10 More Big Data Pros To Follow On Twitter
Looking for big data expertise in 140 characters or less? Here are 10 more industry players that can help.
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In May, we covered the top 10 big data pros to follow on Twitter, and not only did you follow, but you clamored for more. So we're back with 10 more pros that are great Twitter follows and know the difference between Hadoop and de-dupe.
Yes, the irony isn't lost on us that all these tweets are generating a giant mess of data, and that the data is hard to parse and sort through. But if you think reading Twitter is hard, try making a business decision in real time using big data. Or try helping to visualize all that data so a manager can access it and understand it in a useful way. Try making sure the data is accurate and answers the right questions. Try making sure it is relevant to the real world.
Those are the kinds of problems our experts are handling every day. And we know enterprises are struggling with them. That's why IDC predicts that the market for big data services and technology will grow to $16.9 billion in 2015, representing 40% growth. Companies are looking for the next strategic advantage and they think it is hidden deep inside their own servers, but they are having real troubles squeezing it out. If you're like everyone else, you could use all the help you can get.
We're not promising you'll solve all your big data problems overnight just by following these 10 (+ the first 10 = 20) folks on Twitter. But we do know they're going to give you a lot to think about.
Last time, we had some rules about who we could pick and who we couldn't. For instance, we excluded folks in sales and marketing. We are a little more lax this time, but don't worry. We still haven't picked anyone whose feeds are going to be one big marketing ploy after another. It's just that social media, business intelligence and analytics, and marketing are starting to get tied up into one pretty confusing knot.
It just didn't seem fair to exclude someone because gleaning detail from social media data (clearly an extension of marketing) was part of their job. But you won't find anyone on the list who is known only for that.
You know the drill: Click the arrow to get started. Pictures, whenever possible, came directly from the feeds of our experts, so you know what to expect when you follow them. Check out our list, follow these folks, and let us know in the comments section who you are following.
Former editor of the Washington Post's Wonkblog, Klein is no stranger to using numbers to tell a story. Now the editor-in-chief of Vox.com, Klein can be found posting on everything from food costs around the world to full moons to goats.
Favorite recent tweet: It's $21,000 cheaper to give housing to the homeless than to keep them on the streets: http://bit.ly/1nAjJFc
Currently the VP of data at Jawbone (and the shark in the middle, I believe), Rogati has also been part of the social media big data story. She was one of LinkedIn's first data scientists and helped develop LinkedIn's passive candidate matching service.
Favorite recent tweet: Emotionally manipulate people into buying stuff and nobody bats an eye. Do it for a paper and everybody loses their mind. #usedataforgood
Doug Laney, VP research, analytics, info innovation, and big data, is a must follow for one reason -- he is the author, contributor, or at least Twitter curator of the immense catalog of Gartner material on big data. He's also widely credited as coming up with the three V's of big data: volume, variety, velocity. If that's not enough, you can count on him commenting on big data for sports and TV.
Favorite recent tweet: #Gartner study: Only 11% of orgs make use of external data for #analytics. 24% plan to. Media, healthcare & services lead.
(Image from Laney's blog)
Phil Simon is the author of six books including Too Big to Ignore: The Business Case for Big Data and The Visual Organization: Data Organization, Big Data, and the Quest for Better Decisions. Besides the books, he is a noted public speaker.
Favorite recent tweet: The very act of storing vast troves of data doesn't magically transform it into insights. #bigdata
No, not that Vera Wang, the Vera Wang. This Vera Wang doesn't design wedding dresses (though her Halloween costume shows a keen sense of fashion). She's an account manager at PR firm Highwire. This gives her a practical viewpoint on the value of big data.
Favorite recent tweet: Understanding the value of needing various data sources to find the truth from @Guavus Solving the #BigData Mystery? http://j.mp/1n4ntrv
Wile E. Coyote could have used big data to capture the Road Runner. Ed Wiley (no relation as far as we know) has all the big data you need as senior manager for Seagate Big Data Analytics. By far the best tweet-to-follower ratio of our group, with fewer than 200 tweets but more than 1,700 followers. The master of the retweet, you can count on Wiley to know the difference between quality and quantity.
Favorite recent tweet: RT @CleanDataCentre What's even creepier than Target guessing that you're pregnant? ~ http://buff.ly/1pWTCIt | via @bobehayes #bigdata
Maria Zlynskie is a self-employed entrepreneur who is "passionate about startups, entrepreneurs, big data, and anything social." The focus on startups gives a new perspective on an issue that has previously been the focus of big enterprises. But with cloud and open data solutions becoming more common, startups and small and midsize businesses will be an increasingly important aspect of big data.
Favorite recent tweet: ROI Inspired by Whale Vomit: Many businesses are figurative whales. They create voluminous amounts ... http://bit.ly/1mVv7q7 #analytics
(Image source: Flickr user Mike)
The chief technology evangelist and VP of marketing and social media at Software AG says on his Twitter account that he "has an opinion and isn't afraid to use it." Intermixed with a joyful combination of memes and social commentary is excellent insight into analytics of marketing. And he posts pictures like this of his home country of Scotland.
Favorite recent tweet: Insurance companies create the Internet of Things You Can't Get Away From - Boing Boing http://theo.re/1ncD2lJ #iot #m2m
In addition to posting pictures of zebra finches playing guitar (honest), Kate Crawford is a composer, writer, and holds research posts at Microsoft, MIT Center for Civic Media, NYU, and University of New South Wales. Crawford focuses on privacy and ethics of data -- obviously a growing area of concern.
Favorite recent tweet: "We are prisoners of our metaphors, metaphorically speaking."
Do you want to know how much big data is penetrating our society? ESPN has a data-driven sports show. The hosts and guests debate which data has the most value to understanding what is happening in daily sports. Sure, it isn't as big or sophisticated as enterprise big data, but finding out how "regular folks" are using data in their lives matters. And the big data revolution in sports is having an undoubted impact on the enterprise.
Favorite recent tweet: Believe it or not, September 30, 1975 was the last time #BRA lost a competitive game on home soil. That's 14,161 days ago. #BRAvsGER
And while you're following these folks, here's a shameless plus to follow me (@geekenddave). I've spent the last 10 years writing about leadership, IT management, big data, and mobility.
Who are you following? Who are the people making big data work or talking about it the best? We want to know. Share in the comments.
And while you're following these folks, here's a shameless plus to follow me (@geekenddave). I've spent the last 10 years writing about leadership, IT management, big data, and mobility.
Who are you following? Who are the people making big data work or talking about it the best? We want to know. Share in the comments.
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