IFSM 330 Bus/Data

BYSTANDER
GOOGLENIAGRAM.docx

**NOTE: Please read the article  Google Ngram Viewer Possibilities Limitations  before your initial post or reply post.  The question below regarding 'computer assisted reading' does NOT refer to reading on a computer monitor NOR does it refer to a computer assisted voice actually reading a book.  'Computer assisted reading' refers to the computer ACTUALLY DOING THE READING, THE THINKING, THE ANALYSIS that normally human beings would do, while reading a book or article.

While we don't address data visualization in depth in this course, data visualization is never very far from any discussion of data analytics, so I'd like everyone (ALL students, not just the initial post group) to get acquainted with Google's Ngram Viewer:  https://books.google.com/ngrams .

file:///C:/Users/Busayo%20Oyewole/Downloads/Google_Ngram_Viewer_Possibilities_Limitations1.pdf

Basically the Ngram Viewer allows you to see a graph of the occurrence of a given word or phrase over a specified period of years in the entire corpus of books contained in the Google Books collection.  You can also enter several words or phrases to compare the evolution of usage over time.  The default (sample) ngram on the day I visited was a comparison of

Albert Einstein,Sherlock Holmes,Frankenstein

which resulted in

Your tasks and the discussion topic(s) this week:

1. ALL students should use Ngram and try various combinations of

· business intelligence,

· data analytics,

· data science. 

You  might try allied terms like

· data analysis,

· big data.  

Be sure to change the years, you'll definitely want to include through to the current year and I think you'll quickly find that years before 1900 (sometimes later) don't show much.  Think about what the graph is showing you in terms of the usage of these various terms.  Be aware that even if you enter the current year, Ngram may change that year depending on the data available (currently, it seems to 'default' to 2008 as the most recent year available).

2. INITIAL POST GROUP: in addition to the Ngram exercise, members of the initial post group should also conduct a web search for definitions of at least business intelligence and data analytics.  I'm sure you'll find more than a few sites willing to compare the two.   The topic this week:

Compare and contrast the terms business intelligence and data analytics.  That is, how are they similar, how are they different?

You should include in your initial post a brief discussion of the Ngram findings AND a brief discussion of your search for definitions.

3. REPLY GROUP: in addition to the Ngram exercise, members of the reply group should also conduct a web search for definitions.  Your role is to build on an initial post with additional insights/information that will further the discussion.

You may want to include a 'snip' image, in particular of any Ngram that you create.  Information about creating a 'snip' of an image from your screen is given below in Additional Info.  NOTE: LEO does not allow you to directly cut and paste an image into a discussion.  You will need to save the file as an image and then click on the small camera icon to insert the image.  Tedious, but a good skill to learn.

Additional info:

If you want to delve deeper into Ngram (not required), you may have a look at wildcards and other  advanced options .

If you're not sure how to 'snip' an image from your screen or browser, here's a tutorial from  Microsoft  and another from  Apple .  Please take care to take snip only of the image you want to share, NOT your entire screen.