Now the mayor, working with a group known as Data-Driven Detroit (D3), is planning to make major changes including razing buildings (lots of them) and moving neighborhoods according to a report on NPR. According to D3, “26% of the city’s residential parcels – or 91,000 lots – are now vacant.”

The Detroit Free Press put together a dramatic visual presentation of some highlights from the data analysis including the illustration shown here.

What the mayor has put forth is a bold plan but one sure to run into opposition from people with ties to the status quo. Once again, data will but heads with emotions — and both have a role to play in revitalization.

What is striking from our perspective is how analytical the approach and plan have been. D3 aims to be a comprehensive source of data about Detroit and is open to collaborating with a wide range of entities. The plan which has emerged is interesting in that it deviates so much from typical redevelopment plans that center on a government investment in a major structure — a convention center or stadium, for example — and then a series of deals an incentives to attract private developers to add hotels, retail space, and residences. Detroit is a city on the brink and perhaps that is what inspired people to take a comprehensive macro view and rethink everything.

What do you think? Would you like to see a similar comprehensive, data-driven approach taken to planning in your city?

That’s exactly what we have courtesy of Focus, Inc. by way of Mashable (follow the link to see the entire graphic). Dramatic graphics like this one can be powerful communication tools as well as catalysts of conversation. It can also give a group a common reference point.

As analytics pros, we have to constantly be looking at new ways to draw others into the discussion about the insights to be found in our data. Making your data and analysis digestible will make it easier for executives to integrate into their decision making processes. Compelling graphics put the power of visual storytelling in your arsenal.

Have you used infographics or other graphic devices to communicate? What’s your favorite visual representation of data?

Professor Tom Davenport

The IIA will be hosting a complimentary, members-only “office hours” webcast on the first Wednesday of each month starting with March 3 from 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. (US Eastern). This month, Professor Tom Davenport will follow up on his successful Harvard Business Review webcast by answering some of the questions that he didn’t get to there and others that you put on the table. This is your chance to get answers to your most pressing challenges.

Jack Phillips of the IIA will also be on hand to answer questions about membership benefits, upcoming activities, and related matters.

Our monthly “Office Hours” webcasts are just one more way that we help you engage with leading analytics researchers and practitioners. Have an idea of someone you’d like us to invite for an “Office Hours” broadcast? Leave a comment below and well put them on our list for hot pursuit.

Instructions for how to log in to the March 3 broadcast are posted in the Members’ Area of the site. Not a member yet? Sign up today and get all of the benefits that the IIA has to offer.

A recent report called some crime cutting attributed to CompStat in question by suggesting that those field commanders have gamed the system for years: they would, according to the report, downgrade crimes so that their stats would look better.

In today’s New York Times, Bratton launched a masterful counter-attack that serves as a model for anyone who has to defend their data.

First, he reminds us of CompStat’s original goals as well as its ancillary benefits and it’s successful use by other police forces:

“CompStat has been adopted with great success around the world. It is not merely an accountability device; it is a communications tool that keeps commanders aware of innovations in other precincts and a management development tool that enables leadership to identify their best mid-level officers.”

Then he offers a fresh take on the data that quickly  – and objectively – refutes the claim in the critical report:

“First, categories of crime that are nearly impossible to downgrade, notably homicide and auto theft, have declined much more than the categories that might be more readily manipulated.”

Third, he points out how hard it would be for the alleged manipulation to have been sustained over a long period of time:

“Each successive commander would have to do the same for the statistics to stand — or manage the extraordinary feat of not only reducing crime further, but also accomplishing the reductions that his predecessor falsely claimed.”

Finally, he challenges the data of the critics:

“Moreover, not one respondent admitted to downgrading crime; if it were a widespread practice, one would expect that at least a handful of the 491 people surveyed would anonymously admit that they had engaged in it.”

Bratton’s refutation of his critics in thorough, well-constructed, and reliant on logical argument rather than emotional pleas or a spirited defense of himself. One would expect no less from the man who developed and evangelized the CompStat system. It is useful to deconstruct his op-ed and take from it lessons you may be able to use when next you have to defend you data. The full piece is worth a read.

Just a few weeks away is the INFORMS Practice Conference being held in Orlando on April 18 – 20. Mark Shafer, SVP of Revenue Management at Disney Parks & Resorts will be a keynoter as will Richard O’Neill, Chief Economic Advisor at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

“In 1962, Ed Thorp became every gambler’s favorite mathematician when he published the first mathematically proven method for beating the dealer at blackjack.

Thorp’s work revolutionized the game. But he went further: In 1967, Thorp devised a system that uses math and computers to predict the future of the stock market. His hedge funds and his personal portfolio have been profitable ever since,” the introduction begins.

Gross, one of the best interviewers anywhere, leads a fascinating look at Thorp’s “career” in the casino and his more lasting impact on the financial markets — for better and worse. Thorp calls Wall Street the “biggest casino in the world.”

Patterson’s book chronicles the rise of the quants on Wall Street and the ways in which Thorp and others brought analytics to be a primary driver of decision making in the markets.

Download the podcast here.

The one-hour program attracted more than 1,200 participants and was made possible through underwriting by SAS.

While the iPad met with many oohs-and-ahhhs, some yawns, and some derision over the name, it is likely a harbinger not just of the path of future devices but also our interaction with data, particularly visual data. Kevin Paul Yapjoco has written about this eloquently on his blog, Analytics Bits:

“How can a consumer-oriented device such as the iPad be used for analyzing business data?”, you might ask. If you haven’t seen the Numbers app being demoed by Phil Schiller during the unveling of the iPad (it’s at 1h 6m), go see it first and come back here.

Not long ago, I’ve written about how tablet computing can usher in a new generation of applications for visually interactive Business Intelligence. I wrote that one of the missing pieces was not just a tablet computer such as the iPad but software designed for a tablet platform from the ground-up.

Apple, with its iPad, has set the stage for the next-generation method of interacting and consuming business data.

Well, that may be stretching things just a bit. I think that the stage was set by CNN during the last election cycle when its reporters, John King in particular, could take multiple dives into reams of data with a few touches and drags of his fingers on an interactive screen (here he is more recently analyzing State of the Union address tweets). Want to know how left-handed women were voting in DeKalb County at 7 p.m.? It seemed that King could give you the answer in a nano-second.

What the iPad has done, as Apple has done so well before with the iPod, iTouch, and iPhone, is bring forward a technology packaged in such a way that it fires the popular imagination. Apple is exceptional at making technology both accessible and limitless. They democratize the spectacular. They let us all hold the magic wand. Watch someone who, even now, gets their first iPhone: they can’t put it down. They want to show you all of the apps your other iPhone addicted friends and colleagues have already shown you months earlier. They want to do everything with it.

It is somewhat reminiscent of what the spreadsheet did a couple of decades ago (albeit in frumpy school marm fashion rather than with Lady Gaga-ish glitz): it let lots of people play with calculations and data. The iPad and the applications that are developed for it will do the same for visual data.

What does this mean for analytics pros? First it means you need to ramp up your ability to visualize data (several previous posts on this topic are a great place to start). Second, you need to manage the expectations as what you can, and cannot, deliver.  If your CEO or other senior business leader gets their hand on an iPad and begins to see data (any data) beautifully displayed, you had best be ready. You might want to find some resources that can help you visualize data as appropriate and talk to your software vendors to see if they are planning any iApps of which you can take advantage. Third, keep your eyes on this topic as it evolves.

Are you finding more requests for visual data? Have you already signed up to get an iPad? Are you already deploying data and analysis through apps for the iPhone, Blackberry or other device?

Founders Steve Papa and Peter Bell, however, told the Boston Globe that they see the future of the company in helping their client companies make sense of all of the information the company has merged with all that can be found on the Internet. In short, they are diving into business intelligence and analytics. They aren’t the only ones in the market: Attivio is in the space and Microsoft acquired Fast Search & Transfer in 2008 for a cool $1.2 billion.

“With more information in our lives, we need new ways to look at it,” Papa told the Globe. He says that Endeca’s software can “present data about sales or supply chains or new product development as charts, graphs, and tag clouds.”

Of course those of us in analytics are well aware of many powerful tools for making sense of data. What is interesting here is the company’s approach to merging the creation of data through search, integrating that information into a larger data set, and providing tools for analyzing it. They make it easier for both consumers and clients to create value through the use of different views into the data.

Google, of course, does variations on this although Endeca is a traditionally structured enterprise application rather than something that lives in the cloud, and Google’s search algorithms aren’t customized by the companies on which they search.

What do you think? Is it inevitable that search — perhaps the ultimate channel for generating data about consumer interests and preferences — come together with business intelligence and analytics tools? Or will focused players like SAS and others always have an advantage in providing the applications crunch the data and present in ways that foster better, more agile decision making? Do companies that try to do both risk diluting their ability to be the best at either side of the equation?

Let us hear from you!

52% believe they can achieve the impact with the same level of spending, and 45% will be spending more. Some of the increased spending will go for hardware and software, but services and people seem to be the greatest spending priority.

52% of respondents say that their organizations plan to add permanent, in-house analytics staff, while 21% will add contingent analytical labor and the same percentage will outsource.

Technical challenges—“getting the right systems in place”—are the greatest issue cited by the survey respondents, followed by getting enough budgetary resources and increasing the organizational use and support of analytics from management.

In terms of application areas to be emphasized in 2010, the survey yielded a surprise—the greatest focus will be on analytics for sustainability and corporate citizenship efforts, followed by marketing/media analytics and workforce analytics. Certainly sustainability issues have not received the bulk of analytical attention in the past.

“Helping you develop as a leader” was first among members’ priorities for IIA, followed by reviews and ratings of analytical tools and professional networking.

Expect the IIA to employ webcasts as a delivery channel, since that was the most-desired event type.

Of course, the sample size of members responding was small—29—and not random. However, there’s no reason to suspect that these members would be more optimistic than average. Perhaps the combination of an improving economy and an increased awareness of analytical capabilities will make 2010 a banner year.

And congratulations to our Amazon.com gift card winners: Victor Lo, Jim Agnew, Geoffrey Smith, and Kurt Thierling.