Data Reliance
It’s definitely difficult to escape the heavy role that data plays in our daily lives.
While I consider my current occupation a (meager) student and current job-hunter, I still find myself relying upon a plethora of data sources and hard data with which to make decisions about my job hunt. From data from corporate partners and recruiting pamphlets (more qualitative data), to specific questionnaires which try to put me into specific quantitative buckets (such as what is my GPA, years of work experience, etc.), I constantly have to broadcast myself based on very specific data points.
This can be especially difficult to do when GPA is a standard basis and replicable across multiple student profiles – so I find myself broadcasting very qualitative data points into the social media channels I participate in to fill in the quantitative gaps. From LinkedIn, Twitter, personal blogs, and even this MIS Community site (hello, Temple!), I rely upon these (self-controlled!) electronic profiles to demonstrate to future employers whether I am a qualified employee candidate.
However, it truly is this mix of quantitative and qualitative data which shapes me into the student/job-candidate that I am.
Upon which types of data do you rely?
How To Spend Your Free Time Productively
Every day a number of outstanding events cross my radar, and every single one leaves me wishing I had more time in the day to attend them all!
From start-up pitch weekends, to geekawards, to technology conferences – how do you choose which ones to attend?
Obviously, it’s usually a matter of what network you want to be a part of. For myself, I’m interested in getting involved with the Philadelphia tech start-up scene – or, for you locals, becoming part of the “N3RD” street crew (cute, I know).
The following is my top list of upcoming events (both large and small) that you might want to take a look into. Also included is a list of local meetups which are more frequent and less binding for those of you afraid of commitment! 
Speaker Series Events
Fast Forward Philly: 10/10/12
What’s next for Philly? You’ve explored Philadelphia by foot, bike, bus, and train; through food, music, art, and design; in work, play, and a thousand other ways. You may have dreamed about what could be next — for your community, your industry, and for this great city…but have you shared that vision with anyone else?
Corporate Speaker Series: IT leaders/professionals as Strategic and Transformative Business Partner: 10/17/12
How has the skill set for technology professionals changed and what are the important skills and experiences necessary for success?
Conferences
Big Data Conference: 9/27/12
We define big data broadly to include enterprise analytics, social media analytics, as well as extracting value from structured and unstructured data. The conference is organized around specific, practical examples, best practices, and state-of-the-art applications that demonstrate business value. Topics include fraud detection, customer trends, safety and compliance, media impact, and others.
The Future of Technology Disruption in Business: 10/27/12
Each year, the Fox Graduate Student Association conference focuses on one theme around various “big picture” topics. To address the theme we boast a variety of platforms, such as lectures, panelists, break-out sessions and round-table discussions. The intention of each platform is to engage in learning and discuss the conference theme through a variety of lenses – the individual, the company, the economy at- large – and for a variety of stakeholders – current students, alumni, Fox and non-Fox associated individuals, the wider Philadelphia public.
Philly StartUp Weekend: 9/28-30/12
Startup Weekend is a global grassroots movement of active and empowered entrepreneurs who are learning the basics of founding startups and launching successful ventures. It is the largest community of passionate entrepreneurs with over 400 past events in 100 countries around the world in 2011.
Lean Startup Machine: 9/21-23/12
Lean Startup Machine is a three-day workshop where attendees use Customer Development and Lean Startup principles to validate an idea for a new product or service.
IMPACT 2012 Venture Summit: 11/7-8/12
Greater Philadelphia’s Alliance for Capital and Technology’s (PACT) annual venture conference, IMPACT, is the most established venture conference in the northeast. For over 20 years, IMPACT has been showcasing the best and most promising investment opportunities in the Technology, Healthcare, and Clean Technology sectors.
MeetUps
Crowdsourcing Change: Helping 3 local organizations use social web: 9/4/12
Each presenting organization shares how they’re using online marketing and the social web to achieve their goals and objectives. Then the crowd (that’s you!) participates in a facilitated discussion about how each organization may use the social web to even greater effect.
Girl Develop IT: Rolling
It can be intimidating for women to learn and ask questions when they are in an extreme minority. While open and welcoming, today’s budding developer community is up to 91% male. There isn’t a comfortable place where women can learn at their own pace and not be afraid to ask “stupid questions.” We decided it was time to provide a place where all questions are OK and everyone can learn in a supportive environment. Our courses focus on coding, leveraging existing technology, and having something to show for it (aka building sweet websites). Stay tuned to this meetup for upcoming scheduled classes.
Philly Tech MeetUp: Rolling
Philly Tech Meetup convenes technologists, entrepreneurs, investors and the broader innovation community regularly to learn and share. Each month, hundreds of innovators gather to see demos, launch products and meet their future co-founders, partners and funders.
Have an upcoming event or meetup opportunity you’d like to share? Email me or leave a comment below!
Topics of Conversation
I’m a visual person.
It’s true. I like building presentations and visually representing text and numbers. I find it easier to relate to.
I was curious today to see what topics I’ve generally been writing about, and what language I’ve been using to explain ITM and this blog. Well, Wordle has a program for that!
Below is the visual representation of this blog and what I’ve been writing. (Spoiler Alert: I’m interested in Business!)
What other topics would you like to read about here? Send me a message or comment below!
IT is Creative!
Just a quick thought as I move from office to office:
I wrote last week about an idea for companies to remain competitive, they need to adopt new technologies to automate best practices in the work space (see “Automate or Perish”). However, I didn’t think about the first requirement before companies can even reach the process of automation: Innovation. Companies must invest in and foster innovation, and build a culture of creativity before they can begin to think about automation.
IT has a bad reputation for being blandly analytical, focused on the hard data, down in the trenches. But even though IT departments build systems and automate processes, does this not require a certain level of creativity and innovation? How do organizations, especially those with legacy systems and inherited (read: grossly outdated) processes, encourage and develop employees to be creative and innovative?
Sometimes the answer is simply to employ a program whereby employees submit projects, ideas, or full proposals to try something new. An open forum works well too. A dedicated innovation budget – no matter how small – is a necessary inclusion.
If you are in a leadership role within a technology company, make sure that you encourage your team to bring new ideas and projects to the table. Remember that, as Thomas Edison found, there will be many ways not to create the next best thing, but it takes those attempts to rule out failing options. There must be investment – even in the small research projects – into innovation and creativity in IT.
Jessica Samph
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