Data Mining and KDD: A Shifting Mosaic file:///E|/FrontPage Webs/Content/EISWEB/DMKDD.html The Idea of Data Mining Data Mining and KDD: A Shifting Mosaic By

Data Mining is an idea based on a simple analogy. The growth of data warehousing has created mountains of data. The mountains represent a valuable resource to the enterprise. But to extract value from these data mountains, we must "mine " for high-grade "nuggets " of precious metal-the gold in data warehouses and data marts. The analogy to mining has proven seductive for business. Everywhere there are data warehouses, data mines are also being enthusiastically constructed, but not with the benefit of consensus about what data mining is, or what process it entails, or what exactly its outcomes (the "nuggets") are, or what tools one needs to do it right. Data Mining as a field is not yet through with the process of definition and conceptualization of the scope of the field. There are at least three distinct concepts of data mining being used by practioners and vendors. DMI: Data mining is traditional data analysis methodology updated with the most advanced analysis techniques applied to discovering previously unknown patterns. A specific instance of this concept, stated more explicitly and with a more commercial orientation is provided by the SAS Institute. SAS defines data mining as the process of selecting, exploring, and modeling large amount