22 Friday May 2015
Posted in business strategy, Consider this, Good Strat, goodstrat, IT strategy, Strategy
I used to work for an affable person from Chicago. His two favourite phrases were “Let’s talk strat” and “Brought your cheque book with you?”
There are many misconceptions about strategy. But, I particularly want to address two things:
So, without more ado, let’s get the baby off the ground.
Continue reading16 Saturday May 2015
Posted in Big Data, Consider this, Good Strat, Good Strategy, Martyn Richard Jones, Strategy
Tags
Listen up Big Data playmates! The ubiquitous Big Data gurus, tied up in their regular chores of astroturfing mega-volumes, velocities and varieties of superficial flim flam, may not have noticed this, but, Hadoop is getting set up for one mighty fall – or a fast-tracked and vertiginous black run descent. Why do I say that? Well, let’s check the market. Continue reading
12 Tuesday May 2015
Posted in Big Data, Big Data Analytics, Consider this, good start, goodstart, sentiment analysis
Tags
All Data, Analytics, aspiring tendencies in IM, awareness, good start, Good Strat, goodstart, Martyn Jones, Strategy
If you know all about Sentiment Analysis, you’ve come to the right place. Because I don’t have a clue if what I know about it is accurate or not.
I started to do a bit research into this Sentiment Analysis lark, in particular with the theoretical idea of using it to analyse and draw conclusions from comments on Pulse – assuming that this is what it can be used for.
To begin at the beginning, which is good place to start, I read the piece on Wikipedia, and this was how it began:
“Sentiment analysis (also known as opinion mining) refers to the use of natural language processing, text analysis and computational linguistics to identify and extract subjective information in source materials.
Generally speaking, sentiment analysis aims to determine the attitude of a speaker or a writer with respect to some topic or the overall contextual polarity of a document. The attitude may be his or her judgment or evaluation (see appraisal theory), affective state (that is to say, the emotional state of the author when writing), or the intended emotional communication (that is to say, the emotional effect the author wishes to have on the reader).” Source: Wikipedia Link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentiment_analysis
Well, that’s a fairly intuitive description. I could have almost have guessed as much.
But, back to the aim of analysing sentiment in Pulse comments, where to start and what to do.
What would sentiment analysis make of these:
On the death of an IT-business celebrity. What would sentiment analysis make of the very emotive comments of desolation, sadness and poignancy of people who didn’t personally know the departed, even remotely, or maybe didn’t even know of them until after they had ‘shuffled off life’s mortal coil’? How would that work? What would sentiment analysis make of the maudlin aphorisms, surrogate grief and bizarre sorrow of people separated by more degrees than Kofi Anan and Mork from Ork. What additional insight does sentiment analysis tell us when these comments are analysed along with the body of the text and other comments that triggers these comments?
In a similar vein, how does sentiment analysis catch instances of sycophancy? Especially considering the fact that some of it is so ‘in your face’ and blatant that it often times seems to be a bad parody of a bad parody. “Oh, Ricky, why are you such a sexy brainbox?” How does it work in those situations?
Worse than that is the preening, gushing and obtuse texts of massive, errm… fabulators[i]. If it wasn’t about Big Data or Strategy or IT, it would be about something else, usually about the writer themselves. “I give Rafa and Rodge tips on tennis! I went to the University of the Universe and got a first! I challenged Superman to a race, and won! I have read the entire works of Dan Brown, 25 times…Neeeh!” What would sentiment analysis do with that sort of gold?
Also, what does sentiment analysis do with texts so ambiguously daft that they could mean anything? Okay, it might be able to pick up a few trigger words here or there, “rubbish”, “of”, “load”, “a”, “what”, etc. However, how does it know when “excellent” is being used in a way that means anything but excellent? For example, “Excellent Big Data job there”, with the silent “if you want a job doing properly then do it yourself”.
Finally, for the purpose of this little piece, what would sentiment analysis do with term abuse, if it could actually identify it? Going back to the use of the terms such as Big Data or Strategy, how can sentiment analysis discern between the dopey and wrong-headed use of the term, and when it is actually being used in a coherent, cohesive and consistent way, in line more or less with its formal definition? I suppose we can always write a mountain of rules to help us out:
If topic in focus of piece is strategy
And context of topic is business
And author of piece is Richard Rumelt
Then the credibility of text is good (with a certainty of 100%)
But you and try and maintain a rule base with isntances like that. It soon becomes a management nightmare.
Alternatively, maybe it could be used to analyse this text. It’ll have its work cut out, that’s for sure. Does sentiment analysis do sarcasm and cynicsm?
Anyway! I bet you might know how this sentiment analysis works, don’t you? On the other hand, if not, then it will be someone else who ‘knows’. But of course, all will not be revealed, because it’s a secret so powerful, that in the wrong hands it could be used to dominate the entire galaxy.
Only joking; and many thanks for reading.
[i]To engage in the composition of fables or stories, especially those featuring a strong element of fantasy: “a land which … had given itself up to dreaming, to fabulating, to tale-telling” (Lawrence Durrell).
lang: en_US
12 Tuesday May 2015
Posted in Big Data, Consider this, good start, goodstart, goostart, Martyn Jones
Bernice and the Martians, BATM for short, were an incredibly popular progressive-rock band.
Their first big commercial success came with the release of their first album and their planned promotional tour, which took in all continents.
The manager of the band was none other than effable polymath, Renaissance man and good all-round rogue, Ricky Jonesy – an obsessive control freak, lover of fine wines and darling of predictive analytics. He really loved his numbers, his social media and his sentiment analysis.
In fact, much of the early success BATM came about due to Ricky’s unparalleled passion for the ‘Big Data’.
Ricky was the band’s architect. He had major input into their material: what they composed; how they composed; their stage sets and lighting; where they performed; the way they played; how they dressed; were photographed; spoke; walked; and, ate and drank. In short, he controlled the whole BATM enchilada. It was like being in data-driven heaven.
As I said, their first album, a progressive-rock masterpiece called ‘Your Hole’, achieved major critical acclaim even before it was bolting out of the stalls and across the interwebs. Overnight the band became big property, and their notional market value ran higher than Twitter on steroids.
The band members were really please. The presses interviewed Bernice right, left and centre and he made no bones about the fact that a major part of their success was due to Ricky and his Big Data mojo.
Articles about the phenomenon appeared in all the major social media sites. Facebook, LinkedIn and BubbaToons. Ricky was named Supreme Data Scientist of the year by the Gardener Group, hailed as a messiah by the Big Data Front and lauded by all and sundry.
Then the band went on tour. Blazing a trail of ones and zeros across the face of the planet.
They were 5 gigs into their tour and Ricky decided to call a band meeting.
“Hi, guys” said Ricky “I’ve been analysing the stats, and I see that those yokes Big Blokes in Tights are trending strongly on the social media, coinciding with the release of their new single Never Stick A Banger In Your Ear”.
“Oh, whoa” chimes in Bernice, “tell us what we gotta do then, Ricky”.
Back comes Ricky. “Well, this is what I thought we might do”
“We take the old Fester and Ailin song Tropical Diseases, we practice it as much as can, and then we play it at the next gig in Birmingham, this weekend”
“But, Ricky!” pipes up Marty Smarty, “it’s an Irish country and western song. It doesn’t fit in with what we do, does it? And, anyway, we only have three days to get it prepared.”
Ricky responds. “Ah, you don’t want to be worrying your little head over that. Trust me. Learn the song. It’ll be great. The public will love it.”
So, BATM learn the song. It’s perfect. At the Saturday gig, they play it as the encore. The fans love it to bits and there’s not a cold cigarette lighter in the place.
Then they fly off to Palma de Mallorca for a bit of a rest before their next gig in Madrid.
The guys and gals are lounging at the poolside at the legendary Don Pimpón Espinete Plaza complex. The weather is glorious, the food is glorious, the scenery is glorious, and even the orchestra is glorious.
Then along comes Ricky, calling yet another band meeting.
“Hi, guys” said Ricky “I’ve been analysing the stats again, and I see that those yokes Spanky’s Magic Piano are trending strongly on the social media with their cover version of Engel Humpadink’s The Monkey Song”
“Oh yeah, what’s that mean for us, Ricky” chimes in Halo Popette, the bands keyboardist.
Back comes Ricky. “Well, this is what I thought we might do”
“We take the old Fester and Ailin song There’s A Dead Man Up The Chimney, and we rewrite it in the style of Tom Jones when he made that album of his, Little Fockers, was it? Then we practice it as much as can, until it’s perfect, and then we play it at the next gig in Madrid, this weekend”
“But, Ricky!” pipes up Brian McGarsical, “It’s a bit of an odd one isn’t it? I mean to say, it doesn’t fit in with what we do, does it? And, anyway, we only have four days to get it prepared.”
Ricky responds as fast as a chalked-up cat going down a drainpipe. “Ah, you don’t want to be worrying your little head over that. Trust me. Learn the song. It’ll be great. The public will love it. And anyways, it will fit nicely on the playlist, up there with Tropical Diseases.”
The band rewrite the song, and practice the Bedejaysus out of it. Ricky likes it so much that he gets the stats to confirm that this has to be number one on the next gig playlist.
Come the day of the gig, and BATM kick off, not with a progressive-rock anthem, but with There’s A Dead Man Up The Chimney. A group of young people at the front clearly are loving this new sound, but quite a few people are starting at the stage in fright, and it’s not from skunk induced paranoia either.
Two guys are having a conversation at the back of the hall.
“Yo, lunchbox, hurry this gig up, I thought this band was all progressive-rock and stuff, not this wiener schnitzel stuff.”
“No comment.”
Having divided the crowd with their first song, they play songs from their album. Again, they encore with Tropical Diseases. The crowd at the front go wild. The progressive rockers look on, bemused.
“Well, that was a mixed bag” says Bernice.
“Take it from your man Ricky. It all went fine lads. Just needs some fine-tuning of the songs and the analytics need to be a bit more real time. Take me word for it.”
Back comes a unison of “Okay, Ricky. We believe yas!”
So, off they go to Bonn, to prepare for the following weeks gig at the Live Music Hall in Cologne.
The band goes out visiting the museums, they have lunch at Brauhaus Bonnsch, and after a leisurely walk along the banks of Rhine they are taking a beer or three in a lovely little beer garden close to the United Nations campus.
Then out of the blue, a familiar voice can be heard.
“Hi, guys! We’re all goin’ on a summer ‘oliday”. It’s the voice of Ricky. “Anyway, Good news guys. I’ve been analysing the amazin’ Big Data stats again, and I see that those mensch Die Zahnarzt are trending strongly on the social media, especially on Swotter and Titter, with their amazon’ cover version of Podge and Rodge’s chillout mix of Currywurst and Microchips.”
Silence. No one says a word for the best part of infinity.
Ricky continues… “As you’re not going to ask, lads, I’ll tell you. We take the old song A Great Day for the Washing, and we rewrite it in the style of techno-Buddah-bar-chill. Then we practice it as much as can, until it’s perfect, and then we bang it out at the next gig in Cologne, this Friday. Innit. Come on lads, it’s 20 minutes of stage magic, and it’s a breeze.”
Come the day of the gig, and the band arrive early at the hall. Ricky is already there. He’s changed the stage set completely and has a new wardrobe for the lads – Bavarian romantic. They’ll soon be all Princed and Smiley Virused up to the eyeballs, wrecking ball included.
and BATM kick off, not with a progressive-rock anthem or chill, but again with There’s A Dead Man Up The Chimney. Again, a group of young people at the front clearly are loving this new sound, but quite a few people are starting at the stage in drug induced awe. Then they follow that up with A Great Day for Washing. By the time they get to the encore of There’s A Dead Man Up The Chimney, boisterous arguments are breaking out everywhere and empty crisp packets and used sticks of chalk are being thrown at the stage. It’s a disaster.
Four guys are having a conversation at the back of the hall.
“I liked the first song”
“No! The first was terrible. Minging! I want my prog rock back.”
“It’s like the choice of leprosy or the plague.”
“Down with this sort of thing.”
Next day Bernice calls an urgent meeting of the band.
Ricky kicks off.
“Well, lads bit of mid-week game yesterday wasn’t it?”
Bernice comes back with a “You can say that again, Rick”
“Don’t worry, I have analysed the social-media Big Data from all of the concerts, and we’re doing good guys. It’s in the analytics”
“We have to go back to our roots and drop all the changes we made”
A stranger in the lounge where they are having the meeting walks up to them and in simple language explains to them what has happened.
“You created a great product, a great brand, with some interesting progressive music”
“Your music was acclaimed and your world tour was eagerly anticipated by all your fans”
“But then you went wrong”
“You became data driven, dopey and data driven”
“You chased fads, tendencies and styles, and it became a mish-mash”
“People don’t want mish-mashes. Not your base. They wanted good progressive music”
“You’ve lost all credibility. No, you’re just an eccentric band of brothers and sisters that no one will really want to see more than once, if at all”
“Your former fan base is acutely embarrassed by you. That’s your bread, butter, vodka and caviar… in your terms”
“Data drive, Big Data, Big Data analytics in real time?”
“You people have no idea the damage you can do, and so easily”
To be continued…
Many thanks for reading.
01 Friday May 2015
Posted in Big Data, Consider this, good start, goodstart
Tags
Big Data, Consider this, data architecture, data management, good start, goodstart, Martyn Richard Jones
Miss Piggy said, “Never eat more than you can lift”. That statement is no less true today, especially when it comes to Big Data. Continue reading
01 Friday May 2015
Posted in Big Data, Big Data Analytics, Consider this, Good Strat, goodstart
Simply stated, the best application of Big Data is in systems and methods that will significantly reduce the data footprint.
Why would we want to reduce the data footprint?
