Tesco uses data for more than just loyalty cards
Tesco. Poster-child of the data-driven retail experience, thanks to its loyalty card and early work with DunnHumby. But Tom Hebbert didn’t talk about that. Instead, he focused on their supply chain work. Rough notes from the session follow. Big Data projects deliver huge returns at Tesco; improving promotions to ensure 30% fewer gaps on shelves, [...]
Data Journalism at The Guardian
UK newspaper, The Guardian, has done some pioneering work to use data, and to engage readers in exploring data to share their own insights. The paper’s Simon Rogers and Google’s Kathryn Hurley shared some of the lessons at the Strata conference. Rough notes follow. Not going to talk about big projects like riots and Wikileaks and MP’s [...]
O’Reilly’s Strata comes to Europe, with a very British opening
O’Reilly’s Big Data extravaganza, Strata, left its native U.S. for the first time this week, coming to London for two days of data; the big, the open, the structured, the unstructured, and the undecided. Whilst many of the companies and issues are the same, whether you’re in London, California or New York City, there are [...]
The next big thing: WeeData
‘Big Data’ has a problem, and that problem is its name. Dig deep into the big data ecosystem, or spend any time at all talking with its practitioners, and you should quickly start hitting the Vs. Initially Volume, Velocity and Variety, the Vs rapidly bred like rabbits. Now we have a plethora of new V-words, [...]
The Americans are Coming
This October, two great US events are making their first forays into Europe. O’Reilly‘s big data conference, Strata, reaches London on 1-2 October. Then GigaOM‘s cloud computing event, Structure, hits Amsterdam on 16-17 October. I’ve attended both in the States (see disclaimer), and look forward to seeing how each sets about fusing the best elements [...]
Executive Summit kicks of O’Reilly Strata Conference 2010
I’m in Santa Clara this week, attending O’Reilly‘s inaugural Strata Conference. Today, I’m spending the day in the event’s Executive Summit, where I hope to hear some of the ways in which ‘normal’ businesses are approaching the opportunity of making their data work harder. The notes that follow are a rather raw summary of some [...]
Kaggle CEO Anthony Goldbloom reckons competitions ‘an amazing way to do data science’
Image via CrunchBase I had coffee this morning with Anthony Goldbloom, Australian CEO of Kaggle. The company describes itself as “a platform for data prediction competitions,” and seeks to solve big problems by hosting competitions that match data owners with a problem to (professional and amateur) data scientists with the time, creativity and skills to [...]
Is there a disconnect between Big Data and the Web of Data ?
Image via Wikipedia ‘Big Data‘ is currently capturing the imagination, attracting hype, investment and ambitious startups in almost equal measure. Kim and Eric Norlin’s excellent Defrag and Glue events have gained big-name company, with O’Reilly‘s Strata and GigaOM‘s Structure both set to arrive in the first quarter of 2011. Venture firms like IA Ventures have emerged, specifically [...]
