Comments on: The Future Of Work: It's Data, Baby

By: WebWorkersDaily: The Future Of Work

WebWorkersDaily: The Future Of Work — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 20:50:18 +0000

[...] It’s Data, Baby: Information on the growing need for statisticians and extracting stories from data. [...]

By: Peter van Teeseling

Peter van Teeseling — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 07:07:12 +0000

By data I think one should also consider ‘metadata’. Think about the huge amounts of marketing collateral created every day. The articles that are being published? If you know your way around and can also advise your clients to be aware of the long tail of information availability, there is work to be done. And my guess is that this is going to become more important as the growth of information keeps going and the ability to find the right information is related more closely to finding and keeping customers.

By: Math World | The Future Of Work: It's Data, Baby

Math World | The Future Of Work: It's Data, Baby — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 20:40:55 +0000

[...] Imran Ali 2009-08-13 03:00:13 Continued here: The Future Of Work: It's Data, Baby [...]

By: Simon Mackie

Simon Mackie — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 13:30:02 +0000

Hmm, I’m not sure about making it “fun.” Maybe “challenging”, “worthwhile” and “well paid” might be better goals?

By: Shankar Saikia

Shankar Saikia — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 05:05:58 +0000

HOW TO MAKE COMPLEX DATA ANALYSIS FUN

This is a great post. I agree that making sense of the increasing amount of data would be a worthwhile task. The problem that I see is that “data analysis” sounds so boring. Though I have not read all the blogs/books etc. referenced in this post, I feel that making complex analysis fun would be a great way to attract talent, sell analysis to customers etc. Thanks for focusing on this field of data – I am glad I found this blog.

By: The Future of Work

The Future of Work — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:14:30 +0000

[...] By Simon Mackie | Thursday, August 13, 2009 | 1:00 PM PT | 0 comments Big-picture thinking and inventiveness are going to be the key to professional success in a new “conceptual age.” In a series of posts over at WebWorkerDaily, Imran Ali has been musing on the type of work that we might be doing in the future, the skills that will be required, and the type of teams we might be working in. The skills we need could evolve, Imran pointed out, citing career analyst Daniel Pink’s assertion that “right-brainers will rule this century.” In his book, Pink states that we’ll need to augment our “left-brained” reasoning with six crucial “right-brained” skills: design, story, symphony, empathy, play and meaning. Imran followed this up by exploring the hot new job category for the 21st century: data. [...]

By: Core skills for new generation of web workers will be analysis

Core skills for new generation of web workers will be analysis — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 12:19:18 +0000

[...] The Future of Work: It’s Data Baby | Web Worker Daily | Imran Ali | 12 August 2009 [...]

By: Imran Ali

Imran Ali — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:39:41 +0000

@Jorge Yes :)

@Josh Alos I guess Google and Amazon are a great example of where data analytics on large scale almost helps the business adjust itself in realtime…though the downside is the well cited case of ‘design being held back by a tyranny of data’ (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/10/business/10ping.html)

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:29:27 +0000

One of the big uses of data analysis emerging on the net that comes up for me with this post is the use currently by guys like Tim Ferriss or Internet Marketers. Using the data mining capabilities, you’re able to figure out whether or not a product will be successful even before creating it in some cases.

By: Jorge Camoes

Jorge Camoes — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:28:01 +0000

Imran: Yes, I know. But if you want to make sense of large datasets you will probably need stronger data visualization skills. And you’ll need good data analysis skills to support your visualization skills (just kidding…).

We are much better at managing row data than at creating good visual or non-visual reporting tools.

(And if you use 3D pie charts in a report it may mean that your data analysis skills are poor…). Everything is interconnected.

By: Imran Ali

Imran Ali — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:05:52 +0000

Thanks for your comment Jorges, but this post isn’t really about visualisation, but data more generally and how those with analytics skills will be increasingly in demand.

The NYT piece around which I’ve written, is essentially about stats and data in the broadest sense; visuslisation is just one related area, albeit one that gains a lot of attention.

By: The Future Of Work: It’s Data, Baby « Three Fish Limit

The Future Of Work: It’s Data, Baby « Three Fish Limit — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:03:07 +0000

[...] Full Post: The Future Of Work: It’s Data, Baby [...]

By: Jorge Camoes

Jorge Camoes — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:56:30 +0000

Data analysis/visualization is getting more glamorous these days, but I’d like to point out that probably 90% all charts created each day are created in Excel and PowerPoint by users with very low graphic literacy.

Yes, the web is full of beautiful charts, many of them of the dumb blonde variety. Yes, the more, the merrier. We need them to raise awareness. But it seems that if you are not a graphic designer, just a simple data analyst using Excel or Tableau, you are not invited to the party.

And yet, I’ll choose efficiency over beauty, if I can’t have both. I prefer an Excel chart that applies Edward Tufte’s principles, because I will learn more about the data.

Data analysis and visualization skills are almost non-existent and people copy what they see in the magazines and the web, with catastrophic results. And organizations lose money every day because they don’t offer the right training.

But hey, I love beautiful data.