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Starting out with IBM Smarter analytics is really easy.
1)Go to IBM AnalyticsZone and download IBM Cognos Insight. It is a free download.

2) Install IBM Cognos Insight, or let your five-year old do it, it is that easy.
3) Bring up IBM Cognos Insight (See next chart)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4) Note that IBM Cognos Insight has a drag and drop interface.
5) Now all we have to do is find a data source
6) Here are some sites with interesting data sources:
    data.gov

    HealthData.gov

    San Francisco Data

    Palo Alto Open Data

 

There are obviously many many more. 

Tell us if you have any favorites.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 From data.gov we select a dataset showing electrical consumption by zip code in New York City in csv format.

We download it and drag and drop it onto Cognos Insight.

 

The result is shown on the left. We get the original data plus a graph that we can then drill down into.

We also quickly learn the importance of having internally consistent data.

Cognos Insight can handle a number of different data formats, such as xls, csv, asc, cma, report, tab, etc, but it expects the data to be consistent.

Cognos Insight gives us an easy and informative insight into the new field of Smarter Analytics. This is how we will work in the not too distant future. There will be data providers that will aggregate and curate data, like data.gov . It will then be an easy step to subscribe to their data feeds and then launch our analytics tool on the data.

This is what Nate Silver's bestseller The Signal and the Noise is all about.

More about Smarter Analytics from IBM on this link.

The only thing you need to get started is a computer and a five-year old. It is that simple.

Let us know if you have any questions.
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