Description: Two recent articles in the New York Times highlight two different aspects of a single phenomenon: we build powerful machines, their capabilities lead to unintended consequences, and they ensnare us in some unforeseen way. Source: Forbes.com. Date: Sept 20, 2011 The first discusses a new technology, an improvement, really, of a technology that’s been… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Business Intelligence
Using the Webb to Investigate Jurors
Description: The internet is being seen as a legitimate way to screen jurors to see if they will benefit a particular case for one side or the other. There are two sides as the benifits and downsides of using theses technologies in this fashion. Source: Cnn.com Date: Sept 20, 2011 Questions for discussion: Do you… Read more »
Ticketmaster’s CEO Dishes on New Interactive Seat Maps
Description: We’re one of the few ecommerce companies that gets to connect with each of ourcustomers in person. They tell us where they will be at a given date and time, down to the exact seat location. So enhancing the event with geosocial is a cool part of the evolution of the experience and part… Read more »
Best Buy Gets Amazoned: Is It Doomed?
Description: Is it plausible to expect that Best Buy’s sales clerks will offer better advice than the many expert reviews on the Internet, augmented by the hundreds or thousands of customer reviews for Best Buy’s bread and butter products? Source: Forbes .com. Date: Sept 15, 2011 My friend, Paul Carroll, is peeved at Best Buy. … Read more »
Writing Machines — Their Uses and Meaning
Description: A Sunday business column in The New York Times looked at the work of a start-up, Narrative Science, that combines computer science and journalism. Its software takes data and converts it into stories — short summary-style articles so far, but ones that don’t really read as if they were written by a machine. Source:… Read more »
Data Analytics: Crunching the Future
Description: New analytics technology is predicting behavior—and building businesses. In the early 2000s a wave of startups made it possible to gather huge volumes of data and analyze it in record speed—à la SecureAlert. A retailer such as Macy’s (M) that once pored over last season’s sales information could shift to looking instantly at how… Read more »
Social Media Scrutiny after UK riots
Description: Source: British Prime Minister David Cameron suggested that the government should impose limits on the “free flow of information” when it’s “used for ill.” “When people are using social media for violence, we need to stop them,” he said then. Source: CNN.com Date: Sept 8, 2011 “Instead of detailing plans to block criminals’ access to… Read more »
This Data Isn’t Dull. It Improves Lives.
Description: GOVERNMENTS have learned a cheap new way to improve people’s lives. Here is the basic recipe: Source: NYTimes.com Date: March 12, 2011 Take data that you and I have already paid a government agency to collect, and post it online in a way that computer programmers can easily use. Then wait a few months…. Read more »
Sentiment Analysis Gives Companies Insight Into Consumer Opinion
Description: MOBI is part of an emerging technology that can tell a company almost instantaneously how people are feeling about a particular business, executive, product, stock, or advertising campaign Source: Businessweek.com Date: March 1, 2011 Automated sentiment analysis is an emerging field that overlaps with many others such as business intelligence, customer service, and brand reputation… Read more »
Carrots, Sticks and Digital Health Records
Description: The goal is to improve health care and to reduce its long-term expense by moving the doctors and hospitals from ink and paper into the computer age — through a shift to digital patient records. Source: NYTimes.com Date: Feb 26, 2011 The long-range vision is that computerized patient data is a step toward what… Read more »