Find Hidden Patterns in Big Data – A Commentary on MINE, Reshef et al (2011)

You may have read something about ‘Detecting Novel Associations in Large Data Sets’, a paper appearing in Science, 334, 1518 (2011) by David N. Reshef et al.. You can check out the software here. This is an initial commentary and an explanation about what it’s all about. The Longer You Look, The More Likely Error [...]

Dec

18

Web Analytics Wednesday – October 26 – Wellington

Web Analytics Wednesday is tonight at The Wellington, in downtown Toronto’s analytics alley. It’s generously supported by AT Internet. There are some 40 people – representing among the best of the best, who will be in attendance. It’s a great opportunity for web analysts, social analysts, marketing scientists, data scientists, hackers, developers, and usability professionals [...]

Oct

26

The Complex Quest For Simplicity in Social Media Measurement

The Quest for Simplicity in Social Media Measurement (#smm) is one that will dominate the year. Trying to produce something simple out of something complex is…complex. There are seven axioms that are guiding a lot of my thought in dealing with that complexity: 1. The purpose of analytics is to derive competitive advantage for the [...]

Mar

01

Little Things that Make Big Impacts

The cleanest way I could explain the Butterfly Effect was to say: “Let’s say my shoe is loose. So I decide to bend down and tie it really tighter, inadvertently creating a knot. Let’s say the next morning, I have a hard time getting my shoe on – for let’s say, four minutes. Then let’s [...]

Jan

12

Complexity

I’ve spent a lot of time this week managing complexity. And it’s gone well. I think looking for simple and remembering the end goal are two key ingredients. Backcasting happens a lot. Expecting exogenous shocks instead of being all outraged when they happen is another. That’s all that’s really on the mind. That and how [...]

Dec

04

Simplicity versus Complexity

Malcolm Bastien was nice enough to lend me a book: The Laws of Simplictity by John Maeda. The Coles notes of that compact volume is: “Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful”. Wonderful. Thanks Malcolm!

Aug

18

“Simplicity” and “Complexity”

I think that sometimes, it’s human nature to try to add complexity to seek a competitive advantage. Sometimes there’s competitive advantage in Ease. In easyness. In simplicity. A good example is the difference between Windows and the original command line DOS. Another is between Mac OX and Windows. Simplicity isn’t easy though. It’s far easier [...]

Jul

10