Top Ten Posts from Trends and Outliers in 2010

The Trends & Outliers Blog was filled with provocative content on data analytics over the past year, but 10 posts were most prevalent in the social arena. Read on to see what was happening and why these posts matter most.

1. The 2010 FIFA World Cup – Can You Predict the Winner? – The World Cup was a Twitter superstar in 2010. The real-time streaming ability Twitter provided fans showed how powerful this tool was. Spotfire’s popular 2010 World Cup online app gave fans predictions, stats and beautiful data visualizations to enhance the every-four-years experience.
2. Advanced Analytics: Recap of Forrester Twitter Chat and #FollowFriday – This post was popular because it was a recap of a heated discussion on what “advanced analytics” really is and its relationship to business intelligence. The conversation gives a pulse of where this industry is headed. Plus, all the ReTweeters are worth following for more insight.
3. How Data Analysts and BI Professionals Use Twitter – This post was so popular that it has become a monthly feature on the Trends & Outliers blog. Combined with #FollowFriday, this digest of how data analysts and BI professionals use Twitter is a quick way to know what’s going on without the Twitter stream. Moreover, it’s a resource for who to follow and what trends to watch for.
4. Four Trends in Business Intelligence and Data Analytics – This post took some analyst predictions and tied news of the day to the trends. You will definitely see these trends – including SaaS BI applications – expand in the coming year.
5. 7 Hot Trends in Business Intelligence – A guest post by Marcus Borba (@marcusborba), founder of BI and performance management consulting firm, Borba Consulting and blog Business Intelligence News, this quick and dirty list of what’s hot in BI right now was highly popular among our readers. With topic such as social BI, mobile BI and BI in the cloud, it’s no wonder this was such a hot post.
6. The iPad’s Influence on Mobile BI – Maybe it’s because Apple products always get many Tweets. Or, maybe the iPad has created a new generation of BI users or another gateway to data-driven decision-making. You decide.
7. How to Improve Data Visualization at Your Company – Another popular guest post from Tony Rose, president of Support Analytics, a data analysis and visualization consultancy, brought our readers a view of how organizations no longer have to worry so much about bad data in analytics and data visualization. He examines what to do with data now that we have so much of it available. This one is definitely worth a read if you missed it.
8. Analytics-Based “Gift Finder” Takes the Stress Out Of Buying a Gift Another post on a Spotfire online app, it points to how data-driven our society has become. Stay tuned in the New Year for more cool data visualization apps.
9. Business Intelligence Remains Hot IT Skill for 2010 – But Best to Place BI into Context – This post received attention because it showed how real the job market for data professionals is. And, it defined that it’s not just about titles, but also about skills. Check out the LinkedIn BI groups for more proof. Check out our advice on building the right resume for these roles – here and here.
10. Location Data + Business Intelligence = Location Intelligence – In 2010, it became cool to use your smartphone to check in and get rewards. This new technology brought a whole lot of press to companies such as Facebook and Foursquare. But, there’s an even bigger trend in location – location intelligence – or combining location data with business intelligence data to improve processes, customer service and make better business decisions such as where to operate. Read this excellent primer to learn more.

Amanda Brandon Spotfire Blogging Team