- Slopegraphs — a nifty Tufte visualization which conveys rank, value, and delta over time. Includes pointers to how to make them, and guidelines for when and how they work. (via Avi Bryant)
- Ask Me Anything: A Technical Lead on the Google+ Team — lots of juicy details about technology and dev process. A couple nifty tricks we do: we use the HTML5 History API to maintain pretty-looking URLs even though it’s an AJAX app (falling back on hash-fragments for older browsers); and we often render our Closure templates server-side so the page renders before any JavaScript is loaded, then the JavaScript finds the right DOM nodes and hooks up event handlers, etc. to make it responsive (as a result, if you’re on a slow connection and you click on stuff really fast, you may notice a lag before it does anything, but luckily most people don’t run into this in practice). (via Nahum Wild)
- scalang (github) — a Scala wrapper that makes it easy to interface with Erlang, so you can use two hipster-compliant built-to-scale technologies in the same project. (via Justin Sheehy)
- Madlib — an open-source library for scalable in-database analytics. It provides data-parallel implementations of mathematical, statistical and machine learning methods for structured and unstructured data. (via Mike Loukides)
ENTRIES TAGGED "analytics"
How data and analytics can improve education
George Siemens on the applications and challenges of education data.
Education theorist George Siemens discusses education data: its current state, how it can shape customized learning, and what lies ahead for education analytics.
Four short links: 12 July 2011
Rare Visualization, Google+ Tech, Scala+Erlang, and In-Database Analytics
Strata Week: How much of the web is archived?
Cataloging the web's attic, improving healthcare data collection, Twitter buys BackType
In the latest Strata Week: Researchers are trying to figure out how much of the web has been archived, the Department of Health and Human Services looks to improve healthcare data collection, and Twitter acquires Backtype.
Search Notes: Why Google's Social Analytics tools matter
Can we finally track social? Also: New Google UI elements and a look at Plus response
In the latest Search Notes: Google Plus got all the publicity, but Google's Social Analytics tools and new interface elements are also notable.
Google Correlate: Your data, Google's computing power
Upload state- or time-based data and Google Correlate reveals search trends.
Google Correlate is a new tool in Google Labs that lets you upload state- or time-based data to see what search trends most correlate with that information. Here's a look at how it works and what you can do with it.
Outliers and coexistence are the new normal for big data
Analysis of complete data sets and integration of new tools are leading to revenue growth and new business models.
To benefit from advanced analytics and study complete huge data sets, many enterprise architectures are evolving into coexistence environments that combine legacy and new systems.
With sentiment analysis, context always matters
Matthew Russell on the limitations and applications of sentiment analysis.
Though sentiment analysis is subjective, Matthew Russell says using transparent methods and keeping the data in context are keys to making it an effective tool.
For publishing, sales info is the tip of the data iceberg
Publishers have data, but they need to know what to do with it.
Kirk Biglione, partner at Oxford Media Works, talks about how publishers can gather various types of data and put it to use.
Four short links: 14 March 2011
Future Retrospective, Political Entrepreneurs, Library DRM, and In-Database Analytics
- A History of the Future in 100 Objects (Kickstarter) — blog+podcast+video+book project, to have future historians tell the story of our century in 100 objects. The BBC show that inspired it was brilliant, and I rather suspect this will be too. It’s a clever way to tell a story of the future (his hardest problem will be creating a single coherent narrative for the 21st century). What are the 100 objects that future historians will use to sum up our century? ‘Smart drugs’ that change the way we think? A fragment from suitcase nuke detonated in Shanghai? A wedding ring between a human and an AI? The world’s most expensive glass of water, returned from a private mission to an asteroid? (via RIG London weekly notes)
- Entrepreneurs Who Create Value vs Entrepreneurs Who Lock Up Value (Andy Kessler) — distinguishes between “political entrepreneurs” who leverage their political power to own something and then overcharge or tax the crap out of the rest of us to use it vs “market entrepreneurs” who recognize the price-to-value gap and jump in. Ignoring legislation, they innovate, disintermediate, compete, stay up all night coding, and offer something better and cheaper until the market starts to shift. My attention was particularly caught by for every stroke of the pen, for every piece of legislation, for every paid-off congressman, there now exists a price umbrella that overvalues what he or any political entrepreneur is doing. (via Bryce Roberts)
- Harper-Collins Caps eBook Loans — The publisher wants to sell libraries DRMed ebooks that will self-destruct after 26 loans. Public libraries have always served and continue to serve those people who can’t access information on the purchase market. Jackass moves like these prevent libraries from serving those people in the future that we hope will come soon: the future where digital is default and print is premium. That premium may well be “the tentacles of soulless bottom-dwelling coprocephalic publishers can’t digitally destroy your purchase”. It’s worth noting that O’Reilly offers DRM-free PDFs of the books they publish, including mine. Own what you buy lest it own you. (via BoingBoing and many astonished library sources)
- MAD Lib — BSD-licensed open-source library for scalable in-database analytics. It provides data-parallel implementations of mathematical, statistical and machine learning methods for structured and unstructured data. (via Ted Leung)
Big data thwarts fraud
Report excerpt: Huge datasets and sophisticated analytics protect payment platforms from foul play.
Web-native payment platforms have a tremendous challenge combating fraud, but the solutions they have devised to deal with it have created enormous new opportunities. This is an excerpt from the "ePayments: Emerging Platforms, Embracing Mobile and Confronting Identity" report.
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