once bitten

words and things from Edd Dumbill 
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July 20, 2010
 

The mood of public tweets

As a proof-of-concept we've1 been studying the mood2 of all of the public tweets. While there are many services that will allow you to study the mood of your own tweets (and also an neat little DIY project to show you the global average of twitter), much less effort has gone into studying how the mood breaks down according to geography. Below, I show a brand new video displaying the pulsating 24-hour twitter mood cycle of the United States (I'll explain just what you're looking at, in the following).

via iq.harvard.edu

This is a wonderful piece of work, posted on the Complexity and Social Networks Blog, showing an analysis of how happy the US is over a day. There's something about the swelling angry red that is very evocative of the grumpy unhappiness, and the fat bulges of happy green in California and Florida demonstrating their peaceful contentment.

Filed under  //   mood   twid   twitter   visualization  

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July 8, 2010
 

Bluetooth 4.0 will increase wireless bandwidth for sensors

The Bluetooth 4.0 standard is an update to the previous Bluetooth 3.0 wireless technology, which was announced in 2009. The new standard adds a low-power specification for transmitting small bursts of data over short ranges. The standard will also include the high-speed data transfer capabilities introduced with Bluetooth 3.0, which allows devices to jump on Wi-Fi 802.11 networks to transfer data at up to 25M bps (bits per second).

The technology could first make its way to watches, smart meters, pedometers and other gadgets that run on coin-cell batteries, Foley said. Laptops and smartphones could ultimately include Bluetooth 4.0 and be able to collect data from gadgets. That should help in activities such as monitoring health and energy usage, Foley said.

via computerworld.com

I started working with Bluetooth in the 1.0 days, when it was really more of a revision of the old infra-red communication standards. I'm excited by the possibilities of low-power high-bandwidth connectivity to small sensors.

Filed under  //   bluetooth   data   sensors   twid  

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July 2, 2010
 

RWW on Facebook's new recommendation engine

Facebook just announced the availability of a new feature for users creating accounts on the social network: Suggested Interests. Facebook will now recommend that new users sign up for updates from ("Like") publishers with high reader engagement and subscribed-to by people demographically similar to themselves. That's unique combination of factors that only Facebook could offer.

via readwriteweb.com

Getting users to enter metadata of any sort is difficult, which is why Google has always pursued models that rely on implicit metadata rather than getting too distracted by the explicit metadata (aka semantic web) route.

The alternative route to abandoning collecting explicit metadata is to figure out a UI that works, and a big enough incentive that people will use it.

Facebook is in a position to get users to actually give up details about themselves on a huge scale. And they're developing some very clever smarts to make it as easy as possible. A very powerful position to be in.

Filed under  //   collective intelligence   facebook   twid  

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July 2, 2010
 

Data wants to be deployed! Bradford Cross on research-driven startups

Research-Driven Startups

The web boom has taken the valley from its roots as a research haven to a consumer media app haven.

Companies like Facebook and Twitter build simple apps, get traction, and then bring in the researchers.

Nevertheless, I think we may be at the dawn of a data and research renaissance.

We are starting to see more research-driven data startups.

via measuringmeasures.com

I was talking with Bradford about this subject over the weekend, and it's great to see his thoughts here in long-form. He talks about needing to compile the skills of researchers (data scientists), hackers and frontend builders, and to productize the results. I love the mantra "Solving problems with products, built on research, driven by processing data".

To put it another way, big data wants to be deployed. It's not just research, it's data manipulation headed for production. That reaches into everywhere: the tool-set, the personnel, and the mindset of data research.

Filed under  //   @bradfordcross   data   startups   twid  

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July 1, 2010
 

Google buys up airfare search and pricing system company

Google has acquired ITA, developer of the airfare search and pricing system QPX that is used by major airlines. The deal is for $700 million in cash and comes after months of rumors about Google buying ITA.

via mashable.com

I can't wait to see what Google is going to do with this data set. Searching for flights is such a painful experience. It's also a fun thought experiment to consider what other data they could join this up with.

Filed under  //   data   google earth   travel   twid  

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