The phenomenal growth of data technology in recent years has led to the rise of the citizen data scientists (CDS). Developments in augmented analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) automation have now made it possible for ordinary business employees to conduct advanced analytics or business intelligence (BI) which would have required expert knowledge even some years […]
ETL vs. Data Preparation
Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) technologies, managed exclusively by IT, have until recently been the primary tool used to combine data from multiple sources and thus provide the ability to drive important business decision making for organizations. But, with the advent of self-service data preparation, business users and subject matter experts (SMEs) can find those […]
Fundamentals of Self-Service Business Intelligence
It’s clear that there is considerable recent market movement towards self-service business intelligence (SSBI) in the numerous vendor offerings available. There is also a growing concern among the Data Science community that ordinary business users may misunderstand or misinterpret the available data, leading to incorrect results. Experienced data scientists have a tremendous ability to analyze, […]
So You Want to be a Machine Learning Engineer?
Ideally, a machine learning engineer would have both the skills of a software engineer and the experience of a data scientist and data engineer. However, data scientists and software engineers usually come from very different backgrounds, and data scientists should not be expected to be great programmers, nor should software engineers be expected to provide […]
Demystifying Metadata Management
As advanced analytics becomes a prominent driver of revenue in the data-driven age, technologies are needed to help provide a context to data. Business leaders and the global Data Science community have realized that businesses need appropriate technology to comprehend the context of business data. In addition to Data Governance, the Data Management strategy that […]
A Brief History of Data Literacy
Data Literacy is essentially the ability to read and understand data, much as one might read and understand a magazine article. The primary advantage of having the bulk of the staff made up of people who are data literate is that it reduces the need for data scientists. People on staff can handle many of […]
Case Study: Crown College Uses Predictive Analytics to Retain At-Risk Students
Crown College in St. Bonifacius MN embraced a five-year persistence and completion project four years ago. The college’s Presidents’ Cabinet embraced persistence and completion as an improvement initiative to retain at-risk students and the school had been accepted into the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) Persistence and Completion Academy. HLC accredits colleges and universities in a […]
A Brief History of Metadata
Metadata is a small amount of data designed to provide reference information about other data. For example, in 280 BC, the Great Library of Alexandria attached a small, dangling tag to the end of each individual scroll. The tags gave the title, subject, and author, allowing library users to assume the content, without having to […]
A Brief History of Data Security
Data security describes the protection of digital data from a cyberattack or a data breach. A data breach is the unauthorized opening of data, typically to read or copy the information. Stolen data may contain confidential information, such as customer data, credit card numbers, or trade secrets. A cyberattack is much more aggressive. It is […]
2020 DATAVERSITY Top 20
With 2020 now behind us, we here at DATAVERSITY are taking a moment to look back on the hits and misses of this unprecedented year. What content did you, our readers, seek out most during challenging times? Which topics helped you succeed as a data professional, and what should we focus more on in 2021 […]