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Analytics
How researchers are fighting lung cancer using PageRank
GigaOm
March 27, 2013 –
Google’s PageRank algorithm has forever changed the way we access information by putting the best stuff first, and now researchers are using the same mathematical models that Google uses to fight the spread of lung cancer within the human body. While there’s no “best” when it comes cancer cells, the aim is to identify tumors more likely to metastasize and then hit them with targeted treatment before the cells have a chance to spread.
Data Science
How to bring out your inner data scientist
Smart Planet
March 26, 2013 –
At the end of last year, writing in Harvard Business Review, Tom Davenport, visiting professor at Harvard University and author of Competing on Analytics, proclaimed the role of data scientist to be the “sexiest job of the 21st century.”
Jobs
eBay’s Beth Axelrod: Predictive Analytics is Transforming Human Resources
Greenplum Blog
March 26, 2013 –
The challenges of hiring skilled data scientists is well-documented, but what of Big Data’s impact on talent recruitment within other fields? According to Beth Axelrod, eBay’s Senior Vice President of Human Resources and the co-author of the new book The War for Talent, Human Resources is the latest department to be significantly disrupted within the data-driven enterprise.
Predictive
What You Didn’t Post, Facebook May Still Know
The New York Times
March 26, 2013 –
Debra Aho Williamson, an advertising industry analyst and devoted coffee drinker, was intrigued by a promotion that popped up on her Facebook page recently. Sign up for a Starbucks loyalty card, it said, and get $5 off. “When I saw that, I thought, I’m already a member of their loyalty club,” she said. “Why don’t they know that?”
Hadoop
Big Data Right Now: Five Trendy Open Source Technologies
TechCrunch
March 25, 2013 –
Big Data is on every CIO’s mind this quarter, and for good reason. Companies will have spent $4.3 billion on Big Data technologies by the end of 2012. But here’s where it gets interesting. Those initial investments will in turn trigger a domino effect of upgrades and new initiatives that are valued at $34 billion for 2013, per Gartner. Over a 5 year period, spend is estimated at $232 billion.
Data Science
The New York Times
March 25, 2013 –
It was a case for a digital Sherlock Holmes. Last fall, the city’s Department of Environmental Protection wanted, finally, to crack down on restaurants that were illegally dumping cooking oil into sewers in their neighborhoods — congealed yellow grease is responsible, the department says, for more than half of New York’s clogged drains. The question, of course, was how to find the culprits?
Hadoop
Big Data Debate: Will Hadoop Become Dominant Platform?
Information Week
March 25, 2013 –
Apache's Hadoop framework has become synonymous with the big data movement, but is it destined to become the dominant data management platform for us all?
Big Data
Big Data Is Opening Doors, but Maybe Too Many
The New York Times
March 25, 2013 –
IN the 1960s, mainframe computers posed a significant technological challenge to common notions of privacy. That’s when the federal government started putting tax returns into those giant machines, and consumer credit bureaus began building databases containing the personal financial information of millions of Americans. Many people feared that the new computerized databanks would be put in the service of an intrusive corporate or government Big Brother.
Data Warehousing
Innovator: Sharon Terry's Global Database for Disease Research
Bloomberg Businessweek
March 25, 2013 –
Just before Christmas in 1994, Sharon Terry’s two children were diagnosed with pseudoxanthoma elasticum, or PXE—a rare, sometimes debilitating genetic disease that hardens elastic tissues, often affecting skin around the neck and joints. Poring over papers at medical libraries, she found the available research was unlikely to point to a cure for Elizabeth, then 7, and Ian, then 5.
Predictive
Decide.com Raises $8M Series C For Its Price Predictions Engine
TechCrunch
March 25, 2013 –
Shopping and comparison engine Decide.com, which offers suggestions as to not just what to buy but also when, is announcing today that it has raised $8 million in Series C funding, in a round led by Vulcan Capital. Also participating were existing investors, Maveron and Madrona Venture Group.
