Using Public Data In Your Business

Imagine that you plan to open a new store at a place, what is information you need to ensure you have made the best decision. Other than using your own data in business analysis, will you consider the data like population, composite of gender, education, number of children per family, distance from bus and train stations, average personal income, number of vehicle registrations, school dates,..., etc.? By combining public data, I believe, to extend the scope of your research will enhance the possibility of your bet and ensure your long term success.

More examples of using public data

Local data is equally important as government census data. For examples, John Gagnon¹ wrote Super 8 hotel was able to charge high rate for the first Formula One race in 2007 and expected the same in 2013, national business moved its back-to-school inventory from place to place according school opening dates, and local business determined if they can deliver to customers within a certain timeframe. Al Tompkins² interviewed Doug Haddix how journalists can use public data for stories about their communities based on 2010 U.S. census data.

Why public data is important

Meta Brown³ listed the reasons why census data are critical to because of “accurate and comprehensive”, “consistent over time and place”, “granular (city block groups)”, “comprehensive content”, and “timely”. Thus business can utilize the data to project better on investment, to determine how skilled its labor force, to project sales behavior, shopping preferences,..., etc., given these characteristics of census data.

Things to consider when use public data

Public data should be treated as “secondary data” because it is not directly derived from your source/sample. Therefore some caution must be taken in use. Don Patrick⁴ point out things to consider when use secondary data in research. These include looking into the definition and scope of data, check the measurements of data and verify if the data is used in any studies before,..., etc. Joseph Rabianski⁵ pointed out the similar factors to be considered when use secondary data in research.

Use public data in auto sales study – proof of concept

Suppose that we plan to analyze U.S. auto sales data by states, what other public data we can apply to our model. Data below are included in our study.

1.Sales data is published by NADA⁶

2.Demographic data:population, race, birth rate

3.Economic data:personal income, gross domestic product, unemployment rate, housing sales, federal aid to state

4.Criminal data:motor vehicle theft

5.Geographical data⁷:list of regions like Northeast, Midwest, South, and West

We can apply data mining to detect if any hidden pattern exists when add more data to the model.

Conclusion

Applying public data is nothing now. However, the interesting point in the recent trend is more data have become available to the public and the potential value of these data should not be overlooked in your research.

References:

1. http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2284899/3-creative-ways-to-use-public-data-for-digital-marketers
2. http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/als-morning-meeting/111792/how-journalists-can-mine-census-data-for-stories-about-
their-changing-communities/
3. http://smartdatacollective.com/clifffigallo/69706/why-business-needs-public-data
4.http://voices.yahoo.com/secondary-data-problems-tips-handle-them-in-6984700.html
5.http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Primary+and+secondary+data%3a+concepts%2c+concerns%2c+errors%2c+and+issues....-a096694281
6.http://www.nada.org/Publications/NADADATA/
7.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_regions_of_the_United_States

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善用公開數據

假設你打算在某地經營一家新的店面，你需要什麼信息來確保您所做出的是最佳決定？除了利用公司自有的數據進行業務分析，你是否會參考其他數據，例如人口、性別、教育、每個家庭的兒童數量、公共汽車站和火車站的距離、平均個人收入、當地車輛登記數量、學校的行事曆……等等？我認為藉由結合這些公開數據、擴大您的研究範圍，將提高您的勝算，並更能確保長期的成功。

更多使用公共數據的例子

如同政府的人口普查數據，地方型的數據也很重要。舉例來說，John Gagnon¹在一篇文章中提到，速8酒店(Super 8 hotel)參考了地方數據，從2007年開始便自F1賽車(first Formula One race)的賽事期間收取較高的費用，並預期在2013年也能以此方式獲利；全國性的企業根據各地學校的開學日期，調整各地域的商品庫存；地方型企業利用當地數據判斷是否能在一定的時間內交貨給客戶。Al Tompkins²採訪Doug Haddix時提到記者如何使用2010年美國人口普查的公開數據撰寫地方報導。

為什麼公共的數據是很重要的

Meta Brown³列舉普查數據之所以至關重要，是因為數據「準確而全面」、「時間和地點一致」、「精細度(可達到城市街區群體)」、「全面性的內容」與「及時性」。因此，企業可以利用這些數據的特點進行更好的投資計劃、決定員工的技術能力熟練度、計畫銷售行為模式、購物偏好……等等。

使用公共數據時要考慮的課題

公開數據應被視為「第二手資料」，它不直接來自於您的資訊來源與樣本，因此必須謹慎使用。Don Patrick⁴列出使用第二手數據資料研究時要考慮的課題，這些課題包括：確認該數據的定義和資料範圍、檢查數據的量測方式、驗證數據是否曾經被用在其他研究……等。Joseph Rabianski⁵也指出使用輔助數據研究時要考慮其他類似的因素。

汽車銷售研究─概念證明

假設我們打算分析美國汽車銷售的各州數據，有什麼其他的公開數據資料我們可以應用到企業模型中？以下的數據都可以包含在我們的研究中：

1. NADA⁶發表的汽車銷售數據
2. 人口統計數據：人口、種族、人口出生率
3. 經濟數據：個人收入、國內生產總值GDP、失業率、房屋銷售狀態、聯邦援助
4. 犯罪數據：機動車盜竊
5. 地理數據⁷：東北部、中西部、南部、西部等地區的列表

如果添加更多的數據，我們可以應用「Data Mining」來檢測任何隱藏模型的存在。

結論

公開資訊的應用固然十分普遍，然而有趣的是，未來的趨勢是開放越來越多的資訊供人們取得並使用。而在您的研究調查中，這些數據所隱含的價值是不容忽視的。

參考資料來源

1. http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2284899/3-creative-ways-to-use-public-data-for-digital-marketers
2. http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/als-morning-meeting/111792/how-journalists-can-mine-census-data-for-stories-about-
their-changing-communities/
3. http://smartdatacollective.com/clifffigallo/69706/why-business-needs-public-data
4.http://voices.yahoo.com/secondary-data-problems-tips-handle-them-in-6984700.html
5.http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Primary+and+secondary+data%3a+concepts%2c+concerns%2c+errors%2c+and+issues....-a096694281
6.http://www.nada.org/Publications/NADADATA/
7.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_regions_of_the_United_States