Small Data Group

Back in the summer I explored the concept of “wise” devices being proposed by Fitbit designer Gadi Amit and introduced the idea that small data will be the OS for these mobile and wearable devices.

Since then, my teams at Actuate have been exploring these ideas and accelerating our work around applying information design best practices for a new generation of rich mobile apps and embedded analytics. The goal: expand the boundaries and our understanding of what it means to assemble and display intelligence in context. We’ve also been teaming with our engineering group to look at new ways to demonstrate the rich APIs provided by the BIRT iHub to better access real-time device data, visualize it, and embed these packaged insights on “non-traditional” devices like smartwatches, tablets or even large-format displays.

Some initial results – including a very cool IoT-telematics demo that leverages the BIRT technology stack and open data standards to show how to connect your car to your smartwatch – were first premiered by Actuate’s Kris Clark at EclipseCon Europe. And more recently this demo was updated and featured at our ongoing Data Driven Summit events, along with the IoS tablet app shown above which demonstrates rich, fluid visualizations in a mobile BI scenario.

These concepts and Actuate’s overall strategy for the Embedded Analytics market were also part of a media and analyst roundtable during our London event. And judging by the press coverage (see here, here and here), “Wearable BI” is a pretty compelling idea!

Observations from the Field

The great thing about getting into the field and sharing perspectives with practitioners and project owners around the globe (I’ve been in 6 cities on 3 continents over the past 3 weeks, speaking to and sharing with hundreds of attendees as part of our Summit program) is that we have fresh insight into how organizations are looking at visualizing their data, and where they are focusing in 2015 and beyond. As expected, mobile devices and data are a big driver, but so is the idea of operationalizing transactional big data by embedding analytics in more places, and making these insights more consumable by more users by raising the bar in terms of information design.

In fact my colleague Mark Gamble’s session on Visualization and UX Best Practices – featuring the best tips from Edward Tufte and Stephen Few and our own team – has been consistently one of the most popular and highest rated sessions during our recent tour.

Other notes, takeaways, and resources:

• The Small data philosophy is even more relevant today than when I started writing about it 2 years ago in Forbes. More analysts and companies are focusing on the “last mile of Big Data” as the place where value is created, especially when tackling everyday marketing challenges and designing data-driven apps for mobile and IoT. Since my last post some good articles to check out on the topic include these new pieces in Fortune and Forbes , my latest op-ed in CMSWire, and this cool infographic from Constant Contact.
• For data-driven mobile apps, a native/hybrid approach works best. Sure, native is great for games, but if you are creating real business apps, there are benefits of having some native code local to the device, and some non-platform-specific components resident on a back-end server to provide maximum flexibility and performance (and re-use!) for serving up rich visualizations that scale up to millions of users, and scale down to match individual preferences and limitations of small displays. For more detail, I’ve posted the slides from our Mobile and IoT session at Data Driven Summit on my Slideshare.
• Many organizations are looking to bring the power of big data to the masses. In fact this is arguably one of the top priorities for 2015. This means taking a fresh look at ways to turn data into information, and information into embedded intelligence, one of the themes Actuate’s CEO touched on at our Summits. It also means envisioning new use cases and new UXs for mobile (like our smartwatch app) – something BI guru Howard Dresner has proposed, and serving up alerts and contextual visuals that are foundational to the next generation of wearable BI and intelligent apps.

So, what’s on your list of project for 2015? I’d love to connect and hear about your plans.

Also, if you are in NYC on December 3 and want to see our IoT demo live and hear from customers, BIRT experts, and industry gurus about the latest thinking around data driven apps, there are still a limited number of seats for Data Driven Summit – New York. You can get more info and sign up (it’s free) here.