We want it all, and we want it now – has the era of instant gratification made us less patient?

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Sean Jackson

Do you ever get the feeling that people have no patience anymore? No time to stop, reflect and do things at a more leisurely pace? I do. It seems that the more access we have to information, the more we want and the less tolerance we have to wait patiently for it. And this affects our lives in all manner of ways. From waiting for an analytic report to run on our work computers to growing annoyed at slow movie downloads on our devices at home; from standing in line at your local coffee shop while someone in front of you cannot make up their mind to waiting for what seems an age behind a crowd of folks to disembark an aircraft; from waiting for the lines at the supermarket checkout to clear to hanging on the end of the phone waiting for the call centre to take our call, it seems that the world has grown a little less tolerant. We certainly live in the era of instant gratification, and yet it has made many of us a little crankier when we don’t get what we want, when we want it.

You might say that technology is to blame for this change in behaviour and many would agree: as we all have become accustomed to high-speed networks and super fast bandwidth speeds, information can be delivered to us in a fraction of the time it took a few years ago. Negatively or positively, this has had an immense effect on our expectations. Before, we would be content to drive miles to the store and shop, now we expect to go online and have products delivered to us instead. Before we would go to the train station and wait for the train, now we want to check its status, buy tickets and be notified of any delays on our devices live. Before we would go to the video store and rent a VHS copy of a movie, now we want it on our TVs in almost real-time. And with us all having computers, tablets, e-readers and mobile phones, many of us with several of each, it does seem that we want to consume it all, and we want to do it right now.

However, others may say that technology is not to blame, that it is still a conscious human decision whether we search and consume a bit of information as opposed to focus on something else. How many of us have turned to our Blackberry or iPhone at home to read and respond to a work-related e-mail in our free time instead of perhaps conversing with our family and listening to their day? How many of us have chosen to BBM a friend or SMS a work colleague instead of focusing on what we started out doing? How many people do you see with phones and devices almost glued to the palm of their hands checking out things online, conversing with friends, tweeting or updating their Facebook status?

Those that say technology has made our lives easier are, of course, correct. And that goes from the simple ability to skype a loved one on the other side of the world in a matter of seconds, to technology such as our own that allows businesses to connect to various data sources, analyze their data and act upon it in real-time. But as technology makes our lives easier, it has also upped our expectations to be able to get information and do something with it at rates faster than ever before.

In fact, I suspect that our expectations will only get more and more demanding as connection speeds get faster and our daily lives go at an even faster pace. For, the faster we can consume information, the more challenging it will become for us humans to take the rational decision to stop, think, reflect and do something a little less hectic, with a little more tolerance and a little less impatience. But that is a failing of us humans, not technology per se. The main thing to note is that we still retain the option to choose how and when we consume information. So next time you feel yourself running out of patience over something that hasn’t happened in a heartbeat or over a bit of information that you cannot obtain in a nano-second, just relax, count to ten and remember that life can be enjoyed just as well at a slower pace as it can at a fast one. Indeed, we may want it all, but do we necessarily have to have it all right now?

Big Data at the Magic Kingdom – a blessing or a curse?

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Sean Jackson

It used to be the case that retail or telco or utilities were the markets that were getting the IT world abuzz with stories of big data analytics and making money out of large and complex data, markets where customers can be very fickle and operating margins very tight. But an article earlier this year in the New York Times shows that big data and the ability to collect, transact, manage, analyze and act upon it is just as applicable to markets with which we wouldn’t normally associate data. The big data analytics and reporting needs of retail organizations and telecom operators are by no means passé, but theme park operators and leisure companies are harnessing the big data wave, too, in order to deliver better customer service, up their game and drive profits. It seems that Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy are on hand to act upon big data, too.

The article showcases the great wealth of information that not only can be collected on theme park visitors’ habits – from what rides they prefer to what signature Mickey Mouse keyring they chose as their souvenir of the day from the gift shop – but also on significantly improving the user experience. By dispensing with coupon tickets, turnstiles and, in some cases, cash, Disney is now planning to arm its visitors with electronic wristbands and getting them to use them for purchases in the park as well as check in at sensors in order to ride they favourite attraction. As such, not only can Disney ensure that visitors don’t waste half of the day by standing in line, they can also ensure that they are happier and potentially spending more money in their stores. Families can pre-register online to ride at 1pm and turn up just 5 minutes beforehand and swipe their wristband. That certainly beats getting in line at 11am and waiting 2 hours in the soaring heat for the 90 second ride. Sounds good, right?

Sure, for the park operators this harnessing of the big data generated by all this online and sensor activity and using it to their advantage sounds great. If they can reduce waiting lines, improve the user experience and fully digest who does what when, who buys what when and who wants to see what attraction when, then the park operator can tailour the park to meet the needs of the consumer and profit accordingly. Happier guests will recommend the park to their friends, happier guests are sure to return themselves and happier guests may even spend more in the park’s stores, given that they are spending less time in the lines waiting for the rides.

But isn’t this all a little too much? Especially when theme parks are a place to go to escape from the realities of life for a while? You might argue that the simplicity and innocence of theme parks – especially Disney and the market it serves – will be lost in favour of a system where it is all about gleaning as much information from the visitor as possible and using it to the operator’s advantage. Will parents be happy standing with their kids on their shoulders watching the parade of smiling cartoon characters on Main Street knowing all too well that theme park operators are busy behind the scenes analyzing, crunching and mining information about them and their activities both done and pre-planned for the day ahead? Or is this now just the way of the world? After all, theme parks are businesses, too.

With all things in life and certainly with big data and personal information, you have to find the happy medium. I am sure that parents who pre-register their childrens’ information into the parks’ systems will not want to divulge too much data, nor have that information abused, but then they might appreciate the fact that their kids’ wristbands will tell Cinderella that one of them is celebrating a birthday and have the cartoon character wish the kid a very special day automatically.

While it is fair to say that theme park and leisure companies do need data in order to compete more tactically – somehow building a newer, faster rollercoaster ride doesn’t seem to cut it anymore these days – it is also fair comment to make that theme park operators need to be sensitive to the needs of their customers: offering a tailour-made and extra-special experience at the Magic Kingdom sounds great, but overstepping the mark and making it too intrusive can do untold damage to the theme park company and its reputation.

But whether you believe it to be a good thing or just way too over-the-top, my guess is that digital wristbands and data analytics at theme parks are here to stay. It seems that no business can afford not to embrace and ride the big data analytics wave.

The term “big data” may fade away, the need to analyze and act on data will most certainly not

Posted on January 30, 2013 by Sean Jackson

In my last blog post I discussed the need for more teaching both by our education establishments as well as employers in order to help train a knowledgeable and skilled workforce that has the necessary skills to harvest the big data wave and help organizations monetize information. After all, everywhere you look, we’re being told that big data equals big value, right?

But no sooner did I post my thoughts, I read an interesting article from analyst firm Gartner that would have us believe that the term big data is about to plummet off the “peak of inflated expectations” and fall into the “trough of disillusionment.”[1] If you’re an avid follower of Gartner’s Hype Cycle reports, these terms will be familiar. If you are not, then don’t worry – Gartner’s opinion is just one of many out there; others in the industry have done research that would suggest that for every one negative comment about big data, there are at least three positive ones.[2]

But we’re in danger of getting stuck in an academic argument played out by analysts, industry pundits, consulting firms and vendors alike. In my opinion, businesses don’t care for the term big data per se, they care about running their operations, satisfying their customers, building their business. They care about whether they have the know-how and workforce to help surmount business issues when analyzing and acting upon large and complex data sets, ranging from structured data in on-premise applications to unstructured data feeds coming from the cloud. They don’t tend to refer to the term big data when explaining their challenges. In fact, remember when e-business was big in the late 90s? Then everyone realized it was just business and dropped the ‘e’. Today big data is ‘big’, but in years to come, folks may just call it called data.

Whether you believe that the term big data is here to stay or doomed to pass, the fact remains that there is a plethora of opportunities out there for those who are prepared to embrace them. And the savvy businesses out there are digging deep to help fund the salaries of those that know what to do with big data. Dice.com’s annual salary survey reveals that job candidates with big data technology expertise command an average salary of $100k, some $20k more than other co-workers skilled in other areas of IT, for example in mobile technology.[3] It seems that companies are prepared to pay big bucks for those who can when it comes to big data.

But just what are these jobs? Again, the argument surrounding the term big data is superfluous. No-one advertises for a “big data guru”. Instead, you see job adverts for “data scientists”, “data architects” or “data engineers.” More recently, and as shared by our customer Atheon Analytics, the term “data animator” is one that is increasingly becoming popular.[4] This is a term that makes more sense to me as it conjures up the image of someone who can cope with data of any shape and size and turn it into something visual, something creative, something alive that tells a story and that can be easily understood to make decisions and act upon an occurrence or a situation in the business. Everyone loves a good story and the human brain digests visual content much more easily than trawling through lines of a report or staring at another pie chart, just trying to figure out what it is meant to show. These animators go beyond the static nature of spreadsheets and charts, they bring data to life in a way that allows businesses to get to grip with their data as well as think creatively about what they are doing with their data.

In fact, I believe that data animators will grow in popularity and become more commonplace just as data scientists and data architects will. And as there is more of them getting to grips with data, there will emerge new executives to manage them. Chief Digital Officers and Chief Analytic Officers may well be the next wave of company board members who spearhead the pursuit of extracting value from their business data.

In summary, I don’t believe we should be pessimistic and give up on the term big data. Yes, the expression itself may drop from our vocabulary, but let’s put semantics to one side; the fact remains that organizations continue to see enough potential in their data and information that they are willing to invest and pay for expertise that can analyze and do something valuable with it.

In fact, the need for businesses to mine, analyze, predict, decide and act – all based on data – will be as prevalent as ever, bolstered by an ever-increasing number of data experts who know how to analyze and act upon data and information. That is the future ahead of us. Thus, to the point of my previous blog post, it has never been more important to ensure we can satisfy this demand with good data-oriented education and training.

[1] http://blogs.gartner.com/svetlana-sicular/big-data-is-falling-into-the-trough-of-disillusionment/

[2] http://ovum.com/2013/01/21/big-data-whats-hot-whats-not-according-to-the-twitter-stream/

[3] http://media.dice.com/report/2013-2012-dice-salary-survey/

[4] http://www.informationweek.com/big-data/news/big-data-analytics/data-animators-bring-big-data-to-life/240146508

A new year, a new take on big data: more education and training

Posted on January 15, 2013 by Sean Jackson

I wonder what the buzzword of 2013 will be. Will it contine to be “big data” or will something else come along in its place? Until the next expression is upon us, one thing is clear: I am astounded at the level of ubiquity the expression “big data” has reached, especially when you consider how 2012 saw NPR vote the term “word of the year” [1] and even BBC Radio 4 discussed the subject on its highbrow news program “Today”[2]. Furthermore, in October 2012, analyst company Gartner published a market forecast in which they claim that the term “big data” is now so commonplace that it can refer to any part of the IT industry. The report then went on to say that “big data” would drive $28 billion of IT spending worldwide in 2012, rising 21% to $34 billion in 2013. These are staggering numbers.

But just who is empowered to capitalize on the continued “big data” phenomenon? If you believe Gartner again, businesses face a problem, one that will only get worse as data volumes and analytic workloads increase: there is a lack of internal know-how and trained experts that can work with data and monetize it. To quote Gartner again, at the last Gartner IT/Expo Symposium in October 2012 in Orlando, the firm issued a statement[3] saying that 4.4m IT jobs would be created as a result of big data – that there would be a groundswell in career opportunities for data-savvy professionals. And for every IT job created, 3 other jobs will be created outside of IT, so that means that 13m jobs would be created. Wow. However, in the same breath, the point was also made that only 1.2m jobs could be fulfilled highlighting a distinct lack of trained professionals able to satisfy demand. In other words, only one out of every three jobs will be filled. It appears that data experts are a scarce and valuable commodity.

So what can be done? Some would argue that businesses need to satisfy their “big data” requirements by using easier-to-use tools and less complex applications. But that is a given, in fact every vendor with a “big data” solution would support that argument. The problem is not one that can only be solved with technology.

The answer to this challenge is in education. We need our schools, colleges and universities to create content and courses around the “big data” phenomenon. And we need to attract students to such courses, explaining their merits and the jobs that are out in the corporate world that can be filled as a result. While some students may go into further education to study generic topics such as “business studies”, others would be better off following deep-dive data-centric subjects and courses that would serve them better in the long run.

Offering training on the fundamentals of “big data” to those already in employment is also paramount. Businesses should start to educate their workforce and arm them with the tools and knowedge to become the next bastions of information-savvy and data-centric professionals. Many have already made reference to the evolution of the “chief digital officer” as the next departmental executive in business, but a CDO can only function if supported by a workforce made up of data-savvy professionals.

Staff retention and satisfaction will only improve if businesses choose to invest in their employees and arm them with skills and know-how that will serve both parties well tomorrow. In fact, nothing beats real-life working and hands-on experience. Likewise, businesses should make sure they’re doing their part to teach, explain and share knowledge with those just starting out in their careers. And potential employees have a part to play, too. They should think about how they can bear their creativity and insight at their employer, and help to unearth insight and information that they previously had never considered and that will serve to help the business.

We live in the digital information age where data volumes will only continue to get more complex and yet offer more value, so businesses should invest in talent as much as they do in the software and systems they’re using to cope with “big data”. In fact, the question for business executives is a simple one: “Are you prepared to help create the new “big data” experts of tomorrow?” If not, then you might find it that much harder to recruit the experts you need yoursevles for future business.

[1] http://www.npr.org/2012/12/20/167702665/geoff-nunbergs-word-of-the-year-big-data

[2] http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9714000/9714821.stm

[3] http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=2207915

Big Data: The rise of the smart city

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Sean Jackson

The buzz surrounding big data is enough to convert the most ardent sceptic but once the initial enthusiasm subsides, you begin to cut through the fog of marketing hype and evaluate practical benefits. Many people are at the second stage when they are beginning to question big data benefits. Working in business intelligence and data analytics for some time now, I’ve never had occasion to doubt its positive influence. In fact the biggest and most widespread impact is already shaping our towns and cities and turning them into smart cities, a modern urban landscape where big data is radically changing both where we live and the way we live.

According to the 2011 revision of the United Nations’ World Urbanization Prospects report[1], nearly 70 per cent of the world’s population will be urban by 2051. The world population is expected to surpass nine billion and urban dwellers to surpass six billion. Two in three people born in the next 30 years will live in cities. This growth in urban living poses tough challenges to those in local government, administration and town planning offices as they strive to ensure that the environment, transportation, residents’ safety, the provision of utilities as well as economic and social activity can continue to be improved unhindered. It is clear that responding to these challenges and improving people’s lives, towns and cities will require local planning teams and administration bodies to think differently, where much more emphasis will be placed on the consumption and analysis of large data volumes generated by day-to-day life in our towns and cities.

And it is staggering just how much data towns and cities generate. At a rough estimate, we will generate 4.1 terabytes per day per square kilometer of urbanized land area by 2016. In fact, you could say that cities are the true big data systems of our age. From geolocation data collected by smart phones to data generated by cars and their GPS instruments, from the contact sensor payment cards we use to ride the subway to the data we offer when we want to make use of a bike or a car in the city. From the data generated by our health ID cards to that from our loyalty and store cards, our bank cards and every time we make use of QR, bar or flash codes to access content.

Data generation does not stop there – think about the data created by traffic management systems, from traffic lights to the sensors on our roads; from the provision of utilities such as gas, electricity and drinking water; when delivering refuse collection and waste management services; from the provision of healthcare in our doctors’ surgeries and hospitals to the data generated by schools and colleges educating our children.

Data is not being generated in isolation either, there an increasing appetite for real-time and interactive information – where we were once content to use a map provided on a street display, we now turn to our smart phone devices and tablets to interact much more dynamically. Before, we were glad when we found a good restaurant. Now we want to research it, see what others think of it, take photos, post content and share our reviews. No longer do we want to wait patiently for the bus to arrive, wondering whether an alternate transport might better serve our purpose. Now we want to know where it is, how late it is running and whether it will get us to the station in time for our train. Before, we just got into our cars and headed off to where we needed to go. Now, we want to research our route, see if there are any traffic jams or incidents, plot our journey using our sat nav, and see how the weather might impact our journey. Before, we were happy if we could get our children into a local school. Now we want to know what the school is like, how it rates in the league tables, what the teachers are like, how easy it is for our children to get to school, what other parents think about it.

You could even say that where once we used to talk to our neighbours and family to get their thoughts and opinions, now we are consumed by the digital age and look to online resources instead, creating and consuming vast amounts of content that others can use and add to, vast amounts of data that – once shared – civic authorities and town planners can use to their advantage.

Faced with this deluge of data in a wide variety of forms and formats, it may be hard to know where civic authorities and town planning organization can start. But the answer is clear: every step made towards improving the quality of life begins by first analyzing it and making sense of it. For me this represents a great opportunity for the city authorities and urban developers – it gives them a powerful tool to tackle rapid and unprecedented urbanization by making better informed decisions, operate more efficiently and even predict the future to ensure resources can be organized in time.

We have already seen a number of practical implementations from utility providers exploring how information from smart meters can encourage water and energy users to change behaviour to civic authorities using available technologies, including mobile phones, sensors and closed-circuit television to improve the flow of road traffic. One of the most successful example of this was during the 2012 Olympic games in London when Transport for London, the public authority responsible for running the London public transport network, prepared and ensured smooth transport despite experiencing a 25 per cent increase in customers using real-time information collected from CCTV cameras, subway cards (Oyster card), mobile phones and social networks to ensure limited disruptions to trains and bus routes.

Data is all around us – it’s not just growing but multiplying and what the civic authorities and town planners need is fast and easy-to-use technology which can digest the data quickly and give them the answers that they need. They don’t need to invest in large, expensive storage or data processing solutions; specialized solutions are not needed here. There are newer analytic solutions out there in the market, ones that leverage the performance features of the latest off-the-shelf servers and hardware that can crunch through large volumes of data of all shapes and sizes and render the results on devices that we all use anyway in a matter of just seconds: on smart phones, tablets, our desktop PCs.

Cities are areas where big data is having a real impact. Town planners and administration bodies just need the right tools at their fingertips to consume all the data points that a town or city generate and then be able to turn that into actions that improve people’s lives. In this case, big data is not just a passing fad or marketing hype, it is definitely a phenomenon that has a direct impact on the quality of life for those of us that choose to live in a town or city.

Tomorrow’s towns and cities are being built today, and they’re being built by using big data.

[1] http://esa.un.org/unup/pdf/WUP2011_Highlights.pdf