Considering a Cloud-Computing Platform

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In your eyes, what might be the most important part of making your business excel? Using customer input and activity online to design individualized plans for future gains may be the new way to go.

Before data became “Big Data”, companies in banking, medicine, marketing, and service industries alike relied on customer feedback via website commentary or reviews received from customer service employees within the company for knowledge of any issues pertaining to products being offered. Now you may want to consider a better way to ensure customer satisfaction.

Tracking and monitoring customer activity and the use of predictive analytic applications to view your site’s visitors and activeties might help you ensure knowledge of future purchase choices and utilize helpful insight into marketing strategies for the future. While other companies speed ahead using customer data to improve overall business knowledge, you may be considering which tools for predictive analytics you could be benefiting from. Knowing what Cloud-Computing company to choose may be the hardest part of joining the Cloud revolution. Cloud storage is a main-stream business asset for the safety and access of your most important data now. Ensuring that the Cloud-Computing platform that you are evaluating is built by those who have years of experience is a good start. You may want to pick professionals with expertise in building Cloud platforms and providing visualization and analytical direction for your company data. Regarding your company, you might begin by investigating into Pushgraph and the other Cloud-Computing services that we offer at ChalkLabs.

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Who’s Already Benefiting from The Cloud?

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In order to evolve as a country we learn how to make the way we do business more and more efficient everyday. Cloud computing is becoming increasingly important in most areas of business due to the advantage of having important information in a safe place that is also easily accessible to others in your company.

The retail industry is at the top of our list of those who are already using the Cloud. Most of us have experienced by now the speed at which offers are customized and sent to our e-mail in-boxes due to a previous purchase from a website. Products and offers are now being based off of our past purchases and used to provide better insight into our future needs. Efforts to predict the needs of consumers have seemed to increased  thanks to the use of predictive analytics within the Cloud. Retailers are clearly taking advantage of Cloud benefits which show through improved channel operations, marketing, merchandising, and attention to customer service. And why not? Results from the retail industry demonstrate how Cloud-Computing can catapult your company into the future of our technology savvy atmosphere.

Business men and women of the Legal Industry are also pleased to have a better technique for data storage in a safe and secure environment that’s accessible company-wide. In fact nearly 75% of various attorneys claim they will be making use of  a Cloud this year. Reduction of I.T. personnel costs are an added bonus to making the switch from traditional data storage to a Cloud.

Bankers are also one of the first to jump on the band wagon for better productivity and responsiveness to improve customer service. New programs for employee use are being launched country-wide for easy enhancement of current software being used. Designed around the needs of each customer are ways to track effective marketing strategies to better understand what your customers needs are or what they may be in the future according to past data input. A standard level of security and structure within your Cloud Platform can lead to heightened overall competency among bankers as well. Enhancement of business as a whole could be the result of the shift into utilizing Cloud technologies for an array of industries.

Security seems to be the only concern left among the general public but this is only a valid concern if you don’t know the proper standards in security to look for when choosing a company to host your Cloud and provide your company services. Companies such as AWS (Amazon Web Services) are being named the new leaders in Public Cloud Computing because they provide good security and advanced protection for your most relevant company data and information. When you know who has the ability to provide what your company needs to be at it’s best, it may not be such a tough transition into the world of the Cloud for you any longer. (techpageone.dell.com 2014) (hostreview.com 2014) (mashable 2014)image

In the “Age of Big Data”, How is Education Improving?

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The analytical use of data is creeping into everyday life. In the classroom we see new technology emerging not only in the form of computers, but also in the form of guided ciriculum. Teachers have many new resources popping up left and right with the click of a button. Tools to help track, gauge, and educate the next generation of pupils are now used to understand how each individual student is better able to learn and grow from specific assignments. Education program subscriptions like ThinkCERCA claim to be, “A school wide solution for critical thinking and literacy instruction across disciplines”, as described on the website. (ThinkCERCA.com) Teachers can easily use ThinkCERCA’s applications to assign lessons according to pre-determined levels assigned to each student. Students can then read and finish assignments online, leaving a chance for others to comment on and evaluate their work for continued editing opportunities all the while practicing speaking and listening skills as well. Teachers are able to view the

Whitworth College Pirates Flag

Whitworth College Pirates Flag

assignments online through the whole learning process and can grade various assignments in need of inspection. Retaining logs through the site can also lead to future gains made by educators via analysis of past data kept from each student. Specific paths of learning can be formed through this process. College prep is important to help ensure the success of next fleet of tech savvy young. ThinkCERCA was created by nationally accredited researchers of 30 years to provide the framework needed to let students excel in todays high-tech world. Active learning engages students and helps keep attention fully on the lessons at hand, at the students own pace. Building a smart way for the next generation of pupils to succeed is truly being captured by ThinkCERCA. (mashable.com) (ThinkCERCA.com)

Sensor Season

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Photo credit: Jeanette May

Photo credit: Jeanette May

What do nurses, soldiers, and the Buffalo Bills all have in common? Radio frequency identification device technology. These tiny yet durable chips will soon be found in NFL  uniforms across all 32 teams by requirement during select sporting events. This September will be the beginning of the season and it is sure to be a thrilling one.

There are 17 stadiums here in the U.S. that are equipped with receivers specific to the radio frequency needed to match the sensors. Once in use during future games they may provide coaches and broadcasters (once authorized by the Competition Committee) with important statistics associated with distance and speed of each individual being followed, et. al. Game-changing advances in technology bring hope of bringing a new competitive advantage to each team. This is only the half of it, however. Once the new data begins pouring in from game to game, how will it be stored and evaluated for predictive benefits? Data is essentially useless without a proper plan for storage and analysis. The Pushgraph platform, for example,  can do far more than just give NFL affiliates information. Once fed data from the player devices and it can turn that information into comparative metrics and visualizations for simple evaluations of player to player statistics. Pushgraph is specifically designed to identify such patterns crucial to advanced planning and decision-making in the future. It will certainly be a different NFL than in years past. (2014 Phys.org)(2014 NFL.com)

The Future of Business

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    The future of business is reshaping in front of our eyes and it is clear that we now have more information than we know how to properly comprehend. Nathan Kinch is a bright young man who knew how to say it best in his latest article on LinkedIn.”I believe that we now reside in the era of context.” He proclaimed. He then goes further to explain the importance of understanding the use of context pertaining to immense sets of data looming overhead many entrepreneurs. The data  collected from social media sites, the history of transactions at places of business, or even the weather patterns in your area are data gold mines that can be harvested and assessed with a platform like Pushgraph to provide a visual analysis of your past and future business patterns. Knowledge of what lies ahead in business is a huge advantage over those who just guess what may affect consumers tomorrow. Data is useless without context powered knowledge to analyze it. Imagine using a platform that provides context for different domains that also shows visuals for a useful analysis of your data. Say for example you are the owner of a bank and you are stumped as to why last Tuesday you only saw 100 customers instead of the usual 300 every other day of the week. Maybe the construction down the road is to blame or the local parade that was outside that day. Maybe the extreme fluctuation is due to the new employee who is making mistakes with regular customers and is only working on Tuesdays. Now the technology exists to let you plug-in those data points to provide enlightenment into your business future. Variables and factors that fit your situation combined with the data that resides within them will let you see your future gains or losses. Now there doesn’t have to be such a thing as randomly horrible days of revenue. You could be a leader in your industry with capabilities far beyond that of your competition utilizing Pushgaph. Customize a strategy for the success of your future business. Only the most tech savvy entrepreneurs are proactive enough to use these Big Data analytics tools to open the doorway into the next realm of business. Don’t be left behind. (2014 LinkedIn: Welcome to the Next Era of Context)

Global Collaboration for Brain Disease

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Unfortunately, most of us have seen loved ones who have suffered the effects of a brain abnormalities such as Alzheimer’s or Dementia. According to the W.H.O. (World Health Organization) we spend $400 billion per year on mental health patients, half of which goes solely to those plagued by Alzheimer’s. In other countries such as China, as many as 975,000 citizens die each year from brain trauma, and despite health insurance coverage these patients cannot escape the costs of healthcare. All signs point to global cooperation to dramatically downsize the devastating effects of brain disease worldwide.
Leaders from around the world are currently working toward a solution. President Obama added $100 million to FY14 and doubled that amount for the following years budget as part of the BRAIN initiative. This is great news for the NIH, DARPA, and NSF who now have new funding for increased scientific brain research. The new Prime Minister of Australia also added to Australia’s federal budget for dementia patients to the amount of $200 million. Budgets are expanding for an important reason, seeing as understanding human brain function is one of the greatest challenges we face in science today.
Partnering organizations such as SBMT (Society for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics) and the E.U. Human Brain Project provide great strides into translational science and now Australia will be hosting the 2014 Group of 20 developing nations. SBMT is the world’s leader in studies of translational neuroscience. As stated by Dr. Sean Hill, (Co-Director of Informatics Research at E.U. Human Brain Mapping Project) “Global collaboration is key to advancing neuroscience and understanding genes to cognition.”  (Www.dddmag.com)
So what does this mean for our future? Well if we can globally harmonize our policies pertaining to neurological disorders and increase the commercialization of effective therapeutics across the globe then we might begin to see big changes in brain wellness as a whole. Mapping changes in the progression of brain diseases would also be a useful way of turning Big Data into assessable future predictions and possible cures when tracking symptoms and digression in patients with these major disorders. Results from predictive analytics could be one key factor in determining future cures for our planet. Tools such as “the Cloud” that can store excessive amounts of data are already being used by some medical facilities right now. These high-tech tools will begin to make great changes in the way we are able to turn stored data into predictions. What an amazing way to change the world of medicine and disease. (2014 dddmag.com)

An Exciting Technology Era

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In order to stay on top of todays current technology advancements, we like to pay close attention to the most exciting ideas that come from companies such as Microsoft. For this article we will look into what the new Vice President of Microsoft’s research department is working on.
At the Blue Sky Research facility, Peter Lee is aiming to add a real-time translation capability to Skype. This next big step in the science of translation could make a substantial difference in the world of  business for consumers worldwide. By constructing a translation application for the current version of Skype, users will be able to talk to foreign business associates or anyone around the globe in the consumer’s language of choice. This would begin to change the way we communicate and increase work productivity around the globe.
The current programs made by Microsoft like Bing voice search services, are just the beginnings of very useful applications of voice recognition computing. By the end of this year, the new version of Skype is due to be ready for launch. The use of such an exciting new tool will eventually help us break down the barriers of language that we face worldwide.  Quantum computing and machine learning are also being further researched at the Blue Sky facility as well.
These seemingly small tweaks in Microsoft’s product technology could be profound advances in our generation of scientific computing. The scientific discoveries behind those ideas are what make our economy and its complex system thrive. The analysis of big data also plays a role in these new strides toward translational computing. Any company who has use of such products could be at the head of the industry today. Looking into past trends and events in the world of scientific technology can show what amazing things lie in our future.(2014 Digital Summit; technologyreveiw.com)

Data Launch

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With the recent launch of NASA’s OCO-2 craft, we can see new promises of reducing global warming’s harmful effects on the horizon. This Orbiting Carbon Observatory is NASA’s lone successful space craft responsible for tracking the atmosphere’s carbon activity. The importance of this project is to begin analyzing data collected from OCO-2 as well as ground stations and air craft or other satellites. This data will answer major questions posed around the increasingly large amounts of carbon in the air. Deforestation and every day human habits are causing most of this pollution.
The second day in July this year, NASA launched its new vessel from the Vandenberg Air Force Base to begin its life monitoring “sinks” in geography that naturally suck carbon out of the earth’s atmosphere for later use. These are very significant new sets of data points to analyze which may help scientists on this job to predict how much damage will be done to our atmosphere prior to it happening. Right now NASA estimates that 40 billion tons of Co2 are launched into the air by environmental contributors annually. Michael Gunson is the brilliant scientist behind this assignment at the Jet Propulsion Lab. He said, “Data from this mission will improve the accuracy of global climate change predictions.”
So how can these millions of data points be utilized? Pushgraph posses the technology to assess and create visualizations in real-time, featuring predictive analytics for Big Data problems, which occur when large  entities collect too much information and lack a way to use it for predicting trends or preventing downfalls in business. The complex system of our earth’s atmospheric gasses can be charted with input from OCO-2. Combining technology with science can amplify discovery of solutions for earth’s pending dilemmas. Suppose we collect all of OCO-2’s useful data and analyze the potential future trends of carbon sinks and emissions so we can create a more balanced atmosphere in the future? With the cutting edge technology we possess to analyze and store Big Data, we have all the more reason to use data to achieve a more hopeful perspective when it comes to our ever-changing planet.                                      (2014 Science.NASA.gov).

The Complexity of our Ecosystem

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Every living being plays a key role in the ecosystem. We see this as a complex system because each creature affects the next in a way which we begin to see quite well as Defaunation takes place. Defaunation is a term for the decline in a species numbers, which can be rapidly increased by factors such as human produced pollutants and change in climate due to global warming, or a rise in the cunning skills of poachers in different countries. Compromised habitats have led to species decline as well. Translocation is one pending solution that has been tested but without much success. It is a difficult project to replicate an environment perfectly crafted for a specific type of animal, especially when an estimated 5-10 million exist today. Vertebrates play an even greater role as they are higher up on the food chain and take care of duties like dispersing seeds for plant growth, and ridding us of pests like the rat. Vertebrates are also in danger of poachers especially in foreign countries were we see whole herds at risk daily.  The natural distribution of plant seeds is an important natural phenom that can and will affect the industry of agriculture if slowed. Insects are necessary for pollination of 75% of all food crops. When plants have no insects to pollinate them we see a drop in crop output as well.

Now, this information may be new to some, and therefore alarming, but there are so many options to choose from to help combat the bad effects of the human world on our ecosystem. Sensor Networks could be a huge impairment to the world of poachers if utilized by scientists. Researchers on the job track functions of select species and try to learn which species are at risk of Defaunation. Analysts of these data sets are just as important as the researchers behind them. With visual analytics that identify patterns hidden in data tracked by sensor networks, we could be finding answers to what the most significant causes of current ecosystem imbalance really are and in turn what to do to help fix the problem and find the poachers behind each loss. Predictive analytics observe and monitor many sets of real-time data points captured during such experiments. Technology and science together can put Mother Nature back to where she’s supposed to be. We care as much as you do so lets pick our smartest course of resolve and put plans into action.(2014 ARStechnica) (2014 Phys.org)

Feeding the Economy

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Focusing our attention  on who eats what could be one of the more important topics this country has seen lately. Health has always been at the top of our daily list but it has become a priority again as we look at different options for nutrition. Some countries are now utilizing their oat and barley sources to improve public health instead of using those grains for livestock. Evolution toward increased longevity is just around the corner thanks to studies pinpointing ways to improve nutritional content in our food sources. According to the USDA, we are developing more efficient wet and dry methods to transform healthy food resources such as oats and barley into affordable ingredients marketable to the public as human food instead of just animal feed. Other new and improved feed options are currently being tested in the U.K. ‘Super-dosing’ is a term coined for the adding of the enzyme Phytase to poultry diets and may bring great savings to consumers, farmers, and nutritional benefits to broiler chicks. Current methods of feed include phosphorus, which is extremely expensive and is always bonded to other elements, making it harder to work with. Now, a study led by Nottingham Trent University has found that by adding high levels of Phytase to rapeseed meal (a cheap home-grown protein source) is just as nutritious as higher costing soybeans which is imported from us, here in the U.S. So in turn, a change in food means a change in feed which leads us to an overall improvement in our economy due to lessened health costs and smaller feed bills.  Future gains could be charted and easily followed with the input of data from the contributors of this project. We can change the way we eat as well as the way our food sources eat by taking better care of how we utilize resources. All it takes is a bit of global collaboration. (2014 Phys.org)