Executives were recently surveyed by Oracle about big data. 60% of the respondents considered themselves unprepared to handle all the data being collected, and more than 90% thought a failure to capitalize on benefits of data translated to lost revenues.

In 1997, when Massachusetts began making health records of state employees available to medical researchers, the government removed patients’ names, addresses, and Social Security numbers. William Weld, then the governor, assured the public that identifying individual patients in the records would be impossible.

Michal talks about how Stamen makes beautiful interactive maps out of geographic data (like the one above of the Bay Area), the past and future of visualization, and whether he considers himself a data scientist.

sources at bottom of infographic

So, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, here for the first time anywhere, 5 Content Marketing Lessons from Rick Springfield!

(For the full effect, imagine hearing power chords and the estrogen-driven shrieks of 40-something year old women!)

Whether it’s a long-form blog post, a resource article, an infographic or video, a good brainstorming process should be your jumping off point to fuel ideas. Not only is it helpful in uncovering new topics or trends, but also in tapping into the perspective of others and steering creative direction

The most famous and brightest shining “star” of them all is of course Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, whose life has already been compiled into a box office success movie. But many of the founding tech millionaires of today have sort of ended up in the shadow of this furiously debated Facebook entrepreneur. It’s kind of a pity really since there are plenty of things to be learned by all of these innovative people. We don’t have to focus on Mr. Zuckerberg in order to get inspired.

Great advice for Social Media Marketers

What Vala and Brad have shown is that when you give employees a voice and platform for communication and collaboration, and show how that senior management supports and values it, cultures can change. 

At this time of year, some sites run lists of their most popular stories from the past 12 months. We decided to go a different route. Let us remember, Britney Spears was most popular at one time. So were plaid pants, mullets and wine-in-a-box. Most popular isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be.