With the 2010 (football/soccer) World Cup well underway, it's only a matter of time before some teams will have to face the heartbreak of leaving the competition due to a missed penalty. In the "knockout" stages of a football competition each match must produce a winner. If the teams have scored equal number of goals (after additional playing time), the game will be decided on "penalties". A … [Read more...]
Frontier Analyst PowerTrain released
Decision Mechanics have been working with Banxia Software to develop Frontier Analyst PowerTrain. Frontier Analyst PowerTrain is a data envelopment analysis solution engine that can be deployed as a web service. It is designed for those who wish to utilize efficiency analysis capabilities as part of a larger web/intranet/mobile application. The engine is designed to be deployed on application … [Read more...]
Decision Mechanics participate in Aid Information Challenge "hackday"
Last week, Decision Mechanics participated in a "hackday" run by Aid Information Challenge. A hackday is formed from the following ingredients: problem owners; data analysts and visualizers; software developers; and coffee, pizza, doughnuts and beer. Partipants volunteer a day of their time to come together at a common location—in this case it was the Guardian newspaper offices in … [Read more...]
98% of all statistics are false
Science News published a great article on the use and abuse of statistics this week. "Odds Are, It's Wrong", by Tom Siegfried, highlights some of the problems associated with testing hypotheses using statistical methods. These problems are well known within the statistics community, with "hundreds" of papers having been written on the subject. As Siegfried pithily observes, "if you believe what … [Read more...]
Does my organization exist without an iPhone app?
With industry panels claiming that unless companies have an iPhone app they "don't exist" it's hardly surprising that senior managers are asking the question, "Does my organization need an iPhone app?" Information is increasingly accessed via smartphones. That's in no doubt. But does this mean that you need to rush out and build a smartphone version of your corporate … [Read more...]