Want to give Christmas a bit of a technological twist? Forget buying gadgets and doodads as gifts: why not dangle a 3D printed, data-crafted bauble from your tree instead? Read More »
Tech
Twitter may be an ever-flowing stream of information, but as it becomes a more mainstream source of news and commentary it also becomes a huge reservoir of data that can be analyzed, and that’s what startups like ThinkUp and DataSift and Gnip are trying to do… Read More »
Blogger Marshall Kirkpatrick is leaving his job at Read/Write Web to start a company called Plexus Engine, which he says will offer data-filtering tools he has used as a tech journalist. Kirkpatrick joins a growing group of bloggers who have left to join the startup world. Read More »
Researchers are busy trying to use Twitter to predict everything from disease outbreaks and financial markets to elections and even revolutions. New research from Topsy Labs shows that Twitter can provide a window into events like the Arab Spring. But can it predict what will happen? Read More »
What drove Walmart to acquire OneRiot and make it part of Walmart Labs is the same thing plenty of other companies — particularly media entities — should be interested in: namely, making sense of all the data that is coming in from users on social networks. Read More »
USC Annenberg Innovation Lab launched a film forecaster last month that utilizes IBM’s BigSheets analytics tool. It showed that Big Data analysis is something that can be done by non-technical people and it underscores the promise of data analysis when it reaches the masses. Read More »
Facebook has shut down a service from Open-Xchange that allowed users to export the email addresses of their contacts, which makes the Germany company the latest to run afoul of the social network’s ongoing attempts to maintain control over the information of its users. Read More »
A lot of the attention on Google+ has focused on whether it’s a “Facebook killer,” but it’s actually more likely to become a competitor for Twitter than Facebook. Is the Google network just benefitting from “shiny new object” syndrome, or could it pose a real threat? Read More »
Facebook’s blocking of a Chrome extension that allowed users to export their friends’ email addresses has reignited a debate over who should control that kind of data — should you have the right to export it, or is Facebook right to prevent you from doing so? Read More »
Israeli startup Personyze is linking with one of the web’s most controversial data collection companies, Rapleaf, to provide new tools for website owners. Can its attempt to help ordinary website owners turn information into actions really solve the big data puzzle? Read More »
New York City’s new Chief Digital Officer Rachel Sterne said New York City is trying to turn the city’s government into a platform that enables developers and individuals to take data about life in the metropolis and use it to create apps, services and other resources. Read More »
When it comes to social data, one of the biggest firehoses around is the one that comes from Twitter. Trying to make sense of 140 million tweets a day in something close to real-time is a significant challenge, says Tap11 chief technology officer Braxton Woodham. Read More »