Brenda Michelson

American Idol and Twitter teach us about Elections — active information

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In the strange but true category…

“A paper in EPJ Data Science asserts that analysis of social networking data can be used to accurately predict societal events, such as election outcomes. The authors reached this conclusion by studying Twitter activity related to the 11th season of American Idol.”

I wrote about the study in my latest active information post: Can American Idol and Twitter teach us about Elect… – Input Output.

Link Collection — September 9, 2012

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  • Americans Think Cloud Computing Comes From Actual Clouds | WebProNews

    “To get the embarrassing statistics out of the way first, the survey found that 51 percent of respondents believe that stormy weather can interfere with cloud computing. A plurality of respondents (29 percent) also think that the cloud is an actual cloud. A paltry 16 percent actually knew what the cloud was.

    “This survey clearly shows that the cloud phenomenon is taking root in our mainstream culture, yet there is still a wide gap between the perceptions and realities of cloud computing,” said Kim DeCarlis, vice president of corporate marketing at Citrix.”

    tags: cloud computing

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Weekend warriors rejoice: sensors to improve your game

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Yes, it’d be fair to say I have vacation on the brain. This week’s active info post:

“Over the years, I’ve highlighted many interesting, and even oddball, usages of sensor technology, from cow containment to mollusc-based oil spill detection. As my writing is directed at a business audience, I tend to highlight the commercial nodes on the ever-expanding internet of things.

Not today though. It is summer, after all. And like most, summer brings out my weekend sports warrior. Thing is, I’m not that talented. My golf outings would be better described as a watersport. My high school tennis prowess is long gone. And I have no foot-eye coordination.

But, there is hope for me…”

read: Weekend sports warriors: Improve your game, via se… – Input Output.
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  1. Active Info: Football and Weekend Data Warriors

Data analysis issue, or data collection issue?

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The research explored in my latest active information post caught the attention of my inner retailer, figuring out why customers do the things they do:

“…Sifting, cleansing and connecting disparate pieces of data to unearth a clue or two to customer behavior. Think click-stream analysis. And in the case of multichannel businesses, follow-on activities to correlate in-store visits, customer service calls and such.

That’s a significant amount of up-front time and effort. Compounding the issue, the shortage of data explorers is well documented. No wonder organizations are focusing on data collection and procrastinating on data discovery.

But perhaps, the big problem of big data isnt one of analyzing the data stockpiles. Rather, the problem is in our data collection techniques and scoping…”

Read the post: Customer behavior data: better collection, better … – Input Output.
Related posts:

  1. Big Data, ambiguity & the new era of Data R&D – active information
  2. 8 Rules for Big Data – Active Information
  3. Developing data literacy: Informed Skeptics & Big Judgment — Active Information

Link Collection — August 5, 2012

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  • The Perils of Highly Interconnected Systems – Technology Review

    Totally agree with this statement: “The key thriving in an increasingly complex world is to develop a nuanced, stable theory of interoperability.”

    We need to switch our thinking to systems-of-systems, in which information flow, interoperability, change, systemic implications and dot-connecting are key.

    But, as the commenters say, I’m not sure I could make my way through the book either… 

    tags: systems systemsofsystems interop

  • Big Data Presents Oppurtunities and Costs – The CIO Report – WSJ

    Agreed: data is inherently messy

    “But because Big Data requires companies to accumulate increasing amounts of data, even free software like Hadoop is causing companies to spend more money. According to Rubin, whose clients include several of the world’s largest banks, many CIOs believe data is inexpensive because storage has become inexpensive. But data is inherently messy – it can be wrong, it can be duplicative, and it can be irrelevant – which means it requires handling, which is where the real expenses come in. “The cost of more data is the application and the computing power and the processes to reconcile all these things,” Rubin said.”

    tags: bigdata cio wsj rubin

  • Why Procrastination is Good for You | Science & Nature | Smithsonian Magazine

    “Much recent research about decisions helps us understand what we should do or how we should do it, but it says little about when,” he says.

    In his new book, Wait: The Art and Science of Delay, Partnoy claims that when faced with a decision, we should assess how long we have to make it, and then wait until the last possible moment to do so.

    tags: procrastination delay

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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  1. Link Collection — January 8, 2012
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Link Collection — July 29, 2012

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  • Skills That Will Remain in Demand In a Computer-Rich World

    “How do we win the “man-vs.-machine” battle?

    The key is not to compete, but to partner — to develop new ways of combining human skills with ever-more-powerful technology to create value.

    Another key, on a more personal level, is to work on skills that help you couple the best of human creativity with computer power. These kinds of jobs are where many of the best future opportunities will lie.”

    Skills needed according to Brynjolfsson and McAfee: Applied math & stats, negotiation and group dynamics, good writing, framing problems and solving open-ended problems, persuasion, human interaction and nurturing.

    tags: skills digital

  • Life’s Work: Sally Ride – Harvard Business Review

    “Sally Ride thought she’d grow up to be a physics professor, and she did. But before that, she became the first American woman in space. She went on to found Sally Ride Science, a company focused on improving science education for kids, which she called a “business imperative for the country.” She died in July, at age 61, just weeks after talking with HBR. Interviewed by Alison Beard”

    tags: sallyride stem

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Visibility, Context, Correctness & Responsiveness — active information meets change-friendly

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This week on active information, I offer some observations on the Pew Big Data report in the context of one of my top projects: evolving business-technology architecture and practices to accommodate continuous change. (a.k.a. change-friendly)

My change-friendly tenets:

  1. You can’t change what you can’t see (Visibility)
  2. Context is king (Context)
  3. Not every change is the right change (Correctness)
  4. Delay is the enemy of change (Responsiveness)

The post teaser: “Big data ushers in a new era of visibility, for good and evil. But, visibility without timely, intended action, isnt all that big.”

The post: Visibility, Context, Correctness & Responsiveness … – Input Output.
Related posts:

  1. Active Information: Streaming through Computational World, Changing change via experimentation platforms
  2. Lessons from Bechtel on making information valuable via APIs — active information
  3. Roadmap for Digital Government: Information Centricity — Active Information

Lessons from Bechtel on making information valuable via APIs — active information

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My latest active information post highlights Bechtel’s case study on implementing an API strategy to satisfy the needs of data consumers without all the heaviness of the current, data creation focused, applications.

It’s a great case, covering the use of APIs at Bechtel, the business and technology drivers, the benefits, the underlying technology, challenges and future plans.

The post: Lessons from Bechtel on making information valuabl… – Input Output.
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  1. Roadmap for Digital Government: Information Centricity — Active Information
  2. Developing data literacy: Informed Skeptics & Big Judgment — Active Information
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Link Collection — July 22, 2012

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  • Becoming more strategic: Three tips for any executive – McKinsey Quarterly – Strategy – Strategy in Practice

    “Because strategy is a journey, executives need to study, understand, and internalize the economics, psychology, and laws of their industries, so that context can guide them continually.
    For example, being able to think strategically in the high-tech industry involves a nuanced understanding of strategy topics such as network effects, platforms, and standards. In the utilities sector, it involves mastery of the economic implications of (and room for strategic maneuvers afforded by) the regulatory regime. In mining, leaders must understand the strategic implications of cost curves, game theory, and real-options valuation; further, they must know and be sensitive to the stakeholders in their regulatory and societal environment, many of whom can directly influence their opportunities to create value.”

    “Moreover, many senior executives are happy to delegate thinking about such technology issues to their company’s chief information officer or chief technology officer. Yet it’s exactly such cross-cutting trends that are most likely to upend value chains, transform industries, and dramatically shift profit pools and competitive advantage.”

    tags: strategy mckinsey entrenched

  • Are You a Strategist? — HBS Working Knowledge

    “Montgomery maintains that strategy has been narrowed to a competitive game plan, separate from a firm’s larger sense of purpose. This has led to the eclipse of the leader’s unique role as arbiter and steward of strategy. The exaggerated emphasis on sustainable competitive advantage has drawn attention away from the fact that strategy must be a dynamic tool for guiding the development of a company over time.

    “Strategy has become more about formulation than implementation, and more about getting the analysis right at the outset than living with a strategy over time,” Montgomery says. “As a consequence, it has less to do with leadership than ever before.”

    Leading strategy
    Montgomery explains that leading strategy requires confronting four questions: What does my organization bring to the world? Does that difference matter? Is something about it scarce and difficult to imitate? Are we doing today what we need to do in order to matter tomorrow? Being a strategist means living these questions, she says.

    For a leader, becoming a strategist starts with getting clear on why, whether, and to whom your company matters.”

    tags: leadership strategy entrenched

  • The CIO As Chief Systems Officer – The CIO Report – WSJ

    “As a result, companies need talented executives in the business who can step back and look at what is going on from a holistic, systems point of view. How do you frame strategies so they can be quickly operationalized to meet the time-to-market demands of the business? How can you position what you are able to get done in the near term as phase one of your longer term strategy? As companies struggle to address those questions, CIOs are increasingly being asked to play the role of Chief Systems Officer, someone who understands the strategic requirements of the business and has the tools and the business ability to operationalize the strategy in a timely way.”

    tags: cio systems

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Link Collection — July 15, 2012

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  • Magazine 2012 July – Best of Maine: Unsung Hikes from an AMC Trip Leader

    “A hiking guide for the Maine Chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club, Carey Michael Kish has been exploring Maine’s forests and mountains for more than forty years. He is the editor of the AMC’s recently updated Maine Mountain Guide (amcstore.outdoors.org), beloved by hikers for its detailed no-nonsense trail descriptions and full-color topographical maps. Added to the tenth edition are more than two hundred trails that are either relatively new or often overlooked. We gave Kish, who loves them all, the tough task of recommending ten.”

    tags: maine amc

  • Why the days are numbered for Hadoop as we know it — Cloud Computing News

    Discusses technologies beyond Hadoop, in context of Google’s stack.

    “Most interesting to me, however, is that GMR [Google Map Reduce] no longer holds such prominence in the Google stack. Just as the enterprise is locking into MapReduce, Google seems to be moving past it.”

    tags: hadoop google gigaom

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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3 Practices to turn Big Data aspirations into business value – Active Information

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This week on Active Information, I highlighted research published in MIT Sloan on Finding Value in the Information Explosion. Jeanne Ross is a co-author, so you know it’s good stuff.

The good news is that IT organizations are stepping up to manage the data explosion.  The bad news is that these vast stockpiles of data aren’t generating a business return.

To turn Big Data aspirations into realized value, the research proposes three essential practices that BUSINESS leaders must embrace.

Read about these practices: Turn Big Data aspirations into business value – Input Output.
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  1. Active Information: Data Scientists, Moneyball, Competitive Analytics & Big Data Definition
  2. Big Data, ambiguity & the new era of Data R&D – active information
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Link Collection — July 8, 2012

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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