This document provides an overview of a webinar about using data more effectively. The webinar discusses strategies for proactively gathering relevant data, saving time in current data practices, and using social media for business intelligence. It outlines a 5-step process: 1) strategizing how to use abundant data, 2) creating simple systems to access and store data, 3) listening to data from within and outside the organization, 4) visualizing data to make and persuade around decisions, and 5) sharing data and tools collaboratively. Examples of specific tools are also provided. The webinar aims to help organizations and individuals improve key performance metrics by developing a data strategy and better leveraging abundant data sources.

1. Drinking from
the Digital Data
Fire Hose
WEBINAR
US Dept. of Housing and
Urban Development
OCIO Learning Session
Maremel Institute
Dr. Gigi Johnson
April 2014

2. … as I’ve said many times
the future is already here
William Gibson, 1999, NPR
— it’s just not very evenly
distributed.
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3. This Webinar
In this introductory-level session, we will share:
Strategies and tools for
creating a proactive “pull”
of the right abundant data
for decisions coming up
the road
Ways to save you an hour
a week in how your team
may be using data now
Insights into social media
as a business intelligence
tool for listening, not just
“marketing”
Ways to spy a bit on your
competitors’ actions and
plans
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4. We face a
tsunami
of data
Abundant
Data
4

5. Consumers and Competitors Decide
Everywhere and Are Throwing Off
Data
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6. Big Data: Big Business But Not
Today’s Discussion
6
Despite free/cheap tools,
smaller businesses often do
not use Internet customers or
external market research data
to make strategic or marketing
decisions.

7. Pain Points
7
Noise
Abundance
Time

8. Our Core Discussion
How will better use of data improve the Key
Performance Metrics of my firm or in my job?
What is my Data Strategy?
• Understanding opportunity cost in time
• Dealing with uncertainty
• Make better decisions
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9. 5 steps to both grow and simplify
1. Strategize
2. Create Simple Systems
3. Listen
4. Visualize
5. Share (Smart)
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10. 1. STRATEGIZE
How we can use this abundant data to make
better daily and strategic decisions?
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11. W’s: Who, What, Where, When, Why,
and How?
• What do I need to know?
• What is available out there already?
• How much money and time will this cost?
• What is available for free or cheap?
– Will that service go away because it doesn’t have
a robust business model?
– Is it free or cheap because they share rights to my
information?
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12. Consideration Sets –
Data Affecting Choice
“I found this cool product at the convention, and
the salesperson said…”
• Anchors — first ideas or data lock in the process and create
bias
• Art of the Possible — how broad of a range of options?
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13. ―Just In Time‖ Search — Not Neutral
• Keywords/Taxonomies/ Domain Phrases — words we use
• Affected by location, mode (e.g., mobile), past searches
• Nature of Google (67% of US Searches): Inbound links, not
public popularity, and Google’s PageRank index
• Search & Social drives Ads: re-targeting and augmentation
13

14. “Just in Time”
vs. Queues
Todd Henry
“The Accidental Creative”
Setting up queues for
future decisions
• Filter
• Discovery
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15. 2. CREATE SIMPLE SYSTEMS
How can we use tools and design systems to
use data for decision-making and business
growth?
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16. The Words We Use and
Plan Around Matter
• “Keywords"
– Google Keyword Planner -- challenge of Google
Analytics and keywords
– Alexa -- keywords
• Our own “taxonomy”
– How do we search, gather, and re-find information
for our work domain/field?
– What words are important to other people, esp.
current and potential customers?
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17. 17
https://adwords.google.com

18. 18

19. 19
https://www.alexa.com

20. 20

21. 21

22. Other Starting Tools
• Google Analytics
• Web Traffic
– Alexa
– Compete
– Quantcast
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23. 23
https://www.google.com/analytics

24. 24

25. 25

26. 26
https://siteanalytics.compete.com

27. 27https://www.quantcast.com

28. Twitter ―Scraping‖ – Following
Competitors and Experts
• SocialBro, Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, + MANY
More
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http://www.socialbro.com

29. 29
http://tweetdeck.twitter. com

30. Industry Specific: Growing
• Next Big Sound
• Bookigee
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31. Storage and Replay:
Social Bookmarking & Dashboards
• What to DO with the darned information once
we have it — for ourselves and for our
working teams
• Examples:
– Diigo in Social Bookmarking
– NetVibes in Dashboards for teams
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32. 32
http://www.diigo.com

33. 33

34. 34
http://www.netvibes.com

35. Easy to Track Website Changes and
Blog Updates
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36. Storage and Rediscovery
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Hard Drive — cost in time and resources,
rediscovery, privacy
• Tendency: Folders on hard drives, with uncertain
names
• Tagging: Taxonomy of stuff
• Hard Drive or Cloud?
Sharing Ideas
• Evernote (Your 100 year memory)
• Dropbox (consumer), Box.net (end products with
clients)
• Google Drive
• Dropbox -- challenge - notifications
• Shoulder-tapping systems in a busy world

37. Continuing Challenges in Data
Finding, Storage, and Rediscovery
• How do others think?
• Retention Policies — when do we ditch it?
How stale?
• Who owns this?
• How do I remember to come back to changed
data? Does this still need to tap my email?
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38. Opportunity in New Combinations
• Reorganization — going through old folders
• Forced Adjacency — putting ideas together
that normally don’t mix
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39. Become ―Net Smart‖
39
Net Smart Now in Paperback:
http://www.amazon.com/Net-Smart-How-Thrive-Online/dp/0262526131
Peeragogy.org 2.0 Handbook: PDF at http://peeragogy.net/peeragogy-2.0-print.pdf
Peeragogy.org
Collaborative Handbook

40. 3. LISTEN
How can we use data from inside and out
that is already around us?
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41. Business Intelligence
Through Social Media
• Skimming from social
discourse
• Skimming through social
sentiment
• Real-time analysis
• Connecting databases of
purchasable consumer
data with your own
customer data
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42. Challenges with Aggregated Data
• Who are you? Multiple devices or browsers
• Who are you? 5 users on Netflix, etc.
42
Source: By Jeremy Keith (Flickr: Cuddling with multiple devices)
[CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

43. Data – Presence and Connecting as
Content and Data
• Social Networking as content
– Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, FourSquare, Reddit–
what are you doing and what do you like?…with
data
• Ecosystems around ecosystems: Twitter and FB
application developers
– Diigo, StumbleUpon, Pinterist, Tumblr, Instagram,
Vine, SnapChat – what are you looking at?
– Spotify, YouTube, and Pandora –what are you
listening to?

44. Business Intelligence through
Listening
• Basic and Easy: Job
Postings by
Competitors
• Scraping Twitter
feeds of competitors
and industry
pundits/reporters
• Google Alerts – any
keywords that you
choose
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45. 4. VISUALIZE
How can we use visuals to make and
persuade around decision and data?
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46. Visualization: Decision Framing with
Complex Data
Two goals:
1. Use visuals to made decisions with data
2. Use visuals to convince others in
organizations to make similar or better
decisions
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47. One Example: Gapminder
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http://www.gapminder.org

48. Concept Mapping – data
visualization
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mind_mapping_software
http://maremel.com/2011/12/infographic-
tools-galore/ -- Detailed resources

49. Data
Visualization
• Visual.ly – Platform to create new infographics
• Piktochart – Transforms your information into
memorable presentations.
• Infogr.am - Create interactive charts and infographics.
• Gephi – Like Photoshop for data. Graph visualization
and manipulation software.
• Tableau Public - Free data visualization software.
• Free Vector Infographic Kit – Vector infographic
elements from MediaLoot.
• Weave – Web-based analysis and visualization
environment.
• iCharts – Charts made easy.
• ChartsBin – A web-based data visualization tool.
• GeoCommons – See your data on a map.
• VIDI – A suite of powerful Drupal visualization modules.
• Prefuse – Information visualization software.
• StatSilk – Desktop and online software for mapping and
visualization.
• Gliffy – Online diagram and flowchart software.
• Hohli – Online charts builder.
• Many Eyes – Lets you upload data and create
visualizations.
• Google Chart Tools – Display live data on your site.
Infographics for
Decisions
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50. 5. SHARE (SMART)
How can we work with teams and partners to
best use collaborative data and tools?
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51. Current Knowledge Patterns
• Common: email, print to share, cloud or hard
drive folders
– Weak choice to filter, find, and discover
– Demographic differences
– “Zero” cost – high social costs for others, social
obligations
How do you discover, filter, and store business
knowledge?
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52. Knowledge Management for
Collaborative Work
• Modern Challenge: Distributive project
management.
– Salesforce as a $38 billion market cap business
• Assumptions and unspoken routines
• Difference by audience and type of work
– E.g., creative tools at
http://www.creativebloq.com/design/online-
collaboration-tools-912855
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53. We (vs Me) and Data
• Collaboration Tools – More than just shared
storage
• Physically Distributed Teams: Dropping Avg.
Sq. Foot/Employee:
– 225 in 2010 to 176 in 2012 and 150 in 2013
(CoreNet, 2013)
– 195 in 2012, down from 250 “Gold Standard”
(Norm Miller, UCSD)

54. More Obvious Tools:
Sync and Share
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55. 55
https://www.loomio.org

56. 56
https://podio.com

57. Just a Step in the
Digital River Firehose
• This is just a starting step down an interesting
path . . . How do we balance time, value,
information, and behavior of others?
• Resources change with greater speed . . . How
do we keep tabs on what is possible and shift
from what is outdated?
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58. Questions? Opportunities?
Gigi Johnson, EdD
Maremel Institute
gigi@maremel.com
@maremel
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