Cars Suck Up Data About You. Where Does It All Go? by John R Quain via @nytimes

Cars have become rolling listening posts. They can track phone calls and texts, log queries to websites, record what radio stations you listen to - even follow you and tell when you are breaking the law by exceeding the speed limit.

Something that we see to have accepted as normal but do we really know what happens to the data and how it is used?  I think this is a question that needs to be investigated further.  We are used to ticking boxes and giving explicit permission for our data to be shared and used - how is that done (if it actually is) for our cars in this increasingly connected world?

WEBINAR: Predictive Analytics for Supply Chain Management 22 August 2017

Overview

Title: Predictive Analytics for Supply Chain Management

Date: Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Time: 09:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time

Duration: 1 hour

Summary

Predictive Analytics for Supply Chain Management

The Retail and Consumer Packaged Goods industries are continuously looking to maximise margins across all aspects of their supply chain. Tight competition and increasing distribution costs can exert negative pressures on revenue, sink profits, or force companies to adopt unfavourable pricing strategies to keep pace with ever-evolving markets and consumer demands.

In this Data Science Central webinar, data experts from Alteryx and Keyrus will show how organisations can model their entire supply chain, identify cost and distribution bottlenecks, keep store shelves stocked with accurate forecasting, and model the cost-to-serve a product across dynamic and complex distribution systems.

Join us to discover how putting advanced analytics within reach of your organisation can lead to disruptive and actionable insights for your business.

Speakers:

Razvan Nistor, Head of Data Science & Retail Analytics Expert -- Keyrus
Scott Trauthen, Director, Product & Alliances -- Alteryx

Hosted by: 

Bill Vorhies, Editorial Director -- Data Science Central

Register here

The AI Hierarchy of Needs by @mrogati via @hackernoon

From stealth hardware startups to fintech giants to public institutions, teams are feverishly working on their AI strategy. It all comes down to one crucial, high-stakes question: ‘How do we use AI and machine learning to get better at what we do?’

This is an article which is both a must read, a must bookmark and a must share.  Thank you so much Monica for writing this.

WEBINAR: Toxic analytics: How good technology leads to bad decisions - 22 August 2017

Aug. 22, 2017 | 2 PM ET/11 AM PT

Hosted by Information Management

Your business is demanding analytic insight. But seemingly helpful analytics can actually lead decision-makers in the wrong direction.

Fortunately, these common analytic errors are well-understood—so you can easily avoid them if you know what they are.

Attend this provocative webinar to learn:

• 3 main types of “toxic analytics”
• Proven best practices for avoiding negative analytic outcomes
• Why more information isn’t always better information

(Moderator) Lenny Leibmann Contributing Editor, SourceMedia

Sponsored By:

Register here

Hill for the data scientist: an xkcd story by Lucy D'Agostino McGowan via Live Free or Dichotomize

A how-to guide for data science - as told via xkcd comic strips!

I love, love, love this.  It also makes some important points.

Oracle Wants Its Cloud to Grow Inside Your Data Centres by Wylie Wong via @datacenter

Taking a different approach to hybrid cloud than some of its biggest competitors, Oracle has substantially beefed up the capabilities of its on-premises cloud product called Oracle Cloud at Customer. It gives companies the ability to use its cloud services but have them run inside their own data centres.

I can't make up my mind whether this is a good idea or not. I don't like the thought that there is still a cost to you relating to hardware and if the main players in the cloud market have different approaches it messes up the ability to change vendor - hence the nightmare of vendor lock-in feels very real.

Fears over vendor lock-in dampening cloud investments, study says by Bob Violino via @infomgmt

As more enterprises move to multi-cloud models, they are also becoming more aware of the potential negative consequences and implications, says Ariel Maislos.

I have to agree with some of the points in this - yes it seems imperative that organisations move towards the cloud to achieve all the associated cost savings and flexibility, but it also seems wise to have caution and try to protect yourself against vendor lock-in. It seems that you have to think ong and hard and find the mid-ground that you are happy to be in.