The Seemingly Impossible Is Possible

by Neal Levene on Tuesday, July 3, 2007 · 0 comments

in Business Intelligence, Data Warehouse, Decision Making, Visualization

hans.gifDo yourself a favor and take 19 minutes to watch the video attached to this post. It is interesting on a number of different levels.

The video comes from the TEDTalks website. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design. They sponsor conferences where they bring multi-disciplinary speakers together on a variety of topics. They have a fantastic tag line: “Ideas Worth Spreading”.

The video features a speech by Hans Rosling, creater of the Trendalyzer software. His topic is how developing countries are pulling themselves out of poverty. Hans Rosling uses Trendalyzer and a software called Dollar Street to show a pattern of rapid development in African countries. Moreover, he shows how it is happening at a rate far faster than with the United States. He concludes that what seems impossible can be possible. There is a big finish to his presentation. I encourage you to hang in for it.

Many people have trouble understanding what business intelligence, data analytics, and data visualization are. [I look forward to the day when my wife can tell someone what I actually do. "It's kind of like a Rubik's Cube type thing," doesn't really cut it.] This video demonstrates the process of data analysis, exploration, and visualization well. Of course the real value is in the decisions taken once the information is understood.

Enjoy!!!

About this Talk

In a follow-up to his now-legendary TED2006 presentation, Hans Rosling demonstrates how developing countries are pulling themselves out of poverty. He shows us the next generation of his Trendalyzer software — which analyzes and displays data in amazingly accessible ways, allowing people to see patterns previously hidden behind mountains of stats. (Ten days later, he announced a deal with Google to acquire the software.) He also demos Dollar Street, a program that lets you peer in the windows of typical families worldwide living at different income levels. Be sure to watch straight through to the (literally) jaw-dropping finale.

About Hans Rosling

As a doctor and researcher, Hans Rosling identified a new paralytic disease induced by hunger in rural… Read full bio »

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Category and Tags

This post filed in the following categories:

  • Business Intelligence - Business intelligence (BI) refers to skills, technologies, applications and practices used to help a business acquire a better understanding of its commercial context.
  • Data Warehouse - Data warehouse is a repository of an organization's electronically stored data. Data warehouses are designed to facilitate reporting and analysis.
  • Decision Making - Decision making can be regarded as an outcome of mental processes (cognitive process) leading to the selection of a course of action among several alternatives.
  • Visualization - Visualization is any technique for creating images, diagrams, or animations to communicate a message.

About the Author

This post was written by Neal Levene, CEO of InnovaTech, Inc., who blogs about data and business issues here at Simple Complexity and about a variety of other topics at NealLevene.com. Find Neal on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter. Neal is available to speak to your organization on a variety of topics. You may also use Simple Complexity's Contact Form.

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