A primer for understanding and applying data mining

Data mining is such a hot topic that it has become an obscured buzzword. Data mining can be a powerful tool for extracting useful information from tons of data. But it can just as easily extract erroneous and useless information if it´s not used correctly. Key to avoiding the pitfalls is a basic understanding of what data mining is and what things to consider in planning a data mining project. The steps in a data mining project include: integrating and cleaning or modifying the data sources, mining the data, examining and pruning the mining results, and reporting the final results