Analytics that improve your game

Got game? Analytics can help you get it, whether your sport is tennis, golf, or baseball. The trick is tracking your swing. Read more here. 

A soft sell for sensors

Wearables go where no devices have gone before when designed to fit wherever one wants them on  the body.  Fitting the device to the body, rather than the body to the device: that’s what defines the technology developed by MC10.  This privately held company partners with well-known brands, like Reebok, to bring its technology into the consumer space.  I spoke with Elyse Winer, Manager of Marketing & Communications at MC10 about the company’s innovative products. Read about it in  A Soft Sell for Sensors

The quantified swoon, or how readers fall for Mr. Darcy

Personally, I've never had a crush on Mr. Darcy -- in book or film form. But I see I'm very much in the minority here. You just can't argue with data. 

I wrote about the kind of data Oyster Books and similar services pick up on their readers a little while back in Reading & Being Read by E-Books
Now Oyster is sharing its data to track readers' fascination with Mr. Darcy. Here's the infographic that was shared by Huffington Post:

Related posts: http://uncommoncontent.blogspot.com/2013/06/jane-austens-heroines-from-extroverted.html

http://uncommoncontent.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-big-bow-wow-bit-of-ivory.html

When seconds can mean the difference between life and death

MARVLIS presents geographic and EMS call data plotted on a map

Though we tend to equate being predictable with being boring, in the case of optimizing emergency response, it is actually a virtue.

n emergency situations, response time can make the difference between life and death. 

Since it deployed the Mobile Area Routing and Vehicle Location Information System (MARVLIS) in 2008, Jersey City Medical Center EMS says it has better-than-average response times and markedly improved survival rates. MARVLIS combines geographic information system technology, wireless communications, and a global positioning system to produce real-time information that enables emergency response teams to get to their destinations faster.

Read more in

Analytics Speed Up Response Times for EMS

Oh the places you'll go and the stories your can can tell about htem

The main problem with the current state of in-car, location-based services is that they aren't required to notify consumers. It's possible that some motorists are completely unaware of who uses their location data, and how. Also, for four out of the six automakers, customers do not have the option to request that their historical data be erased. (The "right to be forgotten" is included in the EU’s data protection laws and recommended by the GAO.) Read more in 

In-Car Tracking: We Know Where You've Been

Written in the meta-data

Is it possible to identify an individual’s romantic partner on the basis of his/her social networks alone? That’s the question Jon Kleinberg, a computer scientist at Cornell University and Eric Bakstrom, a senior engineer from Facebook, teamed up to answer. After analyzing millions of Facebook data points, they came up with an affirmative response in Romantic Partnerships and the Dispersion of Social Ties: A Network Analysis of Relationship Status on Facebook -- they assert the answer is yes with a 60% probability. 

Read more in Your Romantic Attachments as Predicted by Metadata

Students on camera -- not for security

We have technology that can use cCameras in Class: Insight vs. Privacy

ameras in the classroom for analysis of lessons. What do you think? Learn more about the concept of  EngageSense in

Data privacy protection subject to law in Europe

Years before the NSA data spying scandal broke in the US, the European Commission turned its attention to the problem posed by data collection, though it took until October 21, 2013, for it to win the vote on the proposal. Read more in

Privacy Rights Progress in Europe

the MoMA goes mobile

Handheld devices put a wealth of information at your fingertips, and now museums are using them to enhance visitors’ experiences and enable people to relive their experiences afterwards. One thing to remember: that flow of data is a two-way street. 

This past summer, when I visited the Museum of Modern Art in New York, instead of audio guides outfitted with buttons that I had come to expect upon entry, I was given a sleek iPod to use. Like the audio guides, it provided access to recorded information about particular works of art on display, but it also provided a lot more options

Read more about the MoMA's mobile innovation here

A kind of nutrition label for apps

Your mobile apps know a lot about you: what you buy, how you pay for it, what you browse, and where you are when you do it. To get some idea of just how much data is collected about you and who else gets to see it, click on Target’s privacy policy http://m.target.com/spot/terms/privacy-policy#InformationUsed. While that information on data collection is available, most customers probably never bother to check it.  The question is if a voluntary code of conduct for apps that summarize the information upfront will provide better consumer privacy protection.  The NTIA believes it can, but as it is something companies are not required to opt into, its critics regard it as a diversion from more effective legislation.

Rather like the nutrition facts label on food packages, the short notice on apps is intended to which reveal at a glance how much of what you don’t want in your diet is in it. Also like the packaged food industry, the voluntary code frees companies from a mandatory label that might rate its data collection policies according to a government standard.

Read more in Voluntary Privacy Policy Proposed for Mobile Apps

There's a parallel to the nutrition labels printed on packaged food. If there were a legal mandate, then all apps could have a point rating to reflect how privacy-friendly (or not) they are. But without that, it's up to companies to be self-regulating, as it were, and voluntarily decide to briefly show some of its data collection facts.

This week's Advertising Age includes http://adage.com/article/news/big-food-preps-50m-push-facts-front-labeling/243475/. The food manufacturer want to avoid having a legal mandate, so they are spending $50 million to promote what they call ad "Facts Up Front." The idea is that putting that nutrional summation on the front of the package will satisfy those who are critical of the way they have represented sugary cereals and such as sound nutritional choices without having to accept an offical label that is not within their own control like the grade system recommended by the Institute of Medicine. With such a label, the foods that contain more fat, sodium, or sugar than the benchmarks set for them would get no stars at all. 

Your email organized

Imagine coming into your office and finding all your files rearranged for better organization. You get a note saying: “You’ll now find your important files here, your social media files here, and your promotions over there.”

That’s just about what Gmail did with inboxes a few weeks back. While I don’t really mind having my email organized according to the Gmail system, Google's ability to make the change really drove home the point to me that email metadata is open for use.
Read more in Learning About You From Your Email Metadata.

Pictured here is an example of the raw metadata sent to me by the Immersion team at MIT.

Promotions on the spot

Serendipity at the supermarket occurs when you spot your favorite cereal and have the coupon in hand. More likely, though, you have to hunt for your coupon, only to discover that it expired last week. At that point, you can either pay up or settle for the cheaper generic -- unless, that is, you're able to get a coupon on demand.

This third option, available at some stores by a company called VisibleBrands, is one made possible by analytics.  Read more in 

'Clipping' Coupons as You Need 'Em 

Data on drugs, dollars, & docs

One of the issues that Dan Ariely addressed in his book, The Honest Truth About Dishonesty, and in his 2009 blog, centered on the question of payments to doctors:

The real issue here is that people don’t understand how profound the problem of conflicts of interest really is, and how easy it is to buy people. Doctors on Pfizer’s payroll may think they’re not being influenced by the drug maker -- 'I can still be objective!' they’ll say -- but in reality, it’s very hard for us not to be swayed by money. Even minor amounts of it. Or gifts. Studies have found that doctors who receive free lunches or samples from pharmaceutical reps end up prescribing more of the company’s drugs afterwards.

Propublica launched Dollars for Docs. to publicize how much doctors are paid. At this point, its data encompasses more than $2 billion in payments that 15 major drug companies made to doctors in the period from 2009 for 2012.
Read more in Data on Drugs, Dollars & Doctors

Big data, analytics, and insight into health

Mobile phones coupled with apps make it possible for people to hold the key to their own health information in their hands at all times. There are major ramifications for this possibility.

  Healthcare Analysis: Doctor vs. Device explores the position that doctors are becoming obsolete, replaced by more timely feedback from monitoring devices.

IFighting Heart Disease With Big Data  looks at the Health eHeart plan to collect health data of a million people over ten years in an effort to learn more about heart disease, the leading cause of death in America.  

Getting libraries out of the horse-and-buggy days

In 1967, Dr. Vannevar Bush, who envisioned a computer capable of massive data retrieval in device he called a memex  published Science Is Not Enough, which included a chapter entitled "Memex Revisited," which considers the question of data compression and retrieval.  You can read the entire chapter here: http://www.bekkahwalker.net/comt111a/reading_pdf/memex-revisited.pdf

On p. 88, he brings a critical observation about priorities: 

The great digital machines of today have their exciting proliferation because they could vitally aid business, because they could increase profits. The libraries still operate by horse-and-buggy methods, for there is no profit in libraries. Governments spend billions on space since it has glamour and hence public appeal. There is no glamour about libraries, and the pubic do not understand that the welfare of their children depends far more upon effective libraries than it does on the collection of a bucket of talcum powder from the moon. So it will not be done soon. But eventually it will.

Now, 46 years, later, the public is understanding the importance of libraries, and the power of the internet to gather all the world's digitized information at put them at one's fingertips.On April 18 and 19, the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) will celebrate its launch at the Boston Public Library. In keeping with the ideals underlying the project, there is no charge to attend, though the registration forms indicate the event has filled up.

The dream of the DPLA was to harness the power of the Internet to break through the silos that isolate vast quantities of data collection at various universities, museums, and libraries. It began to take shape in late 2010 when representatives of various institutions met at the Radcliffe Institute in Cambridge, Mass., and resolved to take the necessary steps to bring together that data through cooperative content sharing. In bridging the public-private divide, DPLA has had to overcome the challenge of managing metadata variations and staying on the right side of copyright law.
Read more in Metadata Key for Digital Public Library of America

Smartphone signals for retail analytics

Shopping online offers customers convenience and price transparency, but it offers retailers even more. As Amazon has demonstrated in its successful model, the information it derives from its customer behavior online gives it insight that it uses to tailor its marketing to the individual. As your online browsing tracks, not only what you buy, but what you considered buying, the retailer gets to learn a lot more about you than the person who rings up your purchase at a store. How can a bricks-and-mortar establishment compete with that kind of analytic edge?

 Read more in In-Store Customer Analytics Get Digital Twist

Predictive analytics for relationships

That's at the heart of Dr. John Gottman's approach, which he expands on in his latest book, What Makes Love Last? How to Build Trust and Avoid Betrayal. I wrote about that book  here.

I've written about his earlier work in several posts:

The ultimate marriage manual

 and the 4 part Marriage success between two earthlings 

What would you include to represent 100 years of childhood?

See http://uncommoncontent.blogspot.com/2012/09/representing-100-years-of-childhood.html for thoughts on the MoMA's exhibit.

What's in a name?

Should data scientists be called "data artists?" That is what someone contend, as I discuss in 

What is a 'data scientist'?

Ultimately, working with Big Data effectively calls for using both the creative and methodical parts of the brain. In that way, it is, indeed, a science as Einstein  described it: “The mere formulation of a problem is far more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skills. To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle requires creative imagination and marks real advances in science.”

Sensors you swallow

The cliché advice from doctors who don’t want to be bothered after hours by their patients has long been, “Take two pills and call me in the morning.” But soon it might be: "Take a pill, and we’ll call you." Read more at "Take 2 Pills & They'll Call You"