combination of what the user has entered the contestants. Two researchers from the University
and its own information generated by device analytics. of Texas identified individual users by developing a
Orbitz could profile the customers based on the data method by matching the data sets with film ratings on
that may not necessarily be permitted by the customer the Internet Movie Database. In a similar manner, an
for its use. Orbitz CEO, Barney Herford defends this MIT graduate student, Latanya Sweeney using some
process, by saying that they found Mac users to be 40 simple techniques with voter list and data released by
per cent more likely to choose 4–5 star hotels, when Massachusetts Group Insurance Commission meant
compared to PC users. for improving health care and controlling cost, identi-
fied the Massachusetts Governor William Weld.
Charles Duhigg,54 a staff writer for The Times and author
of The power of habit: Why we do what we do in life and At the outset, revealing more and more personal data
business, vividly describes the development, deploy- seems to be unavoidable. With several fold increase in
internet access, wireless technologies, mobile technolo-
52
Warren, S. D., & Louis, D. B. (1890). The right to privacy. Harvard gies, smart phones, convergence, the Internet of things,
Law Review, 4(5), 193–220. Facebook, Twitter, Google etc., people unknowingly
53
Dana, M. (2012). On Orbitz, Mac users steered to pricier hotels. Wall and unintentionally are communicating personal data
Street Journal. Retrieved 10 January 2015, from http://www.wsj.
to someone else. For marketers Big Data is a powerful
com/articles/SB10001424052702304458604577488822667325882
54
Duhigg, C. (2104). The power of habit: Why we do what we do in life
weapon for capturing consumer data directly, indi-
and business. New York: Penguin Random House. rectly, unobtrusively, with and without permission
92 COLLOQUIUM
and participation. It provides enormous potential to concerns can be combined with other sources of infor-
precisely and efficiently identify behaviours, behav- mation that may reveal the identity of groups or individ-
ioural changes and target them at the individual level. uals. From our earlier example of Netflix and data from
Combination of Big Data and mobile devices can create Massachusetts Insurance combined with other data sets
new offers that are spatially and temporally very helped the researchers to identify some individuals.
relevant to the consumers. Such an unequal power Though the number of individuals in a large dataset is
disparity between customers and corporations can very negligible, given the rate to new technologies and
create a constant battle between them. Legal, ethical powerful algorithms, it would be a big threat for the
and privacy concerns are very imminent, complex and market research community. Acquisti et al.56 provide
different from the earlier days. another example of a different nature, from experimen-
tation. Researchers could use facial recognition algo-
As a response to some of these issues on the privacy rithms to analyse publicly available information with
part of the use of data, the United Nations Secretary- photographs from social network sites to identify people
General’s High-Level Panel on the Post-2015 in a dating site who were disguised. Such attempts
Development agenda has called for a data revolution create unintended consequences. Customer trust on the
for improved accountability and decision-making, and researchers and organizations get eroded. Organizations
to meet the challenges of measuring sustainable devel- may not be able to predict the kind of uses or misuses
opment. As a way forward, the UN has taken an initi- that can happen with the data in the future.
ative called ‘Global Pulse’ which is a flagship innova-
tion initiative of the United Nations Secretary-General Data security is another major concern. Information
on Big Data. Its vision is to create an environment in security breaches are not totally avoidable as it can’t be
which Big Data is being used safely and responsibly devoid of any access. There are several cases of Internet
for the public good. Keeping this in mind, the UN security breaches. The retail industry has reported data
Global Pulse has created a high-level Global Pulse Data thefts, and credit card frauds are still prevalent. Given
Privacy Advisory Group by bringing together experts that data is being generated through multiple and varied
from public and private sectors, academia and civil sources, it may be difficult to visualize what is going to
society, as a forum to engage in a continuous dialogue be a vulnerable point. Often the weakest link is human.
on critical topics related to data protection and privacy
with the objective of unearthing precedents, good prac- Automation of data collection through embedded
tices, and strengthen the overall understanding of how systems and interconnectivity of data sets pose another
privacy protected analysis of Big Data can contribute kind of threat. A lot of data gets generated without
to sustainable development and humanitarian action. the consent of the consumers. Usage of cookies on
the computer may be by permission but its activities
Keeping the above issues in mind, the advisory are not necessarily known to the novice user. Search
board recommended a three-fold action: (a) indi- engines, social networks, and online retail stores can
vidual members lend expertise to inform the devel- capture almost all online activities of a user without
opment of guidelines and practices that mitigate risks getting specific consent. Use of RFID chips in loyalty
associated with privacy in Big Data analytics, while cards, CCTV cameras, mobiles phones and the IoT can
preserving utility for global development; (b) how Big help the marketer to accumulate data automatically
Data Analytics can be used for responsible social value and unobtrusively without intervening in the activi-
creation; and (c) participating in an ongoing privacy ties of the customer. Such data gathering methods lead
dialogue, providing feedback on proposed approaches to large volumes of high velocity data. Real-time data
and engaging in a privacy outreach campaign. analysis can be used for responding to the customer
when they are in need. However, customer consent
may not be available for specific data or their activities.
BIG DATA MARKETING—PRIVACY ISSUES Hence, there is an ethical issue. How far organizations
Market researchers face a number of ethical and privacy can go to collect data and analyse it, and the purposes
challenges with the emergence of Big Data.55 What they for which the results can be deployed, is a question.
might have considered earlier as free from privacy
56
Acquisti, A., Gross, R., & Stitzman, F. (2011). Faces of Facebook:
55
Nunan, D., & MariaLaura, D. (2013). Market research: The ethics Privacy in the age of augmented reality. Presented at BlackHat
of Big Data. International Journal of Market Research, 55(4), 2–13. Conference, Los Vegas, 4 August 2011.
94 COLLOQUIUM
issues.59 Alex and his colleagues set up safe-harbour ciple that a Data Scientist has to keep in mind. There
areas in Europe on experimental basis. In Trento, Italy, are cautions about how it is going to emerge or be yet
a number of households are living with the ‘New Deal’ another hype. ‘What no one seems to be saying—or
on data. The participants are provided with notification recognizing—is that the death of Big Data is immi-
and control of data generated about them. Transparency nent. Big Data’s demise is only years, maybe even
and trust are important pillars of such arrangements. months away, and yes, we’ll need a big casket,’ wrote
Customers should develop confidence about the Mike Phelan, in Forbes.62 However, Gartner believes
entire machinery that their personal data sharing will that, ‘Unlike other Hype Cycles, which are published
be better for the economy, and will not worsen either year after year, we believe it is possible that within
immediately or in the future. two to three years, the ability to address new sources
and types, and increasing volumes of data will be
‘table stakes’—part of the cost of entry of playing in
CONCLUSION the global economy. When the hype goes, so will the
Big Data has already dawned upon us. More and more Hype Cycle.’ In the same breath, Morgan Stanley
organizations are likely to gain competence in dealing foresees that there may be a shift from corporations
with Big Data revolution. Business organizations are controlling data towards empowering customers.
likely to take lead in adopting Big Data initiatives. Large They claim that, ‘…data management is more about
corporations such as Amazon, Google and Facebook giving customers the technologies they need to store
are already in the big league. The trend of generating and analyse ‘any’ data set—any type of data, any size
multiple sources of data, building data warehouses, of data, for any type of user, and in any timeframe’.63
attempts to unlock the potential of data using business Arindam Banerjee, Tathagata Bandyopadhyay and
analytics and visualization trends are only likely to Prachi Acharya, provide an optimism and hope. They
grow over time. Given the nature of complexity, even state that, ‘over time, this euphoria will be replaced
innovative corporations may not be able to imagine by a more practical and useful perception of its role
how data will be put to use in the future, who is going as pervasive ether in the organization, supporting and
to use, what are the implications of utilization, etc.; it is guiding all decision-making, yet not getting in the way
rather important to simultaneously introspect unbias- of common sense acumen’.64 The potential possibili-
edly about potential ethical and privacy related issues. ties of Big Data for the marketers are limited only by
It is important to develop systems and processes to imagination, innovation and ingenuity, as new oppor-
avoid such issues well in advance. tunities arise the associated problems also need to be
foreseen and managed to take care of the interests of
diverse stakeholders.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
The key, of course, is today there are so many pieces and
parts and particles that when viewed separately and
Janakiraman Moorthy independently, the mind not only boggles, but also likely
Kesten Green and Scott Armstrong, in the forecasting curdles. But when all of these seemingly disparate bits
context demonstrated that simpler tools can just do of information are put in the hands of a ‘data chef’ using
the job, than complex ones.60 Jeanne Ross et al. argued ‘The Cloud’ and the ‘Big Data blasters’, and the ever
strongly that lot of small data applications are sufficient increasing army of data analysts, they reveal the inner-
enough for day-to-day decision-making. They caution most secrets of any and all consumers in the wink of an
that a culture of evidence based decision-making and eye, or likely faster—Don E Schultz.65
management is required before shifting towards Big
Data deployment.61 It is an important guiding prin- 62
Phelan, M. (2012). The death of Big Data. Retrieved 31 January 2015
from http://www.forbes.com/sites/ciocentral/2012/10/04/the-
death-of-big-data/
59
Berinato, S. (2014). With Big Data comes big responsibility. 63
Ibid.
Harvard Business Review, 92(11), 100–104. 64
Banerjee, A., Bandyopadhyay, T., & Acharya, P. (2103). Data
60
Retrieved 31 January 2015 from www.kestencgreen.com/ analytics: Hyped up aspirations or true potential? Vikalpa, 38(4),
simplefor.pdf 1–11.
61
Ross, J.W., Beath, C.M., & Quaadgras, A. (2013). You may not need 65
Schlutz, Don E. (2012). Can Big Data do it all? Marketing News,
Big Data after all. Harvard Business Review, 91(12), 90-98. 46(15), 9.
e-mail: deep@dono.in
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