A Holistic Approach to OLAP Sessions Composition: The Falseto Experience

International audienceOLAP is the main paradigm for flexible and effective exploration of multidimensional cubes in data warehouses. During an OLAP session the user analyzes the results of a query and determines a new query that will give her a better understanding of information. Given the huge size of the data space, this exploration process is often tedious and may leave the user disoriented and frustrated. This paper presents an OLAP tool 1 named Falseto (Former AnalyticaL Sessions for lEss Tedious Olap), that is meant to assist query and session composition, by letting the user summarize, browse, query, and reuse former analytical sessions. Falseto's implementation on top of a formal framework is detailed. We also report the experiments we run to obtain and analyze real OLAP sessions and assess Falseto with them. Finally, we discuss how Falseto can be seen as a starting point for bridging OLAP with exploratory search, a search paradigm centered on the user and the evolution of her knowledge

A Survey of UserCentric Data Warehouses: From Personalization to Recommendation”, The

ABSTRACT Providing a customized support for the OLAP brings tremendous challenges to the OLAP technology. Standing at the crossroads of the preferences and the data warehouse, two emerging trends are pointed out; namely: (i) the personalization and (ii) the recommendation. Although the panoply of the proposed approaches, the user-centric data warehouse community issues have not been addressed yet. In this paper we draw an overview of several user centric data warehouse proposals. We also discuss the two promising concepts in this issue, namely, the personalization and the recommendation of the data warehouses. We compare the current approaches among each others with respect to some criteria

Leveraging query logs for user-centric OLAP

OLAP (On-Line Analytical Processing), the process of efficiently enabling common analytical operations on the multidimensional view of data, is a corner stone of Business Intelligence.While OLAP is now a mature, efficiently implemented technology, very little attention has been paid to the effectiveness of the analysis and the user-friendliness of this technology, often considered tedious of use.This dissertation is a contribution to developing user-centric OLAP, focusing on the use of former queries logged by an OLAP server to enhance subsequent analyses. It shows how logs of OLAP queries can be modeled, constructed, manipulated, compared, and finally leveraged for personalization and recommendation.Logs are modeled as sets of analytical sessions, sessions being modeled as sequences of OLAP queries. Three main approaches are presented for modeling queries: as unevaluated collections of fragments (e.g., group by sets, sets of selection predicates, sets of measures), as sets of references obtained by partially evaluating the query over dimensions, or as query answers. Such logs can be constructed even from sets of SQL query expressions, by translating these expressions into a multidimensional algebra, and bridging the translations to detect analytical sessions. Logs can be searched, filtered, compared, combined, modified and summarized with a language inspired by the relational algebra and parametrized by binary relations over sessions. In particular, these relations can be specialization relations or based on similarity measures tailored for OLAP queries and analytical sessions. Logs can be mined for various hidden knowledge, that, depending on the query model used, accurately represents the user behavior extracted.This knowledge includes simple preferences, navigational habits and discoveries made during former explorations,and can be it used in various query personalization or query recommendation approaches.Such approaches vary in terms of formulation effort, proactiveness, prescriptiveness and expressive power:query personalization, i.e., coping with a current query too few or too many results, can use dedicated operators for expressing preferences, or be based on query expansion;query recommendation, i.e., suggesting queries to pursue an analytical session,can be based on information extracted from the current state of the database and the query, or be purely history based, i.e., leveraging the query log.While they can be immediately integrated into a complete architecture for User-Centric Query Answering in data warehouses, the models and approaches introduced in this dissertation can also be seen as a starting point for assessing the effectiveness of analytical sessions, with the ultimate goal to enhance the overall decision making process

Business Intelligence on Non-Conventional Data

The revolution in digital communications witnessed over the last decade had a significant impact on the world of Business Intelligence (BI). In the big data era, the amount and diversity of data that can be collected and analyzed for the decision-making process transcends the restricted and structured set of internal data that BI systems are conventionally limited to. This thesis investigates the unique challenges imposed by three specific categories of non-conventional data: social data, linked data and schemaless data. Social data comprises the user-generated contents published through websites and social media, which can provide a fresh and timely perception about people’s tastes and opinions. In Social BI (SBI), the analysis focuses on topics, meant as specific concepts of interest within the subject area. In this context, this thesis proposes meta-star, an alternative strategy to the traditional star-schema for modeling hierarchies of topics to enable OLAP analyses. The thesis also presents an architectural framework of a real SBI project and a cross-disciplinary benchmark for SBI. Linked data employ the Resource Description Framework (RDF) to provide a public network of interlinked, structured, cross-domain knowledge. In this context, this thesis proposes an interactive and collaborative approach to build aggregation hierarchies from linked data. Schemaless data refers to the storage of data in NoSQL databases that do not force a predefined schema, but let database instances embed their own local schemata. In this context, this thesis proposes an approach to determine the schema profile of a document-based database; the goal is to facilitate users in a schema-on-read analysis process by understanding the rules that drove the usage of the different schemata. A final and complementary contribution of this thesis is an innovative technique in the field of recommendation systems to overcome user disorientation in the analysis of a large and heterogeneous wealth of data

Implementing an effective knowledge management program: A best practice case study

This paper is a discussion of the evolution and development of a Knowledge Management (KM) system at a major innovation and project -based software organization that delivers custom IT enabled business solutions to customers across the globe, that we will refer to as ABC, Inc.This study looks at the lessons learned in the process from the point of view of the author, who served as a consultant and a member of the KM team for a time.Some of the lessons may serve as best practices, especially for project based organizations who are embarking on an integrated approach to the leveraging and management of organizational knowledge

A dynamic visual analytics framework for complex temporal environments

Introduction: Data streams are produced by sensors that sample an external system at a periodic interval. As the cost of developing sensors continues to fall, an increasing number of data stream acquisition systems have been deployed to take advantage of the volume and velocity of data streams. An overabundance of information in complex environments have been attributed to information overload, a state of exposure to overwhelming and excessive information. The use of visual analytics provides leverage over potential information overload challenges. Apart from automated online analysis, interactive visual tools provide significant leverage for human-driven trend analysis and pattern recognition. To facilitate analysis and knowledge discovery in the space of multidimensional big data, research is warranted for an online visual analytic framework that supports human-driven exploration and consumption of complex data streams. Method: A novel framework was developed called the temporal Tri-event parameter based Dynamic Visual Analytics (TDVA). The TDVA framework was instantiated in two case studies, namely, a case study involving a hypothesis generation scenario, and a second case study involving a cohort-based hypothesis testing scenario. Two evaluations were conducted for each case study involving expert participants. This framework is demonstrated in a neonatal intensive care unit case study. The hypothesis generation phase of the pipeline is conducted through a multidimensional and in-depth one subject study using PhysioEx, a novel visual analytic tool for physiologic data stream analysis. The cohort-based hypothesis testing component of the analytic pipeline is validated through CoRAD, a visual analytic tool for performing case-controlled studies. Results: The results of both evaluations show improved task performance, and subjective satisfaction with the use of PhysioEx and CoRAD. Results from the evaluation of PhysioEx reveals insight about current limitations for supporting single subject studies in complex environments, and areas for future research in that space. Results from CoRAD also support the need for additional research to explore complex multi-dimensional patterns across multiple observations. From an information systems approach, the efficacy and feasibility of the TDVA framework is demonstrated by the instantiation and evaluation of PhysioEx and CoRAD. Conclusion: This research, introduces the TDVA framework and provides results to validate the deployment of online dynamic visual analytics in complex environments. The TDVA framework was instantiated in two case studies derived from an environment where dynamic and complex data streams were available. The first instantiation enabled the end-user to rapidly extract information from complex data streams to conduct in-depth analysis. The second allowed the end-user to test emerging patterns across multiple observations. To both ends, this thesis provides knowledge that can be used to improve the visual analytic pipeline in dynamic and complex environments

Transactional and analytical data management on persistent memory

Die zunehmende Anzahl von Smart-Geräten und Sensoren, aber auch die sozialen Medien lassen das Datenvolumen und damit die geforderte Verarbeitungsgeschwindigkeit stetig wachsen. Gleichzeitig müssen viele Anwendungen Daten persistent speichern oder sogar strenge Transaktionsgarantien einhalten. Die neuartige Speichertechnologie Persistent Memory (PMem) mit ihren einzigartigen Eigenschaften scheint ein natürlicher Anwärter zu sein, um diesen Anforderungen effizient nachzukommen. Sie ist im Vergleich zu DRAM skalierbarer, günstiger und dauerhaft. Im Gegensatz zu Disks ist sie deutlich schneller und direkt adressierbar. Daher wird in dieser Dissertation der gezielte Einsatz von PMem untersucht, um den Anforderungen moderner Anwendung gerecht zu werden. Nach der Darlegung der grundlegenden Arbeitsweise von und mit PMem, konzentrieren wir uns primär auf drei Aspekte der Datenverwaltung. Zunächst zerlegen wir mehrere persistente Daten- und Indexstrukturen in ihre zugrundeliegenden Entwurfsprimitive, um Abwägungen für verschiedene Zugriffsmuster aufzuzeigen. So können wir ihre besten Anwendungsfälle und Schwachstellen, aber auch allgemeine Erkenntnisse über das Entwerfen von PMem-basierten Datenstrukturen ermitteln. Zweitens schlagen wir zwei Speicherlayouts vor, die auf analytische Arbeitslasten abzielen und eine effiziente Abfrageausführung auf beliebigen Attributen ermöglichen. Während der erste Ansatz eine verknüpfte Liste von mehrdimensionalen gruppierten Blöcken verwendet, handelt es sich beim zweiten Ansatz um einen mehrdimensionalen Index, der Knoten im DRAM zwischenspeichert. Drittens zeigen wir unter Verwendung der bisherigen Datenstrukturen und Erkenntnisse, wie Datenstrom- und Ereignisverarbeitungssysteme mit transaktionaler Zustandsverwaltung verbessert werden können. Dabei schlagen wir ein neuartiges Transactional Stream Processing (TSP) Modell mit geeigneten Konsistenz- und Nebenläufigkeitsprotokollen vor, die an PMem angepasst sind. Zusammen sollen die diskutierten Aspekte eine Grundlage für die Entwicklung noch ausgereifterer PMem-fähiger Systeme bilden. Gleichzeitig zeigen sie, wie Datenverwaltungsaufgaben PMem ausnutzen können, indem sie neue Anwendungsgebiete erschließen, die Leistung, Skalierbarkeit und Wiederherstellungsgarantien verbessern, die Codekomplexität vereinfachen sowie die ökonomischen und ökologischen Kosten reduzieren.The increasing number of smart devices and sensors, but also social media are causing the volume of data and thus the demanded processing speed to grow steadily. At the same time, many applications need to store data persistently or even comply with strict transactional guarantees. The novel storage technology Persistent Memory (PMem), with its unique properties, seems to be a natural candidate to meet these requirements efficiently. Compared to DRAM, it is more scalable, less expensive, and durable. In contrast to disks, it is significantly faster and directly addressable. Therefore, this dissertation investigates the deliberate employment of PMem to fit the needs of modern applications. After presenting the fundamental work of and with PMem, we focus primarily on three aspects of data management. First, we disassemble several persistent data and index structures into their underlying design primitives to reveal the trade-offs for various access patterns. It allows us to identify their best use cases and vulnerabilities but also to gain general insights into the design of PMem-based data structures. Second, we propose two storage layouts that target analytical workloads and enable an efficient query execution on arbitrary attributes. While the first approach employs a linked list of multi-dimensional clustered blocks that potentially span several storage layers, the second approach is a multi-dimensional index that caches nodes in DRAM. Third, we show how to improve stream and event processing systems involving transactional state management using the preceding data structures and insights. In this context, we propose a novel Transactional Stream Processing (TSP) model with appropriate consistency and concurrency protocols adapted to PMem. Together, the discussed aspects are intended to provide a foundation for developing even more sophisticated PMemenabled systems. At the same time, they show how data management tasks can take advantage of PMem by opening up new application domains, improving performance, scalability, and recovery guarantees, simplifying code complexity, plus reducing economic and environmental costs