Analytics
1/23/13
Demographics and Political Representation
Per longstanding tradition, we had a presidential election in 2004, and per longstanding tradition, there was debate about whether the Electoral College was a fair way to elect a president. Now, I’m not a political junkie so I make no claims of expertise in that area, however my intrigue with data and demographics hooked me […]
By Kevin RainesRead More
1/9/13
Cartography: Pros and Cons
Data visualizations and infographics have grown in popularity. More and more data is produced and our ability to absorb it in a meaningful manner has decreased. By relying more on graphics and less on numbers alone to tell the story, the key message(s) can more easily be distilled. (Follow us on Facebook where we frequently […]
By David KennedyRead More
1/7/13
Lies, damn lies, and search data
We’ve all heard the old saying, “there are lies, damn lies, and statistics.” Perhaps the 21st century version is, “lies, damn lies, and search data”? The Google Maps team recently analyzed search data for the summer travel season “to gain a sense” of where we (at least in North America) traveled this summer. I bet you can’t […]
By David KennedyRead More
11/27/12
The Black Mobile Cyber Small Business sale
Are you recovered yet from the frantic weekend of deal hunting? First you had Mobile Thursday (haven’t heard of that one yet? see below), then Black Friday, followed by Small Business Saturday, and then (after taking Sunday off) you had Cyber Monday. With all the hype it’s hard to know where the interest is among […]
By David KennedyRead More
3/9/12
MythTrouncers Episode 2: We don’t need more research. We already have so much data, we don’t know what to do with it.
Myth: We don’t need more research. We already have so much data, we don’t know what to do with it. If you’re thinking something along this line, you’re doubtlessly not alone. We very frequently work with organizations of all kinds that don’t know what to do with all of the information they’ve collected over the […]
By Holly RussoRead More
12/16/11
Existing home sales revisions – The challenges of complex data
As a firm that works with large databases for our clients, this article strikes home. Working with big databases is hard work. It’s not just the mechanics of data manipulation and calculations, but also knowing where the data come from, what they mean, and how to interpret them. You have to have a feel for […]
By Kevin RainesRead More
8/31/11
Fun college student demographics
We’re doing some research at the moment on college student demographics in Missouri, and developed some fun statistics on the foreign student population. You might be able to guess the two largest populations of foreign students, particularly if you went to an engineering college – Chinese, then Indian. But what countries occupy Spots 3 through […]
By Kevin RainesRead More
8/29/11
New census document describes the aging of America
The Bureau of the Census recently released a document(pdf) describing the age and gender profile of America over the past few decades. Some interesting capsules that we see in it are: Everyone knows about the whole “aging boomer” thing, so we won’t belabor that point. However, it’s interesting to see that another fast-growing segment is […]
By Kevin RainesRead More
4/14/11
You’re not alone in procrastinating
If search trends are any indication of what people are doing (and they are), then you’re not alone if you are doing your taxes last minute. During the last two years as indicated by the orange and red lines (and previous years too – just not displayed) we see a small spike in February (people […]
By David KennedyRead More
8/16/10
Elusive data.
We love data. Give us a bunch – or allow us to go gather it on our own – and we’ll roll around in it for hours. Ok, maybe that sounds mildly creepy. We talk a lot about the virtues of data, but there is one important caveat – you have to have good data. […]
By David KennedyRead More