Luhut Pandjaitan's Big Data Must Be Cross Checked To Be Accurate

Big data can be obtained in conversations on social media, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and others. (photo credit: pixabay)

JAKARTA - The big data submitted by the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan as a justification for his claim that the majority of netizens in the country, currently, wants the election to be postponed, deserves to be questioned.

Not only because Luhut does not want to reveal the contents of big data which he claims contains the voices of 110 million social media users, but also about how the data is interpreted and tested in various methods so that the conclusions drawn are correct. Such as producing a conclusion that the majority of netizens in Indonesia would rather agree if the election was postponed.

According to Alva Erwin, a data mining lecturer from Swiss German University, in drawing conclusions about big data, one must be careful.

"We should not draw conclusions from just one source. In the research method, ideally a cross check is carried out," said Erwin. "Inferences should ideally be drawn from several sources so that the accuracy is acceptable."

In Luhut's case, how he draws conclusions from the big data he is said to have is also unclear, because the minister refuses to explain further about the data he has.

“I think that in drawing conclusions about big data, it also needs to be verified. I don't know what his method (Luhut) is in drawing conclusions. But all of that should be verified and cross-checked," said Erwin.

It's just a shame that Luhut also never explained whether big data and the conclusion have been verified

Big data itself, according to Erwin, is a large collection of data, so it is difficult to process it with the infrastructure it has. There are four characteristics of big data, volume, velocity, variety, veracity.

What volume if the data is very large and difficult to process. Velocity, because the speed of the data itself as it appears. Variety, is the type and type of data that is complex. Veracity, the element is true or not true of the data. Then there are structured, semi-structured and unstructured data.

“There is no clear measure of the magnitude of this Big Data. A collection of data, if it is difficult to process with the existing infrastructure, then it can be considered as big data,” said Erwin.

Big data can be obtained in conversations on social media, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and others. Likewise, news data in online media, radio, television and their comments can be one source of becoming big data.

"I don't know where Pak Luhut got the big data, maybe he has a team and access to social media. However, in drawing conclusions, cross-checks should be carried out so that they are more accurate and can be accounted for for validity," said Erwin.