Archive for the ‘data visualization’ Category
Live @ Information On Demand 2012: A Q&A With Nate Silver On The Promise Of Prediction
Day 3 at Information On Demand 2012.
The suggestion to “Think Big” continued, so Scott Laningham and I sat down very early this morning with Nate Silver, blogger and author of the now New York Times bestseller, “The Signal and the Noise” (You can read the review of the book in the Times here).
Nate, who is a youngish 34, has become our leading statistician through his innovative analyses of political polling, but made his original name by building a widely acclaimed baseball statistical analysis system called “PECOTA.”
Today, Nate runs the award-winning political website FiveThirtyEight.com, which is now published in The New York Times and which has made Nate the public face of statistical analysis and political forecasting.
In his book, the full title of which is “The Signal and The Noise: Why Most Predictions Fail — But Some Don’t,” Silver explores how data-based predictions underpin a growing sector of critical fields, from political polling to weather forecasting to the stock market to chess to the war on terror.
In the book, Nate poses some key questions, including what kind of predictions can we trust, and are the “predicters” using reliable methods? Also, what sorts of things can, and cannot, be predicted?
In our conversation in the greenroom just prior to his keynote at Information On Demand 2012 earlier today, Scott and I probed along a number of these vectors, asking Nate about the importance of prediction in Big Data, statistical influence on sports and player predictions (a la “Moneyball”), how large organizations can improve their predictive capabilities, and much more.
It was a refreshing and eye-opening interview, and I hope you enjoy watching it as much as Scott and I enjoyed conducting it!
CNBC: Texas’ Is the 2012 “Top State For Business”
I turned on CNBC this afternoon to catch up on business news just in time to see Texas governor Rick Perry doing a standup interview over at the University of Texas to celebrate Texas’ being chosen for the third time in the past several years as the “America’s Top State for Business.”
According to CNBC’s Scott Cohn, Texas “racked up an impressive 1,604 points out of a possible 2,500,” and had top-10 finishes in “six of our 10 categories of competitiveness.”
Texas has never finished below second place since CNBC started the study in 2007.
This year’s categories, developed in concert with the National Association of Manufacturers and the Council on Competitiveness, included the following: “Cost of Doing Business,” “Workforce,” “Quality of Life,” “Infrastructure and Transportation,” “Economy,” “Education,” “Technology and Innovation,” “Business Friendliness,” “Access to Capital,” and “Cost of Living.”
Diving deeper into the results, Texas has the nation’s best “Infrastructure” and improved to second place for “Technology and Innovation,” and boasts the third lowest “Cost of Living.”
On the downside, Texas came in 26th in “Education” and 35th of “Quality of Life,” apparently getting dinged for less available health care and higher property and sales taxes.
Obviously, this is very exciting news here in Austin and across the state of Texas, especially considering the vast diversification we’ve seen of the Texas economy over the past decade. When I was growing up in Texas, energy and oil dominated the economy, but we’ve seen massive investments and innovations in more diverse fields these past 20 years, including high tech, telecommunications, biotechnology and life sciences, health care, and many more, all in a business-friendly (read: less regulation and taxes) climate.
But we’ve still got some work to do, I would submit.
If you’re a person of little means, whatever else you do, don’t get sick here. Texas is not expected to expand Medicaid or establish a health insurance exchange, according to another recent announcement by Governor Perry, and only 31 percent of physicians in Texas accepted Medicaid patients in 2011, according to the Texas Medical Association and as reported in the Texas Tribune.
So, congrats to the great state of Texas…I’m really glad to hear we’re doing a great job of taking care of business…but clearly there’s some work yet to be done in taking better care of our people!
Using Mobile Phones and Social Networks to Fight Non-Communicable Diseases
Here’s some shocking statistics: According to the World Health Organization, nearly two-thirds of all deaths occur due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) which contribute to more than 60 percent of deaths worldwide.
Over the coming decade, some 388 million worldwide will die of one or more chronic illnesses and the cumulative losses in global economic output due to NCDs will total $47 trillion by 2030.
But before you go jump off a tall building, some new solutions developed by university teams could soon be harnessed to help manage the glowing global problem of such NCDs like asthma, diabetes, stroke, and cancer.
As part of the NCD Challenge, sponsored by IBM and pharmaceutical maker Novartis, a global competition was held to bring together industry and academia to create innovative, easy-to-use solutions that help fight the human and social burden of NCDs.
Like a social-media enabled support system for pregnant women with gestational diabetes and an advanced smart-phone service, both of which could have tremendous impact in managing diabetes and other diseases.
Developing World Solution: 2Vidas
Winners of the competition were the Hass School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, and ESADE Business School-Universidad Ramon Llull in Barcelona, Spain.
The developing world solution, from Berkeley, involved “2Vidas,” a pharmacy-based membership program for low- to middle-income pregnant women to address the growing problem of diabetes in Mexico.
The project’s aim is to make a lasting health impact on two lives during a finite period in which women have increased motivation to take better case of themselves for the health of their babies.
The program works by providing pregnant women access to monitoring tools at local pharmacies, support through peer-led sessions, and encouragement via positive SMS messaging that rewards self-management and offers health tips.
The potential economic impact is the ability to save women 58-98% of out-of-pocket monitoring costs, depending on frequency of use, and the health system an average of $110 per enrolled women per year through improved diabetes control — lowering the risk profile of the mother’s pregnancy and the baby’s propensity for NCDs.
2Vidas membership program will deliver an estimated $10.4 million in systemic cost savings and $475,00 in added value creation over five years.
Developed World Solution: Dr. Diabetes
Developed by the ESACE Business School-Universidad Ramon Llull, the Barcelona-based team’s effort, “Dr. Diabetes,” utilizes a handheld device with an application and two cloud servers.
It is a total solution designed to provide diabetes awareness, monitoring, and management to patients with chronic illness, initially for China.
It also provides early awareness to the public and streamlines diabetes management for patients. The solution provides medical data via cloud computing to physicians for accurate diagnosis, and to pharmaceutical companies and hospitals for efficient research and development.
The solution is designed to be scalable to support other NCDs. It is designed to lower the risk of complications, decrease treatment costs to patients by up to 73%, and decrease their hospital visits by 65%.
Winning teams were recognized this week during the NCD Awards Ceremony at IBM headquarters in Armonk, NY, and Novartis headquarters in East Hanover, New Jersey.
People interested in learning more and in joining the conversation on the topic of fighting non-communicable diseases can do so in the People for a Smarter Planet on Facebook, and via Twitter at #NCD.
They can also join in the “Smarter Healthcare” group on LinkedIn.
Navigating The Tech Cosmos @ IBM Software Universe India
I’m well into my third day of a very busy but most enjoyable business trip to Bangalore, my second in as many years.
You’ve read as I’ve written about the crazy traffic, the superb food, the wonderful people, and even an IBM India win vis a vis Escorts Group.

India’s most awaited annual software conclave arrives on October 20th, in Mumbai, in the form of the IBM Software Universe India conference.
Now, it’s time to get down to software business. And what better way than to encourage technology peeps in the sub-continent to consider attending IBM Software Universe India.
The event is scheduled for October 20, 2011, at the Renaissance Convention Centre Hotel in Mumbai. I’m told this is India’s most awaited annual software conference, and a learning ground for IT professionals and developers who want to stay ahead of the technology curve and industry trends.
At the event, attendees can expect to hear about the next big wave in software, and centering around seven unique and diverse tracks: Social Software, Business & Collaboration Solutions, Business Analytics, Application Integration & Optimization, Business Infrastructure, and Security & Risk.
From the optimisation of traffic systems and electric grids, to the delivery of better education, transport and healthcare, to reducing costs with cloud, smarter software is inspiring new thinking and ideas that might be applied to business goals.
Some of the featured speakers and tidings you can expect:
- Keynote from John Dunderdale, VP Growth Markets, IBM, on “Harnessing the Nexg Big Wave”
- A motivating keynote by tennis legend Martina Navratilova
- Sessions by eminent industry leaders and subject matter experts
- A Bollywood Night performance by celebrated singer, Sunidhi Chauhan
- Networking with peers
- Exclusive, on the spot industry certifications
There will also be sneak previews on futuristic technology topics, including Watson, the Spoken Web, Big Data, Social Business, Track & Trace, and others.
For those who might be interested in attending the event, you can find more information and registration information at this website.
You can also find ongoing updates at the IBM Software Universe India blog.
For those of you who are socially inclined, in India and beyond, you can follow the following Twitter ID : @ibmsoftware_in and the conference hashtag: #ibmswuin.
Visualizing the U.S. Open
If it’s late August, it’s time for some serious tennis.
Yes, it’s already that time again. The U.S. Open tennis tournament kicks off this evening out at Flushing Meadows in Queens, NY.
What do you need to know about the tournament this year, particularly if you wish to follow the action closely, if remotely?
For over 19 years, IBM has worked with the U.S. Open to bring a better tournament to millions of tennis fans worldwide.
One of the best examples of this partnership is USOpen.org.
Built and hosted by IBM, the official tournament site offers real-time scores direct from the court for every single match.
You can also find updated statistics and video highlights of the day’s action, talk with other fans, and follow the U.S. Open Twitter feed.
During the 2009 U.S. Open, the site attracted over 13.5 million fans.
You can also download the U.S. Open iPhone app.
- LIVE Scores and completed match results during the Open.
- Latest News updates from on and off the court throughout the tournament.
- “Around Me” Find the nearest live matches, concessions, or the next train home with this augmented reality feature, Presented by IBM
- USOpen.org Radio – American Express special feature – LIVE streaming radio and play-by-play Open coverage featuring Ask the Booth—a live, interactive Q&A with match commentators.
- On Demand Video, Around the Grounds and American Express insider player profiles and more.
- Tweets from the US Open official Twitter coverage, as well as featured players.
- Visiting the Open featuring maps of the grounds, onsite American Express Cardmember benefits and other great spectator info.
Visualizing the Point
But if you’ve ever sat out at Flushing Meadows and watched any of the world class tennis that’s played there, you know there’s actually a whole lot of data being generated there: Every serve, every volley, every point, every match is filled with a voluminous amount of data — the challenge is keeping up with it all.
This year, IBM has partnered with the U.S. Tennis Association to try in the form of its PointStream solution, which will pull intelligence from the huge amounts of data around scores and match statistics, then demonstrate that information in real-time.

U.S. Open PointStream, powered by IBM, will help tennis fans better follow the action online through real-time data visualization of key statistics, including service speeds, rally counts, double faults, break points...all the key metrics in tennis.
PointStream will show aces, serve speeds, winners, and all other key data of a match visualized in real-time, allowing online fans to get that much closer to the action to matches in progress.
Closer, but not too close.