Thomas Chesney

Original edition reissued in 2023 with new cover. This is a print on demand title and is not held in stock. The delivery leadtimes will be longer. Data mining is about finding patterns hidden inside data. It’s how the supermarket knows when your kids leave home or when your granny comes to visit; it’s how the credit card company detects fraud and how your insurance company decides whether to cover you. Searching For Patterns guides you through the techniques used to do this and the people behind them, in an easily accessible and entertaining way. Data mining is mathematical, but all the maths in this book has been kept separate from the main text, so you can skip it if you want.

This book illustrates the potential for computer simulation in the study of modern slavery and worker abuse, and by extension in all social issues. It lays out a philosophy of how agent-based modelling can be used in the social sciences. In addressing modern slavery, Chesney considers precarious work that is vulnerable to abuse, like sweat-shop labour and prostitution, and shows how agent modelling can be used to study, understand and fight abuse in these areas. He explores the philosophy, application and practice of agent modelling through the popular and free software NetLogo. This topical book is grounded in the technology needed to address the messy, chaotic, real world problems that humanity faces—in this case the serious problem of abuse at work—but equally in the social sciences which are needed to avoid the unintended consequences inherent to human responses. It includes a short but extensive NetLogo guide which readers can use to quickly learn this software and go on to develop complex models. This is an important book for students and researchers of computational social science and others interested in agent-based modelling.

This book illustrates the potential for computer simulation in the study of modern slavery and worker abuse, and by extension in all social issues. It lays out a philosophy of how agent-based modelling can be used in the social sciences. In addressing modern slavery, Chesney considers precarious work that is vulnerable to abuse, like sweat-shop labour and prostitution, and shows how agent modelling can be used to study, understand and fight abuse in these areas. He explores the philosophy, application and practice of agent modelling through the popular and free software NetLogo. This topical book is grounded in the technology needed to address the messy, chaotic, real world problems that humanity faces—in this case the serious problem of abuse at work—but equally in the social sciences which are needed to avoid the unintended consequences inherent to human responses. It includes a short but extensive NetLogo guide which readers can use to quickly learn this software and go on to develop complex models. This is an important book for students and researchers of computational social science and others interested in agent-based modelling.

The new fourth edition of Principles of Business Information Systems features new cases, new questions and assignments and the latest technologies, whilst retaining its comprehensive coverage of Information Systems issues. It also boasts a wealth of real world examples from a broad range of countries and updated coverage of IT and technological issues, making it perfect for courses that prepare students for the modern corporate world.