The Popularity of Data Analysis Software

開放原始碼的R語言在資料分析上的知名度及使用率近年已經大幅增加。以下只截取報告中最重要的部份。全文請見：http://r4stats.com/articles/popularity/

 

Surveys of Use

One way to estimate the relative popularity of data analysis software is though a survey. Rexer Analytics does a survey each year asking about tools used for data mining. The difference between software for classical data analysis software and data mining seems like more of a marketing concept than one based on any actual difference in analytic need. Figure 3 shows the results of just one “check all that apply” type question about the tools that respondents reported using in 2009 (the survey was taken in 2010).

Figure 3. Data mining/analytic tools reported in use on Rexer Analytics survey during 2009.

We see that R comes out on top, followed by SAS and SPSS. The entire report contained over 40 questions on topics such as algorithms used, fields, challenges, data, impact of the economy on the field, and more. More comprehensive results are available here. It’s interesting to note that SPSS and SAS are used more often than their more expensive products aimed specifically at data mining, SPSS IBM Modeler (formerly Clementine) and SAS Enterprise Miner. This data is two years old now and due to be updated soon.

The results of a similar survey done by the data mining web site KDnuggets in 2012 are shown in Figure 4. This one shows R in first place with 30.7% of users reporting having used it for a real project. Excel is almost as popular. It seems out of place among so many more capable packages, but Excel is a tool that almost everyone has and knows how to use.

It’s interesting to note that four of the top five packages used were open source. While open source packages are clearly playing a major role in analytics, people still reported using more commercial software (1086) than open source (927).

 

Figure 4. Percent of KDnuggets survey respondents that reported using software for analytics, data mining or big data project for 12 months prior to May 2012.

Cite in Lyx using Firefox + Zotero + Lyz

I have been using Lyx to mantain my CV. Knowig little about LaTeX and being lazy to learn LaTeX, I have been seeing Lyz as a friendly document editor on my desktop.

Then I learned how to use Zotero in 2010 and completed the migration from JabRef to Zotero.

Today I am using Lyz, a Firefox add-on that supplements Zotero to cite references in a Lyx document. Wonderful result. 

Here are the steps of how to get it done. Make sure you already are familiar with Lyx and Zotero and have installed Lyz in your Firefox. 

First, get basic setings done:

copy the pipe setting in Lyx and paste it to the setting of Lyz.

Step 2: select references you want to import to Lyx

Right click on the entries and click on "cite in Lyx". Suppose you like to put your citations in a separate bib file, say, test.bib, then let's create it.

Step 3: Insert the bib file into your Lyx document

Step 4: Insert references

Now you can insert references by right click on the entries selected in Zotero and see them show up in Lyx.

Here is the result:

Information Age: graduates driving industry adoption of R

Information Age: graduates driving industry adoption of R

Revolutions

Information Age recently published a feature article devoted to the R language, "Putting the R in analytics". Says author Pete Swabey:

Already popular in universities, there are signs that R is finding increasing adoption in the enterprise. This promises to lower the barriers of entry for advanced analytics, and may accelerate the mathemitisation of business management.

The article includes an overview of the history of R: its predecessor, the S language; the transition to open-source R; the pervasiveness of R in academia; and how this is driving an increasing rate of adoption in industry.

This popularity in academia means that R is being taught to statistics students, says Matthew Aldridge, co-founder of UK- based data analysis consultancy Mango Solutions. “We're seeing a lot of academic departments using R, versus SPSS which was what they always used to teach at university,” he says. “That means a lot of students are coming out with R skills.”

Finance and accounting advisory Deloitte, which uses R for various statistical analyses and to visualise data for presentations, has found this to be the case. “Many of the analytical hires coming out of school now have more experience with R than with SAS and SPSS, which was not the case years ago,” says Michael Petrillo, a senior project lead at Deloitte's New York branch.

Like many companies today, Deloitte needs to develop analytics with varied and large quantities of data, and is using Revolution R Enterprise for big-data analytics and API integration of R:

Deloitte is currently preparing a big data pilot using Revolution Analytics’ enhanced R product. “We are using the server-based version of Revolution R to investigate big data analysis capabilities,” says Petrillo.

“We are looking at integration options to [big data programming platform] Hadoop, as well as ability to integrate R code into other applications via a web services framework.”

I'm also quoted in the article discussing the big-data extensions of Revolution R Enterprise:

Smith argues that these enhancements are necessary if R is to be applied to ‘big data’, i.e. data whose volume, velocity and variability outstrip the capabilities of conventional relational databases.

For more on the history of R and its applications in business, read the complete article in Information Age at the link below.

Information Age: Putting the R in Analytics

Sent with Reeder

Survey in R course taught by Thomas Lumley at Statistics.com

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RBloggers/~3/owx_iNXu-1c/

I wish I have more time of learning skills of data analysis.

The Age of Big Data

By STEVE LOHR

GOOD with numbers? Fascinated by data? The sound you hear is opportunity knocking.

More people want to learn statistics

 

More people want to learn statistics

Published on FlowingData | shared via feedly

Data is hot right now, so as you would expect, more people are signing up and applying to learn about it. Quentin Hardy for The New York Times reports.

At North Carolina State, an advanced analytics program lasting 10 months has, since its founding in 2006, placed over 90 percent of its students annually. The average graduate’s starting salary for an entry-level job is $73,000. Its current class of 40 students had 185 applicants, and next year’s applications are already twice that. In 2009, Harvard awarded four undergraduate degrees in statistics. Two graduates went into finance, one to political polling and one became a substitute teacher. There were nine graduates in 2010, 13 last year. They headed into Google, biosciences and Wall Street, as well as Stanford's literature department.

And in 2011, just about everywhere.

[New York Times via @jsteeleeditor]

Feedly. Feed your mind. http://www.feedly.com

To-Do Lists Don't Work (blogs.hbr.org)

To-Do Lists Don't Work
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/01/to-do_lists_dont_work.html

R is definitely the future (for those who can learn with English).

I had witnessed one of the founders of SAS moved to R in 2003 when I was a graduate student.

Now I am watching that the founder of SPSS moved to R and founded a new company based on R. (take a look of the last page of the pdf and see the intro of the author and the company:
http://www.revolutionanalytics.com/why-revolution-r/whitepapers/The-Rise-of-Big-Data-Executive-Brief.pdf

Here is the slide that may also interest you:
http://www.revolutionanalytics.com/news-events/free-webinars/2011/big-data-analytics/Big-Analytics-Revolution-Starts-with-R.pdf

Using R in academics can become a common language in the coming years. I am glad that I am on this exciting track and believe that you will feel the same.
I am also going to share these progresses with my students in the data analysis course using R next semester.

60% of students say they wouldn’t attend a school without free WiFi

http://thenextweb.com/shareables/2011/12/20/60-of-students-say-they-wouldnt-attend-a-school-without-free-wifi/?awesm=tnw.to_1CJvX

哈佛大學社科院使用網路調查預測美國2012總統大選

Harvard poll predicts Obama loss