“It’s murder on the dancefloor. But you better not kill the groove. Dj, gonna burn this goddamn house right down.” (British Kids will get it.) Owyang wrote on August 26 that it’s 1:50 am on the social software dance floor. Owyang’s summary is excellent and solid. It’s worth reading. It’s worth considering. I’m adding: I don’t know if it’s 1:50am, 12:05am, or 1755 for SMMS. The chart below is on reason why I’m not so sure: I don’t think we’ve even really gotten started. I don’t think we’ve even begun really using social technology to its potential at all. It’s 1755 and we’re unsatisfied with the amount of work that steam does. And meanwhile, old man McCraken is hollering about[…]

A pretty neat visualization from XKCD caught my eye. Check this out. It’s so much chart. Look at the big view. Wow. A few points: It’s a lot of chart. Look familiar? It’s very similar (identical) to the radiation exposure chart. It’s great take on a powers of 10 journey…it can be very hard for us to understand huge scales. *** I’m Christopher Berry.Follow me @cjpberryI blog at christopherberry.ca

This is pretty neat. Neil Fanthom put together this visualization of population pyramids of multiple countries. Demography is destiny. usually. It’s a pretty good implementation and worth checking out. *** I’m Christopher Berry.Follow me @cjpberryI blog at christopherberry.ca

Want attention? Make a prediction. The past, for most people, is static. It’s disempowering. Nobody likes a historian. And, in general, modern analytics produces artifacts that go to some data gulag. In many ways it’s worse than a museum. At least a museum has curation and it’s an exhibition of some aspect of the past. At least the material is architected to be engaged with and causes enlightenment. As much as the idea of a museum treatment to archival information is attractive from an operations optimization perspective, it’s the wrong direction. We belong to a forward-looking society. Tell me about the future. Predictions are powerful. They set expectations. High expectations are, rightly or wrongly, the fuel of choice for your[…]

In case you missed it, the NYT had a great article on the relationship between lines and complaints. Substituting occupied time with waiting time will increase satisfaction. Reducing uncertainty over the length of the wait will increase satisfaction. Reducing the perception of the length of the line, regardless of actual time spent in line, will increase satisfaction. It’s a great article, and worth the read. *** I’m Christopher Berry.Follow me @cjpberryI blog at christopherberry.ca

Special snowflakes are gleefully shouting ‘told you so’ about social media marketing. So brave. Gartner released their 2012 hype cycle a few days ago. Look at it below: You can see text analytics there, reaching the absolute bottom. Everybody, it seems, these days can say that text analytics sucks. Which is great, because being negative about an entire field is the surest way to demonstrate expertise in an otherwise crowded pack. They’re brave too. Predictive analytics is now mainstream, which is awesome because I no longer need to spend 12 weeks extolling its virtues early in the development cycle. Our good friends: HMTL5, Gamification and Big Data are nearing the peak too. Social analytics, it would seem, is jumping the[…]

This This is neat. What could your clothing tell you about yourself, and others, that you don’t already know? *** I’m Christopher Berry.Follow me @cjpberryI blog at christopherberry.ca

I’m equally skeptical of individual truth and of collective wisdom. We have a tough time, as a group of people, agreeing to what fundamental things mean. Like color. The XKCD color survey is awesome. The data is there and available for secondary analysis. And you’re welcome to it. The summary chart below is beautiful, and, demonstrates the actual variation in labeling between two groups. This case is interesting alone. Different populations look at the exact same thing, and report a different label for it. This variation in opinion can generate problems for a data scientist and a marketing scientist alike. The idea that objective reality exists, and what you see depends on your own bias, shouldn’t be all that tricky[…]

Something pretty neat to share. Check out HN Stats. HN, or Hacker News, is a simple news aggregation site. It features an upvote/downvote system. And, it hasn’t been ruined by becoming popular. It has its days where quality sort of erodes, but at 30 headlines on the front page, chances are good that I’ll find three of the links relevant. That’s a far better hit rate than most of the subreddits I browse. The interface is polished and there are a few design patterns that are unique. We spend so much time staring at the same design patterns that it’s hard to imagine anything else. Sometimes the ideas that help us also trap us. It’s welcomed. Thank you Nafis for[…]

Wired posted a in depth description of the power of the A/B test in April. It’s pretty good. The A/B test is a tactic that has to fit inside a strategic activity structure. The real value in repeated, persistent, A/B testing is the knowledge that you gain. It makes you a better a manager.  It can make the organization stronger.  It leads to really good results if taken over time. But it’s part of a system of management that includes a healthy attitude towards resolving uncertainty using testing. It’s tough to implement because it’s often seen as an attack on somebody’s experience as-a-something. It shouldn’t. *** I’m Christopher Berry.Follow me @cjpberryI blog at christopherberry.ca