Context, Narratives and Big Data Analytics

@venkinesiswww.venkinesis.in

Putting context in context

Understanding narratives

Understanding “Best Practices”

Implications for Big Data Analytics

Agenda

Which is the primary key that unlocks the business value of the data?

A: Big Data

D: Narratives

B: Algorithms

C: Analytics

D: Narratives

Which is the primary key that unlocks the business value of the data?

C: Analytics

D: Narratives

Which is the primary key that unlocks the business value of the data?

C: Analytics

• Information which defines the causal relationship with its neighboring entities• Information which characterizes interaction between user and application • Information or conditions that can influence user perception

User FactorsMood, activity, company, location

External FactorsTime, Weather, Season

How am I feeling?

Who am I with?

Where am I going?

Why Am I here?

Putting context in context*

*Reference: http://www.slideshare.net/vitoostuni/sersy12-cinemappy

What I am doing?

Context Report Card

Do I have the information when I need it?

Is it relevant?

Putting recommendations in context*

*Reference: Key Lessons learned building Recommender systems http://www.slideshare.net/posse001/key-lessons-learned-building-recommender-systems-for-largescale-social-networks

Why do you have to bother about context?

“The problem with big data is context. As the amount of data and data dimensions increases, and demands on systems increase, the only way to manage the challenges is to establish context”

- Benjamin Black, Co-Founder, Boundary

“Everybody thinks it’s about the content, and all the action right now is in the context”

- Gary Vaynerchuk, Social Media Guru, Entrepreneur

content is subservient to context

What are Narratives?

• Spoken or written account of the story

• Homo Narrans

Source: Narrative Science Website

What are Narratives?

Data Facts Angles

StructureNarrative

• It provides context to numbers

• Last mile in data

Source: Narrative Science Website

“Consulting, a profession grounded in building narratives [and naïve rationalization] “ -

Image courtesy: Wikipedia

Jim is married, outspoken and deeply engaged with social issues.

Which of the following is more likely?

Jim is a bank manager

OR

Jim is a bank manager who is an active volunteer at a nonprofit organization

Image courtesy: Freedigitalphotos.net

Rockstar hero wakes up to his bad

dream where his uncle is killed

Hero is suffering from <Insert the latest syndrome>

Hero meets the assassin

Hero kills the assassin

Assassin was the hero’s dad’s best

friend

Image Courtesy: IMDB, Wikipedia

There is too much data out

there.

What’s your BIG DATA Strategy??

Follow “the best practices” based on

our tested and proven methodology

Voila! Welcome to Big Data 2.0

Deliver Roadmap and ensure

strategic alignment between business

and IT

The story of “Best Practices”

Business Analytics as we knew it

• “What you do not know” problems - What? | Why? | How?|

• Means-End Reasoning – Programmed decisions

• As-Is to To-Be journey

Side-effects

• Tools and approaches are contextually blind.

• The mirage of single point of Truth

• “Best practices” aren’t good anymore

• Denial of complexity

Reference: Claudia Cibora 1997 Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems

Image Courtesy: Google Images

Intermission

Content is subservient to contextBig Data narrative

Business Analytics as we will know it

• What you do not know that you know problems

• Situation specific questions – When, Where, Who?

• Contextualize across unstructured, structured, biometric, biographic, geospatial data*

• Bridging the gap towards strategic decision making

*Source:IBM® InfoSphere™ Sensemaking - A Big Vision and a Journey Worth Being Part Of, Jeff Jonas, IBM

Use-case Personas to Archetypes*

…try to quickly gather information and report on their findings.

Reporting /Task Centric Activity Centric Data Centric

An emphasis on filters/sorting which shifts focus to activities a user tends to perform

The primary focus is typically centered around a specific data set that a user would have a relationship with.

What’s the primary focus & behavior of someone using your product?

In what environment do analytics actions take place? (In office, during meetings, time of day, etc.)

In what environment do analytics actions take place? (In office, during meetings, time of day, etc.)

*Source: Developing Archetype: https://medium.com/@paulfarino/developing-archetypes-2db5ab34043c

How do you build storified products?

• Narrative thinking to re-imagine stories for building new products

“This is how the remembering self works: it composes stories and keeps them for future references”

- Daniel Kahneman

appropriate

• Best practices are debunked until proven

• Storifying products using narratives

• Use-case Personas to Archetypes

Takeaway

Questions??