My talk from Planning-ness 2014 in Portland, Oregon on data mining and data resources for the communications planning community. This talk was designed to be used in conjunction with Pollitt, available on Github at https://github.com/iandfitzpatrick/pollitt

1. HELLO, MY NAME IS IAN FITZPATRICK.
PLANNER
DATA SCIENTIST
DEVELOPER
PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014

2. HELLO, MY NAME IS @IANFITZPATRICK.
PLANNER
DATA SCIENTIST
DEVELOPER
PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014

3. MY JOB IS TO HELP ORGANIZATIONS BUILD
TOOLS AND SYSTEMS THAT ENABLE THEM
TO SEE THE WORLD THROUGH THE EYES
OF THEIR USERS.
PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014

4. LET’S GET EXCITED ABOUT WHAT WE CAN DO AND
MAKE WITH DATA BY STARTING WITH A FEW
THINGS THAT I’M GOING TO GIVE TO YOU.
PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014 | photo from Vintage Portland

5. GET EXCITED AND
MAKE
THINGS
PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014 | photo from Vintage Portland

6. MOST DATA DOESN’T EXIST YET — AT
LEAST NOT IN A FORM WE RECOGNIZE.
PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014 | photo from Vintage Portland

7. DO MOST RUNNERS CARRY A
SMARTPHONE WITH THEM WHEN THEY
? HEAD OUT FOR A RUN
PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014 | photo from Vintage Portland

8. WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE
RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN RUNNERS AND
? THEIR PHONES
PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014 | photo from Vintage Portland

9. QUANTITATIVE VS. QUALITATIVE IS A FALSE
CHOICE. THEY ARE INTENDED TO FUEL
ONE ANOTHER.
PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014 | photo from Vintage Portland

11. MINES GIVE US ORE, NOT BARS OF IRON.
PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014 | photo from Vintage Portland

12. WE ARE LOOKING FOR THE TRUTH
WE ARE LOOKING FOR ANSWERS
WE ARE LOOKING FOR THE INTERESTING
PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014 | photo from Vintage Portland

14. THE INTERESTING?
!
THE UNANTICIPATED AT SCALE
THE MOST TYPICAL
THE LEAST TYPICAL
OUTSIDERS THAT LOOK LIKE INSIDERS
PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014 | photo from Vintage Portland

15. PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014 | photo from Vintage Portland

16. SO WE’VE GOT THIS BIG PILE OF
INFORMATION…WHERE DO WE GO TO FIND
? THE INTERESTING
PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014 | photo from Vintage Portland

17. CONVERT A RANGE OF RICH DATA AND
DATATYPES TO A COMMON STRUCTURE WE
CAN USE TO COMPARE IT. 1)
PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014 | photo from Vintage Portland

18. CONVERTING TO BINARY ALLOWS US TO
MEASURE IT DISPASSIONATELY AND
OBJECTIVELY.
!
THINK OF IT AS BEGINNER’S MIND.
PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014 | photo from Vintage Portland

19. AGE 13:
!
UNDER 15
OVER 12
OLD ENOUGH TO SEE A PG-13 MOVIE
OLD ENOUGH TO BE ON FACEBOOK
BORN IN THE 1990’S
NOT A DRIVER
DOESN’T UNDERSTAND BUFFY REFERENCES
PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014 | photo from Vintage Portland

20. ONCE THE DATA HAS A COMMON FORM, WE
CAN BEGIN TO DERIVE OUR OWN CASES AND
ASSOCIATIONS FROM IT. 2)
PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014 | photo from Vintage Portland

21. ALMOST ANY INFORMATION CAN BE
CONVERTED TO ONE OR MORE BINARY
DATA POINTS
PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014 | photo from Vintage Portland

22. ZIP CODE 97218 + VOLVO OWNER:
!
URBAN VEHICLE OWNER
URBAN EUROPEAN VEHICLE OWNER
URBAN UPSCALE VEHICLE OWNER?
GENTRIFER?
PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014 | photo from Vintage Portland

23. DERIVATION IS AN ART.
YOU WILL GET BETTER AT IT.
IT GETS MORE INTERESTING WHEN IT
BEGINS TO COMPOUND.
PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014 | photo from Vintage Portland

24. 3)EQUATION.
INTRODUCE NEW, OUTSIDE DATA INTO THE
PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014 | photo from Vintage Portland

25. “I WONDER HOW __________ IS RELATED
TO __________”
? PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014 | photo from Vintage Portland

26. POPULATION DENSITY, AVERAGE
RAINFALL, BIRTH RATE, COST OF LIVING,
AIR QUALITY, WATER TABLES, SALES DATA,
AVERAGE HOME PRICE, BOOK SALES,
PRODUCT RECALLS AND GAS PRICES.
PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014 | photo from Vintage Portland

27. BUZZDATA
THE CENSUS BUREAU
DATA.GOV
DATA MARKET
FREEBASE
GOOGLE PUBLIC DATA
INFOCHIMPS
SOCRATA
[…]
PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014 | photo from Vintage Portland

28. “I WONDER HOW __________ IS RELATED TO __________”
!
CUSTOMER SATISFACTION w/ AN AUTOMOTIVE BRAND?
CUSTOMER SALES DATA FOR A SKATE BRAND?
A MEMBERSHIP SURVEY OF A LARGE URBAN LIBRARY?
TROOP SATISFACTION DATA ON US MILITARY INSTALLATIONS?
RENEWAL REGISTRATION DATA FOR MUSEUM MEMBERSHIPS?
CLICK-THROUGH ON A CAMPAIGN FOR A DIAPER BRAND?
MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL RATE FOR A WAREHOUSE CLUB?
RETENTION RATE FOR AN ONLINE UNIVERSITY?
PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014 | photo from Vintage Portland

29. THIS WILL CHANGE THE WAY YOU
CAPTURE DATA — AND THE DATA YOU
CAPTURE — FOREVER.
PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014 | photo from Vintage Portland

30. LOWERING THE COST OF ASKING A
QUESTION INCREASES THE LIKELYHOOD
THAT WE’LL ASK IT IN THE FIRST PLACE
PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014 | photo from Vintage Portland

31. $499.00 USER DATA FROM A FEW THOUSAND PEOPLE
+ $24.99 WUFOO SURVEY
+ $0.00 OPEN DATABASE
+ $0.00 JAVASCRIPT
+ $0.00 MATH, YO
!
$523.99
PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014 | photo from Vintage Portland

32. WHEN THAT COST APPROACHES ZERO,
YOUR CAPACITY TO WORK WITH DATA IS
LIMITED ONLY BY PROCESSING POWER
AND YOUR CURIOSITY.
PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014 | photo from Vintage Portland

33. 4)RUN THE NUMBERS.
PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014 | photo from Vintage Portland

34. 5)LOOK FOR THE UNANTICIPATED
PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014 | photo from Vintage Portland

35. DECIDING THAT WE’RE IN PURSUIT OF
QUESTIONS, NOT TRUTH, CREATES
OPPORTUNITY.
PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014 | photo from Vintage Portland

36. A PARTY FAVOR:
PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014 | photo from Vintage Portland

37. PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014 | photo from Vintage Portland

38. THANK YOU KINDLY.
@IANFITZPATRICK
BEALMIGHTY.COM
WINDING.CO
PLANNING-NESS PDX 2014