• April 22, 2014

Big Data: Are We Making a Big Mistake?

Amid the big data frenzy, it is easy to get so bedazzled by its seemingly limitless potential that one overlooks common pitfalls when applying it. At times like this, it is more important to see big data as what it is not: big insights. The “big data” that interests many companies is what we might […]

• February 21, 2014

Big Data Marketing

We now have a new word for businesses that sell data – data brokers. Third-party data brokers sell all manner of information to businesses, e.g.: Turnstyle, a company that has placed hundreds of sensors throughout businesses in Toronto to gather signals from smartphones as they search for open wi-fi networks. The signals are used to […]

• February 12, 2014

Adaptive Content

One of the most insightful talks on content strategy. Karen McGrane on Adaptive Content Content should be designed for reuse and ‘platform agnostic’ (forget web first or print first). The idea that you are not in the magazine publishing business, you are not in the web publishing business, you are in the content publishing business, […]

• January 22, 2014

Maths for Love

This story is yet another example of the power of data. How a Math Genius Hacked OkCupid to Find True Love. “I think that what I did is just a slightly more algorithmic, large-scale, and machine-learning-based version of what everyone does on the site,” McKinlay says. Everyone tries to create an optimal profile—he just had […]