Monthly Archives: January 2013

The following is a guest post from a Data Innovation Day partner. Originally posted on Chartio.

Today is the first annual data innovation day, which was started by the The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) to “raise awareness about the benefits and opportunities that come from increased use of information by individuals and the public and private sector.”

At Chartio that’s what we do every day, but we’re excited to participate with the many other partner organizations in highlighting this day and educating people on the industry.

There are many innovations happening in the data community. Many are focusing on handling and processing the increasing amounts of data being collected. At Chartio, we focus on the visualization, consumption and usability of data.

The future is increasingly data driven. Just as computers and the internet have worked their way into a more efficient and effective workplace, data and quantitative feedback and decision making are becoming an everyday part of the modern worker’s life.

We feel that the largest bottleneck in that revolution is the lack of …

The following is a guest post from a Data Innovation Day partner. Originally posted on the Internet Infrastructure Coalition. 

As members of the Internet infrastructure industry, we often talk about new technologies and driving innovation for long-term growth of the Internet.  That innovation extends beyond traditional mediums and is being celebrated today with the first annual Data Innovation Day. The i2Coalition is proud to be a partner organization on this important occasion that is sponsored by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF).

The goal of Data Innovation Day is to highlight the opportunities surrounding increased access and usage of information. This year’s theme is fittingly “Big Data. Bigger Opportunities.” In today’s society, we are connected with virtually all the information we could possibly want for almost any industry, mainly because of the Internet.

The Internet infrastructure industry is the platform on which all this innovation is happening. Our industry provides a critical service that is fundamental to the Internet. From web hosting and data center providers to cloud computing services and software and service delivery, our …

The following is a guest post from a Data Innovation Day partner. Originally posted on StatSoft. Beyond the confines of a single organization, can the proper application of analyzed data produce tangible results powerful enough to save an entire economy? Innovative thinking says, “Why not?”

The story is told at StatSoft HQ about a pharmaceutical company that implemented our flagship product, STATISTICA, in its production facility, and our software soon identified a problem with a major batch. Production managers were able to halt production, fix the problem, and resume operation, thus averting a product disaster that could have cost millions of dollars. Rapid ROI for our customer? You bet! Money-saving events like this help many companies save jobs and remain competitive.

A well-planned analytics solution can optimize business processes with such rapidity that ROI is sometimes measured in weeks or months, not years. Expenses can be reduced. Jobs can be spared. Factories can be saved. In fact, everything we do at StatSoft is designed to help real people and organizations–and, thus, the world–become more productive.

So, it is …

The following is a guest post from a Data Innovation Day partner.

Recently I was reminded of the first time I went to New York City as a child for a ticker tape parade. What is etched in my memory was the experience of paper shreds and ticker tape snowing down on us as the parade approached.

In that moment, my eyes weren’t on passing cars or heroes, but rather on these little slips of paper covered in numbers and letters. I just couldn’t understand why anyone was throwing all of this data away. It was a snowfall of information that someone thought was worthwhile to print, but not worth saving and using.

Today every one of us produces an avalanche of data. Experts say that the world’s information is doubling every two years, but for many cities, this data is an unrecognized natural resource. This new natural resource can be turned into information and insight that can help transform the way our cities, our country, and our businesses operate.

Luckily this explosive growth in data has been accompanied by …

The following is a guest post from a Data Innovation Day partner.

The future of transportation lies increasingly in the continued investment and use of real-time information to make our infrastructure smarter, including enabling vehicles to communicate with each other and with the world around them. It is estimated that by 2050, the number of vehicles around the world is set to double to two billion, placing enormous demands on the global transportation infrastructure and on the networks designed to support them.

Here in the United States, the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT), in coordination with other federal and state agencies, private industry and the nation’s leading universities, is working to advance life-saving connected vehicle technology and real-time data to help prevent traffic fatalities and injuries, while reducing traffic congestion, improving environmental performance and making our transportation system more user friendly. According to U.S. DOT, nine out of 10 drivers would like to have vehicle-to-vehicle safety features in their own vehicles and believe the technology would be useful in improving driver safety overall.

Connected vehicle technology – consisting of …

The following is a guest post from a Data Innovation Day partner. This article was originally posted on #WETHEDATA.

The emerging field of “data visualization” brings together quantitative information with technology and graphic design to tell stories and convey ideas. As data about our environment, travel, work, online activities and other behavior increases exponentially, visualization tools can help discern the forest from the trees of rows and columns, in order to understand trends and make decisions. Moving beyond the standard pie charts and bar graphs, creative visual artists, demographers, journalists and others are developing exciting new ways to marry data with visual representation.

“Creative visual artists, demographers, journalists and others are developing exciting new ways to marry data with visual representation.”

These pictographs draw on a variety of data sources, ranging from large, publicly available datasets to user- or community-generated reports to very individualized information meant for personal consumption. Public datasets on any number of topics are now online through the Open Government Platforms in the United States and elsewhere. Health department restaurant ratings, immigration statistics, birth-name …