Database Reference
In-Depth Information
is also not exhaustive; it includes a variety of common data mining techniques, but RapidMiner in
particular is capable of many, many data mining tasks that are not covered in the topic.
The chapters will all follow a common format. First, chapters will present a scenario referred to as
Context and Perspective
. This section will help you to gain a real-world idea about a certain kind of
problem that data mining can help solve. It is intended to help you think of ways that the data
mining technique in that given chapter can be applied to organizational problems you might face.
Following
Context and Perspective,
a set of
Learning Objectives
is offered. The idea behind this section
is that each chapter is designed to teach you something new about data mining. By listing the
objectives at the beginning of the chapter, you will have a better idea of what you should expect to
learn by reading it. The chapter will follow with several sections addressing the chapter's topic. In
these sections, step-by-step examples will frequently be given to enable you to work alongside an
actual data mining task. Finally, after the main concepts of the chapter have been delivered, each
chapter will conclude with a
Chapter Summary
, a set of
Review Questions
to help reinforce the main
points of the chapter, and one or more
Exercise
to allow you to try your hand at applying what was
taught in the chapter.
A NOTE ABOUT TOOLS
There are many software tools designed to facilitate data mining, however many of these are often
expensive and complicated to install, configure and use. Simply put, they're not a good fit for
learning the basics of data mining. This topic will use OpenOffice Calc and Base in conjunction
with an open source software product called RapidMiner, developed by Rapid-I, GmbH of
Dortmund, Germany. Because OpenOffice is widely available and very intuitive, it is a logical
place to begin teaching introductory level data mining concepts. However, it lacks some of the
tools data miners like to use. RapidMiner is an ideal complement to OpenOffice, and was selected
for this topic for several reasons:
RapidMiner provides specific data mining functions not currently found in OpenOffice,
such as decision trees and association rules, which you will learn to use later in this topic.
RapidMiner is easy to install and will run on just about any computer.
RapidMiner's maker provides a Community Edition of its software, making it free for
readers to obtain and use.
