communication

Failure to communicate with the Boomers

April 2, 2010

Why do creative data analysts meet resistance? I’ve written about them before: many are young, they’re smart, and their credentials might still be slim. But they’re still a value to their employers, no matter who knows it yet. At least some of it’s about Boomers vs. the up-and-comers. One corporate communications consultant I talked to, [...]

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Less than meets the ear

April 8, 2009

Last week, SAS Institute did what few other rearrangers of jargon have done: They got attention — in the way fashion hounds do. They’d like to replace “business intelligence” with “business analytics.” Why? Because “business intelligence is not “where the future is.” Last year’s styles are never next year’s. Sooner or later, all clothes, cars [...]

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It could be porn

March 3, 2008

What’s a spam filter to do? Netezza just wanted to tell the world about Helzberg Diamonds choosing the Netezza Performance Server appliance. Netezza’s writer must have put diamonds together with enterprise data warehouse. Voilà, “rock hard” EDW, and the email blast lifts off! Instant spam. See the press release.

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Pay no attention to that little product behind the jargon

March 3, 2008

A trade pub dear to my heart praised the healthy “buzz” at February’s TDWI conference. Yeah, but some of it sounded an ungrounded circuit. So much jargon, so little meaning. Kevin Brown of Tableau Software and I were talking about it. He said, “Marketing should be simple.” For example, “if you don’t give the price [...]

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How one keynoter distracted everyone from breakfast

February 28, 2008

I was half asleep as the TDWI keynote warmed up early last Thursday morning. Bob Paladino is not a bad speaker, but at first the good scrambled eggs and coffee were better. Then he got into the Southwest Airlines story, and I looked up. The five guys at my table also looked up. They picked [...]

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Why IT guys write that way

January 28, 2008

“IT Guy” hits the spot with his response to Ann All’s post “Translate IT into English for Big Business Benefits.”

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