Small Data Forum

SDF podcast 11: From winning with data to the future of fake facts

Neville Hobson Leave a comment Business, Communication, Innovation, Marketing, Politics, Public Relations, Reputation, Small Data Forum, Social Media, Society, Technology, Trends, Workplace

For the 11th time, the SmallDataForum convened – this time to explore questions related to the opportunities and challenges of data in business, the rational and emotional side of decision-making, and the continuing erosion of trust and confidence in the truthfulness of information. Stephen Fry’s fabulous narration of the complete works of Sherlock Holmes formed the backdrop to musings about data sleuthing and the skill sets required for successful forensic analytics. This episode’s show notes were written by Thomas Stoeckle. Big Data’s Business Value A recent Harvard Business School article discussed the issue that Companies Love Big Data but Lack the Strategy to Use It Effectively. Neville sums this up succinctly: “You don’t need big data strategy, you need a […]

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SDF podcast 10: Big Data is never a be-all and end-all

Neville Hobson Leave a comment Business, Communication, Entertainment, Journalism, Marketing, Politics, Public Relations, Small Data Forum, Social Media, Society, Technology, Trends, Web

Amid congressional hearings and FBI investigations in the US about whether and how Russia interfered with the US Presidential Elections, discussions continue about the efficacy and ethics of micro-targeting voters. In our latest and 10th edition of the SmallDataForum podcast, Neville, Sam and Thomas reflect on the outcome of the recent general elections in the UK. This episode’s show notes were written by Thomas Stoeckle. We agree that, unlike last time, Labour did better than the Conservatives digitally at this election. In combining doorstep campaigning with digital targeting in marginal seats (based on the insights from their proprietary software) and generally being on the ball with issues online, Labour managed to connect the dots more successfully than the Conservatives. This […]

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SDF podcast 9: Either back to the future or fast forward to a new normal

Neville Hobson Leave a comment Business, Communication, Mainstream Media, Marketing, Politics, Public Relations, Small Data Forum, Social Media, Social Networks, Society, Technology, Trends, Web
Thought / via Pixabay CC0

In the latest episode 9 of The Small Data Forum podcast, hosted by Thomas Stoeckle in conversation with regulars Sam Knowles and me, we enjoyed a wide-ranging, lively conversation over the course of 45 minutes on topics as diverse as the 2017 general election campaign (what went wrong for Theresa May and the Conservatives with a clear focus on the politics) and the latest global communications report from the Annenberg School of Communications (we focused especially on PR and AVE). Writer of the show notes for this episode is Sam: News is neither a fixed nor a finite entity. There are some periods in history when it feels like there’s just more happening than at others. I’m not talking about […]

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SDF podcast 8: Seek out those you can trust

Neville Hobson Leave a comment Artificial Intelligence, Business, Communication, Marketing, Podcasting, Public Relations, Reputation, Small Data Forum, Social Media, Social Networks, Society, Technology, Web
Question Everything

In the latest episode 8 of The Small Data Forum podcast, hosted by Thomas Stoeckle in conversation with regulars Neville Hobson and Sam Knowles, we explore whether following the ‘interesting times’ of 2016, we are seeing some sort of ‘regression to the mean’, with a right wing populist not succeeding in general elections in the Netherlands, with Emmanuel Macron becoming president of France, and with Chelsea FC winning the Premier League (following Leicester City’s surprise success last year). And such is the nature of our continuously evolving subject matter, when we have completed a podcast, we often find that on key discussion points, there is already more, and breaking news. The Facebook Files Just days after recording our latest musings […]

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How does Big Data convert into Business Value? #SmallDataForum podcast episode 7

Neville Hobson Leave a comment Artificial Intelligence, Business, Communication, Marketing, Podcasting, Politics, Public Relations, Small Data Forum, Society, Technology, Trends, Web
Big Data

A topic that’s dominated our conversation in recent episodes of The Small Data Forum podcast is fake news and related issues. In episode 7, hosted by Thomas Stoeckle in conversation with regulars Neville Hobson and Sam Knowles, we consider world wide web inventor Tim Berners-Lee’s call to action on what he sees as three big challenges for the web: Loss of control of personal data; Spread of misinformation; and Questionable political advertising. The second one in particular – spread of misinformation – offers another perspective on the fake news topic, part of the so-called post-Truth world, that speaks to a key aspect of this contemporary phenomenon: the dissemination of falsehoods and how can we address that. Thomas asks: Is it […]

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