Women of the Eniac

Fascinating piece and images.   I worked with a person at the University of Pennsylvania who had been an electrician working with the Eniac.  We have come a long way from a room full of tubes and wires.

Tom Peters on 21st Century Organization

In McKinsey:   An interview that takes some interesting directions: ' ...  " ... Well, one answer to that, as far as I’m concerned, is “I don’t know.” My real bottom-line hypothesis is that nobody has a sweet clue what they’re doing. Therefore you better be trying stuff at an insanely rapid pace. You want to be screwing around with nearly everything. Relentless experimentation was probably important in the 1970s—now it’s do or die. It takes a certain confidence, though. The first partner I worked for at McKinsey had the self-assurance to look a chief executive officer in the eye and say, “We don’t know what the hell’s going on. Can we play with this together?” .. ' 

Coca-Cola Gathers Streams of Big Data

Another example of the broadening use of Splunk for analyzing data streams.

Coca-Cola gets inspiration for IT automation from its bottling plants
Able to tell what people are buying from vending machines and when

Coca-Cola, the multi billion pound drinks company, today revealed that its automated bottling plants are inspiring its IT operations, particularly in the area of data collection. 

Michael Connor, the multinational corporation's senior platform architect and the man behind the claim, said Coca-Cola is collecting unprecedented levels data as a result of automation processes that have been enabled through Splunk’s data management and analytics platform, in conjunction with the Amazon Web Services cloud platform. .... "

Vinimaya and Procurement Success

Have worked with Vinimaya a number of times.  Impressive capabilities in context sensitive procurement improvement.   By creating marketplaces to focus procurement decisions. They have started a webinar series.

Honda Robotic Chair

Saw this demonstrated in a retail setting.  The Honda Uni-Cub.  But apparently still not available for purchase.  In Engadget.    An example of a one wheeled personal transportation device, but with a seat rather than requiring upright balance. Many pictures at the sites.

GUI Package for R Analytics

A GUI package for R analytics.   From what is called the PLS institute.  Now taking a closer look at R for packaging solutions for analytics.  Ideas?

Hub for Data Analysts and Scientists Launched

A Hub for Data Scientists.

It will serve two main purposes:

1) It will promote sharing of models and code publicly or privately across a company to save Data Scientists and Analysts from “reinventing the wheel” every time and increase access to explore data among employees that need it.

2) It will also become a popular place to show off your data science work to potential hiring managers, which is often critical to landing that first great gig for new, post graduates of Master and PhD programs. ...  " 

Location is Still Everything

Book brought to my attention:  Location is Still Everything, By David R. Bell.

In Retailwire: " .. Wharton School professor David Bell, whose specialist subject is digital marketing and e-commerce, has made headlines with a new book, Location is (Still) Everything, proclaiming consumers' physical locations play a significant role in determining online shopping habits.

"What's important is the location of the customers themselves relative to their offline options," Prof. Bell told The Washington Post. "Physical circumstances define your offline options and, therefore, the attractiveness of the online option." ... " 

@davidbnz

So What is Watson Anyway?

A good compact video on how IBM Watson works, and also how it is different from the 'rule based' expert systems methods we developed in the 90s.

In particular the natural language ingesting of resources like documents, images and expertise.  Also including learning as a natural part of its process, which should improve maintenance of expertise, and  its use in new contexts.

We should note that these are claims, and quite ambitious ones, so how well this works in practice remains to be seen.   Actively investigating.   Health care application tests are the most prominent ones today.

Data Mining Blog

A blog by Richard A Denman on analytics.  Some interesting points about data mining and its use in systems.  Short pieces on important concepts.  Also a rare mention of how analytics should pay attention to relevant process.  Worth a look.

Cloning your Best Decision Makers

This was an approach we attempted during the early 90s, in the era of expert systems.  Even in the C-Suite. I am in the process of reviewing those attempts now, to see how they might be revived.  Now,  in an era of cognitive computing, the approach has changed, but the idea is still there.  It also means you need to have an understanding of what your decision processes actually look like. Based on my experience, that is not common. More to follow here as this progresses.

Site of Google Brand Lab

Compelling data. Big ideas. Creative juice. Put Google research and insight behind your thinking.

Digital innovation continues to propel the marketing industry forward, and the pace is mind-blowing. As marketers, we rely on data, analysis and insights to stay informed and inspired. Think with Google is our way to share all of this and more with you.

Think of us as your resource for everything from high-level insights to deck-ready stats to useful tools. Here you will find the data we’re exploring and the trends we’re tracking along with forward-looking perspectives and behind-the-scenes looks at digital campaigns —across industries, platforms and audiences. We hope you find it helpful and visit often.  ... "

Shinkansen Anniversary

Recent 50th anniversary of the Shinkansen - Japanese bullet train, have ridden it a number of times, which incorporates a number of transportation innovations.  ( Original article is gone, here is another.)

Most Data Rich Companies

Have recently been looking at the value of data.  And also the volume of valued data held by companies.  This article looks at which companies hold the most.  Not unexpected result.  Some interesting details included.

Watson Expanded to Multiple Industries

In CWorld:  Good view of where they are doing tests. Mostly about Watson Analytics being applied. Nothing in grocery retail as yet, an opportunity.  " ... IBM on Tuesday revealed details of how several customers are putting Watson to work, showing that cognitive computing has garnered at least an initial interest among different sorts of businesses. Naming customers also helps other businesses feel more at ease about trying the new technology. .... " 

On the Digital Economy

I see that Don Tapscott has a new book out.   We toured him through our newly minted innovation center in 2000.  The Digital Economy: Promise and Peril in the Age of Networked Intelligence  by Don Tapscott.  Plan to read.

Data and Fashion

In O'Reilly:     " .... What the data world can learn from the fashion industry?  ... How generating conversations can become one of the most important data assets for any organization. .. " 

Skills of a Data Scientist

What are the required, or even very useful skills of a data scientist?  From the always interesting Data Science Central.   Here a recent aggregation and pointer to lots of examples:

" .... here has been a number of interesting articles recently, discussing the skills a data scientist should or might have. The one entitled The 22 Skills of a Data Scientist is a popular one (see 22 skills listed below, or click on the link to read the full article). Earlier this morning, I read another one on LinkedIn: Data Scientist – MUST have skills?. The picture below comes from this LinkedIn article. Some of these articles have been posted on our network, by external bloggers, for instance, skills you need to become a data scientist or Some software and skills that every Data Scientist should know. Popular ones include how to become a data scientist and Are You A Data Scientist ? ... "

Virtual Reality and Empathy

Can a set of goggles make you nicer?   In the BBC:  At the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab.  Quite a long look at experiments with the idea of altering behavior using VR.

 " ... to see for myself just how powerful virtual reality technology has become, and I’m soon to find out that there’s some truth to the notion that virtual environments can change the way people behave in the physical world. In the day ahead, I’ll be both utterly terrified and behaving like a superhero – and the effects on my behaviour will linger for days afterwards.... 

Given the fact that mere minutes in VR managed to change my behaviour outside of the lab, I am inclined to take heed of Bailenson’s promise about the persuasive power of his technology. Yet at the same time, I can’t wait to spend more time in virtual worlds. I just hope I don’t have to walk across any more deep pits.  ... " 

Unlocking Big Data with AI

AI as the key to unlocking big data.  " ... Big data and how best to utilise it has become a perennial subject, and the endless debates around it rarely come to a satisfactory conclusion. However, it is technology that will unlock the benefits, and narrow AI (artificial intelligence) in particular that will bring together big data and other sources of information to create large and informative data pictures. ... "