LIBRARY

Our Great “Reads”

We’re often asked about what books, articles, blogs, and online publications we’re reading and talking about, so we created our library. Let us know what you think of our “picks” and feel free to send us your recommended reading list as well!

Analytics - The Big Picture

Articles & Posts

As we use the Internet for “free,” we have to remember that if we’re not paying for something, we’re not the customer. We are in fact the product being sold — or, more specifically, our data is.
Nesta Hot Topics: The power and possibilities of Big Data This report covers the key concepts discussed during Nesta's day-long event which brought together entrepreneurs, academics, business people, and investors in the Big Data space.
Nesta report: The power and possibilities of Big Data Who owns your "electronic soul"? As we share ever more personal data with governments and private companies such as Facebook, it's a live issue -- and one which Nesta will address in a document it is due to publish tomorrow.
Privacy Policies Are Dead, Privacy Watchdog Says It's time for the web to move into an era of "just in time" notifications whenever new types of data are being collected or when our data is being used in new ways.
Visualization deconstructed: New York Times "Mapping America" A look at what works in a census visualization.
Bridging the Gap Between Data and Insights This desperation for getting the right information to make business decisions is placing more pressure on executives to consume even more data; forming an addiction to data in absence of good business information.
2011 Watchlist: 6 themes to track Data will be in the driver's seat, social tools will become ubiquitous, and the meaning of privacy will be debated.
Strata gems: What your inbox knows Mining implicit data trails makes CRM more effective
Has the internet changed science? The ocean of information available on
the web is challenging the standard model
of hypothesis-driven science. Yet that model has always borne little relation to the mucky reality of scientific research.
Sizing the big data problem: ‘big data’ is the problem How big is the big data market? How long is a piece of string?
Strata gems: What your inbox knows Mining implicit data trails makes CRM more effective
Lack of foreclosure data leaves big questions The worst foreclosure crisis in the nation's history might have been detected earlier if the government had a better tracking system for mortgage data, experts say.
Big Data: How are People Using it? At a recent conference on “Big Data” sponsored by Aster Data, attendees were asked what type of “Big Data” plans they were considering.
Facebook Makes Big New Move to Capture More User Data Facebook today unveiled an incredibly simple new service that will allow any website owner to hand over user registration for their site to Facebook.
How Does Predictive Analytics Work? Understanding the basics of predictive analytics is as easy as saying your ABC’s.
The Real Lessons of Gawker's Security Mess Gossip site Gawker has experienced a large data breach whose scale fully came to light Sunday.
The top five predictive analytics strategy tips Enterprises with a bias toward action are most likely to have success with predictive analytics.
Sizing the big data problem: ‘big data’ is the problem If we are to understand the opportunity for storing and processing big data sets then the industry needs to get much more specific about what it is that is being stored and processed, and what we are using to store and process it.
What Will Your Customers Buy Next? Using sophisticated math and vast amounts of data, predictive analytics software can help forecast and influence purchasing behavior. So why aren't more companies using it?
Dipity taps data for infographics and revenue Easy-to-use timelines catch on with consumers and publishers.
Using predictive analytics tools and setting up an analytics program Predictive analytics tools turn the BI software selection process on its head
Total data: ‘bigger’ than big data Total data is not simply another term for big data; it describes a broader approach to data management, managing the storage and processing of big data to deliver the necessary BI.
Big Data Flows vs. Wicked Leaks Most big data flows by design.  But when big data leaks the consequences can be wicked. That said … protecting big data from wicked leaks is not going to be easy.  Defending against external cyber penetrations and insider threats are both hard problems.
Is there a disconnect between Big Data and the Web of Data ? The Big Data space is seeing remarkable innovation, but there is a long way to go in order to lift it out of the domain of the technically proficient specialist and place it on desktops across the organisation.
Data Analytics All Departments of Correction are using automated inmate management and other systems to varying degrees, providing the essential platform to move forward and turn data into actionable intelligence.
New York Times Looks for Answers in Data What Mark Hansen, a UCLA statistics professor on sabbatical, and Jer Thorp, a data artist in residence at the Times, have found is that stories take on a life of their own, which can be mapped and visualized in some startlingly beautiful ways.
From MIT/Sloan “Analytics: The New Path To Value”   A new way of  working means asking more and better questions of your data is critical, then finding non-obvious relationships  and ways of making constant, iterative changes.
Overcoming Tradition with Analytics – Baseball’s Mindshift With the collection of statistics paralleling the emergence of analytics in all forms in business and daily life, journalists have shifted their mindset in determining what qualifies as “best”.
Data analytics software, data management transforms Kelley Blue Book For some companies, business intelligence (BI) and data analytics have improved the way they do business. For Kelley Blue Book, data analytics has fundamentally transformed the company.
Customer Data Drives Marketing Success Proper access to and analysis of customer data is critical to marketing success, according to a new report from Aberdeen Group.
HP shows profit from data mining Computer giant HP added $20 million (£12.5 million) to its bottom line through data mining activities, demonstrating that businesses can see a huge return on their analytics investment.
You want the data? You can't handle the data! Execs in government and industry are being overwhelmed by a sea of information, a new survey finds
Unlocking The Power Of Big Data Start using data to predict the future, not just learn from the past.
A data management strategy without policies spells doom 'Policies first' is the best data management strategy. They will help to ensure that data is easily retrievable, as well as classified and retained properly in the first place.
MBTA makes real-time data available Mass transit in Boston may not always be totally reliable -- but it just got a whole lot more predictable.
What a Hundred Million Calls to 311 Reveal About New York How New York City's 311 service helps to isolate problems and solve mysteries--all from analyzing the data.
Open question: How much location information are you willing to share? Location adds a new twist to privacy debates.
The Data Budget Data analysts need to set limitations. It may be helpful to indicate this important requirement as the data budget: "Given the quality and volume of our historical data, we only have the data budget to answer questions about 3 segments, not 12."
What Rapleaf Knows About You--WSJ Reports You may not know them, but Rapleaf knows an awful lot about "you"--like your name, email address, household income, and even your politics.
The Ever-Expanding Important of Analytics -- True Intelligence for Business A lot of data and content come with a short shelf life of significance. Analytic solutions need to bring this information more quickly into intelligence processes.
Deep Analytics: What is it, and How do I do it? Sophisticated tools and technologies support predicative analytics and modeling.
A Web Pioneer Profiles Users by Name An online tracking company called RapLeaf Inc. may know more about you than you think--your real name and email address.
'Scrapers' Dig Deep for Data on Web Many scrapers and data brokers argue that if information is available online, it is fair game, no matter how personal.
10 Insights: A First Look at The New Intelligent Enterprise Survey How do you win with data? MIT Sloan Management Review surveyed global executives about turning the data deluge and analytics into competitive advantage. Here's an early snapshot of their responses.
A Taxonomy of Data Science Where can I find a good data scientist? What do I need to learn to become a data scientist? What is data science?
Market Data Firm Spots the Tracks of Bizarre Robot Traders Mysterious and possibly nefarious trading algorithms are operating every minute of every day in the nation's stock exchanges. Nanex, a data services firm has dragged some of the odder algorithm specimens into the light.
Sensor Networks Top Social Networks for Big Data The growth of sensors has opened up a larger storehouse of information that will not only help businesses profit, but will also boost safety and environmental benefits.
Widgets maps, and an API make World Bank data sing  The new data.worldbank.org website looks to make the vast wealth of open data easier to use.
Stopping crime before it starts Sophisticated analysis of data can sometimes tell police where criminals are headed. It's academic now, but the LAPD plans to get involved. 
Strata Week: Money, mayhem, and media  LAPD goes precog, Mint shares its data, and journalists get a new data visualization tool. 
Sensor networks and the future of forecasting  How data, combined with low-cost sensor networks, can spot extreme weather before it hits. 
Redesigning the New York City Subway Map  A great example of data visualization and the reinvention of the iconic New York City Subway Map -- an excerpt from Beautiful Visualization. 
Earthquakes are HUGE on Data.gov The raw data on the Data.gov catalog now has 2,326 entries and has been collectively downloaded almost three-quarters of a million times. The biggest winner? The earthquake data set.
The Cut Free Autopsy How data and digital imaging are shaping virtual autopsies -- an excerpt from "Beautiful Visualization."
Goodbye petabytes, hello zettabytes The digital universe grew by 62% last year to 800,000 petabytes.
What is Data Science? The future belongs to companies that figure out how to turn data into products.

Books

   
Analytics at Work: Smarter Decisions, Better Results Analytics at Work: Smarter Decisions, Better Results
Davenport, Harris, and Morison
This book examines how any manager can effectively deploy analytics in day-to-day operations, one business decision at a time.
Beautiful Visualization  Beautiful Visualization: Looking at Data Through the Eyes of Experts
Julie Steele & Noah Ilinksy
This book examines the methods of two dozen visualization experts who approach their projects from a variety of perspectives — as artists, designers, commentators, scientists, analysts, statisticians, and more.
Statistics Hacks, Tips, and Tools Statistics Hacks: Tips & Tools for Measuring the World and Beating the Odds 
Bruce Frey
A
great book for the layperson that covers practical applications of statistics.  It is a joy to read and really gives a flavor of things that can be accomplished.
Library Image SuperCrunchers: Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart
Ian Ayres
One of the inspirations for PatternBuilders’ Analytics Framework (PAF).
Library Image Envisioning Information
Edward R. Tufte
Spend some time with this book as it has some amazing examples of information design.
Library Image The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
Edward R. Tufte
A timeless classic in how complex information should be presented graphically.
Library Image Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative
Edward R. Tufte
The “standard” for how one should think about displaying dynamic data.

Groups

Library Image LinkedIn Group—Business Intelligence and Analytics
LinkedIn community of professionals interested in talking about and sharing information on business intelligence topics such as data warehousing, analytics, tracking trends, etc.
Library Image LinkedIn Group—Data Shaping Advanced Analytics
LinkedIn community of professionals interested in talking about and sharing information on analytics and data mining.

Blogs, Columns, & Websites

BBC Dimensions How big is big? BBC Dimensions takes important places, events, and things and overlays them onto a map of where you are.
Data Mining and Predictive Analytics A blog that provides tips, tricks, and information on data mining and predictive analytics.
New York Times FiveThirtyEight Blog The FiveThirtyEight forecasting model is based on a rigorous analysis of polling in past presidential elections and is in "play" again as the blog looks at upcoming November elections.
O'Reilly Radar A blog that provides insight, analysis, and research about emerging technologies. It's coverage of big data, data science, and data visualization had made it one of our daily "must reads." Specific posts are covered in our Articles & Posts section.

Healthcare - Transforming How We Think About It

Articles & Posts

Anonymized EMR-based Data Analysis – The Next “Big Thing” in Healthcare Digitization of medical records is rapidly becoming mainstream. Very rapid advances in our understanding of disease, and how best to treat these conditions, can unfold much faster than ever before.
The Language of the Health Internet PCAST calls for the creation of a "universal exchange language" to enable healthcare providers to share health information in real time, and a "digital infrastructure for locating patient records" while still providing for patient privacy and security.
Data Spills Cost U.S. Hospitals $6 Billion a Year When healthcare organizations lose sensitive data en masse, it gets hit with customer losses and legal bills--an average of about $1 million per U.S. hospital per year, or about $6 billion annual for the entire industry.
Deconstructing Gawande--why narrative and structure are important An analysis of Gawande's piece in the New Yorker on death and dying.
Letting Go Atul Gawande's New Yorker article on what medicine should do when it can't save your life.

Books

Library Image Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance
Atul Gawande
Inspiration for many of the ideas embedded in our Healthcare Analytics application.

Blogs, Websites, Online Publications, etc.

Library Image The Health Care Blog (THCB)
Is known as one of the most respected independent voices in the healthcare industry. The Wall Street Journal says that it is "…among the most widely read insider publications in the field. Web MD calls it “a free-wheeling discussion of the latest healthcare developments."
Library Image Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)
An independent, not-for-profit organization focused on improving healthcare throughout the world. A great source for events, web seminars, and articles.

Non-Business, But Really All About Business

Books

   
Library Image Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior
Ori Brafman, Rom Brafman
How to make “better decisions” and why dissent within companies should be welcomed.
Library Image Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
Malcolm Gladwell
How we make snap judgments and how we can train ourselves to make better one.
Library Image Outliers: The Story of Success
Malcolm Gladwell
A must read for anyone wanting to start a company.
Library Image The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
Malcolm Gladwell
Understanding how little changes can have big effects.
Library Image Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Economics for the non-economist.
Library Image Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game
Michael Lewis
The art of analytics, baseball style.

Retail - Insightful Analysis Translates To Actionable Information

Books

Library Image Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping--Updated and Revised for the Internet, the Global Consumer, and Beyond
Paco Underhill
One of the first to suggest that we should analyze how we shop.

Groups

Library Image LinkedIn Group—Consumer Insights
LinkedIn community of professionals interested in talking about and sharing information on best practices for understanding, uncovering, articulating, and validating Consumer Insights.

Whitepapers

Achieving Channel Excellence—How to Audit Your Retail Sales Channels The channel audit is your retail sales channel barometer. It functions as a “documented” record of all your retail sales channels processes, operations, and technical assets. The channel audit highlights what you do well and areas where you can improve. By focusing on those areas of improvement, you gain a significant advantage over your competitors.
Leveraging Channel Sales Data to Achieve Greater Success Today, external sales channel data is used primarily by operational and logistical systems to ensure that product is always available on store shelves. However, with the appropriate business processes in place as well as the application of enabling technology, this data can be used to transform every aspect of the manufacturer’s business—from more “insightful” product innovations to higher ROI’s on marketing spend to improved relationships with distributors, retailers, and most importantly, consumers.

Software Development, Technology, And All That Cool Stuff

Articles & Posts

Big data faster: A conversation with Bradford Stephens The founder of Drawn to Scale explains how his database platform does simple things quickly.
Strata Week: Shop 'til you drop Stack Exchange goes in-house, Netflix pays for platforms, survey data gets visualized, and Infochimps acquires Data Marketplace
3 "Big-Data" Predictions for 2011 How will compliance-driven structured data retention affect your enterprise? Will expensive data management software fall and sustainable IT rise as a result?
Business Analysts Meet Hadoop One of the supposed benefits of data frameworks such as Hadoop is that they provide a cost-effective way to manipulate so-called “Big Data."...The challenge with Hadoop, however, is that its native interface is MapReduce. In the corporate world, SQL is king.
Predictive Analytics Make Their Way to Enterprise Networks "Predictive analytics for IT is about understanding vast amounts of real-time data to forecast performance issues before they affect users," said Daniel Heimlich, vice president at Netuitive.
Big Data for the year ahead: 10 predictions 2011 will be the year of ‘Big Data’ — and big challenges for those maintaining IT infrastructures.
The Algorithm + the Crowd are Not Enough The weaknesses of this crowdsourced + algorithmic system are showing, and the next revolution feels inevitable.
The next decade: Solving the big 3 IT problems The next decade will bring challenges in many areas of information technology. Although new ideas and technologies are constantly emerging, only those that can deliver real value to businesses and consumers will be successful.
Does 'big data' equal big opportunity for storage vendors? There is no question in my mind about whether traditional data warehousing will be transformed into "big data" analysis applications. This need is being seen across industry segments, but is currently most prominent in health care, government, and retail. What storage professionals need to understand now is how the big-data wave will affect data storage.
Data that is derived, augmented, enhanced, adjusted, or cooked Namely, one of the first questions one should ask in considering an analytic data management strategy is: Do we have to plan for data other than what we will be storing in raw form?
Data analytics requirements push database tech to limits Complex, real-time analyses fuel demand for specialized analytics platforms, report says.
Toward an Open Data Maturity Model The open data community continues to ruminate on some fundamentals. For instance, what is “high value data?” Also, what does “open data” really mean?
 $2.25b buys ‘big data’ firm EMC Corp. made a big bet on “big data’’ yesterday, agreeing to pay $2.25 billion for Isilon Systems Inc. , a Seattle company that builds relatively low-cost systems for storing immense amounts of information.
The upcoming revolution in business intelligence systems CIOs forging their BI strategies soon will have to grapple with business intelligence systems that are little more than buzzwords today: social network analysis, organizational network analysis, context-aware computing, even sentiment analysis.
The 100-year Leap Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine was a century before its time. So why not build it now?
The SMAQ stack for big data Storage, MapReduce and Query are ushering in data-driven products and services.
Big Business for Big Data What IBM's acquisition of Netezza means for the enterprise in terms of technology and appliances.

Blogs, Websites, Online Publications, etc.

Library Image Dr. Dobb’s Journal
Great resource for software development, technology trends, and the like.
Library Image

 

Stack Overflow
Programming Q&A site, built and maintained by programmers—you have a question, someone will have an answer.