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Beautiful Data: The Stories Behind Elegant Data Solutions (2009)

by Toby Segaran(Favorite Author)

3.63 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0596157118 (ISBN13: 9780596157111)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

O'Reilly Media

review 1: This is a collection of 20 different stories about data - gathering, planning, interpreting, storing, visualizing, etc.The case study methodology points out the necessity of designing all phases of the data capture, processing, analysis and representation process around the goals, open questions and constraints of the client organization, or user/consumer of the data whose decisions are being informed. The thinking and design process behind these cases of beautiful data are fully described--this will enable you (or an untalented artist such as myself) to design systems which answer the questions and support the decisions of the individual or organization who needs this data.
review 2: "Beautiful Data" is a collection of essays on data; how people have transform... moreed it, worked within its confines, and offers a glimpse of where we might go. Many of the essays are wonderful snippets into how some people perceive data while others fall flat. Overall its a mostly enjoyable read that helps open up your mind to new potentials. First a disclaimer; I am not a data person. However I've been involved, fairly heavily, in the data field. In the parlance of the world, I'm a back end person. However I'm always trying to think about the front end; how will things be used and what information can we gleen from the system (or systems). With that in mind, this is a book that speaks to me - its all about the front end. Some of the best essays in the book would be:The first essay by Nathan Yau he talks very much about user created data and personal databases (knowledge bases). What's exciting here is how he takes data already out there, data you have provided, and creates something useful and yes, beautiful, out of it. The Second essay by Follett and Holm really gets down to how if you want the data, you need to present it in a way that brings people into the process. As someone who has a slight crush on the statistics and practices in polling (and designing poll questions) this essay really was a fascinating read. The third essay by Hughes detailed how he handled images on the Mars mission. There wasn't anything here that wasn't done in embedded systems 15 years ago; still it was a great walk down memory lane since I used to program embedded imaging systems. Chapter 4 really hit home PNUTShell is cloud storage and data processing in real time. This really is the stuff of the future. Chapter 5 by Jeff Hammerbacher really didn't offer too many insights but his writing style is fluid and fun plus he offered a glimpse into how Facebook grew. We then have the slow section of the book - Chapter 8 on distributed social data had promise but it read more like a company white page than an interesting article. Same with Chapter 12 and sense.us. Thankfully chapter 10 on Radiohead's "House of Cards" video was there - and here we are presented with true beauty in data - beautiful enough to create a music video out of!I'm still on the fence with Chapter 13 - What Data Doesn't Do. It was an interesting chapter but it felt both too long and too short at the same time. I almost felt that in the author, Coco Krumme, were to write a book on this topic, I'd want to read it. However her essay was not the right vehicle. Finally, the last chapter - "Connecting Data" was a truly inspiring piece; one that offers up paths for the future. I am sure a few start ups will form over the questions posed in by Segaran (or maybe the questions to the questions). Overall there were enough strengths to overcome the weak chapters. My main complaints are trivial; poor binding of the book, too many PhD candidate papers and not enough from out in the trenches. I'd love to see something from Stonebreaker here; its hard to talk about beautiful data and not have him in it. Or forget Sense.us and talk about many eyes. Or map reduce. Still, "Beautiful Data" succeeds. It opened up my mind to different possibilities for data representation and usage. less

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