How BI and Data Analytics Professionals Used Twitter in May

In May, Twitter was afire with events, more buzz around mobile BI, Watson’s (the computer) progress in medical school and even a data visualization on whether we prefer charcoal or gas gr

In May, Twitter was afire with events, more buzz around mobile BI, Watson’s (the computer) progress in medical school and even a data visualization on whether we prefer charcoal or gas grills. So, sit back and relax as we catch you up on the Twitter happenings of BI and analytics professionals in May.

Awards

Best Twitter Handle – EnterpriseEff, aka Enterprise Efficiency, made our list for their cool community (sponsored by Dell) on making all things IT more efficient. We found a rather nice blog post on the essentials to success with BI implementation from Mary E. Shacklett (@MaryShacklett), president of Transworld Data, a marketing and technology services firm.

Best Quote(s) – Mike Vizard (founding editor of CTOEdge) earns the award for best quote(s) this month. Nearly all of his Tweets begin with “Thinking about how.” Each update is provocative and insightful. Check out his recent blog on mobile computing and enterprise apps for some good mobile BI insights to think about.

Event Roundup

We’ve blogged about a few of these events including the Text Analytics Summit and the MIT CIO Forum, which featured many speakers including our own COO and SVP Rock Gnatovich.

Mark Lorion, the VP of Marketing for Spotfire, shared his data visualization on BBQ growth trends with the Twittersphere.  Check out photos of Mark’s Big Green Egg Grill in action this past weekend.

Watson Passes Medical Board Exams

We blogged on this last week, but it was a hit a Twitter – IBM’s jeopardy winning computer is working his way through medical school and taking steps toward a residency in diagnostics (move over Dr. House?). Some key follows: Watson himself and Bruce Upbin, Forbes’ managing editor and tech blogger (purveyor of the Watson medical update).

The Kind of Talent Needed in Data Analytics

An article from Henry Morris, senior vice president of worldwide software and services research groups at IDC, made the Twitter rounds this month. The article, which discusses the type of talent needed to be successful with analytics, delves into how psychology students are beating out business school grads in some cases to the jobs in the broader analytics field.

Morris’ also showcases a new trend in academia – centers for analytics study. One such school at Yale – the Center for Customer Insights – was mentioned in the article and has a Twitter presence worth following, especially to see all of their research insights. The May 12-13 Customer Insights Conference presentations are worth a glance.

A good follow from this conversation is Dan Vesset, vice president of business analytics research at IDC. He also makes our list for his Twitter love of virtual BBQ.

Writing the Book on Mobile BI?

Wayne Eckerson, director of research at TechTarget and the founder of the BI Leadership Forum, comes back to our Follow Friday list because of his buzz around the future of mobile BI. The stage was set with our first-ever e-book find on the subject – a compilation of the Eckerson’s Wayne’s World blogs on the matter.

Location-Based BI

We came across an interesting blog post from CapTech consultant Ben Harden on the possibility of bridging location GIS and GPS software with BI software for real-time, location-based BI. He asks the question, “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a real time map showing the location of your pizza delivery driver, with an estimated delivery time based on the driver’s location?“ No doubt. We came across this interesting concept thanks to our featured Twitter news source – Open Source & BI.

As always, here’s your convenient Follow Friday list:

@EnterpriseEff
@mvizard
@mark_lorion
@IBMWatson
@bupbin
@hmorrisidc
@IDC
@YaleCCI
@danvesset
@weckerson
@TechTarget
@benjaminhharden
@openbi
@maryshacklet

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Amanda Brandon
Spotfire Blogging Team