One of the offshoots from web 2.0 has been the emergence of business intelligence tools supporting data analysis.
Such tools are built around the mathematical concept of a pivot element - that is selected first by an algorithm to do certain calculations with the matrix. Excel started to support such a concept via data and pivot tables in its recent versions. Such functionality lays the foundation for summarizing data for offline data analysis. Real-time analysis required the development of various dashboards that have made its way into current executive information systems. Needless to say, such tools become even more relevant with the recently announced 'Open Government Initiative'. See video
The initiative ties together the development surrounding other recent federal IT initiatives ( such as data.gov and recovery.gov and apps.gov ) to provide more meaningful data that is referred to as 'high-value data sets'. That raises interesting alternatives in way such data sets are consumed in the business intelligence arena. This lays even more emphasis on the process of identifying necessary 'pivot elements' that support data analysis within the context of 'high value data sets'.
I have been putting together workshops to facilitate learning around data analysis and applying current applications (such as Excel) towards dealing with high-value data sets. The material covered in such workshops will be made available shortly. Also keep an eye out for my upcoming attendance at Flex 360 2010.
Such tools are built around the mathematical concept of a pivot element - that is selected first by an algorithm to do certain calculations with the matrix. Excel started to support such a concept via data and pivot tables in its recent versions. Such functionality lays the foundation for summarizing data for offline data analysis. Real-time analysis required the development of various dashboards that have made its way into current executive information systems. Needless to say, such tools become even more relevant with the recently announced 'Open Government Initiative'. See video
The initiative ties together the development surrounding other recent federal IT initiatives ( such as data.gov and recovery.gov and apps.gov ) to provide more meaningful data that is referred to as 'high-value data sets'. That raises interesting alternatives in way such data sets are consumed in the business intelligence arena. This lays even more emphasis on the process of identifying necessary 'pivot elements' that support data analysis within the context of 'high value data sets'.
I have been putting together workshops to facilitate learning around data analysis and applying current applications (such as Excel) towards dealing with high-value data sets. The material covered in such workshops will be made available shortly. Also keep an eye out for my upcoming attendance at Flex 360 2010.

