One word: spreadsheets.
Late in 2011, as I was assessing the IT needs for my new business, I theorized that it might be possible to move to a tablet as my main computer when my aging laptop died (Read “I Need a Mobile Application Strategy“). Then I signed on two clients to produce survey research reports. Each of the nine reports involved datasets containing dozens of tables. Continue reading
Recently I’ve been looking into how big data is influencing the relationship between IT and other business functions. There’s a consensus that end users, as business domain experts, are going to have increasing influence over investments in data and the technology to analyze it. You can already see this happening: I wrote last month about how Atrius Health transformed its analytics organization. Continue reading
Recently, I covered an event for a client, blogging about each presentation and subsequent discussion. (Sorry I can’t provide a link. The content is proprietary.) The event was in Tuscon, but I attended remotely, via videoconference. So did a handful of participants, including one of the presenters. Continue reading
I spent a couple of weeks last month interviewing experts about the big data workforce—that mix of IT pros, statisticians, mathematicians, engineers and functional business experts who companies need to tame their burgeoning databases. The resulting story, Building Your Big Data Team, is posted at Data Informed, a new website focused on big data technology, applications and management. In my story, there’s some advice for IT and business leaders about education and training for data scientists. Continue reading
I have spent the past couple of months working on projects that turn out to be related: a feature on Big Data analytics, and one about motivating students to pursue STEM–science, technology, engineering and mathematics–careers. (Both projects are in progress–publishing sometime this winter, I expect.) Continue reading
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