How to become a (sound) data scientist

Data Science, Machine Learning, Big Data Analytics, Cognitive Computing are the big talk in the tech. space. And if you want to know how to become a key cog in this scene, ie you dig becoming a much sought after data scientist - here is your roadmap!

Roadmap to becoming a data scientist!

Overall plan progressively into the following areas / domains:

1. Fundamentals
2. Statistics
3. Programming
4. Machine Learning
5. Text Mining / Natural Language Processing
6. Data Visualization
7. Big Data
8. Data Ingestion
9. Data Munging
10. Toolbox

For more info check out Swami Chandrasekaran's awesome blog!

How to keep cool in Summer Heatwave's

Simple measures that can be adopted to prevent overheating homes include:

•  Closing windows and doors during the day to stop the hot air from outside entering and also closing curtains, blinds and shutters during the day in order to minimise solar gain inside the building.
•  Open windows and doors (where possible, practical and safe), curtains, blinds and shutters when the temperature drops outside in order to let the cooler air in.  This helps lower the core temperature of the building overnight which will then help keep the room temperature lower the following day.

Other measures that could be considered over the longer term and where finance and planning regulations allow include:

•  Fitting blinds and external shutters to windows
•  Using smaller windows in new builds
•  Creation of shade, for example through planting of trees and vegetation
•  Use of heating reflective paint or white paint on external surfaces.

Source

Plan for tomorrow - the value chain of your time.

When you see a few days slotted out, months in advance for events in your personal calender, I think that is a good way to establish the value of your time. Is meeting that person/attending that event worth your time? plan for tomorrow and you will begin to see that you can focus and get much more done in your day.

In order to increase productivity figure out what you value, what's hot and trending (will it be big in the next 12/24/48months), and the sort of people you need to meet. Then search for some events in that area of interest, and attend! I guarantee you will meet someone of interest.

Along the way the negative people will despise in their hearts, but whilst they have been busy with creating that animosity, things change in the slightest for yourself - you become stronger and mature to a whole new level, What is maturity? well I think it's the time you realise and notice those negative people, but you don't say anything 'bad' back to them, because you know it will have a worse affect on their lives, so in your heart you wish for something better for them.

Most importantly, do it in a relaxed fashion, be natural keep time for yourself to read, ponder and discover the purpose of life...your life.

Creating a sense of URGEncy

It has taken me a while to realise, learn and appreciate the value of time. There are two contradicting factors to appreciate about time;

• There is a time for everything, there are moments in life where you have been working extremely hard towards something, maybe that promotion or multi-million £££ idea, and for some reason or another the magic moment is just not happening. Wait, slow down, take your time, there is no rush. The moments to learn, experience, discover and then unlearn, contemplate, reflect and pondering all have their own individual roles to play - when the time is right, that moment will happen, is waiting to happen.  Wait, slow down, take your time, there is no rush. Let the science of information play catch up...

• A bit of a philosophical conundrum; Which moments count more? All the small moments which add up to make that big moment that has that big impact on life, or the big moment(s) that change your life? I personally go for the small moments, but those small moments take time, planning and a bit of good 'fortune' (i.e being at the right place at the right time, with the right people [we won't dwell into calculating the statistical probability of that!]). This undoubtedly can become a tedious, soul defying and most certainly a lonesome journey where most give up on their big ideas, goals and dreams in life. In a previous post, on creating and influencing change the first point that was mentioned was creating a sense of urgency, that thing which gives you a shot of adrenalin rush and tingles your senses to create action, when it is most needed in those low times.

I hear some of you say (or most probably my imagination) - how do you create that moment of injection of urgency? In brief:

1. Find your purpose in life

Whether it's to get into heaven, solve cancer or build a death star to land on one of Saturn's moon - have a direction/goal and make sure it's big, bold and extraordinary.

     2. Experience your purpose

Learn that language to understand a 'holy scripture', or visit the poverty stricken land you want to help, or walk through Van Gogh's life to understand how he created his art. When working away on the big goal, there will undoubtedly be emotionally challenging periods. The only way of lifting yourself up is by not only reminding oneself of why you are working towards a goal, but to 're-live' that experience in it's entirety, ie. creaing feelings that ignite all the 5 senses.

     3. Create a strong visual image

When you have had that experience, log it in stone, and cement that stone at the back and front areas of your mind. Take time out to connect that defining experience to your senses.

     4. Define your value system

This is really a tool to measure and value priorities and make those crucial decisions, sometimes the outcomes can take you in an undesired direction. Family vs Idea? Idea vs Friends? Money vs Friends? Religion vs Family vs Friends vs Money vs Education vs Re-location vs Impact?

     5. Create your road-map

How do you want to be remembered when you die? Where do you want to be in 50 years, where you need to be in 40 years to get to achieve that goal in 50 years? Where do you need to be in 30, 20, 10, 5, 2 years...the next 6 months. Does it all pan out? (maybe a tad depressing but has to be said) what if there is only 12 months before expiry? 

--

Hopefully that may give some things to think and ignite a (re)small spark... thoughts will be most warmly appreciated :) 

'Cross-roads - different people, different thoughts with different goals...what differentiates people, what are they busying their lives with?' Wimbledon Town Centre 

[Business Ideas to go] Billboard 2.0

The Social Billboard - Beta Billboard v2.0

Marketing teams spend an awful amount of money advertising across their different channels, however we are seeing budgets shifting to digital, mobile and social. The challenge is to get organisations using traditional tools (bollboards, magazines etc.) but with the 'social eye' in mind! 

Companies have already invested in creating their social presence, but the question is how do you tie your advertisement to your social platforms; be it in a magazine, on a cereal box, a tv commercial or a even a billboard (whatever the marketing terms is for is - channel marketing?), to your social feeds where customers are maybe engaging and chit-chatting about your brand?  

In a previous post, I mentioned how measuring ROI (return on investment) for marketing should really be about the conversations that are created about a brand, as it measures engagement and hence increasing the chance of a sale. 

So here is an idea to tickle your mind;

So I hear some of you thinking out loud, 'oh Thamimus - but they already have stuff like this, I've seen it at Victoria Station!', sorry - but you missed the point. This idea is about putting the customer at the heart of the campaign, rather than the product. So this means pushing how and what customers are saying about products, as opposed to organisations merely (and usually very annoyingly) pushing product content to potential customers. 

Let me talk you through an example;

1) I go to Sainsbury's everyday to buy something delicious from their bakery. (Sainsbury's actually have an awesome Sustainability Plan integrated at the core of their business plan)

 

2) On my way down the escalator I have nibbled and tweeteed/facebooked/instagrammed about how scrumptious my chocolate,caramel bites are! (notice the digital board by the train times)
Whilst coming down the and tweeting, Sainsbury's have tracked my comments across their social media (for the past month). And using geo-location tools know that I am at Victoria Station. 

3) BOOM! as soon as I have come down the escalator, I am directed by Sainsbury's to check the billboard. 

Now wouldn't that be a nice surprise for a loyal customer? 

Now not only would I rant on about my lifetimes supply forever, but also attract potentially new customers who may subconsciously like the idea of having a short moment of fame :) which as a result may change their buying habits.

So that's a pretty bold new concept, which I am sure we will be beginning to see in the coming 18 months. So show some love and let me know what you think! 

Do not chase people..

Sometimes the road to success may feel awfully lonesome, stick in there - you are most likely closer than you think and followers will join soon.

Find other like minded people, some will be a few steps ahead on the road, others will be a few steps behind -teach them.

[Business Ideas to go] Women's shoe 'skins'

Hey folks.

I figured that I am most likely never going to get round to implementing all my multi-gazzillion £££ ideas, so probably be nice if someone else made them into reality. I will be sharing ideas/concepts every now and then, do feel free to take them, but it would be nice if you let me know :)

Women's disposable shoe skins

So would love to hear some thoughts on the idea...especially if you are a creature that is physically able to wear one of these things.. 

How to improve the quality of content on Facebook

A quality strategy for Facebook (Mr. Zuckerberg get in touch, will happily set some time to have a chat).

I am sure we all have realised that there is so much 'useless' content/trash/jibberjabber on Facebook (not pointing any fingers, but I really do not wish to know of how some of you folk like to spend every other minute of your day - I grunt at you!), not only does it consume a ridiculous amount of data but also more personally fills a precious and very limited storage device, my brain. (another AI research idea for Facebook - decipher what is useful content and what is not, and de-prioritise it to appear on a feed, seriously Mark on a bit of roll here son).  

So here is my formidable strategy - introduce a 'who viewed me' feature (obviously not borrowed from LinkedIn) because:

• stalking/trolling profiles will dramatically drop (as a result maybe even seeing a reduction in pedophilia, rape, murder, etc etc) 
• people will start to produce better quality content as they are conscious of that if they want more viewers to their profile, they need interesting and engaging content.
• this would actually be a good algorithm to add to the whose profiles are shown on feeds, as people with better content, will get more likes + profile views = they have EARNED the right to appear on people's news feeds (remembering my precious storage device..)
• a good way to rank content on your/bing search enginge, better content means higher ranking

I think those are some pretty darn good logical and more importantly sustainable reasons to at least do a bit of A/B trialing with! makes you go hmmm..?

What do you think?

If you think it is a good idea please comment :)

Future of Marketing: Measurement of Influence (not Impressions) through Conversations

Having handled a few client projects within marketing, it seems businesses are somewhat obsessed with analytics, more so the impressions they gain to their website. But they fail to realise  the greatest power in their digital marketing campaigns lies in the ability to convert an impression to a conversation and then to influence that engagement to a sale!

Customers Don't Want Ads, They Want A Conversation
BY BRANDON EVANS  | MARCH 25, 2013

Marketing is rapidly transforming into a dialogue between buyers and sellers or collaborative marketing. Crowdtap CEO Brandon Evans on the five trends driving the shift.

It is becoming clear that the future of social marketing, and marketing in general, will be built around collaboration. Social technology has already evolved from a focus on consumer listening to broader social management platforms that help brands build and communicate with their consumers. Now, the stage is set for social tech to begin creating real value for companies through deep collaboration with consumers.

Collaborative marketing will mean that marketers truly shift from marketing “at” consumers to marketing “with” consumers. We have reached a tipping point where a penalty will be paid by those companies who simply view social as a mass communication channel for blasting out messages to a mass audience.

Today, the companies that win are closest to those who buy, use, and advocate for their products. Five trends demonstrating a shift to collaborative marketing will create the biggest changes and ultimately offer the most significant rewards for marketers:

1. Democratized product development

New models and technologies continue to make it easier and quicker for upstart companies to create and market products. Brands must keep pace with the speed and crowdsourced brainpower this technology enables, including:

Funding: Crowdsourced funding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo make it easy for anyone with a good idea to raise millions to build a product with little risk.

Distribution: Quirky democratizes invention to anyone with an idea, and Etsy provides a global marketplace for designers and artists to sell their goods.

Production: 3-D printers like Makerbot and Cubify look to revolutionize how prototypes and products are produced via their low-cost devices.

2. Close, continuous customer relationships

IBM’s Global CEO Study found that 88% of CEOs said “getting closer to customers” was the top priority for their business over the next five years. Brands that have a genuine, real-time dialogue with consumers will be well-positioned in a world of evolving and increasingly niche markets.

Krister Zackari, president of Gum and Candy at Mondelez International, has employed a strategy built around ongoing optimization for its Twist brand[/url] to ensure it offers teenagers exactly what they want from a snack brand. He states: "Because we’re working with teens on the strategy, we’re developing it as we go along. It means that we’ve had to change how we would normally go about planning the marketing for a brand. We don’t know what we’ll do next with Twist because we want to evolve naturally as a result of our work with teens.”

With this approach, it’s easy to see how Mondelez will keep pace with changing consumer tastes.

3. Open organizations

Businesses in the past succeeded with secrecy. Keeping technology, formulas, and processes under wraps often led to a competitive advantage. Today, competitive innovation stems from open information.

One recent example of a consumer crowdsourcing project is Coca Cola’s newly launched Facebook app that asks its 50 million fans to suggest ideas to make the world a happier place. The winning idea will be funded by Coca-Cola and launched in 2013.

4. Peer-powered media

Pushing out mass messages simply will not cut through the clutter in this age. One-third of all display ads that brands pay for are never shown, and 86% of people skip TV ads. Customers are simply too fragmented, too overstimulated and have too many distractions for these conventional marketing strategies to maintain their effectiveness.

Already, 80% of online content is consumer generated, and content will increasingly come from a customer’s peers. Today, friends are exposed to one another’s location, mood, music, likes, and more. Marketers need advocates talking about their products as people increasingly receive information about brands from their social connections.

5. Measurement of Influence not Impressions

Impressions provided a simple metric for a mass-marketed world. Success today, however, is not based solely on quantity; quality of the engagement with a message must be factored in as well. In order to measure the quality of any customer communication, Crowdtap developed the Brand Influence Metric, along with Joanna Seddon, the former CEO of Millward Brown Optimor.

Brand Influence looks at both quantity and quality of impressions. Marketers should look to implement a measurement system similar to the Brand Influence Formula in order to begin optimizing the quality of their communications in addition to reach and frequency.

What the future holds

Collaborative marketing will bring much greater change than enabling consumers to comment, like, or retweet posts. Collaborative marketing will mean that the current barriers between companies and their consumers will be removed. Successful brands will create and improve their products and messaging continually with their consumers. Likewise, consumers will influence and take co-ownership of their favorite brands.

The collaborative marketing future has arrived, and it’s going to be a fun ride.

--Brandon Evans is the CEO and founder of Crowdtap, an Influencer Marketing platform that enables brands to identify, activate, and manage their influential consumers.

[Image: Flickr user Sharon Drummond]

[Source:Fast Company]

25 Quotes that may inspire to make you a better Leader

25 Quotes that may inspire to make you a better Leader

Listening

1) "When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen." - Ernest Hemingway

2) "The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them." - Ralph Nichols

Storytelling

3) "Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today." -Robert McKee

4) "If you tell me, it’s an essay. If you show me, it’s a story." —Barbara Greene

Authenticity

5) "I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I've become. If I had, I'd have done it a lot earlier." -Oprah Winfrey

6) "Authenticity is the alignment of head, mouth, heart, and feet - thinking, saying, feeling, and doing the same thing - consistently. This builds trust, and followers love leaders they can trust." -Lance Secretan

Transparency

7) "As a small businessperson, you have no greater leverage than the truth." -John Whittier

8) "There is no persuasiveness more effectual than the transparency of a single heart, of a sincere life." -Joseph Berber Lightfoot 

Team Playing

9) "Individuals play the game, but teams beat the odds." -SEAL Team Saying

10) "Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." - Helen Keller

Responsiveness

11) "Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it." -Charles Swindoll

12) '"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning." - Bill Gates

Adaptability

13) "When you're finished changing, you're finished." -Ben Franklin

14) "It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." –Charles Darwin

Passion

15) "The only way to do great work is to love the work you do." -Steve Jobs

16) "I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious." -Albert Einstein

Surprise and Delight

17) "A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless." -Charles de Gaulle

18) “Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us.” - Boris Pasternak

Simplicity

19) "Less isn't more; just enough is more." -Milton Glaser

20) “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” -Leonardo daVinci

Gratefulness

21) "I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." -Gilbert K Chesterton

22) "The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude." -Friedrich Nietzsche

Leadership

23) “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” — Peter F. Drucker

24) "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." —John Quincy Adams

25) "Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other." —John F. Kennedy

Source: LinkedIn

'Social' Image - an accurate measure of an organisations culture?

Recently, I had an interview for a glorified customer services role with Hootsuite - a company which I had highly regarded and followed since it's birth. So when I got called for an online interview, I was very much delighted to say the least! Ensured that I had completed my homework well in advance as this was an opportunity not to miss!  Unfortunately, things did not really pan out very well and turned out to be probably the worst interview experience I have been through! (of the two dozen or so I have had). 

Cutting the experience short, there pretty much was no setting or tone of the interview and a very poor level of interaction with the interviewers; I had rushed back from client meetings from the other side of London half an hour before a 6pm start, when technology wants to fail it will - skype failed on my laptop, and hence the interview started a few minutes late (fortunately, had been saved by my Galaxy Note 2 - which meant sitting in an awkward position as so the folks on the other side could hear and see me!) The session commenced with an ad-hoc introduction of three people, of whom I could only just about see two, no structure or direction of how the interview was going to be run was given. More so, socially Hootsuite appear to be a fun and energetic place to be and pre-interview a similar tone was given, yet getting to the interview there was someone of a mixed unwelcoming 'please let this already be over' undertone! Seemingly, all of which left me a tad confused and nervous as I could not quite asses whether to go for a conversational or professional tone. All in all what should have been a standard, simple enough interview and which in all earnest I should have personally flown through, ended up in an embarrassing case of verbal diarrhea on my behalf! 

Expectantly, I had not been successful for the role - and to be honest I did not feel too bad about it.

However, this made me question the brand reputation of companies that came about in social media boom period. Hootsuite pretty much provide social health checks for corporations, so naturally one assumes they themselves have a pretty good social media strategy. Which raises the question, 'are organisations really as successful internally?' Being an individual who thrives on learning and delivering new projects, my gut in this instance was shouting out to me would I learn and gain the right skills and competencies to grow and become an expert in this field, would I have strong leadership to look up to with space to also lead my own teams, and is this a place I would enjoy working at...

On the plus side, I realised traditional dinosaur organisations (the consultancies) are probably the best places to better equip me with the right skills in order to grow and manage an organisations effectively. Consultancies  have a tradition of delivering professional and effective solutions with always the long term strategy in mind for their clients. I do wonder are Hootsuite a bit complacent with the service they provide? Did they only rise to 'fame' due to other socially driven organisations (Mashable/LinkedIn) giving them too much marketing appraisal, which as a result has forced them to really sit down and work on their offerings as now larger clients would actually require a quality service. But that said as initially assessed, I imagine Hootsuite are now experiencing an exciting growth phase as they have made their mark as social media experts.. 

On the contrary, what is stopping the progressive (dinosaur) IT consultancies from offering similar, (more professional/corporatish) social services? as most likely they already have a bulk of big clients whom they deliver technical solutions to already on a broader scale/strategy side of things...

It would be interesting to see employee satisfaction ratings of high growth start-ups, as I was not particularly convinced on the sustainability of the 'social' culture at Hootsuite. Generally, I think as long as companies are providing a quality service, with great attention to customer services throughout the whole life-cycle, a natural (non-social) media would be more effective means of growth. 

Still a big fan of Ryan Holmes and his humble journey to bringing Hootsuite to life, and will carry on recommending Hootsuite's offerings to some of my clients, and I do hope I am wrong and had just a one-off bad experience...

NASA Live (recorded) stream from the ISS

I could watch this for days of end, such a spectacular and humbling sight:

What do you see?




**Note I just realised they do show recorded streams,  on their channel they regularly update past recordings.

Human Potential

If with a normal distribution we assume generally most people live an average similar lifespan, or even limited in the maximum possible years one can reside.

Why do some people achieve exponential amounts of growth (can take different forms), whilst others just pass life by, given they have the same time...?

A broader (philosophical) question; does society need to have the losers as so there can be winners?  Do there need to be followers, for there to be a 'leader'? What is the difference between a good leader and a bad one, moreso who decides what is good and bad?  Where does the motivation come from? 

Generation Y: The 90's kids that saw the world change..

Naturally, when this rather heart warming ad campaign was targeted to a targeted audience, I could not help but think why. Thinking through the fond childhood memories of yoyo wars and keeping my tamagotchi alive,  it struck me that google was also a Gen Y player, so bravo Microsoft! Not sure how it will win over users to use IE though? 

The Doctrine of 'Love'

Love

We are always constantly falling in an out of love, whether it be a person, an animal a group we are associated to, or even an organisation. Love (to me) seems to be a measure of how much time and effort we invest into learning and more so getting accustomed..or filtered to that entity, and when it comes to making those difficult choices of whether it is the time to move on or not, the fear of (blind) shortsightedness creeps in, as if the world is about to collapse! 

We may find a period of being stuck on/in that moment, and lose out on the next best opportunity, due to  usually diverting energy into the things that will bring short-term comfort to our most imminent needs. The crux of the matter is that people will always remain at the heart of any entity, large or small, with their individual act in the play of life; the differences lying in that some are empowered with bigger dreams, visions and a sense of purpose. 

So (note to self) - when you meet a person, whatever entity they represent - *first: be genuine and then if I decide I am going to invest time into this individual, question whether I will get the same level or greater in return, ideally can we mutually benefit each other's strengths (and weaknesses) to grow inversely and maybe fall in love over a shared interest. 

Easy way to surround yourself with great people(s) me thinks..

PS - this is an ongoing compilation of THE BIG BLOG

Living small..the new trend for generation Y?

Useless people...

Useless people...

Whichever part of the world you are living in, it is agreeable that one of the most difficult times for an individual is dealing with a person(s - good luck!) in power or authority who do not have the skills nor the wisdom to take decisions to bring about useful changes to their communities.


How frustrating!

How do you deal with it?

Well the renowned HBS Prof. Kotter advises the following:

1. Establish a Greater Sense of URGENCY  - this mean analyse the competition on the market discuss (potential) crises and/or major opportunities

2. Create a GUIDING COALITION - put together a group with enough power to lead the change, then get them to work together.

3. Develop a VISION & STRATEGY - create the vision to help direct the change effort, and strategies to achieve the vision.

4. Communicate the CHANGE VISION - use all the comm channels to constantly relay the new vision and strategies. Find a role model who will guide the coalition!

5. Empower OTHERS TO ACT - get rid of the blockers (the nonos'), scrap the processes that undermine the change. take risks and non-traditional ideas...

6. Creating SHORT-TERM WINS - plan for some visible performance improvements, then create those wins and be sure to reward and recognise the winners!

7. Consolidate GAINS & PRODUCE EVEN MORE CHANGE - use the drive of the increased brand credibility and momentum to address other systems structures. Hire, promote and develop the people who who implement the change vision. If the projects get boring - get new ones or add themes to them or new change agents. And be sure not to declare victory too quickly!

8. Institutionalising the CHANGES IN THE CULTURE - think about your customer and how to improve performances and productivity through them, have a strong sense of leadership (which encompasses management). Be sure to not to forget to articulate the connections between new behaviours and the firms successes. People will get bored and old - so have the leadership development and succession plans in order!

There you have it folks and that's a wrap!

Originally posted in Oct. 2011

Middlemen

Consultants, negotiators, sales folks..we are all middle men trying to bring two parties together, in order to achieve some greater benefit.

What about if you believe in greater existential drivers, what or who are the middlemen there?