Entity Resolution / Record Linkage Plug-In

tgb417

User Story:

As an Analyst who deals with messy CRM data with a significant population of duplicates (record clusters) spread across multiple incomplete records, it would be lovely if there was a Record Linkage Dedupe Plugin available for DSS that would make this process more accessible to a broader set of analysts. There are a number of packages in the Python library world to do this kind of work. When this process is easier and more complete and we can find more records that belong to the same data clusters we will get more accurate analyses and models.

COS

• Coding/algorithm
  • The plugin should be based on a generally available package or packages that are under active maintenance.
• Results
  • The process returns one record for each originally supplied record.
  • All original record columns are returned with unchanged values.
    • Any normalization done to do the record linkage should NOT be applied to the returned results by default.
  • The results add a new key for each cluster of records.
  • The results add a probability score that the record is in the cluster identified
• Configuration
  • Ability to choose a subset of columns on which to do the record linkage
  • For each column to be used as part of the record linkage the analyst needs to be able to choose the type of data in the column.
    • Particularly when a column may
• Models would be stored for re-use
• There are needs for 2 plugin Elements that can share a common m
  • There would be a training element
  • There would be a processing element

Nice to Have:

• The tool can use external data stores like PostgreSQL, or even big data tools like SPARK, Snowflake
• Configuration:
  • An option to keep the record normalization applied by the plugin.
  • An option to choose which of the original data columns to retain in the output set.

Notes

• There are several Python packages out there that may be promising candidates as the basis of this plug-in. I've discovered the following.
  • dedupe
    • pandas-dedupe
  • zingg brand new for big data on Spark
  • The Record Linkage ToolKit (RLTK)
  • recordlinkage
  • Febrl - (Seems to be older and currently less well maintained.)

tgb417

If Dataiku is not interested in taking this on as a company plug-in. I'd be interested in working on a team to create this plug-in on a community basis. I'd likely take on pandas-dedupe as the core library for my plugin.

Please reach out if you are interested in colaborating.

--Tom

JCR

@tgb417
that's a great idea. Would be awesome to have more community-based extensions. We just started a program to enable and streamline this, @StephenWagner
can help.

tgb417

@StephenWagner

How do we proceed?

StephenWagner

Gread idea @tgb417

We've created the Dataiku Integration Development Guide to provide the community guidance in creating integrations and plugins - please take a look.

I'd recommend creating a post in the Plugins & Extending Dataiku section of the Community to try and pull a development team together.

- Steve, TPM - Ecosystem

tgb417

@StephenWagner
,

Ok, I've got a post out on the Plugin & Extending Dataiku board.

https://community.dataiku.com/t5/Plugins-Extending-Dataiku/Entity-Resolution-Record-Linkage-Plug-In/td-p/19880

Are you aware of anyone else interested in this specific topic, either customers, partners, or Staff?

I'd love to reach out to folks to gauge interest.

--Tom

StephenWagner

@tgb417
Unfortunately, I'm not aware of anyone.

tgb417

@simonmd

Welcome to the Dataiku Community. I'd love to hear more about your interest in record linkage.

--Tom

tgb417

There is a bit more discussion over here about the need for record linkage.

https://community.dataiku.com/t5/Using-Dataiku/Name-Normalisation/m-p/33191#M12258