San Francisco-area designer Steve Pepple wondered whether data could help him explore neighborhoods — on the way to helping city planners build better, perhaps “smarter” cities.
He describes in a fun post on Medium, a genuine “data story,” how he set out to help people find “pockets of activity, vibrance, and new things.”
First, he joined a do-it-yourself project called Sense Your City.… Read more...
We agree by now that data’s a good compass. One neglected question is tougher: Which map?
Everyone’s known the kind of “grouchy guy” TDWI instructor Kellee M. Franklin, Ph.D tells about. This guy knew better than most of his co-workers about how their Washington, D.C.… Read more...
If data analysis somehow ends up supporting an unwise choice, should we blame the data? Of course not, no more than we should blame a stethoscope for a bad medical diagnosis or fingerprints for a bad courtroom verdict. Common sense says the only ones responsible are the humans involved.… Read more...
You may have seen yesterday’s New York Times story about ratings on Uber, AirBNB, and similar outfits. Customers rate providers, but providers also rate customers. And guess what: As coarse as a five-point scale may seem, actual ratings tend to be worse.… Read more...
We’ve heard about shortage of data-analysis help, and about senior execs who pooh-pooh the influence of analysis in decision-making, and about the “dead” self-service analysis. So when a vendor tells me about a direct-to-exec service, featuring a sort of concierge of analytics, I pull up a chair to listen.… Read more...