This is a great article showing the power of data analytics.
People assume that analyzing data involved huge amount of proprietary data that was gathered in sophisticated ways and stored in special silos with special Big Data analytics.
The reality is much different as proved by this example, all it takes is a list of 250 people along with their membership affiliations (yes/no) to discover groups and connecting nodes. Not surprisingly, Paul Revere pops up at the center of the graph 3 years before the revolution itself.
The more technical point here is the power of “Meta Data” meaning the information around the specific data. You can do quite a lot by watching a group of people interact without understanding/hearing what they are actually saying. With the vast amount of public information today, coupled with simple tools like Colabo and Tableau, you can learn a lot about your own company, competitors and customers.
