This week’s digital round up focuses largely on Big Data. Oh dear not that old chestnut!
Well it’s very topical and while purists deny there is any such thing as Big Data – rather that there’s lots and lots of data – I’ll leave it at Big Data for the moment.
First up is an article about making data a useful tool for storytelling, particularly for children. Infographics and data visualisations can help school children comprehend the world around them through visual graphics and consequently understand how to use data.
Meanwhile, a recent US survey has shown that big data has gone mainstream with 67% of executives reporting they have big data initiatives running in production, up from 32% last year. Some 82% of executives surveyed said big data is already integrated into the mainstream of their organizations while only 12% said it is managed as a separate environment.
The EU has committed €14.4m (£11m) towards open data with projects and institutions lead by the Open Data Institute (ODI), Southampton University, the Open University and Telefonica.
The funding is the largest direct investment into open data startups globally and will be used to fund three separate schemes covering startups, open data research and a new training academy for data science.
Away from data, this blog on Panda 4.1 shows how Google is trying to identify quality content amid the noise. So how will it do that?
- Holistic content. Content should not just be focused on optimising for single keywords – but should cover the topic comprehensively and be based on content clusters.
- Less ads on pages. Sites that rank in the top 30 positions generally include less advertising than average.
- More pictures. It’s no secret that more pictures equal more stickiness online and more visitors to your website.