The Survey Geek

Category: Big Data

  • Big Data: Part 3

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    RegBaker
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    This post is the third and last, at least for now, on my series about MR’s struggles with big data. Its theme is simple: big data is hard. For starters, the quality of the data is not what we are accustomed to. More often than not the data were collected for some other purpose and…

  • Big Data: Part 2

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    RegBaker
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    This second post in my series about MR’s ongoing struggle with big data is focused on our stubborn resistance to the analytic techniques that are an essential part of the big data paradigm. It’s hard to talk about those analytic challenges without referring to Chris Anderson’s 2008 Wired editorial, “The end of theory: The data…

  • Big Data: Part 1

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    RegBaker
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    I have seen more than my share of MR conference presentations on big data over the last three or four years and it’s hard not to conclude that we still don’t have a clue. Sure, there have been some really good presentations on the use of non-survey data—what we might call “other data”—but most of…

  • “Just trust us.”

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    RegBaker
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    While skimming an article in the current issue of Businessweek on the Weather Channel’s emerging use of big data for things other than predicting the weather, I saw the graphic at the right and immediately thought of the causality versus correlation debate.  They have gotten hold of tons of data from Walmart and P&G, which…

  • “Is it legal?” is not enough

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    RegBaker
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    I just posted a link to this Computerworld article on my Twitter feed, but I think it's so important that I have decided to mention it here as well. The article describes the dangers brands are beginning to face with over aggressive big data and data mining practices. The key point is that it's not…

  • That old seat at the table

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    RegBaker
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    Attend an MR conference and chances are good that sooner or later a case of consulting envy will break out.  Symptoms include repeated use of phrases such as “seat at the table” and “C-level access.”  This is not a new phenomenon; it’s been a pretty steady part of the MR inferiority complex for the almost…

  • Big Data at 3D

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    RegBaker
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    The topic has shifted to Big Data (BD from here on out) and moving from general talk to some tangible applications. The first speaker was Jeff Hunter who showed us some specific uses of BD at General Mills. Well, maybe not so much BD as creative use of a whole range of different data sources,…

  • ESOMAR tackles Big Data

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    RegBaker
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    On Friday I attended a small gathering of around 30 MR suppliers, clients, privacy experts, and Big Data practitioners in Boston. The goal of the event was to stimulate a conversation about the practice and impact of Big Data on MR firms and the industry, to understand where we are headed, and the problems we…

  • New survey says everybody has a price

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    RegBaker
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    Like many people in this business I've been thinking a lot about data privacy these last few weeks. So when I see a headline from Research-Live come into my email saying, "Half of consumers willing to share their data, says survey," I wonder what's up because it doesn't quite gel with other data I'm seeing.…

  • Big data comes to the Census Bureau

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    RegBaker
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    Two of the more interesting sessions at last week's AAPOR conference featured the US Census Bureau. The shared theme was the Bureau's initiative to reengineer its data collection process in an era of declining cooperation and ever-tightening budgets. The two underpinnings of their strategy are (1) a new data collection approach called adaptive design and…