Month: December 2013

Choppy waters don't exactly have much in common with an office environment. One thing they do share, however, is that the principles behind Big Data can apply equally well to both. In fact, it was those ideas that propelled Larry Ellison to an incredible win in the America's Cup.

In a sense, it's not surprising that Ellison should have sought to marry analytics and sailing. His company, Oracle, is one of the biggest technology companies in the entire world. It was this savvy that he was able to apply to the design and tactics of his chosen boat for one of the most prestigious races in the world.

Oracle's victory was one for the use of analytics and custom database software. Both of its boats had hundreds of sensors, which recorded thousands of variables. Some of the data points were so discrete that they were measured six hundred times per minute. The sailors themselves were given electronic tablets to use, as well as wrist displays and wireless capabilities. All of this information allowed designers to better understand how the boat could handle different conditions, as well as how close it was to operating at peak efficiency at all times.

All of this data-gathering yielded some valuable insights. Instead of the longer 80-foot trimarans, the team deduced that 72 feet was the largest boat they could easily control. By deciding on a catamaran, they were able to achieve high speeds without sacrificing the necessary portability — boats must be capable of being transported in shipping containers and reassembled within two days. 

There's a valuable takeaway here, even for those not inclined towards the seas: the more information you can process and analyze, the more of an advantage you'll have. 

Schools around the country have seen FileMaker support their education efforts, providing meaningful data on student achievement and helping teachers contextualize performance and provide help when necessary. But in order for the software to help students, they have to show up to school in the first place.

Can a database drag a student out of bed and into the classroom? Not quite, but it might be able to do the next best thing.

That's the ambition behind an initiative by the Arlington County school district. Administrators have tapped ten teams of data scientists to analyze anonymous information and extract any meaningful trends that could help them to address their dropout rate. A panel of educators and analysts will judge the most compelling submission and offer up a huge cash incentive: $10,000. 

Arlington's truancy rates aren't terrible: they've been slashed from 13 percent in 2008 to just 6 percent this year. But the county is anxious to do more, understanding that every student should be put in a position to succeed. Crowdsourcing insights from outside data teams is a step in that direction. 

"Increasingly, people are considering this [data] a public resource. At the end of the day, it was created with public dollars," said Chris Kingsley, a policy analyst at the Data Quality Campaign. "If we can publish it and let other people come in and look at it, we can derive more value out of this data."

The teams will get access to information on assessment scores, schools attended, courses taken, grades, absences, demographic information and graduation status. If they're able to extract salient takeaways, it could push Arlington County's dropout rate even lower, a powerful benefit in its goal of providing a quality education for every student. 

Getting involved with large-scale analytics is an important first step. Working with a FileMaker developer to design a way to collect, sift and categorize your data can pay immediate dividends. If you want to take your analysis to the next level, though, it might be time to think about visualizing.

Simply put, "visualizing data" takes the information you have and organizes it into in image to highlight particular trends. It isn't meant to supplant spreadsheets, but rather to enhance them. This process creates an ease of communication that facilitates cooperation, and can turn a meeting from a slow process of poring over numbers, to an efficient exchange of big ideas. A trend that might not stand out when it's amid other numbers on a screen could suddenly become obvious when displayed in another format. 

You can even adjust it so that the image updates in real-time. Using color and design, these snapshots can tell a high-level story about your data, which the information itself can then elaborate on. If, for example, you are trying to sell a potential client on the efficacy of your product, a graphic representation might be more visually arresting. Once you've created that interest, you can use the particulars to support the narrative. 

This approach also pairs well with using a service like FileMaker. Since the software allows you to parse your information so quickly and efficiently, it's simple to create visualizations that can highlight a variety of different factors. Using images is yet another way to use the powerful tools afforded by Big Data to create approachable and workable takeaways. 

In some ways, technology has had a negative impact on the environment. The inexorable march of mechanization hasn't always been kind to the earth or to the other animals that live on it. Now, however, Hewlett-Packard is focusing its managed IT services software on mitigating or reversing those issues entirely.

The company announced "Earth Insights" on Tuesday, a program that seeks to apply the analytical power afforded by Big Data to help aid in environmental efforts. 

"HP Earth Insights uses our products and services to deliver near real-time analytics to provide scientists with more accurate and more actionable environmental information," HP president and CEO Meg Whitman said in a statement.

The software can identify trends in animal endangerment in real time. This capability creates a sort of "early warning system" for threatened species: rather than being reactive, and attempting to save an animal after it is already too late, conservationists can address threats before they become catastrophes. What used to take a team months to gather and analyze can now be done by a single person, in just a matter of hours.

So far, about 1,000 cameras and sensors have been installed in forest areas around the world, providing a wide range of information, including vegetation, precipitation, temperature, carbon stocks, humidity and solar radiation. This data is then distributed to area managers, governments and researchers for analysis. Working together, they can help not only protect animals, they can also develop policies that best support their habitats.

HP has already reported valuable insights. With all of the negative effects innovation can have on the environment, it's heartening to see it used to protect it.