Media Science http://media-science.com Welcome to The Lab; your glimpse behind the scenes at Media Science Thu, 17 May 2012 11:27:16 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Rabbit. Headlights. Data. http://media-science.com/non-techie/2012/05/rabbit-headlights-data/ http://media-science.com/non-techie/2012/05/rabbit-headlights-data/#comments Thu, 17 May 2012 11:27:16 +0000 Richard http://media-science.com/?p=1430 Read more...]]> Rabbit 3 300x189 Rabbit. Headlights. Data.So those of us in the data industry are beside ourselves at the new opportunities presented by the rise of the business user. They’ve been to the conferences, they’ve heard the buzzwords (Hadoop = Triple Word Bonus) and they know they _should_ be executing a plan to ‘put data at the heart of their business’. Sounds great huh!? Wrong…

Well, not wrong exactly, but not wholly great either.

We meet with CEO’s and CMO’s all the time and what we see is less ‘exalted glee at the opportunity’ and more ‘sheer terror’ at knowing they _should_ do something but what and where the heck to start. Truly rabbits in the headlights.

These people need help, and not just the sort of help that is sales masquerading as help. Real help.

So how do we, in the industry, meet this need?

Firstly, don’t sell ahead of the market. Don’t ram a bunch of features they don’t understand down their neck. Sure you’re tool can apply bayesian evidential probability…blah blah blah. They’re not listening, you lost them at ‘b’.

We have found that the business user is really just getting started on this journey, and they want to take baby steps. The common theme that we encounter is ‘I just want my data in one place’. This is enough of a breakthrough for them today. So save up that tool chest of features for the future, take them on the journey gently, one step at a time.

They will thank you for it.

Richard

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Rabbit. Headlights. Data.
]]> http://media-science.com/non-techie/2012/05/rabbit-headlights-data/feed/ 2 Londata IV – Business Without Borders http://media-science.com/non-techie/2012/05/londata-iv-business-without-borders/ http://media-science.com/non-techie/2012/05/londata-iv-business-without-borders/#comments Wed, 16 May 2012 11:02:31 +0000 Richard http://media-science.com/?p=1436 Announcing the next Londata event, in partnership with 100% Open’s Union community, on Wed June 20th.

Full details and registration here

Richard

Londata IV Business Without Borders
]]> http://media-science.com/non-techie/2012/05/londata-iv-business-without-borders/feed/ 0 You’re only as good as your next pivot… http://media-science.com/non-techie/2012/05/youre-only-as-good-as-your-next-pivot/ http://media-science.com/non-techie/2012/05/youre-only-as-good-as-your-next-pivot/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 16:19:53 +0000 Richard http://media-science.com/?p=1352 Read more...]]> No that’s not a mistake, I didn’t mean to say ‘…your last pivot’.

Those who have consumed The Lean Start-up will know all about the concept of start-ups being, at heart, a testing environment. The key to success being how quickly you can validate assumptions, how quickly you can test, with real people, whether something is valued or not.

The point about the next pivot being key, rather than the last is that you expect to change. It’s a mindset thing. It’s about actively listening to what the market really wants. For us it was about finding out that what the market _really_ valued about Media Science was data unification. Sure they liked our visualisations and stuff but it was the unification piece that really rocked their world.

So how did we respond to this? Well, we ensure it is _the_ key message to land upfront. It’s no longer buried ‘in the mix’. It also influences resource and prioritisation decisions. We reckon it’s best to resource the battles that the market tells you are winnable.

But then again, maybe this is just a swerve, more than a pivot. But what the heck…

Richard

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Youre only as good as your next pivot...
]]> http://media-science.com/non-techie/2012/05/youre-only-as-good-as-your-next-pivot/feed/ 0 v50.0 out in the wild http://media-science.com/non-techie/2012/05/v50-0-out-in-the-wild/ http://media-science.com/non-techie/2012/05/v50-0-out-in-the-wild/#comments Wed, 02 May 2012 15:13:11 +0000 Marie http://media-science.com/?p=1418 Read more...]]> Hi peeps,

For the latest release of Media Science, we’ve pinned down lots of tiny annoying front-end bugs here and there so the whole experience looks now much neater.

Hope you’ll enjoy it! Keep following us for the latest updates!

Marie

 

]]> http://media-science.com/non-techie/2012/05/v50-0-out-in-the-wild/feed/ 0 Media Science in the wild… http://media-science.com/non-techie/2012/04/media-science-in-the-wild/ http://media-science.com/non-techie/2012/04/media-science-in-the-wild/#comments Thu, 05 Apr 2012 10:45:29 +0000 Richard http://media-science.com/?p=1407 Read more...]]> There’s nothing quite as exciting as seeing real clients using your application to unearth genuine insight from real data.

We work with Dare/EDC, who use Media Science to support their work with Bacardi Group Brands. EDC used the Media Science SmartView application to really get under the skin of the Martini Kisser Casting campaign, run in late 2011.

We drew in the likes of Facebook, You Tube, Sentiment and Search data to give a multi-dimensional view of the campaign and, most importantly, to clearly identify the opportunity areas for future activity.

The charting available within Media Science SmartView was then used to visualise and communicate insight. Of the 40 pages produced in the report, 36 had Media Science SmartView charts at the heart. I wish we could show you the full deck but you’ll appreciate that it contains rather sensitive commercial information.

Richard

Media Science in the wild...
]]> http://media-science.com/non-techie/2012/04/media-science-in-the-wild/feed/ 0 Hacking last night http://media-science.com/techie/2012/03/hacking-last-night/ http://media-science.com/techie/2012/03/hacking-last-night/#comments Tue, 27 Mar 2012 08:38:52 +0000 Phil http://media-science.com/?p=1384 Read more...]]> Last night I was hacking out a lambda to generate an Excel column label.
I got to this – it looks a bit messy to me – can anyone come up with an improvement?
Essentially the use case is to generate these strings, in order: A,B,C…Z,AA,AB,AC…AZ,BA,BB,BC…BZ,…,ZA..ZZ, AAA, AAB, AAC…ad infinitum.

 var letters = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";
 var i = new List(){0};
 Func<String> getNextColumn = () =>
 {
   var sb = new StringBuilder();
   var addOne = false;
   var incIndex = -1;
   for (var j = 0; j < i.Count; j++)
   {
    var n = i[j];
    sb.Append(letters[n]);
    if (j == i.Count - 1)
    {
     n = n + 1;
    }
    if (n > letters.Length - 1)
    {
     n = 0;
     if (j == 0)
     {
      addOne = true;
     }
     else if (letters[i[j - 1]] == 'Z')
     {
      addOne = true;
     }
     else
     {
      incIndex = j - 1;
     }
    }
    i[j] = n;
   }
   if (addOne) { i.Add(0); }
   if (incIndex >= 0) { i[incIndex] += 1; }
   return sb.ToString();
 };

This lambda is defined within a function that generates cells (rows are easy, cos they are just sequential numbers). The function itself is then creating a sheet and calling off ‘getNextColumn’ when it needs to.

]]> http://media-science.com/techie/2012/03/hacking-last-night/feed/ 2 Version 41 came to life http://media-science.com/techie/2012/03/version-41-came-to-life/ http://media-science.com/techie/2012/03/version-41-came-to-life/#comments Mon, 26 Mar 2012 14:30:35 +0000 Marie http://media-science.com/?p=1373 Read more...]]> Hi everyone out there!

Version 41 is now live!
Mainly front-end improvements for this one: there’s been some changes to the load of the graphs (that won’t reload consistently every time you click on something), the undo button shows a nicer message.
Back-end-wise, API upgrade in the background.

Keep on following the story! We’ll keep you updated.

Marie.

]]> http://media-science.com/techie/2012/03/version-41-came-to-life/feed/ 0 Version 40 is alive (version) http://media-science.com/techie/2012/03/version-40-is-alive-version/ http://media-science.com/techie/2012/03/version-40-is-alive-version/#comments Wed, 21 Mar 2012 14:18:14 +0000 Phil http://media-science.com/?p=1369 Read more...]]> The obviously terrible joke in the post title asside, version 40 is live.
I wonder if anyone ever gets the puns in the feature image of my release posts?
The major material changes are in SearchView. The atentive of you will remember that this is a new app on the platform that is open and available to a few select people.
Lots of interesting stuff going on.

]]> http://media-science.com/techie/2012/03/version-40-is-alive-version/feed/ 0 Windows Azure: We wrote the book… http://media-science.com/non-techie/2012/03/windows-azure-we-wrote-the-book/ http://media-science.com/non-techie/2012/03/windows-azure-we-wrote-the-book/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:30:18 +0000 Richard http://media-science.com/?p=1362 Read more...]]> Actually that’s complete rubbish. But we _are_ in the book. The Koodibook that is.

Check out our listing and, of course, all the other great companies here too… icon wink Windows Azure: We wrote the book...

http://www.koodibook.com/books/576

 

Pretty much a who’s who of companies doing interesting stuff on Windows Azure in the UK. Nice to be part of the club.

Richard

Windows Azure: We wrote the book...
]]> http://media-science.com/non-techie/2012/03/windows-azure-we-wrote-the-book/feed/ 0 Version 39 is live! http://media-science.com/techie/2012/03/version-39-is-live/ http://media-science.com/techie/2012/03/version-39-is-live/#comments Fri, 16 Mar 2012 19:13:31 +0000 Phil http://media-science.com/?p=1358 Yes, this is the second release in two days.
Todays release pushes out some juicy API features for some friends of ours.

Nothing in the front end has changed: besides a whole raft of improved javascript tests.

Next!

Phil.

]]> http://media-science.com/techie/2012/03/version-39-is-live/feed/ 0