Many-Eyes: Data visualization for Non-Scientists
Last Thursday, I attended one of the ongoing Parc Forum speaker series events in Palo Alto. The presenting duo of Martin Wattenberg & Fernanda Viegas hail from IBM Visual Research and the technology they were showing off is Many Eyes. The concept behind Many Eyes is that advanced data analysis shouldn’t be restricted to the scientific community. Any and all people should be able to support their hypothesis and opinions with visual aids that enhance understanding. This philosophy fits in perfectly with the blogosphere and shift away from mainstream media as a news outlet. Now, Joe blogger, can post about the correlation of fossil fuel pollution and population density and back up his view with pollution data number combined with land mass, all overlayed onto a world map.
After the jump – Sample Analysis of the CNN Democratic debate & Macworld 2008 Keynote address (more…)
Save us Sergey & Larry!
Yahoo’s rebel forces have a hidden message for Google. Save us from the evil Empire! (Star Wars spoof)
Enjoy!
Seriously? Microsoft takeover of Yahoo!
Wow, I can see that Microsoft is tired of being in 3rd place for search and online advertising revenues, but how exactly do they envision bringing two big conglomerates together will solve their problems? Are there not enough examples of this being a really bad idea? AOL – Time Warner, Daimler – Chrysler, the list goes on.
A look at Steve Ballmer’s letter to the Yahoo Board states that Microsoft can align with Yahoo! to create a more competitive offering and consolidate operational and R&D costs. He spells it out like this… (more…)
Why strategy is critical
With the impending recession and all the media articles about pending layoffs at Yahoo!, I can’t help but think the culture of corporations as they grow has some terrible trends. That aside, I also think in the case of Y! the media is going too far and screaming for blood from their chosen poster child. Nonetheless, the trend is disturbing.
This article on News.com outlines the identity crisis at Y! and why it led to managers focusing on building empires and protecting their turf, rather than on creating the best product and experience for their customers. This is eerily similar to the big American automotive companies and their decline in the face of global competition. GM, Ford & Chrysler assumed that people would buy their cars just because they offered them. This led to cars that didn’t meet the market’s demands and a huge opening for the Asian and European automakers to step into.
