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Dilbert, Database marketing and spam
Ruben's comment that referred to spam reminded me of an old Dilbert comic which conveys the misconception about database marketing (e-marketing) and spam. I know Ruben well and know he was poking fun,...
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Another Wisdom of Crowds Prediction Win at eMetrics / Predictive Analytics World
This past week at Predictive Analytics World / Toronto (PAW) has been a great time for connecting with thought leaders and practitioners in the field. Sometimes there are unexpected pleasures as well,...
View ArticlePredictive Analytics World Had the Target Story First
The New York Times Magazine article "How Companies Learn Your Secrets" by Charles Duhigg with the key descriptions of Target, pregnancy, predictive analytics (blogged on here and here) certainly...
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Where it began: John Elder and Dean Abbott at Barron Associates
I came across this photo today and couldn't resist. John Elder and I worked at the company Barron Associates, Inc. (BAI) in Charlottesville, VA in the 80s (John was employee #1). Hopefully you can...
View ArticlePredicting Crime
Applying inferential statistics to criminology is not new, but it appears that the market has been maturing. See, for instance, a recent article, "Police using ‘predictive analytics’ to prevent crimes...
View ArticleThe Data is Free and Computing is Cheap, but Imagination is Dear
Recently published research, What Makes Paris Look like Paris?, attempts to classify images of street scenes according to their city of origin. This is a fairly typical supervised machine learning...
View ArticleChoose Your Target Carefully
Every so often, an article or survey will appear stressing the importance of data preparation as an early step in the process of data mining. One often-overlooked part of data preparation is to...
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What do we call what we do?
I've called myself a data miner for about 15 years, and the field I was a part of as Data Mining (DM). Before then, I referred to what I did as "Pattern Recognition", "Machine Learning", "Statistical...
View ArticleBudgeting Time on a Modeling Project
Within the time allotted for any empirical modeling project, the analyst must decide how to allocate time for various aspects of the process. As is the case with any finite resource, more time spent...
View ArticleData Preparation: Know Your Records!
Data preparation in data mining and predictive analytics (dare I also say Data Science?) rightfully focuses on how the fields in ones data should be represented so that modeling algorithms either will...
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Why Predictive Modelers Should be Suspicious of Statistical Tests (or why the...
Well, the danger is really not the statistical test per se, it the interpretation of the statistical test. Yesterday I tweeted (@deanabb) this fun factoid: "Redskins predict Romney wins POTUS #overfit....
View Article6 Reasons You Hired the Wrong Data Miner
As is in any discipline, talent within data mining community varies greatly. Generally, business people and others who hire and manage technical specialists like data miners are not themselves...
View ArticleTop Posts in 2012
For the second consecutive year, a quick look back at posts from the prior year.For posted in 2012, in order of popularity:Target, Pregnancy, and Predictive Analytics, Part ITarget, Pregnancy, and...
View ArticleThree Ways to Get Your Predictive Models Deployed
We all know that given reasonable data, a good predictive modeler can build a model that works well and helps make makes better decisions than what is currently used in your organization (at least in...
View ArticleWhen Analysis Isn't the Answer
Data mining is an important tool whose benefits have been demonstrated in diverse fields, among business, government and non-profit organizations. Its application areas continue to grow, especially...
View ArticleUsing Geographic Data
Most organizations collect and maintain some type of geographic data, yet many ignore this data during analysis. Any business has some record of customer addresses, for instance, but this data is...
View ArticleWhat To Take Home from Your Next Predictive Analytics Conference
Why should one go to a predictive analytics conference? What should one take home from a conference like Predictive Analytics World (PAW)? There are many reasons conferences are valuable including...
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Do Predictive Modelers Need to Know Math?
(Note: this post was first published in the March 2013 Edition of the Predictive Analytics Times) Predictive analytics is just a bunch of math, isn’t it? After all, algorithms in the form of matrix...
View ArticleMath and Predictive Analytics - A Personal Account
Last week I taught a workshop at Predictive Analytics World entitled Supercharging Prediction: Hands-On with Ensemble Models. The workshop was intended to introduce predictive modelers to the concept...
View ArticleDean Abbott Featured in "Popular Mechanics" On-Line Article
Our own Dean Abbott has been consulted for an on-line Popular Mechanics article, "Why the NSA Wants All That Verizon Metadata" (Jun-06-2013), by Glenn Derene. Since the initial report connecting the...
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