Tag: monitoring
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Learning about relational data models and databases

The other day I did a mini-course online about relational databases with Stanford Online. The course is taught by Stanford Professor Jennifer Widom and is aimed at relative database novices like me. Jennifer started off the course by providing some useful characteristics of a Database Management System (‘DBMS’): “Efficient, reliable, , convenient and safe multi-user…
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Mr & Mrs Smith’s personalisation drive

I’m pretty familiar with recommendations and personalisation in media; companies like Spotify and Netflix specialise in providing their users with relevant content based on their -implicit and explicit- preferences. The other day, I found out about luxury online hotel booking site Mr & Mrs Smith starting to provide more personalised content to its customers. I looked into what…
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Order Dynamics and omni-channel commerce

There are plenty of ‘big data’ analytics companies out there, particularly in the eCommerce space, but I was intrigued to find out more about a company called Order Dynamics. Order Dynamics’ strap line is pretty self-explanatory: “powering the new reality of retail: helping retailers activate commerce from first interaction to fulfilment”. The company offers a number of…
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Using data to inform product decisions

A few months ago, I delivered a talk to an audience of product managers about the importance of having a data informed approach (see Fig. 1 below). As a product person, using data optimally to help make product decisions is critical. It’s something that I try to work on every day. I’m constantly learning about things…
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Ben Essen and The Quantified Self

The other day I heard a few people use the term “quantified self”. Through Wikipedia I learned that the quantified self stands for “a movement to incorporate technology into data acquisition on aspects of a person’s daily life in terms of inputs, states, and performance.” In other words, this is all about quantifying peoples’ lives and behaviours,…
