Yili Hong | Course Blog on Data Analytics

Author Archive

www.ookong.com

May 17, 2012 | Author Yili Hong

I’ve also been serving as an external consultant for www.ookong.com for their business strategies. It is an interesting website, maybe useful for your online shopping at Amazon.com!

Ookong provides users with a detailed monitoring tool for Amazon purchases. Users can select an item on Amazon and watch it through Ookong. Ookong provides the user with price history so they can see the highest and lowest prices for that item. The user can also set up notifications that will alert them when the Amazon price goes down. Easy to read graphs depict Amazon’s pricing as well as the prices found for the same item on third party websites. The Ookong homepage includes a list of the most popular items with a thumbnail of their price graph and link to the item’s page for more in depth information. Ookong users can also install the application’s browser add on for Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari and Opera browsers.

Visit www.ookong.com

What is the history and popularity of the app?

Ookong was founded in June of 2009 by Jay Wang and Wenbin Ye. The team is currently based out of Garland, Texas and includes President Connie Xu. The application was created as a social shopping service that enabled users to follow a product to see how its price fluctuates. Today, Ookong is equipped with many valuable tools that help users monitor products and see what their friends are watching as well.

Posted in My Research on Data Analytics | Comments Closed

www.freelancer.com

May 17, 2012 | Author Yili Hong

For the past couple of years, I’ve been consulting this company: www.freelancer.com, to help them use firm generated big data to refine their feedback systems.

Freelancer.com is one of the largest firm that provides a marketplace for services (especially IT services) outsourcing. Current CEO of the company is Matthew Barrie.

My two working papers on consumer welfare and pricing strategy related to this firm can be downloaded here:

Consumer Welfare

Pricing Strategy

We are presenting this big data project on May 21st at Temple Big Data Symposium, you are welcome to the symposium if interested.

Temple “Big Data” Symposium

Monday, May 21, 2012, 12-6pm – Shusterman Hall, Liacouras Walk

SCHEDULE

12:00pm Lunch

12:45pm Opening Remarks

1:00pm Session 1: Practical Applications and Best Practices with Big Data

Youngjin Yoo, Robert Kulathinal, Sunil Wattal: “Designing 21^st Century Organizations”

Munir Mandviwalla, David Schuff, Sunil Wattal: “The Campaign Media Ecosystem”

Yili Hong, Paul A. Pavlou: “Big Data in Online Markets for Outsourcing of IT Services”

2:00pm Session 2: Statistical Solutions for Big Data

Sanat Sarkar and Nicolle Clements: “High-dimensional Multiple Testing”

Neeraj Bharadwaj and Yuexiao Dong: “In Search of What Counts in Big Datasets”

2:45pm Coffee Break

3:15pm Session 3: Technical Solutions for Big Data

Jie Wu and Chiu C. Tan: “CIS Big Data Research”

Alexander Yates: “Data Mining and Information Retrieval with Web Data”

4:00pm Panel: “Emerging Opportunities and Challenges of Big Data”

Pallavi Chitturi (Center of Statistical Analysis, Statistics Department)

Jennifer Gordon (Department of Neuroscience, School of Medicine)

Keith Latham and Carmen Sapienza (Fels Institute for Cancer Research)

5:00pm Networking Reception

The symposium is sponsored by the Institute for Business & Information Technology (IBIT) housed at the Fox School of Business.

Posted in My Research on Data Analytics | Comments Closed

Creating a SAS Account (Enterprise Miner)

May 15, 2012 | Author Yili Hong

We will be working with SAS Enterprise Miner tool for the Data Analytics part. To do this, you need to create an account with SAS. The instructions are provided here (click here).

The registration is free but it takes SAS a couple of days to approve your account (and verify that you are a student). So make sure to complete your registration AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

SAS OnDemand requires that you have the Java Runtime Environment installed on your computer. The labs have this, but your home PC may not.

Mac users: Java should come pre-installed with OSX. Check here for more information.

So first, get the right version of the Java environment here (you can also get it from the Java web site by going through the setup instructions, but this is easier).

Then follow the instructions step-by-step to create your account. It’s not difficult, but there are a lot of steps and you must follow them carefully.

Feel free to email me if you have any questions.

Kevin

Posted in Syllabus and Guidelines | Comments Closed

Data, Data, Data

May 15, 2012 | Author Yili Hong

Here are a few articles from the Economist highlighting the opportunities and challenges of data.

1. Data, data everywhere

2. The data deluge

3. Leveling the playing field

Posted in Useful Reference and Websites | Comments Closed

How to use this course blog / online community

May 14, 2012 | Author Yili Hong

Hey All,

Here are some tips to follow while posting on the course blog:

1.Participation mainly consists of writing a comment on a blog post (such as lecture materials, news articles, and questions)

2. You’ll need to login using your accessnet id and password to leave a comment.

3. Read others’ comments before posting your own comment and avoid unnecessary repetitions.

4. Avoid copy and pasting or quoting verbatim from the internet. Try to paraphrase in your own words.

5. Comments will be disabled for posts older than 14 days.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Kevin

Posted in Announcements | Comments Closed

Welcome to MIS2502 Summer I Session!

May 14, 2012 | Author Yili Hong

Hi All,
This is Kevin and I’ll be your instructor for MIS2502. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome all of you to the course, and hope that you enjoy your time in this class while learning about the unique opportunities provided by data analytics to enhance firms’ competitiveness.

A copy of the syllabus is posted on the blog. Please take a moment to read it and familiarize yourself with the content and format of the course. The syllabus is subject to updates and modifications as the course progresses, and I’ll announce any changes to the syllabus in class.

Here are a couple of announcements for now:

1. There is no required textbook for the course. The main mode of teaching is lectures, in-class exercises, and computer labs.

2. We’ll use a course blog instead of the blackboard. The URL for is http://community.mis.temple.edu/mis2502sec012s12 . All announcements, lecture slides, assignments, grades and other course related material will be posted on the course blog and not on the blackboard.

Please feel free to contact me in case of any questions. I’ll look forward to seeing you on Monday.
Kevin

Posted in Announcements | Comments Closed

May 21: Things You Can Do With Data and Information Architecture

May 14, 2012 | Author Yili Hong

Here are the slides for the first lecture on data.

Another slide on Information Architecture will also be discussed. please read the slides before class so you have a general idea of what we will be talking about.

It turned out we have only about 6 weeks instead of 13-14 weeks for regular sessions, so we need to condense the class – therefore two lectures on data and information of a firm will be discussed on May 21. Yes we have a challenge, but I believe with hard work and active teaching and learning, you will rise to the challenge!

I also posted couple of interesting article from magazines about why data is so important, and how data can enhance firm decision making and competitive advantage.

Posted in Lecture Material | Comments Closed

Class 1

May 14, 2012 | Author Yili Hong

Answer one of the following questions as a comment on this post.

What do you think is more important to an organization: data or information (don’t say “both” – choose one!!)? Explain why.
Give an example in your own experience where you saw data turned into information. For example, Amazon takes individual purchases (data) makes suggestions about what you might want to buy (information).
Have you ever used data to make informed decisions? For example, when you buy things on Amazon or eBay?