Data Mining: Practical Machine Learning Tools and Techniques, Third Edition Author: Ian H. Witten | Language: English | ISBN:
0123748569 | Format: PDF
Data Mining: Practical Machine Learning Tools and Techniques, Third Edition Description
Data Mining: Practical Machine Learning Tools and Techniques offers a thorough grounding in machine learning concepts as well as practical advice on applying machine learning tools and techniques in real-world data mining situations. This highly anticipated third edition of the most acclaimed work on data mining and machine learning will teach you everything you need to know about preparing inputs, interpreting outputs, evaluating results, and the algorithmic methods at the heart of successful data mining.
Thorough updates reflect the technical changes and modernizations that have taken place in the field since the last edition, including new material on Data Transformations, Ensemble Learning, Massive Data Sets, Multi-instance Learning, plus a new version of the popular Weka machine learning software developed by the authors. Witten, Frank, and Hall include both tried-and-true techniques of today as well as methods at the leading edge of contemporary research.
*Provides a thorough grounding in machine learning concepts as well as practical advice on applying the tools and techniques to your data mining projects *Offers concrete tips and techniques for performance improvement that work by transforming the input or output in machine learning methods *Includes downloadable Weka software toolkit, a collection of machine learning algorithms for data mining tasks-in an updated, interactive interface. Algorithms in toolkit cover: data pre-processing, classification, regression, clustering, association rules, visualization
- Series: The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems
- Paperback: 664 pages
- Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann; 3 edition (January 20, 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0123748569
- ISBN-13: 978-0123748560
- Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 1.7 inches
- Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Context for this review: I am a data miner with 20 years experience, and own the first edition of this book.
Good:
- Accessible writing style
- Broad coverage of algorithms and data mining issues, with an eye toward practical issues
- Needless technical trivia (derivations and the like) are avoided
- Algorithms are completely spelled out: A competent programmer should be able to turn these descriptions into functioning code.
- Third edition makes meaningful improvements on previous editions
Bad(ish):
- Approximately one-third of this book is now devoted to the WEKA data mining software. I have nothing against WEKA, and it is a good choice for a text such as this, since WEKA is free. In my opinion, though, this coverage consumes too many pages of this book.
- Data mining draws from a number of fields with separate roots (statistics, machine learning, pattern recognition, engineering, etc.), and many techniques go by multiple names. As with many other data mining books, this one does not always point out the aliases by which data mining methods are known.
The bottom line: This is still the best data mining text on the market.
By William B. Dwinnell IV
VINE VOICE
The subtitle of the book should really be emphasized more: Practical Machine Learning Tools and Techniques. This isn't a book about adhoc SQL queries and database statistics, it is about tools to discover relationships you didn't know you were looking for. Much of the book shows how to handle knowledge formation and representation, statistical modeling and projections. The one critique I have in regard is that much of the algorithm breakdowns are done in prose rather than true pseudocode.
I would like to echo other reviews that point out the text focuses on WEKA, and the authors indicate this is by intent. Though they do give much generic information, at some point you have to pick a horse to hitch your carriage to, and an established open-source project in Java is probably most widely accessible. Their coverage of WEKA claims 50% more features than the 2nd ed. and indeed it consumes half the book. I feel this is a good thing, as it lends great practicality to the book, allowing you to dig right in and get something actually done.
There are some additions to the 3rd ed. that modernize the book a bit. Showing how data can be reidentified (and the ethical implications) is pertinent to today's HIPAA-regulated medical environments. They also touch on web and ubiquitous mining, reflecting our growing foray into non-traditional cloud sources of information.
By owookiee
VINE VOICE
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