ABSTRACT
The information technology( IT) boom of the 1990s left many organizations and companies awash in data. With the popularity of the Internet, data sets were collected on virtually every topic, for every purpose, for every mouse click, for every reason imaginable. Often, multiple databases or huge data warehouses were built to store these immense quantities of data. Although billions of dollars are spent every year to collect and store information, data owners, paradoxically, often spend only pennies on analysis. What has been missing from the IT landscape is a way in which all of the data can be effectively analyzed-a way to connect the dots. Without a means to use and understand the data that has been collected, the owners of the data will never realize the potential benefi ts of these resources. This has already been evidenced by the events of 9/11 and the government’s limited effort to share, combine, analyze, and report on the pre-and postindicators.
