|
 QANTS: A shorthand name for “quantative analysts.” At the pinnacle of geekdom lie those mathematical savants, prized by financial and web institutions, who make a living examining measurable and verifiable data in order to extrapolate predictions. That is, they create sophisticated formulas (formally known as algorithms) by reviewing vast amounts of big data (both structured, that which can fit neatly into the columns and rows of relational database - like sales, shipments & addresses; and unstructured - such as customer complaints or web blog comments). The results of these algorithms may dictate decisions (say, buying or selling stocks or adding product features), often in milliseconds (by using computers). Most retailers have a “predictive analytics” department devoted to understanding not just consumers’ shopping habits but also their personal habits, so as to more efficiently market to them. Moreover, the science of “habit formation” has become a major field of research in neurology and psychology departments at hundreds of major medical centers and universities, as well as inside extremely well financed corporate labs. Quants who specialize in consumer technology are sometimes known as “WANTS” because it is their job to troll through data, hunt for trends, identify types of personalities and lifestyles, all to put the right ad in front of the right person at the right time (what they “want”) and have them click on it and buy. Think of a bunch of guys in a room, parsing information about what you’ve searched for on Google, what you wrote about on G-Mail, the websites you like to visit, the geostamps on your photos, the places you and your GPS-enabled phone have visited, where you have flown, what purchases or services you’ve charged and the like, all in order to hit you with a customized ad when you sign on to your browser. That’s what quants do.
How do they do it? This is becoming big business. And it requires big computer power. Tracking, say, thousands of ankle bracelets of convicted criminals and their whereabouts (SecureAlert), patients’ biologies to detect cardiac or other threatening abnormalities (IRythm’s Zio patch), trucking company or ambulance vehicles, retail sales (Amazon, Macy’s) and the like requires tremendous computing power. In 2006, a software consultant named Doug Cutting released an open-source system known as “Hadoop” (named after his son’s toy elephant) which dramatically changed data analytics. Rather than running massive data through one huge computer, it chopped up the data into bite-sized chunks and distributed them among thousands of small computers, then probed that pool of data for answers to various queries. This software became an instant hit at companies like Google, Yahoo!, Facebook, Walt Disney and Dell, which either used Hadoop or crafted their own software. Dozens of startups like Datameer and Splunk have popped up with similar software as well.
Quant analysis is not the old number crunching, but on steriods. It’s much more. For example, companies like RetailNext collect and integrate data from sales, surveillance video, RFID tags and motion sensors in order to detect not just how often a brand of cereal is picked up and purchased (or not), how long a purchaser stands in front of a particular display showing interest or purchasing, how often the shoppers turn left or right afterwards or when entering a store, how store traffic and patterns influence purchases, how the colors, size, shape and location of displays influence interest and purchases, how often they purchase the same product from an end cap, which size boxes are more popular, and a host of other variables which influence purchases. Add to this cellphone tracking technology like that of Path Intelligence (“FootPath”), which uses the phone’s cellular GPS signal to follow its owner throughout a store or building. Although Path is located in England, it has been tested in the U.S. in Richmond, Va., Temecula, CA and J.C. Penney at one location, but pretty much abandoned in the U.S. due to privacy concerns, even though signs were posted identifying the service and advising persons to shut off their phones if they wanted to opt out of the tracking.
Not to be left out, the U.S. Government has purchased such software to “track everyone’s moves on the Internet”. Federal intelligence agencies such as NSA and DARPA have already spent millions “to grab essentially every kind of data there is” and “to track the spread of ideas on networks such as Facebook to find people participating in “persuasion campaigns” and develop countermeasures, they say.
|
|
standard one dimension bar code, such as the ones you see in your supermarket. It is also known in advertising as a “mobile tag” or just a “tag”. QR stands for “quick response,” allowing higher speed decoding than standard one dimensional bar codes, and are used more commonly in Japan, but increasingly in the U.S. They were originally used for tracking parts in vehicle manufacturing, pharma deliveries and the like. Now they are used to request information or content from a web site like details of a promotion, perhaps a discount voucher or to activate a download like a ring tone or video. Click