Today, I (Sean Power) announced that I’ll be leading Cheezburger’s data efforts as “data scientist”. Nearly three years of consulting has given me a great overview of the state of startups today, and I’ll be sad to stop working with many of the great companies in silicon valley and beyond. However, it’s finally time for me to join forces with a company that has found its product/market fit. Here’s why:
“Big Data” is a term thrown around a lot these days and yet holds so many different definitions in often similar contexts. It usually comes hand in hand with the word clouds, the word analytics, the words “statistics” and “mathematics”, and many other qualifiers.
Much has been said about the practice of data science. I’m partial to what Mike Loukides wrote on the topic,
The truth is that there’s no definition that quite sticks when it comes to the role of a data scientist. With Tim O’Reilly and Reid Hoffman calling this era of computing the era of data, I also believe that we live in an unprecedented era of innovation around data. I decided that I want to be in the heart of the action, on the center stage.
I’ll be working with lots of data. Cheezburger’s data is sizeable. Over a month, we’ll see things like 19 million people. 400 million page views. 110 million videos. That’s a decent amount of data exhaust to tame. And I’ll be working to find, define and refine my identity in the ‘big data space’ as I help Cheezburger with theirs.
You’ll notice more activity from me on this site, as I blog about some of the challenges, successes and losses that we’ll encounter. I’ll do my best to be as transparent as possible in hopes that I’ll help others save time and frustration. Hopefully, I’ll be able to learn from those of you that have paved the way already. With folks like Bob Page and Lauren Moores having cut the trees and made a path, and others like Hilary Mason paving the way, “big data” is poised to deliver game changing insights and products.
I’ll also be announcing some really exciting stuff that all of us will be able to benefit from in the data community.
Stay tuned.
