Foundations of Information Science

Induction

Induction is a kind of reasoning about classes that seeks reoccurring patterns in how things have been grouped together. Conclusions (predictions of further reoccurrence) follow premises (observations of grouping) not automatically, but with some likelihood. Statisticians create formal languages to characterize these patterns and to quantify the likelihood of their reoccurrence.

One video this week.

Relational Databases

This video will discuss things we may discuss again in the lecture. Watch it to familiarize yourself with the terminology.

Why this is important

A 13 Sep 2014 report in The Economist spoke about the changing information landscape in regard to one profession.

"This is an information war," says Omar Tawakol, the boss of BlueKai, a data broker, which tracks users online and sells that intelligence to companies. "This is 100% about having more information about the customer and being able to generate more commerce as a result of it." ... BlueKai, for example, compiles around 1 billion profiles of potential customers around the world, each with an average of 50 attributes.

"A billion entities, each with 50 attributes"!

A bit more tightly focused discussion of induction.

Maron, M. E. Automatic Indexing: An Experimental Inquiry. Journal of the ACM 8, no. 3 (July 1961): 404-17.

Bill Maron was an engineer at missile manufacturer Ramo-Wooldridge when he began investigating statistical methods for classifying and retrieving documents. In this paper he describes a method for statistically modeling the subject matter of texts. He introduces the basic ideas behind what is now known as a Bayesian classifier, a technique that is still widely used today for a variety of automatic classification tasks from spam filtering to face recognition.

This does have some math in it. The math is relatively basic, and if you've studied any probability, you should be able to follow it. But if not, just skip it: Maron explains everything important about his experiment in plain English. Pay extra attention to what he says about “clue words.”

One to consider if you want to get deeper into the concept.

A companion piece to the video.

What is an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)? | Lucid Chart (or the stable version).

Lakecia Benjamin

Benjamin approaches her music and performances with a take-no-prisoners attitude. After primarily performing as an accompanist, she introduced the world to her own voice. While her first two studio albums leaned into jazz-funk and soul, in 2020 she referenced her bebop and spiritual influences with Pursuance: The Coltranes, an album that brought together several generations of the genre's luminaries to pay homage to John and Alice Coltrane. That project and her 2023 album, Phoenix, received critical acclaim, the latter earning her three Grammy nominations. NPR