GeoCommons providing free and easy to use online platform to create map based data visualisations

I just came across GeoCommons which enables pretty much anyone to create stunning map based data visualisation from simple spreadsheets. 

Most marketers would have some customer data tied to geographic information but would struggle to visualise their data on a map to unlock additional insights without some sophisticated business intelligence tool and data manipulation, well here's an alternative. 

Have a look at the below map screenshot visualising underweight populations around the world (check out the live map on the GeoCommons website) or watch the YouTube video to find out how easy it can be.

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Check out the short YouTube video showing how easy it can be to create a data map from simple spreadsheets.

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Google Books Ngram viewer visualises word trends from over 5.2 million books over the last 200 years

In case you haven't heard about the new Google Books Ngram viewer yet you better check it out now, it is without a doubt the coolest public data application Google has launched since Google Trends.

As you might know, Google has been busy scanning books for the past few years and its database now contains over two billion words from 5.2 million books published over the last 200 years. That's pretty cool in itself, however the Google Books Ngram viewer lets you search that database for the appearance of certain words and then graph them over time to reveal trends. 

Check out the trends below, the Ngram viewer is basically a combined archaeology and anthropology research tool on steroids.

Mentions for the word 'violence' pretty much flatline until the event of the Television and then receive another boost with the arrival of video and online.
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Looks like there has been a steady increase in 'flooding', 'landslide' and 'tsunami' mentions over the past few hundred years but we only recently started talking about climate change.
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You have to wonder what all these problems are people are writing about but there definitely seems to be less and less solutions.
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The below chart nicely shows the growth and decline in popularity of different media channels over time.
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Oh well, the days of the horse are definitely over but the car is experiencing a bit of a revival, exceeding second world ware level.
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Want good customer data? Ask nicely

Ever feel that desperate urge to fill in yet another web form?  Strangely enough, not many people do - because so many web forms are so very painful - and they're not collecting much in the way of valid information.

There's an amusing reddit discussion entitled 93% of world's population born on January 1st - here are some highlights.
  • Plenty of super-centarians kicking around online (born in 1900)
  • Lots of non-US citizens reside in 90210 zip code
  • Afghanistan is well over represented
  • Verne "Mini-Me" Troyer was actually born on Jan 1
So if you need to collect real data from customers, how about doing it respectfully?  You know, they way you would approach it face to face.
  • Accept that not everyone is a potential lead to be chased down and converted
  • Require only the bare minimum of information up front - that you will actually use
  • Make sure the value exchange is reasonable - a form to download your price list is not reasonable
  • If a field is optional, make it really obvious
  • Do you really need to force me to enter my email address twice - really?
  • Make use of subsequent pages - to ask for more information
  • Investigate the using social connectors to prefill your forms (Janrain specialises in this)
A recent test documented in Which Test Won showed that showing respect for customers - by making fields optional - actually resulted in significantly more (31%) and better quality leads.

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Here's another example - Axure asks for valuable information politely.  I like that they mention how often I can expect to hear from them, then they make it clear that the rest of the form is optional but much appreciated.  I was happy to fill it in with real data - I normally have fun with overbearing form fields.

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Lastly, a simple yet valuable addition to Sydney Festival was the wait-list functionality - no registration, just name and email address.  Come to think of it, we probably don't need to collect the name since we either already have it or soon will once they buy tickets.  This now obvious innovation has already sold thousands of tickets to very happy people who might have otherwise missed out.

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A good place to start is looking at your web analytics for people who see the form vs those who complete it.  Hopefully the hard numbers motivate your organisation to create a better expereience.  Let me know if you do implement changes and how they panned out.

-Ian
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YouTube channel with easy to understand videos on statistical concepts such as regression analysis

For those of you who would like to get into the heavy stats side of data mining (or have accepted the fat that they probably have to), I just came across a great YouTube video channel thanks to Shailendra Kumar's blog, the current data mining lead at Woolworths (his blog is a great reas as well but a little more involved).

The StatisticsFun YouTube channel contains some really great videos with step by step explanations of statistical concepts including the below on regression analysis which is basically the mechanism behind the prediction of customer behaviour based on past transactions or the holy grail of data mining. How about watching a few stats videos of the Christmas break?

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ACMA Communications Report 2010 including data on Australian advertising expenditure by channel

ACMA just released another amazing report called the The Communications Report which is basically a collection of interesting telecommunication statistics from various sources. It includes some really interesting gems on Australian advertising expenditure by channel and the growing importance of online among less thrilling numbers on carrier licenses and emergency calls.

Download the full Communications Report form the ACMA website or check out some of the key advertising related charts below. As you can see online advertising expenditure has steadily increased over the past few years following a general usage trend and was actually the only channel with growth in 2009, however it still only reflects an average of 15% of overall advertising spend. Within online, search and directories are the key channels as one would expect but interestingly mobile reveals itself as somewhat hyped up given the the overall data download growth is still driven by fixed lines (mobile data download actually stagnated).

(download)

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