Revisiting 2011

When I started looking at the year's most-read posts a couple of years ago, I noticed that the list always includes a lot of older posts. So, I started a new post last year: a list of the past year's posts that didn't make the 2011 Top 10, but that I think are worth another look.

• Like Means What People Think It Means and The Rise of the "Influence" Peddlers
  The labels attached to the metrics we get from social networks are a big part of the challenge of interpreting the data. Do you "like" your "friends" on Facebook, or are those just arbitrary labels for something else? I'll have more on this topic soon.

• Top-Level Numbers Are Candy
  I've always thought that one of the analyst's most important characteristics is curiosity. Being satisfied with the top-level metrics your tool (any tool) spits out isn't sufficient.

• Twitter Best in Events and Emergencies
  Emergency management pros started paying serious attention to social media in 2011—tsunamis, tornadoes, and popular uprisings command attention, after all. While they sort out how to add social media to their plans (hint: there's more to it than communicating with the public), regular people are already making effective use of the new channels.

• Four Simple Thoughts, What If Intelligence and Analytics Are the Same Thing, Applying Intelligence and Analytics to Online Statements and Driving Intelligence and Analytics with Omniscience
  2011 was the year that I started telling people about my Omniscience Framework, a model for identifying information needs and driving requirements into analytics and intelligence systems. This goes well beyond social media and customer interactions, and I plan to explore its implications with clients in 2012. I know of at least one company who's already thinking about products based on one of those posts.