Published March 30, 2017 | By Mark Sabat
Leave your response as a comment on this post by the beginning of class on April 6, 2017. Remember, it only needs to be three or four sentences. For these weekly questions, I’m mainly interested in your opinions, not so much particular “facts” from the class!
Here is the question:
Once again, find another online article dated within last two weeks from a credible source that has something to do with data and is interesting and relevant to you. Copy and paste the URL directly into your response followed by a few sentences that explain what is interesting about it.
Posted in Weekly Questions
This article is very interesting because baseball season is starting up this week and the article has to deal with data analysis behind the sport. The article really touches all parts of baseball and the data behind it. The article uses infographics to show the data, the most interesting infographic to me was probably the one that talks about the defensive shifts that occur. Defensive shifts have become more popular over the past five years, so to show the data on that was interesting to see. I find all articles that talk about data and sports to be very interesting.
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/04/06/big-data-starbucks-knows-how-you-like-your-coffee.html
This article talks about how Starbucks has used consumers use there data to develop a new line of products like K-Cups and beverages that are ready. Starbucks created a data like that they used to check how people drink there beverages at home and work.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-trump-australia-data-idUSKBN1710M2
This article is about Trump’s credited big data company and how they are going to meet with Australia’s country ruling conservative liberal party next week to discuss micro targeting voters. What really struck me about this article was that while micro targeting is nothing new, Trump’s big data company is meeting with experts in this area. Australia has the highest efficiency rate when it comes to their data gathering and accurate outcomes. I also found it very interesting that Alex Oliver, the director of the polling program at non-partisan think tank the Lowy Institute, said “I’d be concerned about the intentions and bona fides of a commercial organization which claimed to have influenced important elections through audience targeting and psychological manipulation” Its amazing what the government can do with Big data.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-our-2017-mlb-predictions-work/
This article from fivethirtyeight describes how they use MLB data to predict every game. THe article states how they take MLB data all the way from 1871 and ut the data in to formulas to get statistics on how well teams will perform. They also talk about how they have formulas to represent how well pitchers are currently doing. THis article is interesting to me because of how many numbers there are in the game of baseball. Fivethirtyeight is able to take all of these numbers from over a hundred and thirty years ago and simplify them for today’s use.
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-04-03/oil-traders-are-looking-at-the-wrong-inventory-data
Last week the department of energy released a report stating that oil inventories have actually increased, however they ignored the drop in gasoline and diesel inventories. So, while there is plenty of crude oil, which is the raw material, the amount of refined products that we consume is dropping rapidly. In fact, product inventories declined by 36.5 million barrels in the last six weeks which is the biggest six-week drop in almost 11 years. With the summer months approaching, consumers are expected to use even more gasoline and distillates than they do at any other time of the year. By failing to focus on the appropriate segment of data, the department of energy is misleading consumers to think that supply is high which does not explain the rise in gasoline prices that has recently occurred and will likely continue through summer driving season.
https://www.templatemonster.com/blog/time-tracking-killing-teams-productivity/
This is a very interesting article that counters the theory that tracking time can increase productivity. In fact, this article states that tracking time can often negatively affect how a workforce perceives their work. For example, employees tend to work less hard in the final 30 minutes of their day, knowing that they will be let off soon. Many people mentally check out prior to the end of their workday.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/03/27/about-one-in-seven-americans-dont-think-men-should-be-able-to-take-any-paternity-leave/
I find this article very interesting because nowadays it is very common to argue about equality between men and women. This article gives some data about how men of different ages think about fathers leaving work after the birth or adoption of a child or to take care of a family member or themselves because of a serious health condition.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/
This article is about Donald Trump, and how popular he is. This is really interesting to me because in every poll he is more disapproved then approved. It is funny to see this because he was voted for as president but somehow he is less liked.
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/zika-virus-outbreak/new-study-shows-higher-feared-zika-risk-babies-n742571
http://news.stanford.edu/2017/04/04/sociologists-urge-use-big-data-study-human-interaction/
This article was extremely interesting especially to me as an anthropology major. The article states that sociology experts are urging sociologists and social psychologists to focus on developing online research studies with the help of big data in order to advance the theories of social interaction and structure. It’s relevant to me because studying in the field of human interaction, it’s cool to see how we could contribute to big data.
Anangisye Chotela on April 4, 2017 at 10:03 pm
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-04/brace-yourself-what-the-s-p-downgrade-means-for-south-africa
This article brings our attention to the effects of a country’s foreign currency debt being downgraded to junk. In this case, the country in question happens to be South Africa. We are provided with data on South Africa’s foreign and local currency rating by three different rating agencies. From this, we are able to see that S&P downgraded South Africa’s debt to junk. Further on, we are given data on how Turkey and Brazil’s asset sunk after they too were cut to junk but also, on how Russia gained. From this, we are able to make predictions as to which route South Africa will mostly take.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-four-types-of-scarlett-johansson-movies/
The article shows the four types of Scarlett Johansson Movies by plotting her films’ inflation-adjusted domestic box office revenue according to the numbers against their critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. It comes out the 4 types are Prestigious, Home Alone 3 and Peers, Her, and The Avenger. Each category is listed with several films that she was in and all help readers to make sense of her career.
Anthony Panza on April 5, 2017 at 5:21 pm
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-39502258
This article talks about how some UK charities are being fined for data law breaches . I find it to be really interesting because it shows how everyone needs to be careful about how they handle big data . It seems like the charities that are being fined had no ill intent but they made some mistakes that could have been easily avoided .
https://news.vice.com/story/trump-is-about-to-sign-a-bill-letting-internet-providers-sell-user-information-to-advertisers
This article explains the new legislation passed by the Trump administration and Congress to allow companies to freely use personal internet data. In the past, companies needed special permissions to get this information, but not any longer. Personal information through social media and web searches can be freely used for advertising. I want to know more about this law because I thought some companies already had access to this information, and were already using it for personalized advertising – which we often see on Google searches and Facebook.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/04/microsoft-opens-up-on-windows-telemetry-tells-us-most-of-what-data-it-collects/
This article is about the data that Windows 10 collects. It also discusses how it wasn’t very well received publicly and has recently been updated. I found this interesting because this OS is the first to have mandatory opt-in for data collection and has now been adjusted to opt-out of the data collection.
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/04/gambling-software-helped-amateur-make-1300-in-12-days.html
This article comes from CNBC, the article is about “Justin” an amateur gamble who, thanks to the NCAA tournament made $1300 in just 12 days. By buying access to offshore sports books he was able to study gambling patterns and learn how to make the best bet. Justin started with just $120 on the online gambling site, Bovada. This article interested me because it linked sports, gambling, and data into a cool story that others can now learn from and try to duplicate.
This article is about the amount of work different servers have to do to get there state’s minimum wage. It is interesting because somebody in a state with a high minimum wage needs to do a lot more work to get to there minimum wage compared to somebody in a state with a lower minimum wage. Tipping is an interesting concept that has become a social norm, and I think that it shouldn’t be necessary and the servers should be paid by the employers.
Andrew Pischke on April 5, 2017 at 11:58 pm
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/unc-played-ugly-enough-to-win/
This article shows how UNC had to play a different style of basketball than what is normally seen today to win the National Championship on Monday. This is a great one because it breaks down the game and shows the key components to their win.
http://www.people-press.org/2015/03/19/federal-tax-system-seen-in-need-of-overhaul/
This article is about the federal tax system and it has data of where the US government gets money from. This is interensting to me because i believe the system should have changes. I also think the goventmnet should step up and make sure that tax avoidance doesnt occur. This will allow everyone to pay their fair share of taxes.
http://admin.dataversity.net/case-study-implementing-data-governance-data-lakes-big-data/
This article focused basically on data integration for healthcare providers. They wanted to find an easier and more useful way to collect all of a patients information from different data sources and combine them so when they go to their primary care they have all the information they need to help patients. They had to integrate their data as well as protect the patient’s information because it was crucial while collecting data from a variety of different sources.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-lite-idUSKBN1780GT
This article is about Twitter releasing a “Twitter Lite”, which can be accessed via web browser. It is aimed for people who only have limited data on their phones hoping to pick up this target market. Twitter is lagging behind other tech firms. They noticed that 40% of their users view Twitter through a web browser rather than the mobile application.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/datablog/2017/mar/18/the-fall-and-rise-of-physical-book-sales-worldwide-in-data
This data shows the fluctuation of the purchase of different physical books in different countries. It is expected that with the rise of e-books, the purchase of physical books would decrease but this data, from 8 countries reveal that the fall or rise in the purchase of physical books is not dependent on e-books but on other factors.
Rayanna Larissa Ruani on April 6, 2017 at 11:26 am
“Be Suspicious Of Online Movie Ratings, Especially Fandango’s”
By exploring movie review data from IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, and Fandango, the author found that nearly all movies on Fandango (97%) had at least a 3-star rating. He revealed that Fandango has a very flawed system — Ted 2, for example, had a 4.5 rating on Fandango, while IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes gave it 2.5 stars. The problem is in the way Fandango aggregates its users’ reviews. They tend to always round up to nearest half-star when that would not be the right mathematical thing to do (rounding up a 4.1-star rating to 4.5, instead of 4.0). As a self-proclaimed cinephile, it was interesting to learn that Fandango’s ratings are not so reliable. Although I had already noticed that their ratings tend to be higher than other websites, I had no idea that they intentionally manipulate data to make movies “look better.”
http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/28/technology/house-internet-privacy-repeal/
The title of the article: “Congress just killed your Internet privacy protections” pretty much sums up the article. Under Obama administration it was illegal for internet service providers to collect personal information without permission and then sell it to other companies. However now that the congress repealed internet privacy protections, internet providers are free to share our internet browsing data.
Felix Wu on April 6, 2017 at 12:40 pm
This article gives several different viewpoints of the same objective set of data. These different perspectives can be used to paint several different viewpoints and is a good example of how cause and correlation is used in campaigns.
Ryan Tempestini on April 6, 2017 at 12:57 pm
This article compares both New York MLB teams, the Mets and the Yankees, to see which team is more popular in their home state. For the first time in over a decade, New Yorkers surveyed leaned towards the Mets. This is interesting because the Yankees are one of the most valuable sports franchises in the world with a very distinguishable logo.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2017-nba-predictions/?ex_cid=rrpromo
David Dominic Moyer on April 6, 2017 at 1:38 pm
http://insidebigdata.com/2017/04/03/online-education-gets-close-personal-big-data-improves-performance/
This article talks about how the use of big data is changing the landscape of education. Big data can be used to tailor the educational needs for specific students while also enhancing the educational experience. This data can be used to personalize educational needs to every individual student.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/tony-romo-was-a-good-qb-in-an-era-of-great-ones/
This article talks about how Tony Romo was a good quarterback compared to many of the legendary players in his generation. Statistically, he was one of the better quarterbacks but when it came to accomplishments like Super Bowls, playoff wins, and Pro Bowls he was one of the worst. This article was interesting to me because I’m a big fan of football and have seen Tony Romo play his entire career.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/to-ease-the-student-debt-crisis-hold-colleges-responsible/
This article is about an issue that almost every college student can relate to. The idea of student debt and what should be done with it. Obviously, big data has a huge part to play in the process of identifying the problems related to the rising rate of student borrowing. Those data points can include interest rates, location of the student and college, the national economic performance, etc. The article specifically targets colleges. More specially, on how colleges need to bear for of the responsibility in trying to attack the student debt problem. In my opinion, information gathering is very important. Colleges already gather enough info about each student and their loans. However, combing more factors like dollar value and future interest predictions, colleges can alter their financial aid programs.
https://mic.com/articles/171314/the-most-racially-diverse-fashion-month-ever-didn-t-really-help-plus-size-or-trans-models#.MNIQInbtU
This article talks about the demographics, and statistical evidence of diversity during Fashion Week in Europe. The article includes visual displays of bar graphs, and lists showcasing diversity amongst the location of the shows, as well as specific designer shows. I chose this article and topic on fashion because, I’m someone who heavily follows the fashion industry. I invest my money on the newest editions of Vogue, I follow and observe the designers works, and I focus on the models who partake in this industry. So as a whole, it interests me. But another reason I chose it, was to see the comparisons and rise of diversity that is entering the industry that has been often predominantly occupied by white models. And with the rise and revolution of plus-sized models, it’s intriguing to see how their appearance, will really make the difference within the industry.
http://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/2017/04/06/irs-data-on-up-to-100000-taxpayers-compromised-in-breach-college-financial-aid-tool.html
This article talks about the possible breach of personal information about college students. This is interesting because the college process is already intimidating and now it could even be unsafe?
Hakeem Ali Harper on April 6, 2017 at 2:50 pm
This article talks about uber data visualization plans and how new key features that are helping people experience pick up times and visualize drop off times.
This article shows how popular or unpopular Donald Trump is. This is interesting because the ratings show that Donald Trump is mostly disapproved in most of the states in the country. It’s still very interesting to see that even though he is disapproved in maximum states and he still won the elections and is elected as a president.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/03/28/republicans-are-poised-to-roll-back-landmark-fcc-privacy-rules-heres-what-you-need-to-know/?utm_term=.d277d817f2ad
The recent repeal of landmark privacy protections empowers internet providers to enter the market for online advertising where they can now collect, store, share, and sell consumer’s internet behavior. This also means that ISPs are no longer needed to upgrade security guidelines that protect their customers against hackers and thieves. They are allowed to sell their customers information to the highest bidder. No consent necessary, this can all be done without customers disclosing permission.
Carlos Antonio Delgado on April 6, 2017 at 2:56 pm
This article talks about how student loans affect students on their post college life.On the information they give, it is explained that most of them have a lifetime debt and it is very negative.But still college is an investment and on the long run it will give you more than what you invested on it.In my opinion going to college is necessary if you want to be competent and pursue your goals.Because yo will need the knowledge and the connections you can get throughout your college life.
Virag Maniar on April 6, 2017 at 2:57 pm
http://admin.dataversity.net/case-data-management-maturity/
This article is about data used by businesses. I am all about entrepreneurship and that’s why I found this article really helpful and entertaining.
Shefali Kakarlapudi on April 6, 2017 at 3:00 pm
https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/03/how-spotify-is-finding-and-using-its-superfans.html
The article talks about the utility of Spotify Fan Insights. It is a feature that tells artists about their listeners’ demographic information such as where their listeners are, how the audience is evolving, and other preferences the listeners have. This information can allow artists to plan tours in the right places so they can make more profit and so they can recognize superfans. Spotify’s “FansFirst” program also gives special rewards to superfans.
Haley Sienkiewicz on April 6, 2017 at 3:03 pm
https://technical.ly/philly/2017/04/04/what-to-do-isp-browsing-data-privacy/?utm_campaign=Philly%20Editorial%20Email&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=49901974&_hsenc=p2ANqtz–pbuS6Mc6CYFwNTTqnr03KOI9LjVRXSNHNL0slB0cRVyKfd53hCsTsuqlgvu8qjAZQ2S1UL0_fxoOoKHLGRe9n47e23g&_hsmi=49901974
This article talks about how Trump is allowing ISPs to sell your browsing data. This can be done without your permission through internet providers like Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon. The author of the bill, a Republican representative from Tennessee, has already received $700,000 from large internet companies and lobbyists over the years. This is something we should all be outraged about. It’s ridiculous that politicians can violate OUR rights and privacy for THEIR gain. Unfortunately, this is how the current political system in the United States works, and it’s corrupt. The article advises the reader to better educate themselves on the issue and to also reach out to local representatives to express opposition.
Loran Garnett on April 6, 2017 at 3:10 pm
http://flowingdata.com/2017/04/04/visual-simulations-to-show-uber-game-strategies/
I picked this because I am constantly taking users around Philadelphia and I often talk to my drivers about there shifts. A lot of them explain they they always work longer hours then they plan because they have a hard time shutting the app off. I found this data set interesting because it shows you ways that uber manipulates its app to keep you working, addled drivers to certain areas.
Gillian McGoldrick on April 6, 2017 at 3:29 pm
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/06/us/politics/secret-service-trump-first-family-protection.html?_r=0%5D%5D
This story looks at how much money the First Family spends on Secret Service protections and compares it to other First Families in the past. This story is relevant to me, as it is relevant to all Americans, how much is spent on keeping the President secure as he goes to different locations. This story collected the data and compared it, making it a good example of a data story.
https://journalofbigdata.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40537-017-0066-7
This article is interesting because with data there is so much you can do. Social media data most times is used to see how consumers react to products, programs, places, and activities. It impacts decision making within large management companies. Social media is fairly new but it is a really great tool.
This article gives fascinating information and data on strategies in the masters. It talks about putting vs driving and gives stats about strokes gained and lost for each. It gives evidence that driving is what wins Augusta, which totally goes against everything a golfer will learn about putting vs driving.
James Dwyer on April 6, 2017 at 3:38 pm
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/doomsday-data-vault-preserve-worlds-valuable-data-opens/story?id=46541889
This article describes a sort of data time capsule that has been constructed to preserve the world’s most important data in the event of a global disaster
Kevin Pisciella on May 8, 2017 at 8:19 pm
https://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/deadline-looms-for-hospitals-suppliers-to-set-emergency-plans
Data in emergency management, specifically tracking compliance with specific codes and regulations, is highly important to motivating stakeholders to spend time and resources to comply with these regulations. If data on this matter is not tracked, there’s no way for the regulating bodies to assess whether organization remain compliant.
Asim Ciceksay on May 9, 2017 at 12:21 pm
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-u-s-job-market-is-on-a-historic-growth-streak/
This article is about the U.S job market growth. Employers added many jobs in the market which means the recovery in the U.S. job market has been remarkable for its durability and resilience. It shows monthly job growth and the average growth.