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Stephen E. Arnold: Open Data Collection with Ushahidi

Open Data Collection with Ushahidi March 28, 2014 The crowdsourced data collection platform Ushahidi, now assisting activists worldwide, was first created to facilitate public accountability and social activism during crises in its home nation, Kenya. Not surprisingly, Ushahidi is also the name of the non-profit behind the open-source project. Open-Steps.org interviewed the organization’s director of …

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Stephen E. Arnold: The [MIT] Observatory of Economic Complexity

The Observatory of Economic Complexity The future of search may just be here, in the form of a specialized search engine courtesy of MIT (quelle surprise!) The Observatory of Economic Complexity (ECI) is the result of a 2010 Master Thesis in Media Arts and Sciences by one Alexander Simoes, and enjoys the continuing support of …

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Stephen E. Arnold: US Government Content Processing – A Case Study

US Government Content Processing: A Case Study I know that the article “Sinkhole of Bureaucracy” is an example of a single case example. Nevertheless, the write up tickled my funny bone. With fancy technology, USA.gov, and the hyper modern content processing systems used in many Federal agencies, reality is stranger than science fiction. This passage …

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Stephen E. Arnold: Linguastat Turns Big Data Into Text Online?

Stop Typing Linguastat Does It For You Web content is a way for companies to attract attention and keep the organization in relevant social media feeds and search results. It is time consuming to generate content. Linguastat claims it offers a solution combining the power of big data and content. Linguastat tells users that it …

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Stephen E. Arnold: Open Source Management – A Work in Progress

Open Source Management: A Work in Progress I have attended a couple of “open source” events over the year. Most of the attendees are male, serious, bright, and similar to the fellows in my advanced high school math class and our math club. The few women present were notable because there were so darned few …

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Stephen E. Arnold: Predictive Analytics, Food Prices, Revolution

Civic Predictive Analysis Proving Accurate We find the field of predictive analysis fascinating (see here, here, and here, for example), and now we have more evidence of how important this work can be. Motherboard reports on “The Math that Predicted the Revolutions Sweeping the Globe Right Now.” The key component: high food prices. Writer Brian …

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Stephen E. Arnold: Google Trends Fail Badly — Algorithms Get Lost and Are No Substitute for Humans with Intelligence and Integrity

Google Flu Trends: How Algorithms Get Lost March 15, 2014 Run a query for Google Flu Trends on Google. The results point to the Google Flu Trends Web site at http://bit.ly/1ny9j58. The graphs and charts seem authoritative. I find the colors and legends difficult to figure out, but Google knows best. Or does it? A …

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