Check out the article in the May 2012 New Scientist called, 'Making Numbers Punch their Weight'.
There might be some Data Analytics type dissertation projects using the methods covered in this article.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21428635.500-font-for-digits-lets-numbers-punch-their-weight.html
Showing posts with label Project Ideas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Project Ideas. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
My Web My Way - Making the Web Easier to Use for People with Disabilities
For Universal Design
The BBC website provides advice on how to get the most out of the accessibility features and assistive technologies available for your computer, so that you can use the web in a more accessible way. Includes "how to" guides for people with vision and hearing disabilities.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/accessibility/
The BBC website provides advice on how to get the most out of the accessibility features and assistive technologies available for your computer, so that you can use the web in a more accessible way. Includes "how to" guides for people with vision and hearing disabilities.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/accessibility/
Monday, February 27, 2012
Damian Gordon's MSc Project Ideas -- Software Development
For Software Development
Damian Gordon's MSc Project Ideas -- Software Development:
http://www.comp.dit.ie/dgordon/Research/research12.html
Also how about creating 3D representations of Escher prints, like this one for Picasso:
Damian Gordon's MSc Project Ideas -- Software Development:
http://www.comp.dit.ie/dgordon/Research/research12.html
Also how about creating 3D representations of Escher prints, like this one for Picasso:
Friday, February 17, 2012
Visionary Knowledge Management: Trends and Strategies
For Knowledge Management
http://theknowledgecore.wordpress.com/2011/12/18/visionary-knowledge-management-trends-and-strategies/
12th December 2011 by Ingo Frost, Kathrin Frank
The authors of this article go to the question of how organizations in 2020 to deal with knowledge. For this they have analyzed in a first step, national and international knowledge management conferences, publications and Internet publications to locate knowledge management visionaries. There are four visionaries are noticed because of your keynotes and their publications on knowledge management trends: David Griffiths, Dave Snowden, David Gurteen and Norbert Gronau. They are presented here together with their theories and visions for dealing with knowledge. At the end of these theories are compared and discussed.
Selection Process
How to find the interesting theories about how knowledge management could evolve?
One way to come closer to this question is to examine knowledge management conferences and find out who has kept the keynotes to knowledge management developments. These nationally and internationally significant knowledge management conferences, the keynotes were considered from the years 2010 and 2011. Of the 105 keynotes 10 authors have explicitly addressed by knowledge management trends. The work of these authors has been examined in the second step, further scientific publications on the subject and on their interactions with the Internet community (for example, activity on blogs, newsletters, etc.). Here, the four above-named persons are particularly noticed something out of the research, depending on other perspectives on knowledge management and support others in their daily process of implementing knowledge management in practice.
David Griffiths
David Griffiths teaches at the University of Edinburgh in the field of learning and knowledge management and knowledge management is the founder of the consulting K3Cubed Limited. He has specialized in supporting organizations in dealing with knowledge and learning, lectures and talk about the topic to publish.
In teaching, he also deals with related issues concerning organizations, financial and production management.
Visions – theses about knowledge management trends
* Knowledge management is according to an international study technology still centered primarily understood and more operationally, and is still not the people at the center. This is the reason that there is a high level of dissatisfaction with knowledge management investments.
* Who wants to support organizations in dealing with knowledge should give up the technically inclined term knowledge management. Recognize organizations for other than technical challenges of knowledge management.
* Knowledge management should be seen as a strategic issue and support organizations in their current challenges, such as innovation, resilience, sustainability and growth (or even “healthy shrinking”).
* Knowledge management should be the heart of building the capacity for change. This can be stimulated and thinking forward-driving techniques such as scenario analysis can come to train.
* Knowledge management can drive needed impending paradigm shift in organizations.
* The role of knowledge in organizations is rising steadily since the 30s (the importance of intangible resources in organizations has grown from 30-40% to 90% with IT companies such as Google). Taking into account the long-term trends knowledge management can be defined as long-term task [1].
Dave Snowden
David Snowden, John is an expert on implicit knowledge and works as a lecturer, consultant and scientist. He is a visiting lecturer at the University of Pretoria, University of Canberra, University of Surrey and at the Polytechnic University of Hong Kong. In addition, Dave Snowden is the founder and scientific director of the Cognitive Edge Consulting Organization, which pursues an open-source approach to counseling: Materials and methods are freely accessible via the website. He has developed the Cynefin framework, which transmits the practical application of complexity theory to the topic of leadership in organizations.
As part of the Cynefin framework, problems are classified according to their nature and suggested an appropriate use of them:
* Simple problems based on clear cause-effect relationship: If a given initial situation is observed to take place on the basis of experience (“Best Practices”) an appropriate response.
* For complicated problems must be analyzed more intense situations before they can be responded to. There are often several ways to respond, which are similarly good (“Good Practices”).
* Complex problems are characterized by the fact that due to an initial situation, the effect of certain actions can not be predicted. Is thus viewed as an experimental approach to action (“try out, perceive, react”) proposed (“Emergent Practices”).
* Chaotic problems are such that no cause-effect relationships can be established. Thus, the recommended action is to act, perceive, react with the aim to stabilize the system. This experience created the sense of “practice novel”.
Visions – theses about knowledge management trends
* In the context of organizations should be distinguished from robust stable strategies: robust design (fail-save = drop resistant) should (save practicing safe-fail experimentation = fall) to be stable and thus krisenresistentem design.
* The management of knowledge is always voluntary and may never be enacted.
* We know only what we need to know. We react to perceived patterns (pattern-based intelligences), and no information processors (information processors) are.
If there is a real need for knowledge, very few people will refuse to share their knowledge.
* Tolerated failure shapes the learning process better than success: Organizations should accept failure in a particular context.
* Talking about our knowledge is something other than our own knowledge
* We know more than we can put into words and tell us more than we can write down.
* Everything is fragmented, chaotic people seek connection (messy coherence) and just not too much structure, since it is quickly outdated and costly to maintain. Thus, the approach Semantic Web – that is a clear, structured description of importance of Internet content – limited. [2]
David Gurteen
David Gurteen has long been the software development manager and was with Lotus Development to ensure a uniform design of the Lotus products globally responsible.
Today he is an independent knowledge management consultant, speaker and moderator. He is in various fields of knowledge management present and organized regularly Knowledge cafes. He publishes on his blog (The Gurteen Knowledge Weblog) and on his website (The Gurteen Knowledge website) and reached its newsletter (The Gurteen Knowledge Letter) about 15,000 people.
Visions – theses about knowledge management trends
* The sharing of knowledge and social learning – now perceived as extra work – is a welcome and normal part of everyday work. Ponder the future workforce is no longer alone in my room, thinking aloud and jointly with others.
* Also work no longer takes place behind closed doors, but transparent and visible to everyone.
* Instead of forcing the employees IT tools, they select themselves out of the tools that would be most useful. Likewise, we will select the information that you need, instead of allowing themselves to heap indiscriminately with everything.
* Instead of controlling the people for fear of making mistakes, they get more creative freedom, and must bear more responsibility in return.
* Information is no longer concentrated and “protected”, but is open and accessible. The information flow is less regulated.
* The importance of context is more pronounced in the foreground. Rather than in isolation as information to examine the context, the flow circumstances / conditions more into consideration.
* The world is perceived as complex and varied. The simple cause-effect model has become obsolete and will have to give other approaches. [3]
* In today’s wealth grows at the (publicly available) information faster. It takes some time but mostly to understand the often complex and sometimes chaotic situations. Often helps to talk to others to make the many factual knowledge something useful – a methodological approach to this is the Knowledge Cafe. [4]
Norbert Gronau
Norbert Gronau studied mechanical engineering and business administration at the Technical University of Berlin. He completed a doctorate on the “concept of a strategy-oriented management information system for decision support in production management” and habilitated with the theme “Sustainable industrial information systems architectures for organizational change.” He holds the chair of computer science and Electronic Government at the University of Potsdam. His research interests lie in the areas of operational knowledge management and versatile ERP systems. He is also scientific director of the Potsdam institute settled Center for Enterprise Research (CER).
Visions – theses about knowledge management trends
* Currently no organizational assignment of responsibilities typical of knowledge management in the organizational structure of enterprises is evident.
* Competence and experience of people can not be replaced by the use of computerized systems. Still can not provide the necessary creativity and intuition.
* In the area of inter-organizational issues of information security and protection against theft of intellectual property rights as major drivers of change have been felt. The assurance of intellectual capital is the task of knowledge management.
* With the increasing popularity of social media in their private lives and in the company’s internal and external use, there will be more experiments with Web 2.0 technologies and approaches, and remove the uncertainty about social media use in organizations.
* The bandwidth of the demand for knowledge management is significantly larger. More and more companies and public institutions is clear that the knowledge of their employees is a central element for competitive differentiation and represents the key to successful change is.
* For the exchange of knowledge between institutions-personal knowledge, there is support suitable conversation and transformation in organizational forms and spaces and times must be supported.
* Conversion pressure and demand of the employees generate new demands on IT. IT is insufficient competition threatens to fail by the knowledge holders. [5]
Discussion
Is perceived – David Griffiths shows that managers with knowledge management is less important – but also more technically oriented. Knowledge in organizations takes on an increasingly larger role, becoming a strategic issue.
Dave Snowden brings a different perspective: Best Practices – a standard method for experiential knowledge – only works for simple problems. Complex or chaotic situations require a different approach: first try, then act and react at the end. He points out that existing structures do not help to address the issues and a climate that is more important, the failure must be allowed for.
David Gurteen states that can be complex or even chaotic situations most likely to work through personal interviews: these must be created for such opportunities.
Norbert Gronau finds that the range of knowledge management is much larger: in addition to social media, intellectual capital and the pressure change in the IT context plays an important, new role.
David Griffiths also emphasizes the role of knowledge in connection with the conversion ability. From the perspective of an organization to its environment changes rapidly and unpredictably – among others due to various crises at the national and international level. Therefore assumes an important role versatility. Knowledge in turn is the basis for organizations to change, because change can be better estimated with the common knowledge of all employees. If their knowledge and creativity used, new approaches – and thus sustainable innovations – the first place.
Literature
[1] David Griffiths: The future of KM (7 / 2011) – theknowledgecore.wordpress.com/2011/07/16/the-future-of-km
[2] Dave Snowden: Judgement & resilience, KM Asia November 2010 Keynote – www.cognitive-edge.com/presentationdetails.php
[3] David Gurteen: World 2.0, in: Gurteen Knowledge: 10 Years in KM, 2010
gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/gk10km
[4] Elizabeth Wagner: The Gurteen Knowledge café for David. In: Project Magazine, Issue 21/2011
[5] Norbert Gronau: Challenges and trends in knowledge management (KnowTech 2011 – Keynote, Bad Homburg)
http://theknowledgecore.wordpress.com/2011/12/18/visionary-knowledge-management-trends-and-strategies/
12th December 2011 by Ingo Frost, Kathrin Frank
The authors of this article go to the question of how organizations in 2020 to deal with knowledge. For this they have analyzed in a first step, national and international knowledge management conferences, publications and Internet publications to locate knowledge management visionaries. There are four visionaries are noticed because of your keynotes and their publications on knowledge management trends: David Griffiths, Dave Snowden, David Gurteen and Norbert Gronau. They are presented here together with their theories and visions for dealing with knowledge. At the end of these theories are compared and discussed.
Selection Process
How to find the interesting theories about how knowledge management could evolve?
One way to come closer to this question is to examine knowledge management conferences and find out who has kept the keynotes to knowledge management developments. These nationally and internationally significant knowledge management conferences, the keynotes were considered from the years 2010 and 2011. Of the 105 keynotes 10 authors have explicitly addressed by knowledge management trends. The work of these authors has been examined in the second step, further scientific publications on the subject and on their interactions with the Internet community (for example, activity on blogs, newsletters, etc.). Here, the four above-named persons are particularly noticed something out of the research, depending on other perspectives on knowledge management and support others in their daily process of implementing knowledge management in practice.
David Griffiths
David Griffiths teaches at the University of Edinburgh in the field of learning and knowledge management and knowledge management is the founder of the consulting K3Cubed Limited. He has specialized in supporting organizations in dealing with knowledge and learning, lectures and talk about the topic to publish.
In teaching, he also deals with related issues concerning organizations, financial and production management.
Visions – theses about knowledge management trends
* Knowledge management is according to an international study technology still centered primarily understood and more operationally, and is still not the people at the center. This is the reason that there is a high level of dissatisfaction with knowledge management investments.
* Who wants to support organizations in dealing with knowledge should give up the technically inclined term knowledge management. Recognize organizations for other than technical challenges of knowledge management.
* Knowledge management should be seen as a strategic issue and support organizations in their current challenges, such as innovation, resilience, sustainability and growth (or even “healthy shrinking”).
* Knowledge management should be the heart of building the capacity for change. This can be stimulated and thinking forward-driving techniques such as scenario analysis can come to train.
* Knowledge management can drive needed impending paradigm shift in organizations.
* The role of knowledge in organizations is rising steadily since the 30s (the importance of intangible resources in organizations has grown from 30-40% to 90% with IT companies such as Google). Taking into account the long-term trends knowledge management can be defined as long-term task [1].
Dave Snowden
David Snowden, John is an expert on implicit knowledge and works as a lecturer, consultant and scientist. He is a visiting lecturer at the University of Pretoria, University of Canberra, University of Surrey and at the Polytechnic University of Hong Kong. In addition, Dave Snowden is the founder and scientific director of the Cognitive Edge Consulting Organization, which pursues an open-source approach to counseling: Materials and methods are freely accessible via the website. He has developed the Cynefin framework, which transmits the practical application of complexity theory to the topic of leadership in organizations.
As part of the Cynefin framework, problems are classified according to their nature and suggested an appropriate use of them:
* Simple problems based on clear cause-effect relationship: If a given initial situation is observed to take place on the basis of experience (“Best Practices”) an appropriate response.
* For complicated problems must be analyzed more intense situations before they can be responded to. There are often several ways to respond, which are similarly good (“Good Practices”).
* Complex problems are characterized by the fact that due to an initial situation, the effect of certain actions can not be predicted. Is thus viewed as an experimental approach to action (“try out, perceive, react”) proposed (“Emergent Practices”).
* Chaotic problems are such that no cause-effect relationships can be established. Thus, the recommended action is to act, perceive, react with the aim to stabilize the system. This experience created the sense of “practice novel”.
Visions – theses about knowledge management trends
* In the context of organizations should be distinguished from robust stable strategies: robust design (fail-save = drop resistant) should (save practicing safe-fail experimentation = fall) to be stable and thus krisenresistentem design.
* The management of knowledge is always voluntary and may never be enacted.
* We know only what we need to know. We react to perceived patterns (pattern-based intelligences), and no information processors (information processors) are.
If there is a real need for knowledge, very few people will refuse to share their knowledge.
* Tolerated failure shapes the learning process better than success: Organizations should accept failure in a particular context.
* Talking about our knowledge is something other than our own knowledge
* We know more than we can put into words and tell us more than we can write down.
* Everything is fragmented, chaotic people seek connection (messy coherence) and just not too much structure, since it is quickly outdated and costly to maintain. Thus, the approach Semantic Web – that is a clear, structured description of importance of Internet content – limited. [2]
David Gurteen
David Gurteen has long been the software development manager and was with Lotus Development to ensure a uniform design of the Lotus products globally responsible.
Today he is an independent knowledge management consultant, speaker and moderator. He is in various fields of knowledge management present and organized regularly Knowledge cafes. He publishes on his blog (The Gurteen Knowledge Weblog) and on his website (The Gurteen Knowledge website) and reached its newsletter (The Gurteen Knowledge Letter) about 15,000 people.
Visions – theses about knowledge management trends
* The sharing of knowledge and social learning – now perceived as extra work – is a welcome and normal part of everyday work. Ponder the future workforce is no longer alone in my room, thinking aloud and jointly with others.
* Also work no longer takes place behind closed doors, but transparent and visible to everyone.
* Instead of forcing the employees IT tools, they select themselves out of the tools that would be most useful. Likewise, we will select the information that you need, instead of allowing themselves to heap indiscriminately with everything.
* Instead of controlling the people for fear of making mistakes, they get more creative freedom, and must bear more responsibility in return.
* Information is no longer concentrated and “protected”, but is open and accessible. The information flow is less regulated.
* The importance of context is more pronounced in the foreground. Rather than in isolation as information to examine the context, the flow circumstances / conditions more into consideration.
* The world is perceived as complex and varied. The simple cause-effect model has become obsolete and will have to give other approaches. [3]
* In today’s wealth grows at the (publicly available) information faster. It takes some time but mostly to understand the often complex and sometimes chaotic situations. Often helps to talk to others to make the many factual knowledge something useful – a methodological approach to this is the Knowledge Cafe. [4]
Norbert Gronau
Norbert Gronau studied mechanical engineering and business administration at the Technical University of Berlin. He completed a doctorate on the “concept of a strategy-oriented management information system for decision support in production management” and habilitated with the theme “Sustainable industrial information systems architectures for organizational change.” He holds the chair of computer science and Electronic Government at the University of Potsdam. His research interests lie in the areas of operational knowledge management and versatile ERP systems. He is also scientific director of the Potsdam institute settled Center for Enterprise Research (CER).
Visions – theses about knowledge management trends
* Currently no organizational assignment of responsibilities typical of knowledge management in the organizational structure of enterprises is evident.
* Competence and experience of people can not be replaced by the use of computerized systems. Still can not provide the necessary creativity and intuition.
* In the area of inter-organizational issues of information security and protection against theft of intellectual property rights as major drivers of change have been felt. The assurance of intellectual capital is the task of knowledge management.
* With the increasing popularity of social media in their private lives and in the company’s internal and external use, there will be more experiments with Web 2.0 technologies and approaches, and remove the uncertainty about social media use in organizations.
* The bandwidth of the demand for knowledge management is significantly larger. More and more companies and public institutions is clear that the knowledge of their employees is a central element for competitive differentiation and represents the key to successful change is.
* For the exchange of knowledge between institutions-personal knowledge, there is support suitable conversation and transformation in organizational forms and spaces and times must be supported.
* Conversion pressure and demand of the employees generate new demands on IT. IT is insufficient competition threatens to fail by the knowledge holders. [5]
Discussion
Is perceived – David Griffiths shows that managers with knowledge management is less important – but also more technically oriented. Knowledge in organizations takes on an increasingly larger role, becoming a strategic issue.
Dave Snowden brings a different perspective: Best Practices – a standard method for experiential knowledge – only works for simple problems. Complex or chaotic situations require a different approach: first try, then act and react at the end. He points out that existing structures do not help to address the issues and a climate that is more important, the failure must be allowed for.
David Gurteen states that can be complex or even chaotic situations most likely to work through personal interviews: these must be created for such opportunities.
Norbert Gronau finds that the range of knowledge management is much larger: in addition to social media, intellectual capital and the pressure change in the IT context plays an important, new role.
David Griffiths also emphasizes the role of knowledge in connection with the conversion ability. From the perspective of an organization to its environment changes rapidly and unpredictably – among others due to various crises at the national and international level. Therefore assumes an important role versatility. Knowledge in turn is the basis for organizations to change, because change can be better estimated with the common knowledge of all employees. If their knowledge and creativity used, new approaches – and thus sustainable innovations – the first place.
Literature
[1] David Griffiths: The future of KM (7 / 2011) – theknowledgecore.wordpress.com/2011/07/16/the-future-of-km
[2] Dave Snowden: Judgement & resilience, KM Asia November 2010 Keynote – www.cognitive-edge.com/presentationdetails.php
[3] David Gurteen: World 2.0, in: Gurteen Knowledge: 10 Years in KM, 2010
gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/gk10km
[4] Elizabeth Wagner: The Gurteen Knowledge café for David. In: Project Magazine, Issue 21/2011
[5] Norbert Gronau: Challenges and trends in knowledge management (KnowTech 2011 – Keynote, Bad Homburg)
Monday, November 14, 2011
Top 10 Business Intelligence, Analytics and CPM Stories
For Data Analytics
Please go to the following link:
http://searchbusinessanalytics.techtarget.com
register for this site, and look at the article
on the homepage entitled "Top 10 Business Intelligence,
Analytics and CPM Stories of 2010"
http://searchbusinessanalytics.techtarget.com/news/2240028281/Top-10-business-intelligence-analytics-and-CPM-stories-of-2010
--------------------------------------------------------------------
10. Mega-vendors boss the BI market – but their power isn’t absolute
In its 2010 BI Magic Quadrant report, consulting firm Gartner Inc. said that the usual mega-vendor suspects – IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP – continue to dominate the BI software market. But customer satisfaction levels were down for some of them, according to Gartner – a situation that SAP, for one, tried to remedy via expanded support for BusinessObjects users. Gartner found the same kind of forces at play among CPM vendors: A separate Magic Quadrant report split that market into CPM integrators and innovators, and Gartner later said that Software as a Service (SaaS) and pure-play CPM vendors topped the customer satisfaction rankings in a survey of vendor-supplied reference users. That’s all the more reason to make sure you buy the right BI, analytics and CPM tools for your organization.
9. Companies still eyeing BI consolidation/standardization
More than half of the respondents to a SearchBusinessAnalytics.com survey on BI priorities and challenges last March reported that their organizations were using multiple BI tools. With so much BI software in place, many organizations continue to eye BI tool consolidation as a way to clean up their systems and reduce costs. Florida State University is one example: A multi-year BI standardization project ended up saving the school about $350,000 in software license and maintenance fees as well as support costs, according to CIO Michael Barrett. But companies would be smart not to jump on the BI consolidation bandwagon without giving it a lot of thought first, cautioned Baseline Consulting’s Jill Dyche: “Shelfware is one thing, but I’d strongly advise you not to rip any type of valuable reporting or analytics capability out of the hands of an earnest and well-meaning business user.”
8. CPM’s horizons broaden, but usage remains relatively low
While most businesses are sold on using BI tools, CPM software is a completely different ballgame. Despite the technology’s potential benefits, CPM adoption levels remain low, according to analysts and our survey. But among the organizations that are using CPM tools, a growing number are looking to the software for help with more than just forecasting, budgeting and planning. In addition, on-demand CPM software is helping small and medium-sized businesses overcome barriers to adopting the technology.
7. Vendors push mobile BI – is anyone listening?
With almost everyone (and their pets) owning smartphones and more and more people buying iPads, BI vendors increasingly are pushing mobile BI software for use in accessing reports and executive dashboards on mobile devices. But mobile BI doesn’t appear to be a major priority for a lot of companies at this point. For example, only about 30% of the respondents to a survey conducted by consultant Howard Dresner said they were actively using mobile BI tools, and there was an almost even split on whether mobile BI is an important technology. The real value of mobile BI, according to Jill Dyche, “lies in the field, or in the stores, or on the manufacturing floor” – as a tool for end users who “need information on demand” in order to do their jobs.
6. Social media analytics enters the picture
As more and more people use social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, companies increasingly are turning to those sites to engage their customers and track what people think of – and are saying about – their products and services. And BI and analytics vendors are offering tools designed to help businesses mine and make sense of social media data. Last spring, for example, SAS unveiled a social media analytics suite for use in analyzing blog posts, tweets and Facebook status updates. But some analysts and BI professionals have questions about the functionality and maturity of the social media analytics software that’s currently available. For now, experienced users said, the key to social media analytics success for organizations that are pursuing the technology lies in commitment, experimentation – and patience.
5. A heavy layer of fog obscures visibility of agile BI
Agile business intelligence emerged as a much-discussed concept during 2010, but there’s still a lot of confusion about what agile BI really is. At a TDWI conference in August, some attendees thought it referred to applying agile development principles to their BI environments, others thought it meant the ability of BI to help an organization become more adaptable, and still more thought it was just another buzzword. Wayne Eckerson, then research director at TDWI and now head of research for TechTarget’s Enterprise Applications Media Group, thinks agile BI includes elements of all three of those viewpoints. It’s more of a mentality aimed at making businesses “go as fast as possible” than a specific methodology, Eckerson said. On the other hand, Dyche’s take is that “many companies are attracted to agile [BI] approaches because they don’t have the organizational discipline to instill solid BI development processes.” Ouch!
4. SaaS BI steps into the limelight
SaaS BI software has been around for years, but the cloud-based technology – which holds out the promise of faster deployments and reduced hardware and system management requirements – finally began stepping out of the BI shadows during 2010. SAP helped generate some of the buzz by releasing a new SaaS BI product suite that it claimed could bring “BI to the rest of us.” And companies such as Genband Inc. and Wine Management Systems are actively using SaaS BI and reporting tools to streamline the process of building reports for business users or to enable customers to create their own customized reports. Still, cloud-based BI might not be right for everyone; it’s important to know about and prepare for the challenges and obstacles that come with using SaaS BI software.
3. Pervasive BI, expanded use of tools become bigger BI priorities
A growing number of companies say that they’re looking to make their BI systems more pervasive by giving more businesses users access to the technology. In addition, more and more organizations are working to broaden their use of BI tools beyond basic reporting and data analysis. But efforts to expand the BI process can take years to complete because of data quality problems and other challenges. As mentioned above, SaaS and on-demand BI tools could help enable pervasive BI deployments; technologies such as data visualization, social media analytics and unstructured data analysis are also seen as having potential for spreading BI to more business users. But regardless of how businesses reach the pervasive peak, training end users is the key to successful pervasive BI projects, according to Rick Sherman, founder of consulting firm Athena IT Solutions. His reasoning is simple: People won’t use the technology if they don’t know how or why they should be using it.
2. Still the king: Excel continues its BI tool supremacy
Go to any BI or data warehousing conference and you’ll likely hear about the evils and data management disasters that come with all of the Excel-based “spreadmarts” that business users refuse to let go of. In fact, you might think that Excel is akin to the bubonic plague – and for a lot of businesses with poor spreadsheet management practices, you might be right. But according to Gartner analysts and attendees at the firm’s annual Business Intelligence Summit, it’s time for IT and BI managers to wave the white flag on using Excel for BI purposes. Their advice: Make your peace with spreadsheets and focus on developing processes for properly using Excel in BI projects. That was music to Microsoft’s ears, of course. Hoping to further capitalize on Excel’s continuing BI popularity, the software vendor released a PowerPivot for Excel add-in that lets end users integrate nearly unlimited amounts of data into their spreadsheets for analysis – although it also added a SharePoint version with management capabilities designed to help ease the collective minds of IT groups.
1. Interest in predictive analytics heats up
A relatively small number of the organizations that responded to the 2010 SearchBusinessAnalytics.com survey were using predictive analytics tools – just 16%. But 48% said that they planned to add predictive analytics software within the next 12 months, giving it the top spot on the analytics technology adoption list. Industry analysts also see predictive analytics as the next big battleground for BI vendors, which increasingly are developing or acquiring predictive analytics technology with the goal of incorporating it into their core platforms. In October, for example, IBM announced a new version of its Cognos BI software with predictive analytics capabilities built in. Thus far, many of the early adopters of predictive analytics are focusing not on wider market and economic trends but on individual customer analysis in an effort to understand what specific customers are likely to buy so that marketing campaigns and up-sell offers can be tailored to them.
Please go to the following link:
http://searchbusinessanalytics.techtarget.com
register for this site, and look at the article
on the homepage entitled "Top 10 Business Intelligence,
Analytics and CPM Stories of 2010"
http://searchbusinessanalytics.techtarget.com/news/2240028281/Top-10-business-intelligence-analytics-and-CPM-stories-of-2010
--------------------------------------------------------------------
10. Mega-vendors boss the BI market – but their power isn’t absolute
In its 2010 BI Magic Quadrant report, consulting firm Gartner Inc. said that the usual mega-vendor suspects – IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP – continue to dominate the BI software market. But customer satisfaction levels were down for some of them, according to Gartner – a situation that SAP, for one, tried to remedy via expanded support for BusinessObjects users. Gartner found the same kind of forces at play among CPM vendors: A separate Magic Quadrant report split that market into CPM integrators and innovators, and Gartner later said that Software as a Service (SaaS) and pure-play CPM vendors topped the customer satisfaction rankings in a survey of vendor-supplied reference users. That’s all the more reason to make sure you buy the right BI, analytics and CPM tools for your organization.
9. Companies still eyeing BI consolidation/standardization
More than half of the respondents to a SearchBusinessAnalytics.com survey on BI priorities and challenges last March reported that their organizations were using multiple BI tools. With so much BI software in place, many organizations continue to eye BI tool consolidation as a way to clean up their systems and reduce costs. Florida State University is one example: A multi-year BI standardization project ended up saving the school about $350,000 in software license and maintenance fees as well as support costs, according to CIO Michael Barrett. But companies would be smart not to jump on the BI consolidation bandwagon without giving it a lot of thought first, cautioned Baseline Consulting’s Jill Dyche: “Shelfware is one thing, but I’d strongly advise you not to rip any type of valuable reporting or analytics capability out of the hands of an earnest and well-meaning business user.”
8. CPM’s horizons broaden, but usage remains relatively low
While most businesses are sold on using BI tools, CPM software is a completely different ballgame. Despite the technology’s potential benefits, CPM adoption levels remain low, according to analysts and our survey. But among the organizations that are using CPM tools, a growing number are looking to the software for help with more than just forecasting, budgeting and planning. In addition, on-demand CPM software is helping small and medium-sized businesses overcome barriers to adopting the technology.
7. Vendors push mobile BI – is anyone listening?
With almost everyone (and their pets) owning smartphones and more and more people buying iPads, BI vendors increasingly are pushing mobile BI software for use in accessing reports and executive dashboards on mobile devices. But mobile BI doesn’t appear to be a major priority for a lot of companies at this point. For example, only about 30% of the respondents to a survey conducted by consultant Howard Dresner said they were actively using mobile BI tools, and there was an almost even split on whether mobile BI is an important technology. The real value of mobile BI, according to Jill Dyche, “lies in the field, or in the stores, or on the manufacturing floor” – as a tool for end users who “need information on demand” in order to do their jobs.
6. Social media analytics enters the picture
As more and more people use social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, companies increasingly are turning to those sites to engage their customers and track what people think of – and are saying about – their products and services. And BI and analytics vendors are offering tools designed to help businesses mine and make sense of social media data. Last spring, for example, SAS unveiled a social media analytics suite for use in analyzing blog posts, tweets and Facebook status updates. But some analysts and BI professionals have questions about the functionality and maturity of the social media analytics software that’s currently available. For now, experienced users said, the key to social media analytics success for organizations that are pursuing the technology lies in commitment, experimentation – and patience.
5. A heavy layer of fog obscures visibility of agile BI
Agile business intelligence emerged as a much-discussed concept during 2010, but there’s still a lot of confusion about what agile BI really is. At a TDWI conference in August, some attendees thought it referred to applying agile development principles to their BI environments, others thought it meant the ability of BI to help an organization become more adaptable, and still more thought it was just another buzzword. Wayne Eckerson, then research director at TDWI and now head of research for TechTarget’s Enterprise Applications Media Group, thinks agile BI includes elements of all three of those viewpoints. It’s more of a mentality aimed at making businesses “go as fast as possible” than a specific methodology, Eckerson said. On the other hand, Dyche’s take is that “many companies are attracted to agile [BI] approaches because they don’t have the organizational discipline to instill solid BI development processes.” Ouch!
4. SaaS BI steps into the limelight
SaaS BI software has been around for years, but the cloud-based technology – which holds out the promise of faster deployments and reduced hardware and system management requirements – finally began stepping out of the BI shadows during 2010. SAP helped generate some of the buzz by releasing a new SaaS BI product suite that it claimed could bring “BI to the rest of us.” And companies such as Genband Inc. and Wine Management Systems are actively using SaaS BI and reporting tools to streamline the process of building reports for business users or to enable customers to create their own customized reports. Still, cloud-based BI might not be right for everyone; it’s important to know about and prepare for the challenges and obstacles that come with using SaaS BI software.
3. Pervasive BI, expanded use of tools become bigger BI priorities
A growing number of companies say that they’re looking to make their BI systems more pervasive by giving more businesses users access to the technology. In addition, more and more organizations are working to broaden their use of BI tools beyond basic reporting and data analysis. But efforts to expand the BI process can take years to complete because of data quality problems and other challenges. As mentioned above, SaaS and on-demand BI tools could help enable pervasive BI deployments; technologies such as data visualization, social media analytics and unstructured data analysis are also seen as having potential for spreading BI to more business users. But regardless of how businesses reach the pervasive peak, training end users is the key to successful pervasive BI projects, according to Rick Sherman, founder of consulting firm Athena IT Solutions. His reasoning is simple: People won’t use the technology if they don’t know how or why they should be using it.
2. Still the king: Excel continues its BI tool supremacy
Go to any BI or data warehousing conference and you’ll likely hear about the evils and data management disasters that come with all of the Excel-based “spreadmarts” that business users refuse to let go of. In fact, you might think that Excel is akin to the bubonic plague – and for a lot of businesses with poor spreadsheet management practices, you might be right. But according to Gartner analysts and attendees at the firm’s annual Business Intelligence Summit, it’s time for IT and BI managers to wave the white flag on using Excel for BI purposes. Their advice: Make your peace with spreadsheets and focus on developing processes for properly using Excel in BI projects. That was music to Microsoft’s ears, of course. Hoping to further capitalize on Excel’s continuing BI popularity, the software vendor released a PowerPivot for Excel add-in that lets end users integrate nearly unlimited amounts of data into their spreadsheets for analysis – although it also added a SharePoint version with management capabilities designed to help ease the collective minds of IT groups.
1. Interest in predictive analytics heats up
A relatively small number of the organizations that responded to the 2010 SearchBusinessAnalytics.com survey were using predictive analytics tools – just 16%. But 48% said that they planned to add predictive analytics software within the next 12 months, giving it the top spot on the analytics technology adoption list. Industry analysts also see predictive analytics as the next big battleground for BI vendors, which increasingly are developing or acquiring predictive analytics technology with the goal of incorporating it into their core platforms. In October, for example, IBM announced a new version of its Cognos BI software with predictive analytics capabilities built in. Thus far, many of the early adopters of predictive analytics are focusing not on wider market and economic trends but on individual customer analysis in an effort to understand what specific customers are likely to buy so that marketing campaigns and up-sell offers can be tailored to them.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Data Analytics Project Ideas and Topics
For Data Analytics
http://www.comp.dit.ie/bmacnamee/fyp.htm
http://strataconf.com/strata2012/public/schedule/full
http://www.sas.com/events/analytics/us/abstract.html
http://fodava.gatech.edu/
http://www.e2conf.com/santaclara/?_mc=CPHCES05
http://www.dexa.org/node/42
http://www.comp.dit.ie/dgordon/Research/research7.html
http://www.comp.dit.ie/dgordon/Research/research12.html
http://www.comp.dit.ie/bmacnamee/fyp.htm
http://strataconf.com/strata2012/public/schedule/full
http://www.sas.com/events/analytics/us/abstract.html
http://fodava.gatech.edu/
http://www.e2conf.com/santaclara/?_mc=CPHCES05
http://www.dexa.org/node/42
http://www.comp.dit.ie/dgordon/Research/research7.html
http://www.comp.dit.ie/dgordon/Research/research12.html
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