The Power of Open Data
Posted: January 28, 2015 Filed under: Demographics, Technology | Tags: Ben Wellington, open data Leave a commentOpen data seems all well and good in theory, but it can be hard to envision practical applications. Essentially, this is making large sets of data open to the public. One New York statistician, Ben Wellington, is making a name for himself by asking questions and finding answers through open data resources. The results are fascinating—and have had a big impact (and he wasn’t even trying).
Wellington is extremely skilled at not only crunching numbers, but also using numbers to tell stories and then using the combination of numbers and stories to affect change. In the article A Data Analyst’s Blog Is Transforming How New Yorkers See Their City, NPR gives one example of what happened when he looked at parking ticket data. Read Wellington’s account in his blog post Success: How NYC Open Data and Reddit Saved New Yorkers Over $55,000 a Year. Other popular posts from his blog I Quant NY include a look at the cleanliness at the city’s fast food restaurants and the prevalence of Starbuck’s in Manhattan. Great stuff for inquisitive minds.
The Growth of China
Posted: January 21, 2015 Filed under: Demographics | Tags: China, McKinsey & Company Leave a commentSometime I am taken aback when it hits me how narrow a world view many of us have from our vantage point in the Midwest. Case in point: recent reading about growth in China was a real eye-opener as to the sheer size of their population and density. See the McKinsey & Company article All you need to know about business in China, an except from The One Hour China Book by investor Jeffrey Towson and McKinsey’s Jonathan Woetzel.
Here are a few interesting facts from the article:
China has twice the number of Internet users than the United States at roughly 50% of the penetration.- China has 160 cities with populations more than 1 million and 14 with more than 5 million. The U.S. has 9 cities with population greater than 1 million, and New York is the only one with more than 5 million. To be fair, if you expand the comparison to include metro areas (Combined Statistical Areas), there are 54 greater than 1 million and 12 greater than 5 million. But these are BIG areas (see map).
- In the next 10-15 years, more Chinese will move into cities than the current U.S. population (currently around $316 million), with a total Chinese urban population approaching 1 billion people. You might wonder where all of these people will go. Rapid and high-rise construction is one answer. Can you imagine a 30-story building going up in 15 days? Watch it happen.
- In the last 25 years, 300 million Chinese have moved out of poverty.
Weekly Download 14.16
Posted: July 30, 2014 Filed under: Business, Demographics, Technology, Weekly Download | Tags: 3D printing, Dr. Ichak Kalderon Adizes, Generation Flux, kiosk technology, Millenials Leave a comment
Here’s a recap of news and notes from around the Web that caught my attention over the past week or so.
How to assess how business-centric you really are: IT is rapidly becoming front-stage in solving business issues. This rubric is a good way to examine one’s focus.
The App I Used to Break Into My Neighbor’s Home: With an attention-grabbing headline, this article explores the nefarious use of 3D printing and kiosk technology. But aren’t physical keys on the way out? I think that a lot more damage can be done with either password hacking or a crowbar.
It’s easy to put labels on people to describe who they are or why they act the way they do. Taking this type of shortcut often has its pitfalls; putting labels on how to manage Millennials is one example. 4 Things You Thought Were True About Managing Millennials (HBR) challenges conventional wisdom about this demographic.
Secrets of Generation Flux (Fast Company): This article summarizes many themes I have been writing about. It also cites one of my favorite authorities on this new world of work (Aaron Levie, CEO and cofounder of Box). While it is fairly long and dates to November of 2012, the information is relevant and insightful. Key quote:
“This is the great challenge of 21st-century leadership. We have grown up with certain assumptions about what works in an enterprise, what the metrics for success are, how we organize and deploy resources. The bulk of those assumptions are wrong now. The world in which we were raised and trained no longer exists. The clarity of words we use to discuss business, standbys like marketplace and competitive advantage, are being redefined and rendered almost meaningless.”
Are We as a Society Falling Apart?: Dr. Ichak Adizes has long been a favorite read. He hits the issue of the decline of mutual trust and respect head on.
ZMAB15 
