Snoopy and Ozick: find out what they have in common

That's one of the cartoons featured in http://uncommoncontent.blogspot.com/2012/09/what-do-cynthia-ozick-and-snoopy-have.html

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.

You can get your own Facebook Report

just bring along the salt shaker Read Your Personal Social Data, Visualized to understand why a few grains may be necessary when reviewing your stats.

IT and business don't always agree on big data

Not all decision makers within an organization are on the same page with respect to big data plans. The disparity is due to the different perspectives of the business and IT end of the organizations.

Read more: IT, business have different views on data - FierceBigData 

Analysis in light of the Pareto Principle

Many businesses who are not getting as much utility out of big data as they would like identify the source of the problem as their inadequate hardware, and inadequate finances. However, in a Smart Data Collective post, Paige Roberts argues that it's not the hardware, but the software that's to blame.

"Investing in better utilization of existing hardware is a far better, more sustainable, and cost-effective solution" for businesses who find their current setups inadequate. Roberts points to the inefficiency built into current "utilization rates of hardware [that] are around 15 percent worldwide." Even the most efficient data centers max out at only 20 percent, meaning that 80 percent is untapped.

Do those numbers ring a bell?

Read more: What's the real problem with the hardware? - FierceBigData

What do Long Island and Arlington, Texas have in common?

The answer is science. This topic was of particular interest to me because I've visited Brookhaven, one of the institutions involved in the partnership, multiple times. It's on Long Island, which, surprising, as that may be, actually has quite a history in connection with science as engineering, including the space program. 

Their goal is to extend the PanDA system for more general applications. Brookhaven and UT Arlington originally developed the workload management system to process the massive quantities of data involved in a component of the research of the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC.

Read more: Project aims to improve big data processing for science and engineering - FierceBigData http://www.fiercebigdata.com/story/project-aims-improve-big-data-processing-science-and-engineering/2012-09-11#ixzz26BQk146W 

The ROI of social media marketing

SumAll’s “vision” is based on “making data beautiful, affordable and accessible.” Its target is small and medium sized companies that have not had the same access to the analytics tools that larger companies have used to “leverage their data to make better decisions and more money” Like Toms and Warby Parker, SumAll declares itself devoted to  “do good by doing right.” To that end, it grants a share of itself to SumAll.org. 10% of its ownership to a non-profit called. 

The company itself is not intended to be nonprofit, planning on charging for premium services in future, though for now at least,  tool is available for free.

Read more: SumAll pins an ROI on social media metrics - FierceBigData http://www.fiercebigdata.com/story/sumall-pins-roi-social-media-metrics/2012-09-06#ixzz25iYqd6Rh