Re: Edited Edupage, 4 April 1996

["Michael C. Peponis" <mianigand@[205.164.13.10]>]

On 12 Apr 96 ,E. ALLEN SMITH wrote:

> From:	IN%"educom@elanor.oit.unc.edu"  5-APR-1996 01:25:00.85

> >IBM'S INTELLIGENT MINER DIGS OUT THE GOOD STUFF
> >IBM plans to offer companies "data mining" software and services, allowing
> >them to make better use of disparate pieces of information stored in their
> >computer systems.  The Intelligent Miner software will be available on IBM's
> >RS/6000 servers by the fall, and on other platforms by year end.  The
> >company also plans to develop Intelligent Decision Server software for local
> >area network-based information analysis.  (Investor's Business Daily 3 Apr
> >96 A9)
> 
> 	Anyone have any _specific_ ideas on how their Intelligent Miner system
> works? It would appear to be relevant to the identity-spoofing discussions.
> 	-Allen

Not really, it's a tool used in Data Warehousing/Decission Support 
Systems.

Here is what it is in a nut shell.

A company creates a Data Warehouse, defining it's data universe in 
terms of business rules and practices.

Data Mining is the process by which users try to make sence of all 
the data.

They call it "intelligent" because it supports natural language 
queries, ie the end user does not need to know SQL or the table 
layouts to retrieve the information they want.

Very sketchy explination, but there are entire volumes written on the 
subject, and it's new technology so the exact definition varies 
depending on who you ask.

I have been developing systems like this for the past year, and I 
still can't give people a cut and dry answer as to what the hell it 
is.
Regards,
Michael C. Peponis
Public Key Avalible Via Key Servers, or Finger