Nathan over at FlowingData.com started a Facebook group to explore data, statistics, computer science, education, psychology, economics among many others. If you haven’t joined yet, don’t wait!
Click here to join the group!
2007 Best:
1) Al Gore’s presentation – An Inconvenient Truth. Yes, it was complete in 2006. However, it wasn’t until after winning an Academy Award in February 2007 that it became popular. It truly is a visual masterpiece! Also, I believe he used Apple’s Keynote software to develop the presentation.
2) Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning
3) New York Times – Simply for the two InfoVis pieces below. If you haven’t seen them already, check ‘em out!
4) Tableau Desktop 3.5 – Arguably the best data analysis and visualization tool on the market.
2007 Worst:
1) Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart
The summary on the left is Super Crunchers. The one on the right is Competing on Analytics . I wouldn’t bet my house on Amazon’s reviews, but the ratings may support my opinion of the book.
It had some repetitive examples and I just found it lacking pizzazz. Since I’m not a quitter, I finished the book with the thought that it’s probably worth the $15 (3 Starbucks trips). Although, I don’t think I would recommend it like I have Tom’s book.
2) Microsoft Office 2007 (Office 12) was released on January 30, 2007 with a new look and feel, but still had the same old problems. Yes, it can handle more data, but the data visualizations are still lacking, the default charts are horrid and in-cell graphing is flawed.
3) Proliferation of gaudy dashboard applications (chart bling). I won’t name any specifically, but type ‘Dashboards‘ in Google and take a look for yourself. Gaudy, gauges, pies, background images – developers trying to cram as much as possible into one piece of software without understanding what the users really need to be effective.
For 2008, I want to discuss Intelligent Business versus Business Intelligence.
Happy New Year!
Arguably the most important holiday of the year in North America, Thanksgiving is one of giving thanks and enjoying the company of family and friends.
Wishing you a safe and very happy Thanksgiving!
Tony
I am happy to announce that we have reached a great milestone with DSA Insights. As of October, we have been blogging for one year. With over 30 posts now and some great feedback, we will continue to provide valuable information and views into the world of analytics.
Also, you may notice a few new additions to the DSA Insights webpage. Some of the additions are to help the proliferation of our insights through the online business and blogging community.
The section (below) contains a list of books provided by Amazon that I would highly recommend. All of these books are in my library and provide valuable insight into analytics, data visualization, dashboards, Excel, Access, and more. If you are interested in the absolutely must-haves, they are:
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, E. Tufte
Information Dashboard Design, S. Few
Competing on Analytics, T. Davenport
The next section (below) is the Analytics and Blogroll section. The Analytics category contains links to vital resources in the analytical community. The Blogroll section includes some links to other blogs that focus on Business Intelligence, Analytics, Dashboards, Statistics, etc.
This next section (below) contains four links to add DSA Insights to your favorite feed reader (a.k.a. feed aggregator). A feed reader is a powerful way to read many blogs all in one place, which is a huge time saver. The feed reader extracts updates from your favorite blogs on a regular basis.
The top choice that has the 
icon is another way to get updates from this blog. This link also provides the option to subscribe to the DSA blog using any feed reader you like, as well as, through e-mail using Feedburner.
Finally, the last section (below) was added to give readers the option to subscribe via e-mail to DSA Insights and get new posts delivered to their inbox. All that you need to do is enter a desired e-mail address and click subscribe. Fill out the next screen to stop spammers and click subscribe me. You will get a confirmation email in your inbox. Once confirmed, new posts will go directly to you. It’s that easy!
I have seen an exponential rise in readers over the last twelve months and hope to grow at a greater pace as we continue into 2008 and over the next year. If you have any questions or need help with the feed readers, let me know. If you are interested or would like to suggest a favorite link, I will consider it for my blogroll section. I welcome any and all feedback.
Columbia, Maryland
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