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Your Data Science Idea is Great, But Is the Market Ready? Why Marketing is Key to Data Science Success

Collecting data

In the digital age, two seriously conflicting interests are rapidly growing – the desire to push technology to its limits and create a world filled with innovative devices and programs and the fear of consumers who are worried about the dangers of a world overrun with advanced technology.

For this very reason, President and CEO of Excellent Management Systems Inc. John Weathington reminded tech entrepreneurs, especially those in the data science field, to make sure the market is actually ready for their ideas before they launch them.

Some consumers fear that crazy sci-fi movies may not be as far fetched as they once seemed and others hate the idea of their favorite apps, games, search engines and devices secretly keeping tabs on their every digital move.

Whatever the reason, data science leaves many consumers feeling spooked and uncomfortable.

For example, Facebook users subjected the tech giant to serious backlash after discovering that the site was manipulating thousands of news feeds and user behavior in order to collect data for a study.

As Weathington pointed out, this certainly isn’t something new, but Facebook was still made out to be a monster for taking part in a practice that is much older than the website’s existence.

“To data scientists, it may seem perfectly normal to mine through digital behavior to understand and ultimately influence future behavior,” Weathington wrote on TechRepublic.com. “Marketing groups have been formally and publicly influencing behavior for decades, so why are Facebook’s data scientists any different?”

It’s simply a different method and a different market—that’s the key.

Even the greatest of technological advances will flop if the market simply isn’t ready for or comfortable with it just yet.

“Innovation with data science is exciting, but it can be risky if your market isn’t ready for your next great idea,” Weathington added. “Work closely with your marketing department to understand not only if, but when your next brilliant analytic offering will be a big hit.”

Marketing specialists are able to conduct thorough research and see if the market’s current consumers would be open to your latest technological innovation. The problem is that some data scientists forget just how important the marketing team really is.

Opting out of bringing marketing specialists on the team is a huge mistake that many data scientists tend to make.

Instead, some tech savvy CEOs will assign the marketing tasks to their product engineers.

The problem with the reassigning of roles is the fact that a product engineer will never be able to objectively look at something they have spent countless hours developing and view it as if they are just a random consumer.

Data scientists should also be open to introducing a much smaller concept to the market before eventually growing it under the watchful eye of consumers.

It’s a lot less threatening to watch something grow over time, something that has already been a part of your daily life and has revealed its many advantages, than to have a big, scary new way of collecting data forcefully thrust onto the market and scaring off people who are still feeling a little uncomfortable with technology’s rapid growth.

 

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5 Offensive Stereotypes Reinforced by Video Games That Need to End

Video games are a fun pastime that almost anyone can take part in. However, there are elements to video games that reinforce negative stereotypes about women of all races and minorities. There have been Internet critics like Anita Sarkeesian who spoke volumes about the dangers of video games and how people are perceived in the stories. With that being said, there are positive Black characters out there. But stereotypes, for the most part, drive the narratives of many games such as Grand Theft Auto.

Saints-Row-4-4

Black-Aggressive Stereotype

In a lot of video games, Black characters have the meanest faces and tend to be viewed as the most aggressive and violent, even if they are doing the exact same thing as whites. According to Brad Bushman, professor of communication and psychology at The Ohio State University, “Playing a violent video game as a black character reinforces harmful stereotypes that blacks are violent.” In his study, he learned that white players saw Black people to be more violent.

In the first of two experiments, 126 white university students, 60 percent of them men, played the action game Saints Row 2. Some were given a white avatar, the others a Black avatar. Some players had a violent goal, and others a nonviolent one.

Researchers found that the volunteers who played with the violent goal as a Black character “showed stronger explicit negative attitudes toward blacks” compared to volunteers who pursued the violent goal with the white character.

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Upcoming Feature Film Adaptation of Nalo Hopkinson’s Novel Brown Girl in the Ring

Director and actress Sharon Lewis is making a feature film based on speculative fiction author Nalo Hopkinson’s award-winning Caribbean-Canadian science fiction novel, Brown Girl in the Ring. It is based in a near-future, segregated area of Toronto that has been struck by economic collapse, riots and severe poverty. Through the emotional and spiritual development of the novel’s heroine, Ti-Jeanne, the book engages themes of folklore, dystopian futures, feminism, spirituality and magical realism.

The movie is scheduled to be filmed August/September 2015, and Lewis states on the film’s Facebook page that she will be seeking funding and investment after the holidays. Check out the sizzle reel for the feature film below and “Like” the film’s Facebook page for updates and ways you can support!

BROWN GIRL IN THE RING – The Feature Film –sizzle reel from sharon lewis on Vimeo.

Rasheedah Phillips is a Philadelphia public interest attorney, speculative fiction writer, the creator of The AfroFuturist Affair, and a founding member of Metropolarity.net. She recently independently published her first speculative fiction collection, “Recurrence Plot (and Other Time Travel Tales).”

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Sony’s Incredibly Rare 20th Anniversary PlayStation 4 Separates Game Lovers from the Game-Obsessed

Sony's 20th Anniversary PS4

Sony released a special, incredibly rare limited edition version of the PlayStation 4 in honor of the console’s 20th anniversary less than a week ago and while some avid gamers are in love with the design that pays homage to the original PlayStation, others are struggling to understand what all the hype is about.

Only 12,300 of the limited edition consoles exist and anyone who didn’t place their order by December 6 will have to make their way online to sites like eBay where the consoles have been sold for roughly $20,000. Yes, four zeroes—no typo there.

But is it really worth it?

The limited edition console has the same sleek design as the PlayStation 4 but comes in gray, the same color that the original console was in.

PlayStation 4 pays homage to original console

It also boasts the original PlayStation logo with gray controllers and even a matching camera, an addition that doesn’t come in your typical PlayStation 4 bundle.

The console also features a plate that lets buyers know exactly which console they received out of the 12,300 that are available and has small Xs, squares, triangles and Os engraved all over it.

For those who don’t know, those are symbols on the buttons of the PlayStation controller.

So is the gray PlayStation 4 really worth thousands of extra dollars?

For some gamers, the gray paint job isn’t enough to get excited about.

“As nice as it is, my initial hype dropped very quickly,” said one Engadget reader. “It’s a grey PS4… that’s it. Yes it’s rare and limited and all that, but what can it do than [sic] any other PS4 can’t?”

The reader went on to slam consumers as “total idiots” for dishing out so much extra cash for what some see as nothing more than a change in color.

Others just simply didn’t like the gray color at all and wished the limited edition console would have went a little outside the box with color choices.

For some gamers, however, the emotional attachment to that gray paintjob was well worth the extra money.

There is something about seeing the color of the original PlayStation slapped across the latest generation of the console that melts the hearts of those who are openly and honestly game-obsessed.

The gray color isn’t just about a difference in appearance in this case.

It’s about bringing up the pixelated memories of the early Street Fighter and Final Fantasy games, having a newfound respect for earthworms after playing Worms Armageddon, the nights spent tormented as a child after playing way too many hours of Silent Hill and Resident Evil and the time you nearly broke your television because you just couldn’t get past the second level of PaRappa the Rapper.

For those gamers, the limited edition console isn’t just painted gray, it’s honoring the emotional attachment that some have formed with the PlayStation brand as a whole.

“I love the nostalgia design-wise, our generation and those a bit before us can appreciate that,” said Marlon Tiller, an avid 22-year-old gamer who grew up with not only the latest PlayStation consoles but also the latest consoles from Xbox and Nintendo. “New kids are going to miss out. They’re definitely not gonna get it. For me, when I saw [the 20th anniversary edition console] I could hear the old PlayStation startup screen sound in my head.”

Of course, for those who are not nearly as attached to the console and never attempted to deliver a high kick to the back of their best friend’s head after playing Tekken, white and black PlayStation 4’s will still be sold at their usual price of roughly $400.

 

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How the Gaming Community Can Provide an Outlet to an ‘Outsider’

Here’s the truth: I’m scared. This fear is borne from a lack of cultural and individual identity, a haze of uncertainty within which my poetry is immersed. I often concede this fear to that of a common human need; that is, to belong. I was born in Georgetown, Guyana, and raised in Plaisance, Guyana, right in front of the Atlantic Ocean until the age of 9. I then moved to East Orange, New Jersey, of the United States. Guyana, for most who aren’t aware, is just about 50 percent Black and 50 percent Indian. I fell somewhere in between as a small percentage of the Indian population include a mix of Portuguese blood. This mix obviously left me with a bit of a culturally ambiguous look on my face at most parties. East Orange was a tremendous culture shock for me; my introduction to the United States was in an Abbott school district that was predominantly Black and below the poverty line. All this is to say, I’ve had to learn things on the fly about cultures that I borrowed from throughout my life and retained little to none of what cultural identity I can call my own. Enter gaming.

One of the major keystones in my life is being introduced to the modern computer (I use this term loosely) when I arrived in the United States. While I gamed at the arcade in Guyana wasting untold amounts of money playing Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Battletoads, I was christened as a gamer when I donned that Windows 3.11 PC that my uncle gave to me and my brother. This, however, was just the building block to an addiction that would wholly evolve throughout my formative years. Being a migrant with migrant parents, I obviously was not allowed to leave the house in this “strange land” that was my hood, so I ultimately withdrew into Destruction Derby and learning how to emulate GameBoy titles on my computer so that I could play Pokemon (both Red and Blue titles) on my computer while all of my friends traded Pokemon via their handhelds by day and I watched from the shadows with great envy.

What many would consider a secluded, sheltered and possibly unhealthy upbringing in gaming, I saw as both liberating and safe. Safe, in that I could ask the questions and work toward the answers for myself for the first time under the guise of gaming’s myopic lens.

Read more from Ian Khadan at blacknerdproblems.com

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The ’70s Comic ‘Shaft’ Gets a Well-Deserved Reboot

After months of waiting, the long-anticipated comic release of Dynamite Comic’s Shaft is upon us! The series reboot, written by David Walker, reintroduces the late Ernest Tidyman’s iconic character from the 1970s in a comic that gives a first-time exploration of the origins of John Shaft. Whether the name conjures images of Richard Roundtree’s afro and sideburns or Samuel L. Jackson playing his nephew in the 2000 sequel, the name is synonymous with toughness, badassery, and one of the best theme songs of all time.

Issue 1 begins in the criminal underbelly of New York City with a racially charged dialogue that sets the tone of the story. Junius Tate is the gangster who runs Harlem, only anyone who knows better understands it’s really his boss who runs the streets. Shaft knows better. Either way, as Shaft wraps up his hands to get into the boxing ring, he knows he has a decision: take a dive that Junius set up, or be a fighter that lays down for nobody. Which man would you expect John Shaft to be?

With references to Vietnam and a nod to Cassius Clay turned Muhammad Ali, Walker captures the climate while simultaneously revealing the man’s character developed through childhood, war and personal heroes. One of those heroes was Bamma Brooks. Bamma was the one who taught young Shaft to box, who taught him to never lie down for anybody. Imagine what it would do to your psyche to see that same man working for Junius Tate, the man paying you to take a fall and commanding you get tuned up in an alley after you refuse. These are the events that molded Shaft the man, to Shaft the legend.

If I had to choose a drawback to issue 1, I would only cite some expressionless faces. The artwork is great as a whole, except some fight scenes have characters whose faces look less like they’re fighting and more like they’re waiting for the crosstown bus. You might catch yourself staring at a panel wondering if you could ever look so stoic throwing a punch.

That aside, Shaft’s first issue has every sign of being an awesome series worth following closely. He makes his own decisions and faces each consequence. And the last page shows the insecurity you need as a reader to care for his character and cheer for him every step of the way: “Now, all I had to do was decide what to do with the rest of my life.” I’m excited.

Source: Jordan Calhoun at blacknerdproblems.com

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Hour of Code Prepares to Spark Millions of Young Students’ Interest in Computer Science

As the technology industry continues its rapid growth, tech giants are getting behind the annual Hour of Code to ensure that young people who have an interest in the field have access to the classes and resources they need to fill the millions of positions available for computer science experts.

There is still the general belief that the tech industry is a space reserved for nerdy white men—and after tech giants released their diversity reports earlier this year, it seemed as though there was some validity to that argument.

Companies like Google and Facebook had less than 2 percent Black employees, with hardly any in leadership positions. The companies also had a troubling lack of female employees.

The Hour of Code may be able to help improve these numbers.

Code.org, a non-profit that aims to get youth interested in computer science, launched the Hour of Code last December.

The event is supported by tech giants, local governments and schools across the nation, who all dedicate at least an hour to introducing young people to coding and computer science.

One of the tech giants getting behind the movement is Apple. Apple will be offering free coding classes for kids and adults at many of their retail locations on December 11.

For Apple senior VP of internet software and services, it’s exactly the type of international movement that the company loves to get behind.

“Education is part of Apple’s DNA and we believe this is a great way to inspire kids to discover technology,” Eddy Cue said.

While the annual worldwide event does not particularly reach out to marginalized groups, it does offer free resources that many Black youth would not have access to otherwise.

Such events have been promoted as viable solutions to the tech world’s massive diversity problem.

Last year’s Hour of Code was a huge success and managed to introduce roughly 15 million students to the world of technology and computer science.

The students also learned the basics of coding and collectively wrote more than 600 million lines of code, according to the Christian Science Monitor.

This year, Code.org hopes to reach at least 100 million students.

The Hour of Code already has been celebrated as the biggest educational event in history by several major news outlets and has been part of an even larger movement to get more schools in the United States to place more value on computer science classes.

Code.org’s website claims that more than 20 states in the U.S have school systems that don’t allow computer science classes to be counted towards the credits students need to graduate.

Code.org has been adamant about getting more schools to efficiently incorporate computer science classes in their K-12 curriculum.

Major progress has already been made, as more than a dozen states have updated their educational policies to give computer science classes a more prominent role in their programs.

From December 8-14, which is Computer Education Week, thousands of events will take place across the globe to get students interest in computer science. More information on all the events and companies supporting the movement can be found on the Hour of Code’s official website.