16/10/18: Data analytics. It really is messier than you thought

An interesting study (H/T to @stephenkinsella) highlights the problems with empirical determinism that is the basis for our (human) evolving trust in 'Big Data' and 'analytics': the lack of determinism in statistics when it comes to social / business / finance etc data.

Here is the problem: researchers put together 29 independent teams, with 61 analysts. They gave these teams the same data set on football referees decisions to give red cards to players. They asked the teams to evaluate the same hypothesis: are football "referees are more likely to give red cards to dark-skin-toned players than to light-skin-toned players"?

Due to a variation of analytic models used, the estimated models produced a range of answers, from the effect of skin color of the player on red card issuance being 0.89 at the lower end or the range to 2.93 at the higher end. Median effect was 1.31. Per authors, "twenty teams (69%) found a statistically significant positive effect [meaning that they found the skin color having an effect on referees decisions], and 9 teams (31%) did not observe a significant relationship" [meaning, no effect of the players' skin color was found].

To eliminate the possibility that analysts’ prior beliefs could have influenced their findings, the researchers controlled for such beliefs. In the end, prior beliefs did not explain these differences in findings. Worse, "peer ratings of the quality of the analyses also did not account for the variability." Put differently, the vast difference in the results cannot be explained by quality of analysis or priors.

The authors conclude that even absent biases and personal prejudices of the researchers, "significant variation in the results of analyses of complex data may be difficult to avoid... Crowdsourcing data analysis, a strategy in which numerous research teams are recruited to simultaneously investigate the same research question, makes transparent how defensible, yet subjective, analytic choices influence research results."

Good luck putting much trust into social data analytics.

Full paper is available here: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2515245917747646.

30/10/15: 'Internet Natives': Power of Value Creation + Power of Value Destruction

A very interesting Credit Suisse survey of some 1,000 people of the tail end of the millennial generation (age 16-25) across the U.S., Brazil, Singapore and Switzerland. Some surprising insights.

Take a look at the following summary:

The results are seriously strange. Around 48% of all respondents use internet for payments transactions, but only 19% on average use it for obtaining financial advice. In other words, convenience drives transactions use, but not analytics demand.

Meanwhile, on average just 20% use internet for earning money or working. Which makes you wonder, what jobs (if any) do the respondents hold if only 1 in 5 use internet to execute it? And, furthermore, look at the percentages of respondents who use internet for job searches compared to earning money or working. Once again, something fishy.

Internet use for political and social engagement heavily exceeds personal relations. And this is true for all countries surveyed. Which simply does not bear any relationship to young generation voting participation in the real world, but does match their responses to whether or not they use internet for voting.


While responses across previous set of questions suggest that internet-based social (political / civic) engagements are more prevalent amongst the young respondents than personal engagements, there is the opposite view of internet as bearing personal benefits as opposed to social benefits.

This is especially true in the U.S. and Switzerland, where the gap between those who think internet is a positive personal platform as opposed to social platform is 12-13 percentage points.

Confusing? May be not. The ‘web naturals’ that we all are, we are simultaneously experiencing two aspect of internet-enabled life:

• Too much information and clutter; and
• Significant value to the power of engagement.

What this means to me is that social and interactive platforms have to stop inventing new channels to push through to us - information users - commercialised crap and start letting us take charge of content once again. To do this, the successful platforms of the future will need the following:
1) Own brand capital that is clean from being pure advertisement pushers;
2) More creative and empowering deployment of user-generated content; and
3) Ability to re-focus their business strategies on margin delivery.

Otherwise, they will end up cannibalising themselves and destroying our - users’ - value.

4/10/15: Data is not the end of it all, it’s just one tool...

Recently, I spoke at a very interesting Predict conference, covering the issues of philosophy and macro-implications of data analytics in our economy and society. I posted slides from my presentations earlier here.

Here is a quick interview recorded by the Silicon Republic covering some of the themes discussed at the conference: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/video/data-is-not-the-end-of-it-all-its-just-one-tool-dr-constantin-gurdgiev.

17/9/15: Predict Conference: Data Analytics in the Age of Higher Complexity

This week I spoke at the Predict Conference on the future of data analytics and predictive models. Here are my slides from the presentation:

Key takeaways:

• Analytics are being shaped by dramatic changes in demand (consumer side of data supply), changing environment of macroeconomic and microeconomic uncertainty (risks complexity and dynamics); and technological innovation (on supply side - via enablement that new technology delivers to the field of analytics, especially in qualitative and small data areas, on demand side - via increased speed and uncertainty that new technologies generate)
• On the demand side: consumer behaviour is complex and understanding even the 'simpler truths' requires more than simple data insight; consumer demand is now being shaped by the growing gap between consumer typologies and the behavioural environment;
• On micro uncertainty side, consumers and other economic agents are operating in and environment of exponentially increasing volatility, including income uncertainty, timing variability (lumpiness) of income streams and decisions, highly uncertain environment concerning life cycle incomes and wealth, etc. This implies growing importance of non-Gaussian distributions in statistical analysis of consumer behaviour, and, simultaneously, increasing need for qualitative and small data analytics.
• On macro uncertainty side, interactions between domestic financial, fiscal, economic and monetary systems are growing more complex and systems interdependencies imply growing fragility. Beyond this, international systems are now tightly connected to domestic systems and generation and propagation of systemic shocks is no longer contained within national / regional or even super-regional borders. Macro uncertainty is now directly influencing micro uncertainty and is shaping consumer behaviour in the long run.
• Technology, that is traditionally viewed as the enabler of robust systems responses to risks and uncertainty is now acting to generate greater uncertainty and increase shocks propagation through economic systems (speed and complexity).
• Majority of mechanisms for crisis resolution deployed in recent years have contributed to increasing systems fragility by enhancing over-confidence bias through excessive reliance on systems consolidation, centralisation and technocratic responses that decrease systems distribution necessary to address the 'unknown unknowns' nature of systemic uncertainty. excessive reliance, within business analytics (and policy formation) on Big Data is reducing our visibility of smaller risks and creates a false perception of safety in centralised regulatory and supervisory regimes.
• Instead, fragility-reducing solutions require greater reliance on highly distributed and dispersed systems of regulation, linked to strong supervision, to simultaneously allow greater rate of risk / response discovery and control the downside of such discovery processes. Big Data has to be complemented by more robust and extensive deployment of the 'craft' of small data analytics and interpretation. Small events and low amplitude signals cannot be ignored in the world of highly interconnected systems.
• Overall, predictive data analytics will have to evolve toward enabling a shift in our behavioural systems from simple nudging toward behavioural enablement (via automation of routine decisions: e.g. compliance with medical procedures) and behavioural activation (actively responsive behavioural systems that help modify human responses).

19/10/2013: WLASze Part 2: Weekend Links on Arts, Sciences and zero economics

This is the second post of my WLASze: Weekend Links on Arts, Sciences, and zero economics for this week.

Enjoy and be warned, I do stray into 'some' economics (but only as 'science') in this one...


"By discovering a new set of solutions to the famous Maxwell equations governing electromagnetism, Hridesh Kedia of the University of Chicago and his colleagues have shown that light can be tied up in knots. Here the purple and gold cords represent the twisted magnetic field lines of knotted light." Ughh?.. No, really cool - read more here: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=tying-light-in-knots-slide-show

And… "The same University of Chicago lab, led by William Irvine, also recently discovered a way to tie water up in knots. This photograph shows a basic knotted shape called a trefoil knot made of water, imaged by light scattering off tiny gas bubbles in the liquid."

Question for scientists… can anyone untie the knots of Irish policymakers' ideas? Like the following conjecture: to deal with the effects of the property bubble collapse, Budgets 2010-2014 introduced series of property markets tax incentives… Bet that'll be harder than Maxwell's equations…


But this is WLASze, so let us not dwell too long on matters of Irish policies. Even if for the purpose of advancing the science of the bizarre…

So back to sciences: "Society's techno-social systems are becoming ever faster and more computer-orientated. However, far from simply generating faster versions of existing behaviour, we show that this speed-up can generate a new behavioural regime as humans lose the ability to intervene in real time."

Ok, this is potent stuff. And where better to look for such 'machine outpaces mankind to defeat the entire purpose of the human-made system' than in financial markets (I can't shake off this year's 'Nobel' in Economics)… So: "Analyzing millisecond-scale data for the world's largest and most powerful techno-social system, the global financial market, we uncover an abrupt transition to a new all-machine phase characterized by large numbers of subsecond extreme events. The proliferation of these subsecond events shows an intriguing correlation with the onset of the system-wide financial collapse in 2008. Our findings are consistent with an emerging ecology of competitive machines featuring ‘crowds’ of predatory algorithms, and highlight the need for a new scientific theory of subsecond financial phenomena."

Here's the full article: http://www.nature.com/srep/2013/130911/srep02627/pdf/srep02627.pdf

Wanna see something really scary?

Or in different visualisation:

Ok, now that I am onto Financial Markets and their 'efficiency' - a compendium of links explaining this year's Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics. No commented from me:

• http://asociologist.com/2013/10/14/you-cant-beat-the-market-but-the-market-can-beat-you/
• http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2013/10/a-note-on-the-2013-nobel-like-prize-in-economics.html
• http://afinetheorem.wordpress.com/2013/10/14/a-brief-word-on-the-2013-nobel/
• http://noahpinionblog.blogspot.ie/2013/10/lars-peter-hansen-explained-kind-of.html
• http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/14/the-nobel/?_r=1
• http://johnhcochrane.blogspot.kr/2013/10/gene-famas-nobel.html
• http://blogs.ft.com/ft-long-short/2013/10/14/fama-shiller/
• http://simplystatistics.org/2013/10/14/why-did-lars-peter-hansen-win-the-nobel-prize-generalized-method-of-moments-explained/

Now I've done it… this was supposed to be WLASze and it is now more Finance & Economics than Arts or Sciences…

I recently wrote about the determinants of what makes content go viral on social networks (see link here). The study was based on Google+ - a network that Google seems to think is a major one, yet everyone else seems to think of as a 'may be one day' contender. Now, more real viral propagation visualisation via twitter:

Link: http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/08/visualizing-how-online-word-of/


As Apple is pushing ahead with the meat (USD5 billion) plan for new HQs in Cupertino, CA, here's an overview of the project: http://www.dezeen.com/2013/10/16/fosters-apple-campus-unanimously-approved-by-cupertino-city-council/

Yes, buildings of this scale are a challenge. Yes, aesthetics of the corporate identity at this scale are a challenge. Yes, Apple is strongly 'impositional' organisation with emotional attachment to 'eco-sthetics' and reality of a massive Death Star orb floating in alien space… so then, yes, the plans are perfectly befitting the client…

As a life-long fan of Apple (I still have a working-order first marketed laptop by the company in my collection and our household has a pile of interconnected Apple devices) all I can say is, sadly, with the shift in Apple's fortunes, the company is now running out of ideas… But wait, I am not alone: http://www.dezeen.com/2013/09/13/apple-has-reached-creative-saturation-says-steve-jobs-colleague-hartmut-esslinger/


On a beautiful side (to round off this week's WLASze): Gagosian Gallery is hosting a Willem De Kooning Ten paintings show, comes November 8:
http://www.gagosian.com/exhibitions/willem-de-kooning--november-08-2013

De Kooning is a master of light and contrast, depth and balancing extremal abstract expressionism with minimalism. His work is stark, striking, bright with simplified, distilled essence of countering colour and movement and space. These are his later works, right before his death in 1997.

The middle image above is taken from the coverage of the MoMA retrospective of de Kooning's works back in 2011.

It was not always thus, as you can see from his earlier works, such as Gotham News, 1955:

You can see more of de Kooning's works here: http://www.benditz.de/ and here: http://theartstack.com/artists/willem-de-kooning

Enjoy. De Kooning is a great master with deep, often disturbed depth of psychological insight alternating with organic capacity to surprise, to open up that momentary window into viewer's own imagination...

17/10/2013: Customer-Activated Enterprise: External & Internal Influencers

In the previous post I covered a few quick ideas that stemmed from the recently published IBM's Institute for Business Value CxO-level study: "The Customer-activated Enterprise: Insights from the Global C-suite Study" (available here: http://public.dhe.ibm.com/common/ssi/ecm/en/gbe03572usen/GBE03572USEN.PDF).

As I noted - this is an absolutely 'a must' read for anyone interested in the future directions for interactions between customer-driven value added activities and enterprise structures and strategies. It subtly, quietly punches beyond the 'ritualistic' tech-saves-us-all hype and into the deeper thinking inhabiting today's C-level offices. This is good. Very good. Less brand futurism, more future-focused pragmatism.

So another fascinating insight (my judgement, of course, as are the comments presented here).

Based on this guide: Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), Chief Finance Officers (CFOs), Chief Human Resources Officers (CHROs), Chief Information Officers (CIOs), Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs), Chief Supply Chain Officers (CSCOs), let's re-weight by removing 'own' functions of the CxOs:

1) Technology Factors (ex-CIOs) score 11 points
2) Market Factors (ex-CMOs) score 8 points
3) Macro-economic Factors (ex-CFOs) score 19 points
4) People Skills (ex-CHRO) score 26 points
5) Regulatory Concerns (ex-CSCOs) score 20 points
6) Socio-economic Factors (ex-CMOs) score 35 points
7) Globalisation (ex-CEOs) score 37 points
8) Environmental Issues (ex-CMOs) score 36 points
9) Geopolitical Factors (ex-CEOs) score 41 points.

So re-weighted prioritisation is:
Top tier priorities:
Top 1: Market Factors (ex-CMOs) score 8 points - Second Priority for CEOs
Top 2: Technology Factors (ex-CIOs) score 11 points - First Priority for CEOs
Top 3: Macro-economic Factors (ex-CFOs) score 19 points - Third Priority for CEOs
Second tier priorities:
Top 4: Regulatory Concerns (ex-CSCOs) score 20 points - Fifth Priority for CEOs
Top 5: People Skills (ex-CHRO) score 26 points - Fourth Priority for CEOs

The CEO position (2013) overlap is provided directly from the chart below:

Note that the CEOs priorities are not that distant from the priorities of the overall CxO suite priorities once we remove actual direct stakeholders in each priority area.

Also note that top 5 priorities today (as outlined in top 2 tiers above) are consistent themes from at least 2006 survey on. This is aligned, in my view, with the shifting nature of strategic transformation drivers and the input of external sources into strategic influence formation at the C-level:

Notice that C-suite influence is proximate in importance to Customers input and Board input. In the future, with partnerships and networks of value-added expected to both expand and deepen, including growth in customer-partnership models, this is likely to change. We can expect more heterogeneity in perceived influencing factors across the C-suite and the rise of key external business partners and non-executive senior leadership roles in contributing to strategic influence formation. I suspect the C-level and Board inputs will be downgraded.

Something to watch… but here's a suggestive sub-trend:

Can you open up the structures without bringing up the roles of key partners and internal non-execs? I don't think so...

17/10/2013: Customer-Activated Enterprise Research: Partnerships & Value-Added

I recently wrote about the upcoming publication of the IBM's Institute for Business Value CxO-level study: "The Customer-activated Enterprise: Insights from the Global C-suite Study" - the link to the original post is here: http://trueeconomics.blogspot.ie/2013/09/592013-ibm-64-of-global-cmos-want-to.html

Now the study is out and available here: http://public.dhe.ibm.com/common/ssi/ecm/en/gbe03572usen/GBE03572USEN.PDF

Some interesting insights from it will be forthcoming over the next few days as I slowly digest the paper (slowly - due to time constraints and not due to the nature of this superb piece of research).

First instalment a chart plotting CxOs' view of major changes in the business landscape in the next three to five years.

Note the emphasis on (opinions and views are my own - on foot of my interpretation of the data presented):
1) Bigger partner network is seen as a crucial trend changer by 73% of CxO executives - which is inherently driving the strategic focus of the enterprise development toward more diversified base of partnerships and networks.
2) Social and digital interactions are displacing face-to-face interactions and this implies that social and digital platforms will have to become also key tools for development and deployment of partnerships. End result of this (1) and (2) nexus is that business models will have to expand horizontally and beyond traditional nodes of corporate management and control. Risk will rise, uncertainty will rise both in scope and complexity.
3) This is supported by the shift in the partnerships nature: from lower emphasis on efficiency-driven partnerships toward more value-adding partnerships. In other words, not sub-contracting to specific tasks, but expansion of R&D, strategy and value-adding chains beyond the bounds of the traditional enterprise. This is very exciting, but adds even more complexity and uncertainty as well as more disruption to traditional (vertical or hierarchical) enterprise structures.
4) Focus on customer as individuals focus shift suggests that the era of Big Data will be moving toward the era of Small Data - greater granularity to follow with greater customisation. These can only be delivered via fluid, dynamic, non-contractual partnerships arrangements. Networks, not managerialism.
5) Not surprisingly, operational control weakens, organisational openness rises.

Much of the same that I have been talking about at TEDx Dublin and more recently at Alltech's Presidents Club meeting. You can also see my ideas on MNCs-led partnerships by searching this blog.

12/10/2013: WLASze Part 1: Weekend Links on Arts, Sciences and zero economics

This is the first WLASze: Weekend Links on Arts, Sciences and zero economics for this weekend. The first instalment is on sciences, so a bit heavy on some topics. Enjoy.


Starting with a very very old stuff: according to the Russian researchers, the meteorite that exploded above a Russian city of Chelyabinsk (and on youtube screens) in February was about 4.56 billion years old, or as old as the Solar System itself.
http://en.ria.ru/science/20131004/183951992/Russian-Meteorite-as-Old-as-Solar-System--Scientist.html
Infographic with some details on meteorite impact is available here: http://en.ria.ru/infographics/20130215/179495177/Meteorite-Fragments-Hit-Russia.html


A cool, quick (and simple) list of top 5 most important physics discoveries of the last 25 years via BusinessInsider… oh and they throw in 5 future discoveries that are likely to change the world too:
http://www.businessinsider.com/top-5-modern-physics-discoveries-2013-10
My personal favourites: measuring the neutrino mass using Japan's Super-Kamiokande neutrino detector… archi-cool… and from the futures list - quantum computing…

While on physics and sciences - Nobel Prizes this year:
Chemistry: http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2013/oct/09/chemistry-nobel-honours-trio-who-combined-classical-and-quantum-physics
Physics: http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2013/oct/08/englert-and-higgs-bag-2013-nobel-prize-for-physics
Physiology or Medicine: http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/oct/07/nobel-prize-medicine-cell-transport-vesicles
All worthy, in my view, unlike this year's Nobel Peace Prize. Peace Prize 2013 is a bit of a dodo, to be honest, just like some previous ones: http://www.businessinsider.com/12-worst-nobel-peace-prize-winners-2013-10. In this category in general, the Nobels are often given for uninspiring, bizarre reasons.
Literature Prize: also too often given for political reasons or for the reasons of obscure complexity and academism - was given this year to seemingly a worthy recipient: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/11/books/alice-munro-wins-nobel-prize-in-literature.html?_r=0

We are obviously holding our breath for Economics 'Nobel' - to be announced comes Monday. My best are in with a number of news outlets, but I'd rather keep them off the blog, as I generally prefer to avoid making predictions...


On a lighter (only slightly) scale of things: for aspiring physics fans: Physics World at 25 puzzle page: http://blog.physicsworld.com/category/physics-world-at-25-puzzle/


In continuation of the links I posted last week on the merger of materials sciences, human-tech interfaces and new tech development, here's an article about the latest discoveries in the metal composition are, showing shape-changing properties of metal crystal: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24400101
And while on it: an article on 'smart' fabrics: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20799344
And wearable tech: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7241040.stm
See my original links on the topic of 4D printing here: http://trueeconomics.blogspot.ie/2013/10/4102013-wlasze-part-1-weekend-links-on.html
These have now been incorporated into my talk about Human Capital-centric world and technological enablement which I will be delivering next comes early Monday at the Economic Forum / The Gathering-linked event in Ireland, hosted by the Irish-American biotech company, Alltech.


Talking of Irish researchers, we had some brilliant news out of TCD recently: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/republic-of-ireland/irish-scientists-in-solar-storms-breakthrough-29641467.html#sthash.p2oewCS2.BzoMB1YE.uxfs Basically, Trinity College researchers "have shown -- for the first time -- a direct link between solar storms, caused by explosions on the sun, and solar radio bursts, which cause the potentially dangerous communications disruptions on Earth."


The complex inter-relationship between observations, data collection and data analytics exemplified by TCD research mentioned above is, however, much more manageable than the data conundrums presented by ever-growing social data flows. Here is an excellent exposition of the problem http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/10/topology-data-sets/
The problem is not the size of the data we are getting, but the "the sheer complexity and lack of formal structure". Put differently, and in comparative to physics: "“In physics, you typically have one kind of data and you know the system really well,” said DeDeo. “Now we have this new multimodal data [gleaned] from biological systems and human social systems, and the data is gathered before we even have a hypothesis.” The data is there in all its messy, multi-dimensional glory, waiting to be queried, but how does one know which questions to ask when the scientific method has been turned on its head?"

And a related article: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/10/big-data-science/

Stay tuned for arts posting later today.

14/6/2013: Weekend reading links: Part 1

Weekend reading links as usual, and as in previous week - in two posts.

Let's start with some fun. After a week of reading economics on this blog, why not leaf through 12 "random and obscure laws" that still exist. I know the USofA is a liberty paradise but… allegedly, not in Maine and not when it comes to Christmas lights and wreaths… or in Wisconsin as it goes for margarine...
http://likes.com/facts/totally-random-and-obsucre-laws-that-actually-exist?pid=95328&utm_source=mylikes&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=ml&utm_term=25124720


My favourite visualisation of Big Data this time around comes from North Korea

And do check out the rest of the fab pics here…
http://likes.com/facts/wtf-north-korea?v=eyJjbGlja19pZCI6IDExMTkzMDIyNzksICJwb3N0X2lkIjogMjUxMjQ3MjB9

Note: on a serious side, I do find the above pic almost artistic - in the same vein as Andreas Gursky's real art: http://artblart.com/tag/andreas-gursky-tokyo-stock-exchange/

which (the above) also came from DRNK… and his very famous
http://artblart.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/gursky-99cent.jpg
My students from UCD courses in Masters in Management programme would remember the linked image.


From the sublime above to the atrocious below: The Kitsch of Ashgabat http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/06/the-city-of-white-marble-ashgabat-turkmenistan/100528/
My favourite is

The bizarre, tortured, almost shredded geometry of the totalitarian PhysEd comes to memory. No, the true derangement of the tyrant is measured not so much by thousands starved or banished or destroyed, but by grandiose waste of beauty, the more forced, the more permanent, the better. It is hard to explain, but violence to intrinsically beautiful is more characteristic of the delusion than violence to human. perhaps because nature usually poses no political threat, thus defacing nature is purely violent without any purpose.

Perhaps this would do for a better explanation: by Joseph Brodsky

 

Space is memory. The above photo records the former to sustain the latter.


A more modern - almost real-time - Duchampianization in Cyprus:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/10/us-cyprus-toilets-idUSBRE9590IA20130610
and it's inspiration:
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/duchamp-fountain-t07573
I could have chosen to term this Duchampianism - and almost did - except some attribute Duchamp's inspiration to a positive value - the ready made reproduction of the curvature similar to Constantin Brancusi's marbles, which obviously would not have been an appropriate allegory for Nicosia's installation. So perhaps we have amore ad hoc ready made analogy in two pieces, hence, Duchampianization term.


Take this quote for a teaser: "Most people have no clue that quantum computing exists. Even fewer know how it works. But once you understand it, and its vast processing power, you'll understand that this new Digital Age we're living in has barely scratched the surface of the computer potential."
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-quantum-computing-2013-6#ixzz2WE8s9ZjW
You will want to read more... I know - I did. And here's the source: http://dwave.wordpress.com/ Just awesome!


Two sets of links on time:

The first one is of two watches - the diametrically opposing works of art:
2013 - Vianney Halter

http://basel.watchprosite.com/show-forumpost/fi-636/pi-5864183/ti-862138/
But do watch the video - a fascinating story, also told in the article linked below:

http://live.wsj.com/video/the-most-important-watch-of-2013/62A235B4-BF3A-4BA0-B500-21048E3B3C30.html?mod=WSJ_article_outbrain&obref=obnetwork#!62A235B4-BF3A-4BA0-B500-21048E3B3C30
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324063304578523182943531780.html


And Ukraine's brilliant entry to Basel 2013:
http://basel.watchprosite.com/page-slide.new/ti-867538/pi-5909858/msid-26618318/fi-/nalbumforum.all_bLoB_s-/
and more pics:
http://basel.watchprosite.com/?show=photo&fi=636&imgid=3355653&msid=26618318&ti=867538&pi=5909858


But time (we are on dimensions theme here - following the note about space) is also linked to memory:

http://lifehacker.com/how-your-brain-perceives-time-and-how-to-use-it-to-you-511184192

And thus - to round up the first post of weekend reading links: of space and time... together:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19072

25/5/2013: Saturday Reading Links

Some interesting reading links:

FT Weekend edition has a full supplement on Venice Biennale 2013 - no link, but here's the official page: http://www.labiennale.org/en/art/exhibition/index.html?back=true


A fascinating article from The Economist on the movement toward technology displacing 'knowledge' workers next: http://www.economist.com/news/business/21578360-brain-work-may-be-going-way-manual-work-age-smart-machines

This cuts across my own view that we are seeing rising complementarity between technology and human capital, as opposed to substitutability thesis advanced in the article. The Economist view is thought provoking, for sure.


At last, there is a proof of the theorem that postulates that gaps between prime numbers are bounded: http://blogs.ethz.ch/kowalski/2013/05/21/bounded-gaps-between-primes/ and more on same http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/do_the_math/2013/05/yitang_zhang_twin_primes_conjecture_a_huge_discovery_about_prime_numbers.single.html


An excellent piece on the changes big data is bringing to economics - not from the point of view of new studies directions, but from the point of view of verifiability: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/economics-blog/2013/may/17/economic-big-data-rogoff-reinhart?CMP=twt_gu
There added 'bonus' points in the article discussing overall relationship between the research recognition, rewards and background work.


And a brilliant example of just how atavistic and primitive is the understanding of the web-based and mobile-platformed services in the top political echelons in Europe:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/electronics/10054717/France-preparing-tax-on-Apple-and-Google-to-fund-culture.html
Apparently, dinosaurs in French political elites have trouble comprehending just how revolutionary to culture and its creators (artists, thinkers, analysts, developers etc) Apple 'i'- and Google platforms are. It is highly likely that iTunes, for example, are doing more to distribution of Francophone music across the world than the entire Ministry of 'French' Culture. Then again, the entire tax debate in Europe is never about culture or arts or anything tangible, but about finding ever more elaborate and bizarre paths for milking the economy to sustain ever expanding state.


While on topic of matters European, a fascinating study on genetic persistency in European populations covered in http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/3770411-europeans-we-re-all-kissing-cousins
Given it comes from the US (original home to Apple and Google), may be the French can pay a special levy to the US for bothering to include their subjects in global research? Afterall, shall they fail to pay up, ignoring France should not be that hard - it works in geopolitics and economics, after all...

10/11/2012: Big Data made visible by UBank

Another interesting article: here. UBank in Australia has put some billion transactions records into public domain, allowing customers to run comparatives on spending patterns etc. (H/T to @moneyscience ).

"Users may input their gender, age range, income range, living situation, post code and whether they rent or own their home. The site uses that data to serve up average spending habits of people in that demographic, including detailed information on restaurants, housing costs and travel destinations. Users may also choose to input more detailed data to perform a “financial health check”, comparing their monthly shopping, utilities, housing and communication costs with “people like you” and the average Australian."

The idea is to make Big Data work for both clients and the bank - reducing the overall costs of risk pricing and in the long run helping the customers to lower their risk profiles and cash flow management. This has to be good for the bank and  for its clients. 

Next step would be for the bank to capture actual interactions within the database and correlate these to changes in spending patterns of customers (within the sample of those who engage with the system and outside the sample) to see what changes are generated.

This type of 'actioning' big data has been discussed at a recent round table on disruptive innovation in finance that I chaired in Dublin (here).