In the “Ecology of Metrics,” I wrote about “alignment” being a type of metric; alignment can measure the extent to which an organization’s supply or capacity is matched against the demands or needs of the market.  For instance, in a call centre, it would be highly desirable to have agents available to respond to calls at “precisely” the same time that clients are making calls.  If alignment is off even by only 15 to 30 seconds, impatient clients might hang up and never call again.  Similarly…

A person will ordinarily search the contents of a database using matching keywords and tags.  Sophisticated databases might allow for filtering:  for example using NOT, AND, OR on a number of keyword strings such as both titles and product descriptions.  It is not normally possible to submit, say, a personality profile to a database - or a personality profile and a setting.  Searching for “serial murders subway terminals” might lead to event information about precisely this, apparent serial…

I was wondering how to approach this blog when I decided to toast some raisin-bread for breakfast.  Shortly after I started eating it, I began coughing.  I have shared this “type” of story with a few people.  I often continue eating something regardless of my exact circumstances - that is to say, oblivious to the consequences.  As I ate more of the raisin-bread and my coughing worsened, I eventually reached for my inhaler.  (I have been diagnosed with borderline asthma now by two doctors.) …

About a month ago in a blog, I introduced what I described as a “spectral attenuation monitor.”  At the time I only had an image from MS Works that…

BERLIN stands for Behavioural Event Reconstruction Linguistic Interface for Narratives. I introduced BERLIN a few blogs ago - in my "final blog." Theoretically after one's final blog, no further blogs are forthcoming. However, I am now posting bonus blogs reflecting aspects of the same closing subject. Today, I will be elaborating on BERLIN's syntax and how its searches are facilitated. As a general rule, the objective of BERLIN is to convert human-friendly narrative into computer-friendly…

Last year, I wrote a blog on "mass data assignments." For readers that lack a prototype or application to handle data using mass data assignments, the topic probably seems a bit evasive. In this blog, I will be reinforcing and developing…

When I read a blog, I often find myself in deep thought as I approach the end, trying to determine if the author has said anything that I might be able to use. A blog doesn't have to say anything. Nor does it have to be useful to me specifically. It might simply offer a personal reflection on life. As a person who also writes blogs, I…

I tend to examine the different roles played by data. For instance, when I work on computer code, I often ask myself what the presence of data is meant to accomplish. Sometimes the analysis is not at all straightforward or simple. In society and organizations, people exist and persist in the records as data. The data survives even as employees come and go. I therefore consider it important to regard the data and its environment as a system in itself, something that has a life all of its own.…