Predictive Analytics
Big Data’s Just a Lot of Noise…Unless You Can Visualize It Panelists Say
October 29, 2013
When you get right down to it, all the data in the world doesn’t really make a difference unless you can process it. And the most effective way for people to process giant waves of data (they keep inventing new words to describe the quantity) is to see it as an image. That seemed to be the bottom line on the panel hosted by TechAmerica Foundation for its Big Data Roadshow on Energy. Brian Jones, a principal of SAP Energy and Utilities, moderated the panel. He explained that big data and visualization...
October 29, 2013
When you get right down to it, all the data in the world doesn’t really make a difference unless you can process it. And the most effective way for people to process giant waves of data (they keep inventing new words to describe the quantity) is to see it as an image. That seemed to be the bottom line on the panel hosted by TechAmerica Foundation for its Big Data Roadshow on Energy. Brian Jones, a principal of SAP Energy and Utilities, moderated the panel. He explained that big data and visualization...
Flexible Processing and Classification for eDiscovery
October 28, 2013
A high-performance, scalable text processing pipeline for eDiscovery is outlined. The classification module of the pipeline is based on the random forest model which is fast, flexible and allows for relevance scoring and feature importance coupled with high-accuracy results. The feature selection approach combines natural language processing with legal domain input, and is based on regular expressions, which allows for linguistic variation and subtle fine-tuning. These two components of the pipeline...
October 28, 2013
A high-performance, scalable text processing pipeline for eDiscovery is outlined. The classification module of the pipeline is based on the random forest model which is fast, flexible and allows for relevance scoring and feature importance coupled with high-accuracy results. The feature selection approach combines natural language processing with legal domain input, and is based on regular expressions, which allows for linguistic variation and subtle fine-tuning. These two components of the pipeline...
America’s Mood Map: An Interactive Guide to the United States of Attitude
October 27, 2013
For a country that features the word United so prominently in its name, the U.S. is a pretty fractious place. We splinter along fault lines of income, education, religion, race, hyphenated origin, age and politics. Then too there’s temperament. We’re coarse or courtly, traditionalist or rebel, amped up or laid-back. And it’s no secret that a lot of that seems to be determined by — or at least associated with — where we live. Now a multinational team of researchers led by psychologist...
October 27, 2013
For a country that features the word United so prominently in its name, the U.S. is a pretty fractious place. We splinter along fault lines of income, education, religion, race, hyphenated origin, age and politics. Then too there’s temperament. We’re coarse or courtly, traditionalist or rebel, amped up or laid-back. And it’s no secret that a lot of that seems to be determined by — or at least associated with — where we live. Now a multinational team of researchers led by psychologist...
Nate Silver: How To Make Better Predictions
October 26, 2013
Many predictions, Nate shared with the audience, fail because as humans we are “hard wired to find patterns.” As a result many of our predictions are not based on a tested and retested process, but rather on our overconfidence in seeing “a signal”. As a result of this overconfidence, as well as a general lack of understanding of probability and uncertainty, these predictions fail and typically at a great cost to either the business or society. During his keynote, Nate shared 3 suggestions...
October 26, 2013
Many predictions, Nate shared with the audience, fail because as humans we are “hard wired to find patterns.” As a result many of our predictions are not based on a tested and retested process, but rather on our overconfidence in seeing “a signal”. As a result of this overconfidence, as well as a general lack of understanding of probability and uncertainty, these predictions fail and typically at a great cost to either the business or society. During his keynote, Nate shared 3 suggestions...
Big Data: Big Deal or Big Win?
October 25, 2013
Big Data for Law Departments Most law practices are by nature reactive. The in-house counsel don’t know in advance what products liability suits will be filed or what transactions management will pursue, so the lawyers stand ready to tackle whatever might come their way. But some in-house counsel are looking into the business itself for leading indicators. One in-house lawyer I recently interviewed reviews production quality control data with manufacturing line managers in order to better understand...
October 25, 2013
Big Data for Law Departments Most law practices are by nature reactive. The in-house counsel don’t know in advance what products liability suits will be filed or what transactions management will pursue, so the lawyers stand ready to tackle whatever might come their way. But some in-house counsel are looking into the business itself for leading indicators. One in-house lawyer I recently interviewed reviews production quality control data with manufacturing line managers in order to better understand...
Law Departments Trading Large Firms for ‘Large Enough’
October 23, 2013
When choosing outside firms to handle legal matters, a new survey indicates corporate law departments are not necessarily knocking on the doors of the largest 50 U.S. law firms, instead going to those that are a somewhat smaller—but still “large enough.” The “CounselLink Enterprise Legal Management Trends Report,”conducted by LexisNexis division CounselLink, looked at data collected from more than two million legal invoices, covering 300,000 matters. The report concluded that corporate...
October 23, 2013
When choosing outside firms to handle legal matters, a new survey indicates corporate law departments are not necessarily knocking on the doors of the largest 50 U.S. law firms, instead going to those that are a somewhat smaller—but still “large enough.” The “CounselLink Enterprise Legal Management Trends Report,”conducted by LexisNexis division CounselLink, looked at data collected from more than two million legal invoices, covering 300,000 matters. The report concluded that corporate...
Is it Time for Human Analytics in Document Review?
October 22, 2013
Document review often accounts for 60 percent or more of the cost of litigation. And although the size and nature of document reviews can vary, the basic goal is to identify documents that meet predefined criteria as specified in a document request. That said, document review needn’t be just a “cost of doing business” in discovery; instead, a well-devised and managed review can be a tool that furthers case strategy. Good processes, training, team management, and the right mix of people and technology...
October 22, 2013
Document review often accounts for 60 percent or more of the cost of litigation. And although the size and nature of document reviews can vary, the basic goal is to identify documents that meet predefined criteria as specified in a document request. That said, document review needn’t be just a “cost of doing business” in discovery; instead, a well-devised and managed review can be a tool that furthers case strategy. Good processes, training, team management, and the right mix of people and technology...
5 Things To Know About Cognitive Systems
October 20, 2013
The growth in big data is increasing dramatically as more and more activity is represented digitally. Now data comes in both structured (identifiable because it organized into a format) and unstructured forms such as video, images, symbols, and natural language. Big data is forcing IT to look for a new computing model in order to help organizations and their decision makers take advantage of all the information available. Here are 5 things to know: 1. Cognitive systems are... 2. Cognitive systems...
October 20, 2013
The growth in big data is increasing dramatically as more and more activity is represented digitally. Now data comes in both structured (identifiable because it organized into a format) and unstructured forms such as video, images, symbols, and natural language. Big data is forcing IT to look for a new computing model in order to help organizations and their decision makers take advantage of all the information available. Here are 5 things to know: 1. Cognitive systems are... 2. Cognitive systems...
Opening up Course Builder Data
October 19, 2013
Course Builder is an experimental, open source platform for delivering massive online open courses. When you run Course Builder, you own everything from the production instance to the student data that builds up while your course is running. Part of being open is making it easy for you to access and work with your data. Earlier this year we shipped a tool called ETL (short for extract-transform-load) that you can use to pull your data out of Course Builder, run arbitrary computations on it, and load...
October 19, 2013
Course Builder is an experimental, open source platform for delivering massive online open courses. When you run Course Builder, you own everything from the production instance to the student data that builds up while your course is running. Part of being open is making it easy for you to access and work with your data. Earlier this year we shipped a tool called ETL (short for extract-transform-load) that you can use to pull your data out of Course Builder, run arbitrary computations on it, and load...
Rebirth of IT
October 19, 2013
Yesterday I had the chance to deliver the keynote at the Gartner ITExpo in Orlando. I took this opportunity to reflect on how business technology has evolved in the three years since I last spoke on this stage — and, as part of that, how Google’s commitment to enterprise customers has grown. In 2010, the suggestion that a company could move all of its employees to the cloud was often met with skepticism. People relied on desktop computers and Exchange servers because that was what they’d...
October 19, 2013
Yesterday I had the chance to deliver the keynote at the Gartner ITExpo in Orlando. I took this opportunity to reflect on how business technology has evolved in the three years since I last spoke on this stage — and, as part of that, how Google’s commitment to enterprise customers has grown. In 2010, the suggestion that a company could move all of its employees to the cloud was often met with skepticism. People relied on desktop computers and Exchange servers because that was what they’d...
