You might have heard this term thrown about a bit recently. Perhaps it's because you've heard politicians referring to it when discussing educational reform, or you've noticed how your job has you doing more with spreadsheets than you did five years ago. What ever...
What is algorithmic bias? A systematic error in computer algorithms which leads to unfair outcomes and giving privileges to one of the groups of users over all others. An algorithm is a set of instructions designed to perform a specific task. This can be a simple...
I've spent the last 8 years of my life surrounded by data nerds, and while I've learned so many new things about data, I can not even pretend I'm a data nerd myself. An enthusiast for sure, but a nerd... no way! I lack what my peers would consider the hammer and...
Kia ora koutou and welcome to the last OptimalBI newsletter of 2019 - hasn't this year flown by! We have enjoyed supporting our customers to create amazing outcomes for their organisations this year with a range of really interesting projects - payment integration,...
Have you ever needed data for a work or academic project? If so, are there any good sites on the internet where you can easily access data? I have had to complete several projects at work where I had to build reports in various BI tool (Qlik and PowerBI). I needed to...
This month OptimalBI is hosting a Data Science Pioneers documentary screening. The first screening was crowded and the rest of the sessions are booking up very quickly, so you might have heard about it already. I'm guessing, the selling point (although it's completely...
Join us for the first public screening of this documentary in New Zealand. Cut through the hype and see what is means to be a data scientist. Featuring our very own Shaun McGirr, now Head of Data Science and Business Intelligence at Cox Automotive UK, this one hour...
Here at OptimalBI we love data, and we get upset when it's only piled and doesn't produce value. Like many others who have a website, we use Google Analytics to collect its statistics. This is valuable marketing data, so we want to make use of it and help our...
It's been an eventful few weeks news wise with many high profile organisations admitting to their algorithms containing bias, even our government have opened the door a wee crack acknowledging there might be an issue within their programmes. Here is a summary of whats...
If my reading is in any way accurate (my own version of sample preparation bias) there are nearly 200 varieties of bias. What does this say about our decisions made so far? Cognitive bias tricks people into spending money now rather than saving for the unknown...