cooking the books

I like analysing data*. And I also like to cook*. It only hit me recently that these two passions may be linked.

• Both of them require an attention to detail balanced with a focus on outcome.
• Both (to an extent) involve losing yourself in another world.
• And with both, either things work or they don't. There are steps to be taken if they don't work out but ultimately you have to bin it.
• Both do not require managing or persuading other people to do stuff (once you have your ingredients).
• And both are best when the results are presented to other for appreciative consumption.

Or is that just me?

*I like it but I don't always do it well.

virtual worlds (2): damned lies

I love data & statistics so I was mightly pleased to find this article in The Economist. Marvel at the lovely feats visual rhetoric created by Florence Nightingale & co. While I think that virtual worlds have some utility for training (where the skills being taught are primarily concerned with information manipulation), I think the real action is in visualising things you can't find in the real world. If we will indeed be Competing on Analytics more and more in the future then we will need robust ways of understanding this data. Most people are more comfortable with pictures as opposed to numbers so visualisation tools will be critical.

More on social software visualisation

Laurel goes nuts for socialistics. Facebook sees more & more innovation around "consumer SNA" - already noted here. These aren't analytics per se - no betweenness or centrality measures here. But they are giving people the new best friend of analytics - visualisations.

Ross talks about some specialist social networking sites here and their enterprise brethren here.

The collision of social networking tools with visualisation tools will accelerate the uptake of both. Those who have been banging on about SNA for the last 20 years may find themselves the flavour of the month. Interest in SNA/ONA got a resurgence in the corporate world a couple of years ago but now seems to be moving into the consumer environment*. I think this new round of social network mapping will be extremely messy & lacking in rigour. But it will also be a fascinating group experiment as individuals try to make sense of this stuff. And manipulate for their own ends (human beings are like that). And get caught out by incorrect inferences (as anyone with SNA experience can tell you - the map is not the territory).

*For once moving in the opposite direction to other social software trends.

Hyperreality (mashable planet)

Kaye discusses virtual worlds in general & SL in particular. And she links to this very interesting MIT article on called Second Earth. Unlike Kaye, I never really been a gamer (apart from a brief Civ addiction* in the early 90s that almost cost me my degree) and I have been a bit wary of Second Life.

But the more I ponder analytics, the more I realise that visualisation is the key to wide-spread use / acceptance of these. We are seeing a massive explosion in visualisation technologies - in terms of development of new techniques, applications of these techniques to real-world issues and broad-based user interest. Sites like Many Eyes are an example of these.

I see three interlinked yet distinct tracks coming out of this:

1. Dataspace. William Gibson's cyberspace was not like the internet or the metaverse of SL. WG cyberspace is a completely artificial world. A 3D representation of data & its flows. The visualisation tools that make analytics accessible are the full-flowering of WG's vision - driven as much by Excel & ERP systems as HTTP. We'll begin with individual analytics visualisations and then move onto the collaborative kind.

2. Augmented reality. This is where the real world interfaces with VR - using data transmitted by mobile & embedded devices such as RFID. The world will become "chatty". It will both assist us and drive us nuts. The extent to which we can choose to participate in this noisy place (or shut it off) will be major lifestyle choice for us in the next 20 years.

3. Second earths. The metaverse that Kaye & the article discuss. Their impact will be like TV - making the world a suddenly smaller place. However, has TV made us any less selfish? Or more generous? I honestly don't know. Global visualisations may make us more aware of the environmental impact of our lives. Or may simply provide us with entertainment - anyone fancy a bet on the next species to become extinct?

*It was the God-like power of life & death over an entire world that got me. Now the megalomania only comes in brief bursts.

Renaissance people

So I've just finished Competing On Analytics By Tom Davenport & Jeanne Harris. And I have also been mulling over this post by Bob Sutton on the importance of a balance between quantitative & qualitative evidence. It would tempting to make TD & BS fight each other in some kind of US business professor death-match. Tempting but ultimately futile.

We need analytics. We have masses of quantitative data and we need to understand it and manage it. We need experts who can interpret it and managers who will then use it. Whilst many organisations use this resource poorly, the data offers a trap as well as an opportunity. Data only represents the world, it's not the world itself. I have encountered senior managers who are happier arguing about the data and hiding behind that than dealing with reality that their subordinates face daily.

We need managers who can use quantitative data & qualitative observation. Who can see the (in Gregory Bateson's definition of information) the difference that makes a difference. In effect, we need renaissance men & women. Are our business schools producing those?

One point that leaped out from the Analytics book concerned visualisation. Most managers without a background in statistics get terribly lost in the data. But given them visualisation techniques (plots, maps) and the data becomes more navigable, more amenable to decision-making. Visualisation may be the point where the quantitative & the qualitative meet. Or it may be another dead end.

What do you think?