poem End, Decade!

END, DECADE!

Regret is retro.
It invites regression to
the beginning. Don’t

chase the predictive
path, algorithmic dendrites
of futurity.

Suspect you've been led
to this conclusion: Time's a
twisted spectacle.

FORRESTER blog repost Instrumenting Your Enterprise for Maximum Predictive Power

Instrumenting Your Enterprise for Maximum Predictive Power

By James Kobielus

Business is all about placing bets and knowing if the odds are in your favor.

As I noted in my most recent Forrester report, business success depends on your company being able to visualize likely futures and take appropriate actions as soon as possible. You must be able to predict future scenarios well enough to prepare plans and deploy resources so that you can seize opportunities, neutralize threats, and mitigate risks.

Clearly, predictive analytics can play a pivotal role in the day-to-day operation of your business. It can help you focus strategy and continually tweak plans based on actual performance and likely future scenarios. And, as I noted in a recent Forrester blog post, the technology can sit at the core of your service-oriented architecture (SOA) strategy as you embed predictive logic deeply into data warehouses, business process management platforms, complex event processing streams, and operational applications.

The grand promise of predictive analytics—still largely unrealized in most companies—is that it will become ubiquitous, guiding all decisions, transactions, and applications. For the technology to rise to that challenge, organizations must move toward a comprehensive advanced analytics strategy that integrates data mining, content analytics, and in-database analytics. Already, we’ve sketched out a vision of “Service-Oriented Analytics,” under which you break down silos among data mining and content analytics initiatives and leverage these pooled resources across all business processes.

You may agree that this is the right vision but have doubt about whether there is a practical, incremental roadmap for taking your company in that direction. In fact there is, and it starts with re-assessing the core of most companies’ predictive analytics capability: your data mining tools. As you plan your predictive analytics initiatives, you should avoid the traditional approach of focusing on tactical, bottom-up project-specific requirements. You should also try not to shoehorn your requirements into the limited feature set of whatever modeling tool you currently happen to use.

To become a fully predictive enterprise, you will need to take both a top-down and bottom-up approach to your data mining initiatives. From the top-down, it’s all about building and integrating alternate models of how your business environment is likely to evolve internally and externally. In our recent report on advanced analytics, Boris Evelson, Leslie Owens, and I sketched out the many business processes that can be enriched by predictive analytics.

So how do you instrument your company to become more predictive? For starters, assess whether your analytics tools support the following capabilities for developing, validating, and deploying predictive models:

• Model multiple business scenarios: You should be able to build complex models of multiple, linked business scenarios across different business, process, and subject-area domains, using such key features as strategy maps, ensemble modeling , and champion-challenger modeling.
• Incorporate multiple information types into models: You should be able to develop models against multiple information types, including unstructured content and real-time event streams, while leveraging state-of-the-art algorithm in sentiment analysis and social network analysis.
• Leverage multiple statistical algorithms and approaches in models: You should be able to develop models using the widest, most sophisticated range of statistical and mathematical algorithms and approaches, including regression, constraint-based optimization, neural networks, genetic algorithms, and support vector machines.
• Apply multiple metrics of model quality and fitness: You should be able to score and validate model quality using multiple metrics and approaches, including quality scores, lift charts, goodness-of-fit charts, comparative model evaluation, and auto best-model selection.
• Employ multiple variable discovery and assessment approaches: You should be able to build and validate models using various approaches for variable discovery, profiling, and selection, including decision trees, feature selection, clustering, association rules, affinity analysis, and outlier analysis.

How is this different from predictive analytics as usual? Traditionally, most predictive modeling specialists focus on the latter three capabilities: statistical algorithms and approaches, model quality and fitness, and variable discovery and assessment. Most models are built in narrowly scoped business or subject domains—such as customer analytics for marketing campaign management—and only against structured data sources (such as relational tables). Traditionally, few predictive analytics projects have entailed modeling of multiple business scenarios across diverse domains--such as sales, marketing, customer service, manufacturing, and supply chain-- though in the real world these business processes are often quite interconnected. Also, many data mining initiatives fail to incorporate information from unstructured sources—such as text in call-center logs—though this content may be as important as what comes relational databases and other structured sources.

It’s very important to build multi-scenario predictive models against complex information sets, but becoming a fully predictive enterprise demands much more. To instrument your organization for maximum predictive power, you should also tool your advanced analytics to support the following capabilities:

• DW-integrated data preparation: To speed up and standardize the most time-consuming predictive modeling project tasks, you should be able to leverage your existing data warehouse, extract transform load, data quality, and metadata tools to support a full range of data preparation features. These features include the ability to discover, acquire, capture, profile, sample, collect, collate, aggregate, deduplicate, transform, correct, augment, and load analytical data sets.
• Deep application and middleware integration: To deliver models deeply into whatever heterogeneous SOA-enabled platform you happen to use, your predictive analytics tool should deploy on and/or integrate with a wide range of enterprise applications, middleware, operating platforms, and hardware substrate. You should be able to deploy models seamlessly into your data warehouse, business intelligence, online analytical processing, data integration, complex event processing, data quality, master data management, and business process management environments. And to play well in your SOA, your predictive modeling tools should support application programming interfaces, languages, tools, and approaches such as Web services, Java, C++, and Visual Studio, as well as emerging languages such as SQL-MapReduce and R.
• Consistent cross-domain model governance: To avoid fostering an unmanageable glut of myriad models, your predictive analytics solution should support a wide range of tools, features, and interfaces to support life-cycle governance of models created in diverse tools. At the very least, your tools should enable model check in/check-out, change tracking, version control, and collaborative development and validation of models. To realize this promise, it should support a full range of tools, standards, and interfaces for import and embedding of models from other tools, as well as export and sharing of models to other environments.
• Flexible model deployment: To execute modeling functions--such as data preparation, regression, and scoring—on the widest range of data warehouses and other platforms, your tools should support in-database or embedded analytics. And to scale to the max, your predictive analytics tools should deploy models to massively parallel data warehouses, software-as-a-service environments, and cloud computing fabrics. Your advanced analytics tools should also support development of application logic in open frameworks—such as MapReduce and Hadoop—to enable convergence of data mining and content analytics in the cloud.
• Rich interactive visualization: To deliver their precious payload—actionable intelligence—your advanced analytics tools should support interactive visualization of models, data, and results. Ideally, you should be able to visualize all of this in your preferred business intelligence tool, or in the predictive modeling vendor’s integrated visualization layer. Of course, you have every right to expect the full range of visualization techniques--histograms, box plots, heat maps, etc.—regardless of who provides the visualization layer.

As you can see, this goes well beyond data mining as usual. Forrester has a slightly different perspective on the development of the predictive analytics market than you’re likely to get from other sources. We see a robust, flexible, SOA-enabled data mining tools as the centerpiece of advanced analytics for fully predictive enterprises. The competitive stakes are too great for businesses to take the traditional silo-mired approach when implementing this mission-critical technology.

What do you think?

Aweekstweets November 15-22 2009—whole week’s blather scraped, classified, with extended commentary only on the tech-related stuff

Aweekstweets November 15-22 2009—whole week’s blather scraped, classified, with extended commentary only on the tech-related stuff

TECH-AND-TECH-INDUSTRY TWEETS

"IBM Researchers [Develop] Cat-Like Cognitive Computing" (http://bit.ly/3iq3DY): JK--Really? Computer sleeps 24x7? Bites hand that feeds it? 12:24 PM Nov 19th from TweetDeck

JK2—We’re always trying to rebuild the brain. Now we’re ratcheting down our ambition: mimicking carnivore gray matter because we don’t have the computer power to do justice to our own wetware circuitry. I recommend we start by replicating the most primitive brains in the animal kingdom: insects (do they even have brains?). Why start there? Well, because they’re such an incredibly successful category of organisms...they might have something to teach us, if we can learn to think like them. Cats? They’re recently evolved camp followers of homo sapiens. From an evolutionary standpoint, they’ll teach us what we already know: if you protect the food supply from rodents, generally keep to yourself, and provide a passive object of comfort and companionship, you have a warm place in the human hearth—as long as humans themselves survive. Insects are something entirely different: they’ll survive whether or not we do, and they might contribute to our downfall. Keep your friends close, your enemies closer.

"True BI for the Masses" (http://bit.ly/MdnYS): JK--Good @SethGrimes blog. "For the masses" overpromises BI adoption. Much best embedded 12:16 PM Nov 19th from TweetDeck

JK2—Let’s not imagine that everybody everywhere wants to spend every day experiencing the world through reports, dashboards, and other other visualization containers we associate with specialized business intelligence (BI) solutions. Most of us want all of these contextualizers, but embedded in all the apps and services we use. And let’s not imagine that everybody wants to see every scrap of information packaged in a BI-like experiences: with prebuilt visualizations, context, and insights. So it’s not productive to view the world through purely BI-colored glasses. What I love most about the Web is the passing parade of people, situations, events, images, information, trends, and experiences—arbitrary, complex, confusing, sprawling, stimulating, open-ended. The masses are happy to derive their own meanings from these messes.

RT @DavidLinthicum "On-premise vs. on-demand BI: SAP tries for best of both worlds: http://bit.ly/qf7ca": JK--BI SaaS + prem-based: hybrid? 11:01 AM Nov 19th from TweetDeck

JK2—Will enterprises evolve toward hybrid BI environments hosted partly on-premises and partly in the SaaS/cloud. Will the departments be allowed to mashup their own BI reports and dashboards on outsourced SaaS/cloud services, while the enterprise as a whole uses a premises-based platform? Won’t one approach crowd out the other over time as corporate IT looks to consolidate on a single platform? Either SaaS/cloud will become the dominant BI deployment approach for companies of all sizes, or the dominant approach for one segment, such as the midmarket. Or the dominant approach for deployment of one category of BI capability—such as predictive analytics against cloud-sourced data—while the core of BI is still deployed on on-premises platforms.

RT @jilldyche "Regarding predictive analytics being 'the next big thing'--how, exactly, do they know?" JK--Regression back to mean-ness. 6:58 AM Nov 19th from TweetDeck

JK2—Nobody truly knows the future. Some of us have models that have proven quite good at predicting futures with a reasonable degree of confidence, based on observations. That’s what predictive modeling is all about. Where analytics is concerned, there has never been a “next big thing.” Instead, all the old things (and data mining is certainly an old established discipline) just keep evolving aggressive new marketing messages to justify customers’ continued loyalty.

Don't ever recall anybody referring to predictive analytics as the "next big thing." Perhaps that's math-geeks indulging in wishful thinking 10:03 PM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

JK2—The key gating factor on predictive analytics’ adoption has always been the specialized statistical and mathematical knowledge required to use these tools effectively. That constraint is beginning to ease, thanks to the development of more automated visual tooling for data discovery, exploration, preparation, and modeling. But this is still a math-geek-intensive discipline—much more than, say, core BI. Let’s be honest with ourselves. No true “next big thing” demands that you first go back for college-level training in statistics.

"Why pay for DW appliance when can get one free?" (http://bit.ly/CUbEV): JK--Misleading: GP Sgl-Node is free DB SW licnse, not DW appliance 9:05 PM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

JK2—I’m a bit fatalistic about speaking to the press. Even when they quote me correctly, and place that quote in the right context in a well-written article, a misleading headline can screw it all up. Jeff did a good job on this one except for the headline. There’s no mention anywhere in this article of a free DW appliance (software plus hardware in a complete, no-charge package) being offered by any vendor. If there were, that would definitely be news.

RT @stheath:"SAS models can be scored in various DWs" JK--Yep, as can models created in other PA/DM tools--through PMML & other imp/exp. 2:32 PM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

JK2—In-database analytics is a capability that most DW/DBMS platforms support, as do most predictive analytics and data mining tools. It’s all about tools exporting models as PMML, or as native SAS code, or as Java archives, or any of various other approaches—and DW/DBMSs’ importing them and executing those models as user-defined functions (UDFs) or some other approach. Of course, vendors vary widely in the range of data mining functions—such as data preparation, regression analysis, and scoring—that can be done on which tools’ models by which DW/DBMS vendors’ platforms.

RT @jswanhart "Except that data mining tools can't give you black lung" JK--Right, but, misused, they can soil your reputation. 2:31 PM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

JK2—Excuse me for being quick with the metaphorical comeback.

IBM's massive media push on Smarter Planet has been content-rich. See latest InformationWeek? It's IBM "smarter business" from front to back 2:18 PM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

JK2—IBM was the sole advertiser on that issue.

Data miners seem to have the same love-hate relationship with their tools that old-fashioned miners have with their pickaxes and dynamite. 2:12 PM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

JK2—No matter how I score the various vendor tools on my forthcoming Forrester Wave for Predictive Analytics and Data Mining Solutions, I’m going to face a boatload of ire from devotees of the lower-scored tools. And even from users of the higher-scored tools who will point out the myriad feature their vendor has never got quite right—but which are not showstoppers that would cause these users to abandon the stat tools they’ve been using since their college days.

RT @HKotadia "Predictive Analytics has been "Next Big thing" for last 10 Yrs" JK--So has everything else, depending on who you talk to. 1:15 PM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

JK2—I’m more than happy covering the myriad not-quite-that-big things that loom large in the daily nitty-gritty of enterprise computing. A more sustainable career than riding the wave of fast-rising bubble technologies that may be big next year but obsolete the year after.

PA/DM is a discrete product segment, but converging into BI, blurring into content analytics, fed from and deploying to CEP, embedded in SOA 1:04 PM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

JK2—That’s the thrust of my Service-Oriented Analytics discussion.

Self-service BI not discrete mkt segment: it's reqs addr via SaaS, in-mem, mashup, lightweight, appliance, OSS, express, auto & pervasive BI 1:02 PM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

JK2—There are many ways to skin the “self-service operational BI” cat, and almost every vendor in this arena is doing it by a blend of these and other approaches. Everybody’s trying to take this technology out of IT’s hands and put the users in the driver’s seat. Very little of it is rocket science. Most of it is well-established and well-understood, has stable usage and integration patterns, and can be automated to a greater degree than we like to admit.

Core of "analytics cloud" is a scale-out DW platform. MSFT SQL Azure may be there by 2011, but not in 2010's v1. Why not embed SS08R2 PDW? 7:35 AM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

JK2—Microsoft’s strategic error on cloud DW was building one stovepipe analytic database environment for Azure, and another one for SQL Server. They’ll spend several years converging them, and it won’t be pretty. And it won’t be in time to make much headway against Amazon, Google, IBM, Teradata, and others who are getting there first with more integrated cloud DBMS/DW solutions—in IBM and Teradata’s cases, with the same core database in premises-based and public clouds.

IBM provides analytics cloud platform,as do Teradata, Aster, Greenplum, Vertica, & Kognitio. But MSFT, ORCL, SAP, Sybase, and Netezza don't. 7:31 AM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

JK2—That list is more or less in descending order—from strong/promising to weak/non-existent--of the cloud strategies of DW vendors in today’s market.

"In-db analytics pulls together SAS, DW vdrs" (http://bit.ly/3fF0rZ): JK--SAS models can be scored in various DWs, per yesterday tweets. 7:15 AM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

JK2—See tweet explaining this, earlier in this aweekstweets. Lots of DW/DBMSs can import models in native SAS code. Aster can even execute those models, without conversion, in a SAS executable runtime container in the new nCluster v4.

"Microsoft ...Launch[es] Windows Azure Platform" (http://bit.ly/2sVPHP): JK--Milestone in cloud-as-platform maturity, but not DW cloud 6:46 AM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

JK2—Milestone in the ordinary product-management sense that it’s one step closer to go-live for Microsoft. Will Azure represent an industry milestone in the maturity, sophistication, and adoption of cloud computing in corporate environments? 2010 will be the year we learn.

MS-DOS was originally "QDOS" (quick and dirty operating system--not making this up). Was that an omen? 9:41 PM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

JK2—Windows—with its schizoid “wait forever for your latest goddamn mouse-click to advance the cursor a millimeter on screen” GUI—has rarely been quick, and—with the blue screens of death, malware infestations, and general look-and-feel madness—has often been dirty.

RT @Catherine_VZ "social media monitoring Attensity Cloud, incl Google Sidewiki #VOC" JK--This tech will revolutionize opinion polling. 9:24 PM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

JK2—I’d be interested in knowing how exit-polling on elections matches up with same-time voice-of-voter polls as expressed in the twit-o-blog-o-sphere.

RT @swooledge: "MapReduce is #1. 2009's top 10 emerging enterprise technologies" JK--And #1 most difficult to explain to the CEO. 9:18 PM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

JK2—Even difficult to explain to DBAs—and to other analysts.

RT @CurtMonash "Email tells me of Dataupia's resurrection" JK--Bah, marketing. Rebirth no biggie. Can they build sustainable biz? Doubtful. 9:14 PM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

JK2—In a commoditized market with a couple dozen competitors, re-startups had better have some awesomely innovative verge-of-commercialization technology in the labs to have a snowball’s chance.

Social network analysis: I'd like to see operational definitions of "groupthink," and content analytics that detect when it's emerging. 8:49 PM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

JK2—For example: Can social network analysis detect the outlines of the GOP agenda and presidential candidate shortlist for 2012 even though it’s 3 years from now? And can these algorithms outdo the human pundits in this regard? That’d be like a football coach having a mole in the opposition’s huddle.

"Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs" (http://bit.ly/3EeWP6): JK--OK, sell dreams, not products. But do electric sheep dream of columnar DBs? 7:36 AM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

JK2—Quite frankly, dreams are often a distraction from the main business of life. Dreams are just rapid eye movements and herky-jerky unconscious muscle spasms. Sell people quiets, comfy pillows, and firm mattresses.

"Oracle Updates Berkeley Database" (http://bit.ly/28avBy): JK--Oracle's already multi-specialized-DB vendor. Why not MySQL also? Come on EU! 7:29 AM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

JK2—Seriously. MySQL is what? The 13^th or 14^th most popular DBMS in the world.

"IBM Deploys Cloud-Computing Business Intelligence System" (http://bit.ly/1JTMMY): JK--Private BI/DW cloud with Cognos on System Z. 7:23 AM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

JK2—Mostly just an internal private cloud at IBM. The commercialized cloud will be for IBM mainframe customers. I’m still waiting for an IBM smart analytics public and private cloud that will be virtualized across DB2 and Informix, and across all OS and hardware platforms. I don’t know yet where IBM is going with this, or whether in fact they plan to go that all-encompassing.

"Cray blows by IBM to regain supercomputing crown" (http://bit.ly/3fBwCT): JK--Cray still exists? Haven't regained HPC-mkt-mindshare crown 7:08 AM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

JK2—Is Cray a stand-alone company or a product group within some larger vendor? Will have to look them up—again.

RT @NeilRaden "I don't agree. [Netezza] already impl DB Lytix." JK--Can't optimize scoring etc of most PA/DM mdls--i.e. SAS--w/o SAS integ 9:35 PM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

JK2—The point of this tweet was that SAS is the largest predictive analytics and data mining vendor by market share—hence many predictive models have been built with its tools—hence DW vendors that do in-database analytics should be able to integrate with and execute the full range of procedures, including scoring and regression-, on SAS models—hence it’s good that Netezza has a SAS partnership. Netezza’s partnership with Fuzzy Logix, vendor of the DB Lytix in-db enabling tool, is important for Netezza in-database analytics on a wide range of third-party PA/DM tool vendors’ models. Whew—hard point to make without lots of detail and nuance. Thank goodness for aweekstweets (assuming anybody actually reads this).

RT @SethGrimes "ChicTrib article on #sentiment analysis vdr GeeYee http://bit.ly/2DdbvS #textanalytics" JK--Sentiment = emotional signal 9:28 PM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

JK2—Sentiment analysis is in danger of becoming too popular, pre-empting formal opinion polls and focus groups, pre-empting the need to actually talk to your customers to see what’s on their minds.

RT @swooledge "'no-copy analytics'..#Forrester nu in-DB analytics rpt..http://bit.ly/3I3iaL" JK--No-copy: data stays put, models move to EDW 9:27 PM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

JK2—In petabyte and multi-100-TB DWs, the data’s getting too massive to move. For that, and other reasons, move the predictive and other analytic logic to the DW, rather than vice versa.

RT @SethGrimes "most advanced in-DB analytics on market": JK--From DW POV, depends on range of supported info, models, procs, tools, & APIs 9:22 PM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

JK2—I’m definitely going to have to SWOT the DW and PA/DM vendors’ in-database analytics features more finely in the coming year.

"IBM debuts massive analytics cloud" (http://bit.ly/1igfCL): JK--IBM's Smart Analytics Cloud will serve petabyte-scale real-time analytics. 9:12 PM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

JK2—That’s fine, but I still don’t have any meaningful details on IBM Smart Analytics System appliances. Still waiting. Getting a briefing update from them in December.

"SAS Intensifies In-Database Efforts" (http://bit.ly/25Zz0N): JK--SAS' in-db DW partners: Teradata, Netezza, IBM, HP, Aster Data, Greenplum. 9:10 PM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

JK2—SAS knows this is a must for their customers to continue scaling up and out.

"SAS to Deliver In-Db Analytic Scoring for Netezza" (http://bit.ly/sUT9y): JK--Key for Netezza: can't do in-db analytics w/o SAS partnership 9:06 PM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

JK2—Here I’ll simply re-post the full response from a few tweets above: “JK2—The point of this tweet was that SAS is the largest predictive analytics and data mining vendor by market share—hence many predictive models have been built with its tools—hence DW vendors that do in-database analytics should be able to integrate with and execute the full range of procedures, including scoring and regression-, on SAS models—hence it’s good that Netezza has a SAS partnership. Netezza’s partnership with Fuzzy Logix, vendor of the DB Lytix in-db enabling tool, is important for Netezza in-database analytics on a wide range of third-party PA/DM tool vendors’ models. Whew—hard point to make without lots of detail and nuance. Thank goodness for aweekstweets (assuming anybody actually reads this).”

"Google, Amazon, Microsoft Fluff Up Their Clouds" (http://bit.ly/396tqY): JK--No: cutting cloud app pricing to rain on software apps' parade 9:01 PM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

JK2—It’s funny that the headline writer put “fluff up” in there, as if these vendor’s announcements were insubstantial. They weren’t insubstantial, but they didn’t begin to address the pricing issues that will determine whether any of the new services are cost-effective for the mass market anytime soon. My hunch is that we’re due for a nasty price war among the cloud app/platform vendors in 2010-2012, with packaged software license revenues (watch out Microsoft!) taking a huge hit.

"Text-based content... in real-time BI" (http://bit.ly/1jU0GM): JK--Filter semantic signal from colloquial noise. @Dana_Gardner @SethGrimes 8:57 PM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

JK2—What’s Twitter? A cloud of colloquial noise. You can hide juicy tweetborne content in plain sight—i.e, won’t pass through the filters of many sophisticated text analytics NLP engines, because essentially written in ad-hoc arbitrary you-and-your-friends-specific code language.

Taking briefing from Zircon Computing: adaptive, distributed, scalable, real-time, parallel, OS/hardware-agnostic on-demand middleware platf 11:26 AM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

JK2—Interesting on many levels. But they have yet to identify a killer app.

"SAS Intensifies In-Database Efforts" (http://bit.ly/25Zz0N): JK--SAS has significantly broadened/deepened its DW vendor partnerships. 8:58 AM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

JK2—DW vendors missing from SAS partnership: Oracle, Microsoft, SAP, Sybase.

"Google Street View Faces Swiss Legal Challenge" (http://bit.ly/3Hm4U9): JK--Can a satellite be prosecuted as a peeping tom? 8:48 AM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

JK2—Give it up world. You’re visible from space. You’re also visible from airplanes and hot-air balloons. Blame the Wright and Montgolfier Brothers, if you have to start somewhere.

"Bing Adds Facebook, Videos, Wolfram Alpha" (http://bit.ly/1RyEvk): JK--Wolfram Alpha? (scratches head)....oh...last year's Google killer. 7:27 AM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

JK2—I saw another mention of Wolfram Alpha in a vendor’s partner slides the other day. Who exactly is using it?

LIFE-OF-AN-ANALYST TWEETS

Getting ready for meeting downtown with Dunder-Mifflin. about 13 hours ago from TweetDeck

Cool...updated my SWOTs of the majority of DW vendors....been an event-packed fall-announcement season...lots of important developments. 2:45 PM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

Good to have my aweekstweets to reference in a pinch....even analysts with magnum-jupiters forget exactly what they tweeted and when 10:45 AM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

Cool thing about Twitter is that it allows analysts to call out contacts (where appropriate) with others in the industry influence ecosystem 8:51 AM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

Jeff Kelly of searchdatamanagement.com called, interviewed me on IBM Smart Analytics Cloud, and on cloud DW generally. 8:49 AM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

"The Year of BI" (http://bit.ly/2KIdaZ): JK--Nice that core coverage area stays hot, but makes nervous. Eventually "hot" gives way to "not" 8:04 AM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

Habitual continuity of stable morning routine, mid-day routine, nightly routine is frame through which crazy world best viewed & kept at bay 7:56 AM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

One of the nice things about the grind of checking the newswires/newsletters every morning is that plenty of Twitter-able events pop up. 7:51 AM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

Preparing for consulting engagements next week: DW & BI vendors, on successive days, different cities/states. 7:49 AM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

I'm noticing the yearly late-fall-surge of vendor announcements in the run-up to Thanksgiving. 7:50 AM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

@mcgoverntheory: How exactly is using every information source available to you, vendor or otherwise, a "crutch"? 6:41 AM Nov 17th from TweetDeck in reply to mcgoverntheory

Yeah, that was a good yield of tweets to my credit....honing and owning my thoughts keeps Ockham's Razor good 'n' sharp 10:03 PM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

Been a slow day in Lake Wobegon in my head...Elmer Inqvist installed a new flagpole.. Actually, I lied, been anything but slow or woebegone 5:18 PM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

That's cool. Initial Wave vendor feedback on scorecards finds my criteria/scales valid/interesting--I sweated over that--so very important! 4:20 PM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

RT @cselland "analyst-in-the-world" JK--Doesn't mean analyst equally expert in all topics, but aware of delivering analysis on world stage. 4:19 PM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

Twitter analyst-in-the-world is the fuller context of our branding & differentiation. No trouble at all. Each must manage own entire persona 12:55 PM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

Big issue with Twitter in a professional analyst context: down deep, it's your personal channel to the world: it's the analyst-in-the-world 12:45 PM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

Individual analyst blogs, team analyst blogs...one voice, many voices in various frequencies and harmonics... 12:38 PM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

SHAMELESS-SELF-PROMOTION TWEETS

Kickfire webinar, "More Bang for Your Data Warehousing Budget," w/myself, Dec 9, 10-11am PST, register at http://bit.ly/6pj8Ja. 16 minutes ago from TweetDeck

Rehearsing the Kickfire webinar that we'll be delivering on December 9: "More Bang for your Data Warehousing Budget." about 4 hours ago from TweetDeck

Engaged in pre-show chit-chat on DM Radio Live Broadcast , "Predictive Analytics: Enterprise Crystal Ball" (http://bit.ly/1gJr9f). Register! 1:42 PM Nov 19th from TweetDeck

Prepping for DM Radio Live Broadcast this afternoon, "Predictive Analytics: The Enterprise Crystal Ball" (http://bit.ly/1gJr9f). Always fun! 11:37 AM Nov 19th from TweetDeck

Wayne Morris, pres/CEO of myDIALS: SaaS BI webinar: Q&A: Wayne discussing metadata integration scenarios for enterprise migration to SaaS BI 11:03 AM Nov 19th from TweetDeck

Wayne Morris, pres/CEO of myDIALS and myself: SaaS BI webinar: Q&A on how SaaS BI complements or can supplant prem-based BI: use cases 10:58 AM Nov 19th from TweetDeck

Wayne Morris, pres/CEO of myDIALS: SaaS BI webinar: describing governance, controls, and safeguards in their service environment 10:48 AM Nov 19th from TweetDeck

Wayne Morris, pres/CEO of myDIALS: SaaS BI webinar: describing hosted service components, & connectors to customer prem-based data/apps 10:47 AM Nov 19th from TweetDeck

Wayne Morris, pres/CEO of myDIALS: SaaS BI webinar: users collaboratively share their views and analytics within orgs/teams 10:43 AM Nov 19th from TweetDeck

Wayne Morris, pres/CEO of myDIALS: SaaS BI webinar: users visually drilldown within dimensions & metrics within biz contexts (history etc.) 10:41 AM Nov 19th from TweetDeck

Wayne Morris, pres/CEO of myDIALS: SaaS BI webinar: real-time what-if scenario & change-impact analysis with personalized dashboards 10:38 AM Nov 19th from TweetDeck

Wayne Morris, pres/CEO of myDIALS, speaking on SaaS BI webinar: help companies continuously improve oper perf w/ KPIs & specific targets 10:36 AM Nov 19th from TweetDeck

Tune into "Do-It-Yourself BI Done Right: The Secret Sauce is SaaS" (http://bit.ly/3QNPXt) webinar today, 11am EST, with myself & myDIALS. 9:40 AM Nov 19th from TweetDeck

Tune into "Do-It-Yourself BI Done Right: The Secret Sauce is SaaS" (http://bit.ly/3QNPXt) webinar tomorrow, 11am EST, with self & myDIALS. 2:51 PM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

Greenplum webinar, "Data Analytics and Cloud Computing: Convergence or Collision?" Dec 15, with self & @frankgillett (http://bit.ly/2cPRqv) 6:38 AM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

RT @myDIALS: All prepared and ready for webinar with @jameskobielus http://tinyurl.com/yzqwzqj: JK--Self-service operational SaaS BI. 4:22 PM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

Catch webinar, me & myDIALS, "Do-It-Yourself BI Done Right: The Secret Sauce is SaaS ," Thurs Nov 19, 11am (eastern): http://bit.ly/3FV01g 8:30 AM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

I've been discussing that #Forrester report on In-Database Analytics with everybody for months now. Nice to see it actually "out there." 7:13 AM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

New Kobielus Forrester report: "In-Database Analytics: The Heart Of The Predictive Enterprise" (http://bit.ly/3I3iaL) 6:51 AM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

CONTINUING-TO-INDULGE-IN-SOCIAL-MEDIA-ARE-CHANGING-THE-VERY-FABRIC-OF-OUR-POSTMODERN-EXISTENCE-WAIT-A-SEC-WHY-AREN’T THESE IN TECH-TWEET? TWEETS

The most dreaded out-of-the-blue question in today's time-starved attention economy: "Hey, got a sec?" 2:51 PM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

RT @vtri "Unified persona harmonizes all my facets" JK--Just a matter of sync-ing those channels, speaking one's mind in all. 6:53 AM Nov 19th from TweetDeck

RT @vtri "we have multi-channel/media ...so we don't have to express unified persona" JK--Disagree. Unified persona harmonizes all my facets 8:49 PM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

One of the most difficult challenges in today's multi-channel, -mode, -media, -tasking online society: expressing unified persona across all 2:55 PM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

RT @dcunni: "The end of email?" #df: JK--Seriously doubt it: social nets' primary tool for harassing with annoying followme/followyou msgs 1:22 PM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

Unsocial doesn't necessarily mean "unfriendly" or "anti-social." It may just mean private, shy, respectful, aloof, and/or "needing space." 7:44 AM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

RT @lmacvittie "is unsocial different from anti-social? former seems to imply passive lack while later more aggressive, active" JK--Exactly! 7:16 AM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

"Facebook digs in as 'unfriend' named Word of Year" (http://bit.ly/15uyPa): JK--Add "unsocial" for folks who want off this merry-go-round? 7:04 AM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

RT @alecsharp: @jameskobielus @girlwithnoname "I love randomness of Twitter" JK--Thrive on tthe random: serendipitous spiritual connections. 9:49 PM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

RT @girlwithnoname: @jameskobielus "all my tweets are lame so I won't bother." JK--You have a funny tweetname. That's a start. 9:02 PM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

What exactly is with Facebook's obsession with helping me find my relatives? Is it possible to turn off those annoying pushy messages? 9:00 PM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

RT @jameskobielus @girlwithnoname: "" bad form to RT YOURSELF??" JK--Only when original tweet's lame." JK2--And when the RT's even lamer!! 8:52 PM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

RT @girlwithnoname: "is it considered bad form to RT YOURSELF??" JK--Only when your original tweet's lame. 8:50 PM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

@jbernoff of #Forrester provides excellent advice on social media best practice. Describes "continuously updated ecosystem of influence." 8:07 AM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

It's useful to approach your own tweetstream as a stream with continuing motifs and themes that you yourself connect when spirit moves 8:00 AM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

"IT Blogwatch: Unfriend: the word of the year, apparently (http://bit.ly/339mUK): JK--Does that mean "unfriendliness" the mood of the year? 7:02 AM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

"45 Fast Facts About Microsoft" (http://bit.ly/4libHF): JK--Is there a Twitter app that can autostream "fast facts" from one's Twitter acct? 7:01 AM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

Temporal Twitter: speak 14 secs max, articulate punctuation, elide words you abbreviate, mimic voice of person you're retweeting 6:34 AM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

RT @HKotadia "Who owns your tweets? Answer might actually be your boss http://bit.ly/1ZW3aL #sCRM #PR #marketing" JK--Can I lease 'em back? 9:53 PM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

Blogging has become premeditated for me, but social networking remains spontaneous. The former: work. The latter: fun. Guess which I prefer. 9:15 PM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

Online invites to connect w/ friends family & classmates are biggest virus spreaders--as are their wetware analogues during holiday sesason. 5:31 PM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

MUSIC-CUZ-THAT’S-WHAT-I’M-WHISTLING-WHILE-I-WORK-IF-YOU-REALLY-MUST-KNOW TWEETS

Remember those two Capote movies at same time a few years ago? Now 2 new bands: Big Spider's Back and Spider Bags. Confusing (& bit creepy). 11:17 AM Nov 19th from TweetDeck

RT @kexpplaylist: No Children by The Mountain Goats #KEXP: JK--One of the funniest, most startling, most caustic marriage-breakup songs ever 3:13 PM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

See...i can indeed read hidden technology messages into songs that undoubtedly weren't expressing those messages. Paul is not dead, BTW. 1:08 PM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

RT @kexpplaylist: Wired For Light by School Of Seven Bells #KEXP: JK--"Wired for light"->fiber optics; "school of 7 bells"->Ma Bell breakup 1:07 PM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

RT @kexpplaylist: We're All Gonna Die Someday by Kasey Chambers #KEXP: JK--Ah...Aussie county-western is just as sassy as the Appalachian. 2:14 PM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

RT @kexpplaylist: Pink Moon by Nick Drake #KEXP: JK--One of those stunning posthumous leave-behinds from someone obscure in his day. 8:12 AM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

RT @kexpplaylist: California Stars by Billy Bragg & Wilco #KEXP: JK--Another classic song I've never heard over-the-air. 7:00 AM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

RT @kexpplaylist: Angelika by Devendra Banhart #KEXP: JK--Hirsute dude at most hippy-dippy. Rename him Donovan Banhart? Or Devendra Leitch? 9:46 PM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

RT @kitson: "Pontiac Silverdome ... #recession #silverdome" JK--Site of Who concert, '74, Keith Moon, pretty girl, me 16, indelible memory 9:38 PM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

Listening to Vampire Weekend "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa." Remember hearing it on cold Saturday, Jan '08, Trader Joe, Cambridge MA. Sample bar 9:34 PM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

Speaking of Alison Statton, ex-YMG, check out her & Spike's '97 "The Shady Tree." She wrote Track 2 ("Unspoken Word") for me. I'm in credits 9:30 PM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

RT @kexpplaylist: Bizarre Love Triangle by New Order #KEXP: JK--Love Alison Statton cover version: Devine & Statton "Prince of Wales" (1989) 9:28 PM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

RT @madgreek65 "Just landed in Seattle. Time to go exploring. Pike Brewery is up first!" JK--I always start with pilgrimage to #KEXP. 9:20 PM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

RT @girlwithnoname: @jameskobielus garsh thanks!!! :-) JK--Reminds me of Ting Tings' song "That's Not My Name." Which I'm listening to now. 9:19 PM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

RT @kexpplaylist: Everything Reminds Me of Her by Elliott Smith #KEXP: JK--Must say: love a sad song, but Elliott Smith downright depressing 2:41 PM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

RT @kexpplaylist Save It for Later by The English Beat #KEXP: JK--Distracting details: piling/saving "et al" for later keeps crazy contained 7:58 AM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

RT @kexpplaylist: Fake Records of Rock n Roll by Daniel Johnston #KEXP: JK--This guy's still recording? Stable, apparently. Song's good. 7:45 AM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

RT @kexpplaylist: Winter Wonder Land by Animal Collective #KEXP JK--Maryland band's endless-cycling groove maddeningly circus-y. Name sez it 7:26 AM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

RT @kexpplaylist: Hold On, Hold On by Neko Case #KEXP: JK--Iconic song of this decade....at least, if, like me, you've heard it (2006). 8:55 AM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

RT @kexpplaylist: Lady of Spain by Dick Contino #KEXP: JK--Metal & "Legends of Accordion" in same set. God speed you Quilty 3000/KEXP!!!!!! 7:57 PM Nov 15th from TweetDeck

RT @kexpplaylist: New Moon Rising by Wolfmother #KEXP: JK--These guys are now, but feel like early 70s metal. Retro update of junk rock. 7:48 PM Nov 15th from TweetDeck

RT @kexpplaylist: C'mon And Love Me by Kiss #KEXP: JK--Decent KISS song from 1975, but still watered-down made-up buncha Grand Funk poseurs 7:46 PM Nov 15th from TweetDeck

RT @merv "jam session..me (guitar) & TSchadler (bass)...Singers welcome" JK--Love that Book of Merv. Would love to sing 3DogNight "Shambala" 9:06 PM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

Everybody knows what music Jim is listening to....or, wanting YOU ALL to listen to 12:39 PM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

TV TWEETS

Look closely at "The Office": the PCs on desktops, boxes of paper in warehouse. Has HP acquired Dunder-Mifflin? Discuss amongst yourselves. about 6 hours ago from TweetDeck

Time Warner spinning off AOL? Blast from the 90s. Ah nostalgia. My kids really loved AOL back then. They also loved Barney and Friends. 12:21 PM Nov 19th from TweetDeck

Wondering when "30 Rock" will shift to mocking NBC's new owner. Wondering when Comcast will replace all NBC shows with public-access cable. 1:18 PM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

"Shepard Smith leaning against prevailing winds on Fox News" (http://bit.ly/J2Cxv): JK--Journalists there do in fact feel pangs of integrity 7:19 AM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

SHOWING-OFF-MY-ECON-DEGREE TWEETS

RT @bob_sutor: "I don't think something or a process can "be innovated": JK--Orgs can be enervated by lack of innovation in their processes. 9:56 AM Nov 19th from TweetDeck

"Sears posts 2nd consecutive quarterly loss" (http://bit.ly/1keNwR) JK--Come see the softer side of Sears' business model. 7:03 AM Nov 19th from TweetDeck

Sometimes I hesitate to recommend giving CEOs BI mashup. Seeing how they tend to mashup their M&A, their d-i-y dashboards would be hideous 2:09 PM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

RT @craignewmark @ariannahuff "Memo to Warren Buffett" JK--The Messiah Investor of Our Times: Would be funny if he caused a Buffett Bubble! 9:55 PM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

RT @monkchips: "free markets cannot [have] absence of rules" JK--Core rule: market-clearing price must emerge from buy-sell transactions 9:47 PM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

TIME-MARCHES-INEXORABLY-ON TWEETS

Decade's ending, dontcha know. Began w/ Y2K false apocalyptics. Then 9/11, wars, hurricanes, tsunami, panics, pandemics. Calm would be nice. 7:24 AM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

Teaching myself to stop worrying and love the calendar. Starting to call next year "twenty-ten" and back-fit "twenty-oh-nine" to this one. 11 minutes ago from TweetDeckFrom itd.daily@it -director.com: "'It is wonderful to be here in the great state of Chicago.' Dan Quayle:" JK--Huh? Why pick on him anymore? 6:56 AM Nov 19th from TweetDeck

RT @lmacvittie:"May you live in interesting times" was a curse." JK--Decade also started with me under weather, flu, at NuYrsEve party. 8:19 AM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

Let's see, which doomsday scenario do we want to indulge this week: 2012 (too Mesoamerica), 1984 (been there done that), Y2K (killer clock)? 8:08 AM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

GRATUITOUSLY-SENSUAL TWEETS

Ah yes, lunch beckons....cold pizza...day-after it was warm and fresh....still quite acceptable...cold. 11:12 AM Nov 19th from TweetDeck

RT @girlwithnoname: @jameskobielus "ha! one of my fave workout songs!" JK--Mine too. Bally's plays video a lot on monitors in the club. 9:39 PM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

@openczun : JK--Only drank YM once--for taste, not buzz.. 6:31 AM Nov 17th from TweetDeck in reply to openczun

RT @openczun "Anyone out there drink Yerba Mate ? what are your experiences compared with coffee or espresso?" JK--YM feels mellower 9:50 PM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

GRATUITOUS-ERUDITION TWEETS

RT @lmacvittie: "May you live in interesting times"" JK--I'll bet something lost in translation. Perhaps Mandarin original was double-edged. 7:40 AM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

Trying to remember why I did a Wikipedia search of Arthur Schopenhauer at mid-day and left the window up. World as will and representation? 5:20 PM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

COME-AGAIN TWEETS

RT @cselland: @jameskobielus and that's a problem why?: JK--And what's a problem? 12:51 PM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

JUST-GOOFING TWEETS

RT @pleclare @FakeAPStylebook: "Et al" is Latin for "those who know Al." JK--Actually, misspelling of "it all," which is what it means. 7:32 AM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

OVERSHARING-FAMILY-STUFF-ON-TWITTER-BUT-KNOWING-FULL-WELL-THAT-MY-FAMILY-WILL-SEE-IMMEDIATELY-WHEN-TWEET-AUTOSYNCS-TO-MY-FACEBOOK TWEETS

Cousin Kathryn & I both totally swamped w/ work. Born just few days apart. Common temperament, as her Facebooking illustrates. Zodiac truth? 8:19 AM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

NICE-TO-HAVE-A-HANDY-PRETEXT-FOR-TWISTING-IT-IN-VEGAS’-SIDE TWEETS

RT @donnyosmond: "Is it weird that I think of Vegas like second home?" JK--Not weird at all, if one's second home were in redlight district. 9:53 PM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

NOT-SUPERSTITIOUS TWEETS

RT @nselby: "Flying into Dallas on November 22. Grassy knoll, anyone?" JK--It's barely worth visiting. Nothing terribly spooky about it. 9:44 PM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

NOT-BIG-ON-CONSPIRACY-THEORIES TWEETS

RT @DataMiningTips "Numerati Can ID People w/ Just 3 Pcs of Seemingly Unrelated Info" (http://bit.ly/3Q74ND): JK--Numerati? Secret society? 9:40 PM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

GOT-A-RIGHT-TO-BE-PISSED TWEETS

Why is it, year after year, rolling out one fancy service offering after another, Verizon can't fix the mess that is "customer service"? 7:16 AM Nov 17th from TweetDeck

ARMCHAIR-PHILOSOPHER TWEETS

RT @bfinucane: @NeilRaden "Normal is one of the most overused terms in math" JK--And in society. 9:36 PM Nov 16th from TweetDeck

IN-MEMORIAM TWEETS

"Arrest made in slaying of 9-year-old boy in D.C. apartment" (http://bit.ly/2llBTQ): JK--Oscar was great student, a fun boy. Absolute shock. 8:16 AM Nov 18th from TweetDeck

Sad day in DC yesterday. 9-year-old Oscar Fuentes killed by gang in his neighborhood. Good student. Egidia's student. We must pay respects. 8:14 AM Nov 16th from TweetDeck