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February 2011

Feb 19, 2011
#French Quarter
Google Labs Launches Dataset Publishing Languagecode.google.com

Google launched the Dataset Publishing Language (DSPL) to spur standardization in data visualization and metadata formatting. With any new technology, it’s important to figure out why a company is working the new product or service. In this case, Google wants more data for people to interact with its visualization tools so they can become a de facto standard.

Link: DSPL (Google)

Feb 19, 2011
#big data #visualization #Google #DSPL
McKinsey Recommends Big Data for Reinvigorating the US Economyeconomist.com

One of McKinsey’s recommendations for reinvigorating the US economy through greater productivity and innovation is tapping the potential of big data.

The potential runs from Big Data—data-driven business decisions and actions—to cloud computing and the application of advances in biology and the life sciences.

Article: US Productivity (The Economist)

Feb 17, 2011
#big data
IBM's Watson and Storage System Developersnews.cnet.com

After 3 days of competition IBM’s Watson crushed the best human players that have ever been on Jeopardy. Now the debate begins on how relevant Watson’s software will be outside the niche game show setting.

CNET has an interesting article on what Watson means to storage system developers. Watson may not be a true big data analytics system because its actual memory bank of answers is less than 1 terabyte of data. Does that mean big data is irrelevant because storage capacities over 1 terabyte are unnecessary? In 2011 that may be true for many industries. But in 5 years we will have much more data for analysis due to sensor networks and the big data analytics systems will have to grow to meet that demand.

Article: What IBM’s Watson Means to Storage System Developers

Feb 17, 2011 1 note
#big data #IBM #Watson
O'Reilly's Strata Conference Reviewsauria.com

Ted Leung went to O'Reilly’s recent Strata conference and wrote a detailed review. Ted’s take away was that it was a good conference but it will take several iterations for it to be a great conference. Since data science is an interdisciplinary field, the leaders in the space are still emerging. The next Strata conference is in September in NYC and I’m sure O'Reilly will be listening to the feedback to improve their offering.

Link: Strata Conference Review

Feb 15, 2011
#big data #Strata
User Experience with Big Databusinessinsider.com

There’s a lot of information coming out from the Strata conference just held by O'Reilly. In this article the author discusses the role of user experience and user interfaces in helping user’s understand big data.

An effective user interface is one of the three main areas for effective big data implementations (other two are data collection and analysis).

Article: The Role of UX/UI in the Big Data Revolution

Feb 15, 2011
#big data #visualization
Big Companies Drain Employees' Productivitycybaea.net

This article explores how poor productivity is at large companies. The productivity is likely caused by communication overhead. These findings also help explain why a small team of half a dozen veteran programmers can outproduce a large team of 50+ mid-level developers.

Article: The 3/2 Rule of Employee Productivity

Feb 10, 2011
#productivity
Big Data in the Coming Decadegigaom.com

GigaOM makes four standard predictions for the coming decade that relate to big data:

  1. Employers will seek people with data analysis skills
  2. Data producers will figure out new ways to monetize their data
  3. The old sense of privacy, where individual could remain anonymous, will end
  4. Some new companies will be based purely on commercializing data

I would add that in academia research on advanced concepts in big data will become a hot topic. Also, many schools will get on the trend by creating offshoots of computer science and statistics majors that focus on programming data analysis algorithms.

Article: Mining the Tar Sands of Big Data (GigaOM)

Feb 10, 2011 1 note
#big data
Data marketplaces continue to emergeblog.datamarket.com

This article is a blog post by DataMarket, which just launched a data set marketplace. If DataMarket along with InfoChimps and other data markets are profitable, they could emerge as an important source of public data to combine with proprietary data to create new business value.

DataMarket blog post: 13 Thousand Data Sets, 100 Million Time Series, 600 Million Facts

Feb 6, 2011
The Iron Triangle Revised To Reflect People

Arin Sime wrote a great piece on the iron triangle of software development. Arin proposes we add a fourth dimension to the iron triangle that represents employee morale. Adding employee morale really fills in the model and I’m surprised no one suggested it before.

But there was one question I was left with after reading Arin’s article. Why should business leaders care about employee morale, especially if the project is staffed with consultants?

Who cares if consultants burn out producing software as long as it’s on time, within budget, and fulfills the desired scope? Here are three quick reasons:

  1. Negative reputation. Running your business by exploiting others instead of building trust and respect will come back at you. Your customers will find out. This is the Internet Age. Word travels fast. Your business reputation is difficult to build but easily destroyed.
  2. Troublesome future projects. A consulting firm that respects its employees will no longer do business with you in the future. Ones that continue to do business with you will staff future projects with less productive workers because good consultants will refuse to work with you.
  3. Poor software quality. What is “done” in application development? Software is only as good as the business value it produces. When your business changes, how easy is it to adapt that software? If the software foundation is built on sand and it requires a completely new architecture to handle any changes, the long term value of that software is jeopardized.

Software development is about people. If you screw over your people, it is unpredictable in what ways it will come back to negatively impact you later.

Feb 4, 2011
#AgilityFeat #agile
Why 75,000 Applications in A Week Might Be Bad for Google

Google received 75,000 applications in a single week in a tight labor market for top technical talent. Here are several potential reasons that may be a bad thing [1]:

  1. It takes a lot of time to sort, review, call, interview, decide, and potentially offer to that many applicants. That’s a lot of resources that could be used for something else. If you have developers performing interviews then “Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule” becomes an issue because the developer’s schedules are so broken up [2].
  2. Is the Google reputation for only hiring the best and brightest weakened because they are on a hiring binge? It’s one thing to say “we need more great people!” It’s another to set a public mandate that you’re going to hire 6,000 new employees for an increase of ~23% in total headcount. That’s a big slow company mentality. Doesn’t Google want to figure out a better way to do things?
  3. If the brand is damaged, is Google receiving many applications from people who are not qualified? That’s fine in a small company if you can weed out unqualified applicants. But at most big companies there’s people that fall through the cracks. Especially when recruiters are trying to make a hiring target for the month.

In addition to the volume of applications, why does Google need to hire that many new people? The company built their core business with less than 6% (1900/32000) of the total employees they hope to have by the end of 2011. Google’s product portfolio has expanded dramatically since their IPO. Yet it appears inertia is taking over a company that was a start up only 10 years ago.

[1] I am in Washington, DC but it’s really tough to find great available developers here. I’m assuming most other major U.S. and European cities are similar in that regard.

[2] Paul Graham - http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html

Feb 4, 2011
#google #hiring
Consulting Career Mismatch

Consulting firms and their consultants are locked in a struggle. In this post I define that struggle as consulting career mismatch.

Have you seen an “I’m an IBM-er” commercial? We learn about the interesting project the speaker on the commercial is working on. He’s employed by IBM. But we never learn the consultant’s name! The speaker’s career benefits if he gains name recognition. Instead IBM takes credit for the consultant’s hard work. But IBM pays the consultant’s salary and for the commercial. IBM wants the positive recognition because it provided the resources to execute the work.

Consulting career mismatch appears when the best interest of your career is misaligned with your consulting firm’s strategic direction. For example, you want to build your reputation as an expert in business intelligence. You want executives to call you when they have a business intelligence question. But your firm, XYZ Consulting, wants you to be one of thousands of “XYZ Business Intelligence Consultants.” XYZ Consulting wants to be the firm that receives the phone call from executives for business intelligence solutions.

IBM is the most obvious example of where consulting career mismatch can occur but it applies to all firms. The mismatch is most poignant at large firms because they have greater leverage over individual consultants.

Large firms want you to be an interchangeable cog in their consulting machinery. If you are a nameless consultant whose proof of excellent work depends solely on the firm’s reputation then you are less valuable without employment at that firm. The firm won’t have to pay you a premium for your services because you do not create as much value on the open market without the firm’s name recognition.

Consulting career mismatch is not inherently bad. You can still have a great career at large consulting firms despite the mismatch. But mismatch can derail your ambitions when aiming to be a recognized expert at a large firm. There is less friction when building your niche reputation as an independent consultant or part of a small firm that depends upon your success to remain in business.

Career mismatch should be seriously considered by every consultant that wants to build a unique personal reputation. The environment at your firm impacts whether or not you are successful and how that reputation is received.

Feb 2, 2011
#consulting
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