Data Analytics

This chapter sets out to illustrate the dictum that there is (almost) nothing new under the sun. More specifically, its goal is to make the unfamiliar familiar within the field of data analytics. The need for such a treatment can be gauged from the plethora of terms currently vying for attention in the contemporary data analysis landscape, which can be puzzling even for seasoned researchers. These terms include: data mining, data science, data analytics, machine learning, deep learning, neural networks, and artificial intelligence. Hybrid terms such as ‘big data analytics’ are also emerging. As for the current front-runner term, data analytics, the evidence provided by the number of search engine hits reveals multiple competing versions subdivided by application domains, ranging from business analytics and crime analytics, to performance analytics, visual analytics, and many more. There is also an emerging software sub-industry providing tools for data analytics, many of which are named after the company which originally developed them

The design-by-adaptation approach to universal access: learning from videogame technology

This paper proposes an alternative approach to the design of universally accessible interfaces to that provided by formal design frameworks applied ab initio to the development of new software. This approach, design-byadaptation, involves the transfer of interface technology and/or design principles from one application domain to another, in situations where the recipient domain is similar to the host domain in terms of modelled systems, tasks and users. Using the example of interaction in 3D virtual environments, the paper explores how principles underlying the design of videogame interfaces may be applied to a broad family of visualization and analysis software which handles geographical data (virtual geographic environments, or VGEs). One of the motivations behind the current study is that VGE technology lags some way behind videogame technology in the modelling of 3D environments, and has a less-developed track record in providing the variety of interaction methods needed to undertake varied tasks in 3D virtual worlds by users with varied levels of experience. The current analysis extracted a set of interaction principles from videogames which were used to devise a set of 3D task interfaces that have been implemented in a prototype VGE for formal evaluation

From cattle and coke to Charlie: meeting the challenge of self marketing and personal branding

Since the late 1990s, self marketing and personal branding have become increasingly popular as subjects of self-improvement books, Web sites and consultancy services, especially in the USA. To date, little of this interest appears to have permeated the discipline of marketing, either in terms of formal research, textbook contents or academic curricula. This paper examines the theoretical basis of self marketing and personal branding, identifies some of the conceptual, practical and ethical problems it poses for the discipline, and points to some of the challenges facing higher education in attempting to create a curricular framework within which marketing professionals can learn how to market and brand themselves effectively