Policy by the Numbers: This Week in Data: 10/12/2012

This Week in Data: 10/12/2012

Friday, October 12, 2012

Last week, Code for America held its 2012 summit in San Francisco. Anthony Townsend, Research Director at Institute for the Future, delivered one of the Day 3 keynotes on the concept of "smart cities" and how technology is changing the urban landscape—and the importance of engaging the citizenry in effectively designing, selecting, and implementing technology in planning cities.

On ReadWriteWeb, Brian Proffitt writes about increasing demand across business sectors for professionals with data science skills. Explaining a flurry of job postings seeking MATLAB and business skills in one individual, Proffitt writes, "The meshing of technology and business skills is a big "get" for most businesses, as any geek who can speak numbers or any suit who can grok tech is highly sought candidates."

Over at The Atlantic, Betty Morais tells the story behind publishing start-up "Colliloquy," calling it a "choose-your-own-adventure model for the data-tracking age." The narrative in each book comes with multiple "pathways" for readers to make decisions about the direction of the plotline. Colliloquy records reader choices and provide that data to authors, who can make decisions about future installments of their book series based on reader feedback. Really interesting example of data-driven innovation in an industry where we don't often talk about data's potential!