Category Archives: Technology

IBM THINK Exhibit Opens at INNOVENTIONS at Epcot

By Guest PostFebruary 20, 2013Technologyandroid tablets, apple ipads, centennial, danielle miller, epcot, florida, flow of data, gesture wall, high school teachers, ibm, ibm think, innovation, innoventions west, lee green, lincoln center, new york, orlando area, Technology, think exhibit app, university high school, walt disney, world resort

Exciting educational experience extends into classrooms with free lesson plans and mobile apps

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – 20 Feb 2013: In celebration of National Engineers Week,IBM teamed up with Orlando-area high school teachers and students today to unveil IBM THINK, a new interactive experience in INNOVENTIONS West at Epcot at Walt Disney World Resort. The 6,600 square-foot interactive exhibit is designed to showcase how the world can work better with the help of technology and innovation. The THINK experience presented by IBM explores how technology transforms the way we live and work. (more…)

A ‘Golden Era’ of Insight: Big Data’s Bright Future

By Guest PostFebruary 18, 2013Technologybangalore, Beijing, big data, bing, bing directions, bing maps, bing voice search, biomedical informatics terabytes, breakthroughs, bright future, buzzwords, cambridge, capturing data, China, computational mechanisms, data analytics, data centric methods, decision-making, distinguished scientist, DNA, eric horvitz, golden era, government, hawaii, insight, labs, law, machine intelligence, machine learning, mandarin, microsoft research, networking, new england, new york city, North America, predictive modeling, predictive models, redmond, rick rashid, sensing, silicon valley, storage, tianjin, traffic free route, visualization, web

For over 20 years, Microsoft Research’s labs around the world have focused on research across a broad spectrum of topics in computer science. From the start, the organization has invested heavily in pioneering breakthroughs in machine intelligence, including efforts in machine learning and big data. In this interview, Distinguished Scientist Eric Horvitz talks about advances he sees on the horizon, the influence they will have on your daily life, and how insights from big data and developing more intelligent software and services will change the world.

REDMOND, Wash. – Feb. 15, 2013 – At Microsoft Research labs around the world, some very deep thinkers are contemplating big data.

This includes Eric Horvitz, distinguished scientist at Microsoft and co-director of Microsoft Research’s Redmond lab, who was recently elected to the National Academy of Engineering for his work in “computational mechanisms for decision making under uncertainty and with bounded resources.” (more…)

Big Data + Great Western Bank = Triumph in a Time of Austerity

By Guest PostFebruary 17, 2013Technologybig data, data quality, diagram, great recession, great western bank, imf, microsoft excel, microsoft news center, microsoft office, microsoft sharepoint, microsoft stack, powerpivot, president, ron van zanten, sql server 2012, Technology, time of austerity, united states, Wall Street, windows server

Editors at Microsoft News Center recently spoke with Ron Van Zanten, vice president of Data Quality at Great Western Bank, to learn more about how big data solutions from Microsoft help his institution more easily attract and retain customers.

REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 14, 2013 —Remember 2008? It was the year the Great Recession descended, bringing the global economy to a near-standstill. The financial meltdown on Wall Street flowed through main streets around the globe, destroying many community banks in its path. In fact, according to the IMF, through 2010 the recession had already drained a whopping $3.4 trillion from financial institutions around the world.

Which makes Great Western Bank’s story truly amazing. As some institutions shuttered and shrank, Great Western reinvested – in its people, customers and in how it uses technology to make its business better. (more…)

Positive Online Comments Can Help Blunt Cyberbullying

By Guest PostFebruary 16, 2013Culture, Technologyanna mcalister, anti cyberbullying messages, behavior, content, cyberbullying, cyberbullying on facebook, cyberpsychology, electronic devices, embarrassing photograph, facebook page, issue of cyberbullying, michigan state university, positive in nature, positive messages, positive online comments, saleem alhabash, saynoto cyberbullying, Social networking, Technology, want to stop

Want to stop cyberbullying on Facebook? Try using … Facebook.

A recently published study by a team of Michigan State University researchers found that one effective way of fighting cyberbullying is by using the medium where it tends to flourish. The key, said the researchers: Make your anti-cyberbullying messages positive in nature. (more…)

Big Data? No Biggie. Microsoft Partners Have Your Business Covered

By Guest PostFebruary 15, 2013Technologybay street, bi solutions, big data, big data development, big datasheet, bluegranite, cloud technology, data analysts, data on demand, data quality, excel, gigabytes, infusion, it network, Microsoft, microsoft partners, neudesic, petabytes of data, powerpivot, social media content, terabytes, tool, tribal knowledge, unstructured data feeds, Wall Street

Microsoft partners Infusion, BlueGranite and Neudesic weigh in on how they use big data to shape their business strategy.

REDMOND, Wash. – Feb. 13, 2013 – IT departments are being overrun with big data – gigabytes, terabytes, petabytes of data – that is racing through their servers, often untamed and uncontrolled, with more data crowding onto the IT network every day, every hour.

While businesses can choose to keep all this data penned up, they are missing an opportunity to mine valuable business intelligence from their big data unless they harness it and analyze the information they have corralled, using that insight to gain a competitive edge. While a portion of this big data is well-organized information on products and finances, much of it is unstructured, from social media posts and photos to disparate research findings and customer feedback. (more…)

High Stakes: Businesses Make Big Data Bets

By Guest PostFebruary 13, 2013Technologyapplication, ashvini sharma, big data bets, big data tools, big data value, bing, business intelligence team, businesses, combined data, comparing dna, data platform, data storage, dave campbell, digital data, dimensions of value, eron kelly, excel, Facebook, flickr, florida, ftp, hadoop, hallelujah, headache, information, kinect, linux machine, making a decision, Microsoft, microsoft advertising, microsoft sql server, photos, powerpivot, refined data, sequencing, sharepoint, sql, structured databases, structured query language, technical fellow, tweets, types of data, unstructured data, windows azure marketplace, xbox 360

Big data has exploded into the mainstream, and very soon harnessing the power of information won’t just be a matter of profitability, but of survival. Microsoft has the tools to help businesses survive and thrive in the dawning age of big data.

REDMOND, Wash. – Feb. 13, 2013 – For the first time in history, it’s going to start raining information.

Hallelujah or headache? For businesses, it’s all about being ready to ride this perfect storm of big data – and their understanding of what’s at stake. (more…)

Caching In: How Some Organizations Are Using Big Data to Change the Way They Do Business

By Guest PostFebruary 12, 2013Technologyanalytics tools, article on forbes, atlanta, bank, bi, big data, big data strategies, bnz, bryson koehler, business, business intelligence, cloud platform, columns of data, crossmark, david selinger, fossils, generate big data, georgia, global scale, Microsoft, microsoft data warehouse, microsoft solutions, microsoft sql server, nctn, nhi, organization, parallel data warehouse, pdw, point of sale, pos data, quantities of data, real-time, risk populations, super 8 worldwide, susan hauser, Technology, therapy, united states, university advancement, va, weather channel, what and why, windows azure

As big data access shifts to the masses, The Weather Company and other top global companies are showing the world how it’s done.

REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 12, 2012 —Big data is changing the way organizations do business, make discoveries, and interact with each other. In fact, pundits are predicting that 2013 will be the year organizations across a range of industries begin implementing big data strategies, or face obsolescence. As David Selinger wrote in a recent article on Forbes online: “If executives don’t find a way to trap, tame, and train their data monsters, they’ll be extinct in two years—fossils who’ve missed the new world order.”

Microsoft believes that big data has the power to drive practical and theoretical insights that have eluded people to date. In the past, high costs and technology limitations have constrained access to data storage infrastructure and the tools needed to manage and analyze large quantities of data. This is finally starting to change. (more…)

Social Network Use Reflects East-West Disparity

By Guest PostFebruary 12, 2013Culture, Technologyamerica, China, chinese citizens, chinese culture, collective good mentality, computers, Facebook, human behavior, jin liang wang, linda jackson, me first culture, michigan state university, qzone, renren, social creatures, social isolation, social network sites, Social networking sites, southwest university, Technology, Twitter, united states, us citizens

The stark contrast between America’s “me-first” culture and the “collective-good” mentality in China is reflected in the two countries’ use of social networking sites, according to a new study led by a Michigan State University scholar.

U.S. citizens spend more time on the networking sites, consider them to be more important and have more “friends” on the sites, the research found. The most popular social networking site in the United States is Facebook; in China, two of the most popular sites are RenRen and Qzone. (more…)