Get a woman’s touch on your Big Data team

If there’s a gender imbalance on your Big Data strategy team, you’re doing yourself a great disservice.

How many women do you have on your Big Data strategy team? I’m guessing not enough. As you might imagine, there should be an equal balance of men and women on your Big Data strategy team. That includes data scientists, analytic leaders and managers, content experts, and possibly business analysts.

Although all the management and leadership sages incessantly extol the virtues of diversity, this is still a problem I see on Big Data strategy teams–especially when it comes to gender diversity. You need a good balance of men and women on your Big Data strategy team.

Women as data scientists

Women are terrific analytics and data scientists. There’s little doubt in anyone’s mind that analytic talent is gender neutral. Some of the smartest people I know are women and they have good representation in the math and science departments in college.

When I was pursuing my undergraduate degree in computer science, about half of my classmates were female. Things haven’t changed much since then; however, I don’t see the same proportion in the workplace. This tells me that women are being overlooked in the hiring process. This is a huge mistake, especially when companies are having such a hard time finding data scientists.

The added benefit of having female data scientists is twofold: they bring harmony and great creative power to the team. The team runs smoother when women are involved as they temper the huge egos that men usually bring to the table. Men tend to act more civilized when women are around and this eases the storming phase of team development.

Furthermore, women tend to have better imaginations, which is very important on a Big Data strategy team. They have a natural ability to think outside of the box and draw unlikely connections that can extricate a team from idea silo.

Women as analytic leaders

Although women are great data scientists, they’re even better analytic leaders. Remember, to be an effective analytic leader takes special analytic skills–you cannot just expect any leader with the right title and a team of data scientists to work well. With this in mind, women have a remarkable ability to influence a Big Data strategy team–far better than men.

Female analytic leaders have a great ability to relate. Having a background in analytics helps them communicate effectively with the team and fosters trust and respect. In addition, they have an innate ability to connect on an emotional level. They don’t sympathize–they empathize.

They are very good at internalizing what the team is dealing with so their leadership is authentic, engendering genuine followers. Again, this brings harmony to the team, but it’s more effective when it’s coming from the leader.

Women are also very effective at evangelism and stakeholder engagement–another vital role that the strategic leaders must play. Women have a communication style that is penetrating but non-threatening. They are very good at eliciting support from those in favor of the strategy and neutralizing resistance from those that don’t. They also have a tendency to be well connected with the informal systems that run the company like rituals, stories, and group norms.

Finally, they network well with the other women in the organization which has a powerful effect on how well the organization adopts the new strategy.

Conclusion

If there’s a gender imbalance on your Big Data strategy team, you’re doing yourself a great disservice. Women are terrific analysts, terrific leaders, and terrific contributors to your overall goals. Not only do they bring all the creative benefits that any diverse culture would bring, they also bring a powerful harmony that’s absent in most of the Big Data strategy teams that I see today. Take some time today to survey the gender diversity on your Big Data strategy team. You may find that it needs a woman’s touch.

iPhones From Foxconn Rejected By Apple Due To Quality Problems

Unspecified models of the iPhones from component manufacturer Foxconn was reportedly rejected by Apple due to quality problems that includes substandard appearance and dysfunctional hardware.

The report came from China Business Times (translated in English) which suggests that a Foxconn insider told China Business that Apple sent back up to 8 million iPhones to Foxconn because the phones didn't pass Apple's quality standards.

The same report also indicated that Foxconn shell about $200 a piece to build an iPhone and Apple rejecting the said iPhones is going to cost Foxconn an estimated $1 billion to $1.6 billion in lost revenues.

Meanwhile, Foxconn has previously complained that the iPhone was particularly difficult to assemble, though the talk has died down since last year. Foxconn also recently announced a 19 percent drop in revenue for January through March of this year, blaming it for a decline of orders in the iPhones.

It's not clear at this time if the release date of the purported iPhone 5S and iPhone 6, both of which I previously reported here on Technorati, is going to be affected by this newest report and latest development in the Apple smartphone supply chain.

How Android can beat Apple in the tablet space

               Exact market share numbers for tablets are difficult to come by. Depending on whom you believe, Apple’s iPad may own as much as 80% of the tablet market — or it may be dipping below 50%, with Google’s Android-powered tablets nipping at its heels. Anecdotally, however, the iPad remains the tablet to beat, with the device nearing “Kleenex status,” as I can attest to by being routinely asked “What kind of iPad is that?” when using my Microsoft Surface RT tablet aboard an airplane. Android has stolen much of Apple’s thunder in the smartphone space, and a string of high-profile devices from the likes of Samsung have the iPhone and Apple’s stock price feeling the pressure. So, how can Android make the same progress in the tablet space?

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Forget the magic and show me the money

There’s a fair argument to be made that Apple’s biggest recent innovation on the tablet front, the announcement of the iPad Mini, was largely a response to Android’s success on smaller, lower-cost tablets like the Amazon Kindle HD and Nexus 7. For consumers and businesses alike, $400 (USD) for an entry-level device looks a bit steep, but $200 appears far more reasonable, especially when the devices perform well and have lost the creaks and quality concerns of the earlier generation of cheap tablets.

Apple is rarely forced to compete on cost, but it also can’t ignore a major competitive threat.

Clouding the issue

One of Apple’s hallmarks has long been seamless integration among products. Early smartphones, music players, and tablets could all perform similar functions to the corresponding Apple products, but Apple made it easy and integrated. However, we’re rapidly moving away from the era where the desktop or laptop was the center of an individual’s computing experience. I want my phone and tablet to synchronize and share data without requiring a desktop or laptop as the middleman.

While Apple seems to have recognized this “post-PC era” in its marketing, in practice, its iCloud service lags behind other providers. No single cloud provider covers everything from file and music sharing, to video, social networking, and enterprise collaboration, but Google comes closest with its extensive software offerings. Google also lacks the platform dogma of Apple, offering most of its core cloud products on iOS. In a mixed-device family or enterprise, Google services are the obvious choice.

The Samsung factor

In Samsung, Google finally has a hardware partner that can innovate at the same level as Apple, but it’s also capable of iterating much more quickly than Apple. On the smartphone front, the latest iPhone used to comfortably dominate the market for 12-18 months, remaining the premium product even while a sea of lower-cost Android phones came and went. Samsung has figured out how to produce and market exciting phones that make the iPhone look a bit dated after six months.

Samsung is applying similar innovation to the tablet space, adding functionality like stylus input and providing a form factor to satisfy every taste. While Samsung lacks the direct control over hardware and software that Apple enjoys, being able to out-innovate on both fronts negates much of that advantage.

For enterprises, focusing on web-driven mobile applications can hedge any bets as to which platform dominates the tablet space. In either case, a resurgent Google can only help increase the speed of innovation in tablets.

Global Car-makers Wrestle With India Slump

MUMBAI — Car sales in India have fallen sharply, creating challenges for global automakers like General Motors, Honda and Volkswagen, which have invested billions of dollars in factories, product development and marketing in the country.

India’s slowing economic growth, high interest rates and rising fuel prices have led to the biggest slump in the car market in more than a decade. Sales having fallen 7 percent in the financial year that ended last month. But automakers like Honda, which is investing almost $500 million in India, say they are unconcerned because they are in it for the long haul.

“If there was any worry, we would never have done this,” Hironori Kanayama, the head of Honda’s India unit, said in an interview in Mumbai. “Of course it’s a pity that the economy is sluggish, but it doesn’t worry us at all.”

Honda said this month that it would spend 25 billion rupees, or $463 million, to double its output capacity in India to 240,000 cars per year by next year.

“The potential is very high here,” Mr. Kanayama said. “Our investment is based on such long-term projections.”

Honda is not alone in expanding despite the slumping market. Ford is spending $1 billion on a new factory in India, even as its current plant runs at only 60 percent of capacity. Maruti Suzuki India, controlled by Suzuki Motor of Japan, is spending about $750 million to add the capacity to make an additional 250,000 cars annually.

Carmakers say India’s huge population, low penetration of car ownership and rising incomes mean sales can only go up in the long run, while the opportunity to export to Africa and the Middle East makes for a compelling investment case.

“Clearly we believe the macro conditions are a short-term blip,” said Nagesh Basavanahalli, managing director in India for the Italian carmaker Fiat and its Chrysler unit.

Mr. Basavanahalli, who began in his current role this month, has been assigned to try to reintroduce the Fiat brand and introduce the Jeep and Abarth model lines in India, even as established names like India’s own Tata Motors see sales plummet.

“Are there challenges? Yes,” he said, but he added that he was “very confident, based on the product plan that we have and based on the actions we are taking.”

Not everyone shares that confidence in the Indian market. For example, last year, Peugeot of France shelved a plan worth €600 million, or about $790 million, to build a factory in India.

For its part, Honda is not just investing in manufacturing capacity. The Japanese carmaker introduced a new sedan model last week and, like other companies, is adding diesel-powered options as it races against global rivals to tap market segments that are still growing, even as overall demand falls.

Government subsidies make diesel less costly than gasoline in India.

Customers hit hardest by the economic gloom in India have been first-time buyers and the emerging middle class, which relies on bank loans for big purchases, analysts say. Sales of small cars, which account for more than 70 percent of the market, have fallen about 10 percent.

By contrast, demand for sport utility vehicles and midlevel diesel cars has risen, with models like the diesel Dzire from Maruti Suzuki and the low-cost Duster S.U.V. from Renault helping their companies outperform rivals. The new Honda Amaze sedan, which starts at 500,000 rupees, is in a segment in which sales were up 21 percent in the most recent financial year.

Ford, Fiat-Chrysler, Maruti and Honda are all preparing to introduce compact S.U.V.’s.

Companies that lack models in those segments are suffering the most. Volkswagen, whose shortcomings in India are a blot on its global success, built 66,699 cars in the country in the past financial year, using no more than 31 percent of its manufacturing capacity there, according to a report by Kotak Securities.

Sales at the Indian unit of General Motors fell 20 percent by volume in the financial year that just ended, and it lost 7.46 billion rupees in the fiscal year that ended in March 2012.

Some of G.M.’s rivals are working to increase exports from their less-than-stretched Indian production lines to offset the local sales slump. Volkswagen nearly tripled exports from India last year, and Ford now exports almost a third of its Indian-made cars.

Long-term estimates vary, but many industry analysts expect annual car sales in India to reach six million by 2020, at which point it would trail only China and the United States in sales volume. The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, the industry’s primary lobbying group, has estimated sales of nine million by that year.

Optimists say a young, fast-urbanizing population, rising incomes and an expected rebound in the country’s economic expansion rate will drive the market’s future growth. In addition, paltry ownership levels of about 12 cars per 1,000 people — about a quarter of China’s rate — indicate lots of room for growth.

“The entire structural story of India’s car potential still holds true, despite the current cyclical downturn,” said Jinesh Gandhi, an automotive equities analyst at the brokerage firm Motilal Oswal in Mumbai. “I would clearly invest in new capacities for the future, rather than wait for the market to turn around.”

WHAT TECHNOLOGIES DO WATCH HERE J

Here's a rundown of some of the main technologies you should be aware of, as well as some of their benefits and risks.

If you come across other terms you don't recognise on the Teachtoday website, go to our jargon buster.

And if you want to know more about the potential benefits and risks of these technologies, you'll find Childnet's Know It All guide for teachers and page 6 of the DfE's Cyberbullying Guidance useful.

technology	About the technology	Benefits include...	Be aware of the following...
Social net working	Social networking services enable users to set up a profile and build and manage their own community online. This can be done on the internet or on some mobile devices and is becoming an increasingly popular way of interacting with, often vast, networks of people. Some of the most common social networking activities are communicating and socialising with existing friends; Meeting new people; Creating and uploading content (such as blogs, photos or music); Sharing third-party content (like photos and videos); And taking part in community and collaborative activities such as music and politics. Social networking services include Bebo, Facebook, Faceparty, Flickr, Google Buzz, MySpace, and Piczo. Some social networking services have themes - Flickr is for publishing and sharing photos; MySpace is for connecting people, content and culture; YouTube is for posting, sharing and viewing video clips, for example. Sources: www.wikipedia.org andwww.digizen.org	You can socialise easily with your friends and family and make new friends; Encourages creativity in areas like music and film; Promotes collaboration between users; Helps develop communication and digital literacy skills. Sources: DfE Cyberbullying Guidanceand Childnet Know It All	Anyone can view your profile and personal information unless it is set to private; Could expose you to contact from strangers; Could be misused by bullies; Other people could post harmful/inappropriate information or images of you online; Fake profiles could be created. Sources: DfE Cyberbullying Guidanceand Childnet Know It All
Mobile phone	Nowadays, mobiles are not simply for talking and texting (SMS) - they offer a myriad of services, including picture messaging (MMS), built-in cameras, video capabilities, TV, mobile games and music. Plus, the development of Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) means that you can access the internet from newer mobiles. Sources: Various websites	Like a portable mini-computer; Good way to stay in touch with people; Offers independence and a feeling of security; Text messaging is a quick and (compared to calls) inexpensive way of keeping in touch; Multimedia messaging lets you send, receive and store photos, videos and music on your mobile; 3G mobiles allow you to check email, browse the internet, watch TV and video clips and play games while you're on the move. Sources: DfE Cyberbullying Guidance and Childnet Know It All	You might receive nasty calls or text messages; You might be the victim of (or be sent) humiliating images; You could run up large bills from Premium Rate Services. Sources: DfE Cyberbullying Guidance and Childnet Know It All
Web cams	Webcams (web cameras) are small cameras (usually, though not always, video cameras), whose images can be accessed using the Web, instant messaging, a PC video conferencing application or, in some cases, a mobile phone. Most commonly, webcams are used to see a picture or video of someone you're talking to online. Sources: www.wikipedia.org andwww.childnet-int.org	Good for taking pictures or recording messages; Enable you to see and talk to someone live on your computer screen - useful for staying in touch with friends and family who don't live nearby, for example; Let you post messages, photos and videos on the internet. Sources: DfE Cyberbullying Guidance and Childnet Know It All	You might be persuaded to act inappropriately or take and send inappropriate images of yourself to someone you've met online; You might see or be sent inappropriate webcam footage. Sources: DfE Cyberbullying Guidance and Childnet Know It All
Wi-Fi	Wi-Fi is the trademark for the popular wireless technology used in home networks, mobiles, games consoles and other electronic devices, which enables them to connect to the internet without the need for wires. Source: www.wikipedia.org	Enables you to access your devices in a wider range of places, such as the garden or Wi-Fi hotspots in airports or hotels; Facilitates connection between different devices (eg games console and PC). Source: www.wikipedia.org	Wireless networks are particularly vulnerable to other users gaining access so you must ensure that security features are enabled. Source: www.wikipedia.org
Bluetooth	Bluetooth is a wireless protocol that provides a way to connect and exchange data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, including digital cameras, mobiles and games consoles that are Bluetooth-enabled. Source: www.wikipedia.org	Provides wireless communication between devices, such as a mobile and a hands-free handset and a PC and printer; Enables wireless networking between PCs in a confined space. Source: www.wikipedia.org	Bluejacking - where a stranger or a company sends you a message or picture to your Bluetooth device; Bluesnarfing - where another Bluetooth user accesses data you have stored on your device - such as your address book, text messages and photos - without your authorisation. Source: www.wikipedia.org
Video-sharing	Video-sharing websites, like YouTube, enable users to upload video clips and share them with other internet users. Source: www.wikipedia.org	Makes it easy to view videos; Contain lots of interesting content, such as music videos and funny clips; Encourages creativity by enabling you to upload video clips you make and share them with others. Sources: DfE Cyberbullying Guidance and Childnet Know It All	You might access inappropriate material, such as violent or sexually-explicit clips; Video clips you post might make you vulnerable to contact by strangers; Video clips of you posted by others might embarrass you; Video clips might encourage irresponsible behaviour, such as driving dangerously. Sources: DfE Cyberbullying Guidance and Childnet Know It All
Downloading content legitimately	Many websites and retailers offer download options for music, films, games, ringtones and other content and pass on the royalties to the content producers. Sources: Various websites	Makes it easy and quick to access music, films and other entertainment content; Lets you store content on your PC.	Unfortunately, some websites allow content to be downloaded without the permission of the producer and without rewarding them in any way - if you download from these sites you could be breaking the law; Downloading from unknown sites could put you at greater risk of viruses and hackers.

Mercedes-Benz GLA headlights double as movie projectors

The Mercedes-Benz GLA concept car.

 

THE drive-in theatre might be nearing its final act but a leading car maker is trying to bring the good old days into modern household driveways.

Mercedes has revealed its second concept car in a little more than six months that is capable of projecting movies on to a screen in front of the vehicle when stopped.

At the Paris motor show last year the company revealed a tiny projector on the bonnet of its new Smart car, the baby of the Benz brand.

Now the company that invented the automobile has released a new version of that technology ahead of the Shanghai motor show, which opens this weekend.

The headlights of the new Mercedes-Benz GLA, a pint-sized SUV due on sale in 2014, double as movie projectors.

The company claims owners can project any video on their smartphone or tablet via the system.

The plush interior of the innovative Mercedes-Benz GLA.

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The plush interior of the innovative Mercedes-Benz GLA.

But don't hold your breath waiting for the technology to arrive in showrooms, even if the car will.

Mercedes-Benz Australia spokesman Jerry Stamoulis says the technology is not yet confirmed for production.

''It's a concept car that shows what is possible,'' he said.

''Of course, if it became available, we'd love to have it.''

The same system- is also able to project directions (in the form of giant arrows) on to the road so drivers don't need to glance at the navigation system in the cabin.

''In this way, other road users, too, would be able to see where a driver is going,'' the Mercedes statement said.

GOOGLE has released the tech specs: Google Glass tech specs unveiled

Google has released the tech specs for its augmented reality glasses.

GOOGLE has released the tech specs for its Google Glasses after shipping its first batch to developers today.
So without much further ado, here's what you need to know:
The glasses contain a five megapixel camera for photos but films in 720p.
They contain 12 GB of usable memory which is synced with Google cloud storage and contains 16 GB of flash memory in total.
The glasses are supported by wi-fi and Bluetooth but surprisingly not by 3G, which may be a drawback in the short term.
The glasses are also compatible with any Bluetooth supported phone however the MyGlass companion app which enables GPS and SMS messaging requires Android 4.0.3 (Ice Cream Sandwich) to work.
The battery should last about a day during "typical use" however features like Google Hangouts and video recording will drain the battery more quickly.
The list of specs are missing one crucial thing is a price.
Just imagine a number that is more than you can afford. You're probably not far off.

However, before you start saving up, you might still have some time on your hands before you can buy a pair of Google Glass. No official word as to their public availability as yet but if the speculation is correct, the specs are expected to be released to the public in about a year.

Google has also released the API (Application Programming Interface) for its glasses so any keen beans can start to develop apps that work in conjunction with Google Glasses.

The full list of specs are below:
Fit
Adjustable nosepads and durable frame fits any face.
Extra nosepads in two sizes.
Display
High resolution display is the equivalent of a 25 inch high definition screen from eight feet away.
Camera
Photos - 5 MP
Videos - 720p
Audio
Bone Conduction Transducer
ConnectivityWifi - 802.11b/g
Bluetooth
Storage12 GB of usable memory, synced with Google cloud storage. 16 GB Flash total.
BatteryOne full day of typical use. Some features, like Hangouts and video recording, are more battery intensive.
ChargerIncluded Micro USB cable and charger.
While there are thousands of Micro USB chargers out there, Glass is designed and tested with the included charger in mind. Use it and preserve long and prosperous Glass use.
Compatibility
Any Bluetooth-capable phone.
The MyGlass companion app requires Android 4.0.3 (Ice Cream Sandwich) or higher. MyGlass enables GPS and SMS messaging.