The Measurement Standard: Blog Edition

Popeye, Spinach, and the Persistence of Data Errors

Today in delancyplace comes a lesson on the spread and persistence of erroneous information. It's an excerpt from Samuel Arbesman's book "The Half-Life of Facts: Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date" that features Popeye. Yes, the cartoon sailor man who kept getting into trouble, then downing a can of spinach to give him jolt of super strength:

"I'm strong to the finish 'cause I eat my spinach... I'm Popeye the Sailor Man!"

Popeye's spinach habit can be traced to an data recording error in 1870 by Erich von Wolf, a German chemist. Von Wolf measured the amount of iron in spinach, but, when transcribing his data he accidentally misplaced a decimal point, raising the iron content in spinach by an order of magnitude.

Measuring the Value of Apple's Brand with Crime and Consumption

Apple charges more for its products because they are designed better and work better. And they are worth it. Right? How do we know? Here are two recent clues. Today, Business Insider published this chart, showing that iOS users earn more and spend more than users of other phone operating systems. So, do they spend money for better products, or do they just spend more money? Here's another clue: The NYTimes reports that crime is down in the Big Apple, except for Apple devices, for which thefts are up. To sum up: Criminals and wealthier people prefer Apple products. Is that the measure of a brand's worth? -- Bill Paarlberg, Editor

This Week's Articles and News for the Measurement-Inclined

Recent measurement-related articles from a variety of sources:

Smoking Bans Dramatically Reduce Hospitalizations, Reduce Health Care Costs: heart attacks(15%), strokes (16%), respiratory disease (24%).

Five Thirty Eight Blog Swing State Tracker: The tale of the race for President where it's closest -- and it's going to be a close one indeed.

Scientific American on Dealing with False Information and "De-biasing"

From Scientific American: "Diss Information: Is There a Way to Stop Popular Falsehoods from Morphing into "Facts"?" It's about why people persist in believing "facts" that aren't true, and new methods to deal with this phenonmena.

The chart to the left is not from the article, but makes a good illustration here, considering many of the "facts" that people believe. Read the article.

(A big thanks to Frank Walton for the tip. And thanks to World Public Opinion for the chart.)

-- Bill Paarlberg, editor  

Which Country Uses the Internet Best?

Here's a thought-provoking infographic from Online Education Database. Which country uses the Internet best? Turns out it's Sweden, if you define "best" as they did in this study. The image to the left is just a fraction of the whole thing, click on it or here to see it all.

There are lots more interesting infographics and resources at OED, including:

• 40 Pinterest Pins for Proud Grammar Nerds
• 11 Most Surprising Items You Can Check Out of a Library
• 75 Biographies to Read Before You Die

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The "How-Do-You-Like-Your-Eggs?" Personality Assessment

Here's some data mining news to go with your breakfast: A person's way of eating eggs 'can predict personality type' : 

"Using sophisticated maths and a process known as data mining, scientists have uncovered a statistical relationship between a person's character, lifestyle and social class and whether they like their eggs boiled, fried, scrambled or as an omelette."

Myself, I like fried eggs, but scrambled is good, too. Read the article here. --Bill Paarlberg, editor

Why Your Next Laptop Will Be a Tablet: Business Insider

The Business Insider has an informative and fascinating group of charts and tables on tablet usage: “Everything You Need to Know about Tablets In 15 Simple Charts.”

Bet you didn’t know that the tablet business is supposed to grow almost 300% this year. Or that about 1/3 of the cost of a tablet is in the screen.

Based on Jefferies analyst Peter Misek's new report, these charts document the present and predict the future of the tablet industry. And probably your future, too.

--WTP

News Flash: Data-driven Decision Making Means Greater Business Productivity

It is so gratifying to learn that the rest of the world is catching up to what us measurement geeks have known for decades: Businesses are more productive when they make decisions based on data, rather than experience or intuition.

Today in The New York Times, Steve Lohr's article When There's No Such Thing As Too Much Data reveals the results of  new research led by Erik Brynjolfsson that demonstrates that data-driven decision-making results in a 5 to 6 percent increase in productivity over decisions made by intuition or experience.

Summing up the study, (in language that PR measurement writers have been using for decades) Mr Lohr writes:

The companies that are guided by data analysis, Mr. Brynjolfsson says, are “harbingers of a trend in how managers make decisions.”

“And it has huge implications for competitiveness and growth,” he adds.

Here at The Measurement Standard, of course, it has been our mission to make just this point since 2002. 

And if you'd like to learn just how to use your data to make better business decisions, consider purchasing Measure What Matters, the new book from Wiley Publishers by Katie Delahaye Paine.

--Bill Paarlberg, editor of Measure What Matters and The Measurement Standard. The Measurement Standard is a publication of KDPaine & Partners, a company that delivers custom research to measure brand image, public relationships, and engagement.

Hans Rosling's 200 Countries & 200 Years in 4 Minutes

Measurement Geek of the Week

We last posted video of Mr. Rosling discussing his philosophy about presenting statistics back in July: Gapminder Unveils the Beauty of Statistics. Here he is again, this time with a knock-your-abcissae off presentation on the health and income of countries over the last two centuries. (Check the comments on YouTube for some interesting discussion about the validity of the stats used.)

 

The 2010 Top 10 of The Measurement Standard

Time for the end of the year wrap-up. Here are the top ten most read articles in The Measurement Standard newsletter during 2010. (And if you'd like to see a list of the most popular articles in the 100-issue history of The Measurement Standard, then read “The Best of 100 Issues of the Measurement Standard.”)

#10: Wikipedia Presence of the Top Ten Fortune 500 Companies
“Greedy conglomerates” and “slave labor”: You better check your Wiki!
By Marcia W. DiStaso, Pennsylvania State University, and Marcus Messner, Virginia Commonwealth University 

#9: KDPaine's Trade Show & Event Measurement Checklist
Your framework for measuring trade shows, events and sponsorships. 

#8: Katie Delahaye Paine's New Product Launch Measurement Checklist
Your step-by-step guide to demonstrating solid results from a product launch.

#7: The Decade in Public Relations Measurement Ideas
The seven big ideas that have shaped measurement over the past ten years. 

#6: Make Data Your Bitch
Dominate your data in ten easy steps.

#5: The Barcelona Principles Checklist
The magnificent seven will rock your measurement world. Maybe. 

#4: I'm 100% Convinced that 50% of PR and Social Media Metrics Are Wrong
...and if this was accounting, you'd be in jail. 

#3: The Grunig Two-Way Symmetrical Model of Public Relations: A Bibliography

#2: How To Evaluate Events and Sponsorships
Six basic steps, five final lessons and four additional resources.

... and at #1, ladies and gentlemen...

#1: Katie Delahaye Paine's New Social Media Measurement Checklist
Your step-by-step guide to demonstrating solid results from social media.

Measurement of the Corruption of Nations

Measurement meets bribery, embezzlement, and kickbacks. Exciting, eh? It's great to see research put to such grand public benefit. I'm referring to Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2010, which ranks the countries of the world on measures of corruption.

The U.S., for my fellow Americans who are interested, ranks #22. At first glance, that seems disappointingly less than squeaky clean. However, given the fairly broad confidence range for the rankings, what it actually means is that we rank somewhere among the 35 least corrupt countries. So one could argue that the U.S. is doing well, or maybe not so well. I guess it's an envelope-half-empty, envelope-half-full kind of thing.

There are those of us who might wish to quibble with the methodology used here, especially since it is based on perception. But T.I. addresses this (“Perceptions are used because corruption – whether frequency or amount – is to a great extent a hidden activity that is difficult to measure. Over time, perceptions have proved to be a reliable estimate of corruption.”) and provides methodology for those interested.

--Bill Paarlberg, Editor, The Measurement Standard
The Measurement Standard is a publication of KDPaine & Partners, a company that delivers custom research to measure brand image, public relationships, and engagement.

100-year-old Facts My Mom Sent Me

Every once in a while my well-meaning mom sends me a packet of newspaper and magazine clippings she thinks will make me a better parent, or healthier, or something. So yesterday, in the envelope along with the U.S. News College Issue and a bunch of recipes for heart-healthy entrees, was “Times Have Changed: Facts From 100 Years Ago.”

I cannot vouch for their factness, or provide a source, and I assume they refer to the U.S.A. (No, they don't have much to do with public relations measurement.) And, yeah, I usually hate it when people pass along “facts.” But these made me think about where we’ve been and where we are (maybe because of all the recent election-related demagoguery) so perhaps they'll make you think too:

-- Only 8% of homes had a telephone

-- There were only 8,000 cars and 144 miles of paved roads

-- The average worker made $300 a year

-- Only 6% of people had graduated from high school

-- The leading causes of death were pneumonia and influenza

-- Sugar cost 4 cents a pound, eggs 15 cents a dozen, and coffee 15 cents a pound

-- Only 14% of homes had a bathtub

-- 95% of births took place at home

-- The average life expectancy was 47 years

-- Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea had not yet been invented

Thanks, Mom!

--Bill Paarlberg, Editor, The Measurement Standard
The Measurement Standard is a publication of KDPaine & Partners, a company that delivers custom research to measure brand image, public relationships, and engagement.

Facebook Breakups Chart and David McCandless’ “Information Is Beautiful” blog

So SAI Chart of the Day sent out a fabulous graph of relationship breakups over time, thanks to Facebook and David McCandless:

I have had some harsh things to say about Chart of the Day in the past (see: “Bad Measurement: This Is The Kind of Chart that Really Pisses Me Off”), but this very interesting graphic pretty much makes up for past transgressions (although note the spelling of “Valentine's Day...”)

I can understand why people break up on Mondays, what with probably an eventful weekend preceding. Likewise it's obvious that what happens on spring break doesn’t always stay on spring break. But what's up with April Fool's Day?

And who would have guessed that so many breakups happen just before Xmas? (Although, come to think of it, that‘s when my ex-wife walked out. So there you have it.)

But hey, how come there are so few breakups at the end of the summer? I wonder what the demographics of this Facebook sample are and how that would affect these results?

So I followed the link trail over to David McCandless’ blog Information Is Beautiful, and wow! there are some seriously great info-graphics there. Including:

Snake Oil? Scientific evidence for popular health supplements

The Billion Dollar-O-Gram. Where the big money goes to.

Reduce Your Odds Of Dying In A Plane Crash 

 

--Bill Paarlberg, Editor, The Measurement Standard
The Measurement Standard is a publication of KDPaine & Partners, a company that delivers custom research to measure brand image, public relationships, and engagement.

 

Math for Fun: Steven Strogatz's mattress-turning introduction to group theory.

Mathematics is so, so exciting in how it can explain the world, yet often so, so boring to read about or study. Those of us who work in public relations measurement or social media measurement have got to use statistics and math, but mostly don't feel much like actually messing about in the guts of any equations. (see Don Stacks and the Loneliness of the Measurement Mathematician.) 

Well it's our lucky day: Check out Steven Strogatz's Group Think in today's NYTimes. It's a nice introduction to Group Theory, "...one of the most versatile parts of math, [that] bridges the arts and sciences." And you'll learn more than you thought there ever was to know about turning your mattress. -- Bill Paarlberg, Editor, The Measurement Standard

That illustration is lifted right from the NYTimes article.

“PowerPoint Makes Us Stupid”

 

Critiques of PowerPoint are nothing new (see Ruth Marcus' “PowerPoint: Killer App?”). Microsoft's ubiquitous presentation software has been accused of not just putting thousands of us to sleep during conferences, but contributing to the Columbia shuttle disaster. 

Today, in an article in the NYTimes, “We Have Met the Enemy, and He Is Powerpoint,” the U.S. military's obsession with PowerPoint is discussed, as well as the software's ability to “create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control... [that] stifles discussion, critical thinking and thoughtful decision-making.”

Those of us in the business of public relations and social media measurement sometimes need all the help we can get to make sense of the data, and PowerPoint can come in handy. But does it sometimes make things too simple, forcing messy reality into a bullet-point format? --Bill Paarlberg, Editor, The Measurement Standard

Thanks to Pierre Igot at Betalogue for the image.

Now You Can Judge Customer Purchase Intent with Mouse Click Metrics from Omniture!

Why People Email Articles from the NYTimes

In today's NYTimes, "Will You Be E-Mailing This Column? It's Awesome" is about research into why people email articles. Analysis shows that positive stories, and those with emotion, are more likely to be emailed. (You research junkies will enjoy reading about how they did the collection and analysis.) But, most of all, readers want to share articles that inspire awe. 

Keep that in mind when you sit down to write your next blog post.  --WTP

"Make Data Your Bitch!"

That line is so good I couldn't wait for an article to use it in. Katie passed it along. Thanks to Gavin O'Malley and Pointroll at OMMAA Metrics Measurement. --WTP

Katie has since written an article to go with this title, see it posted here.

Gartner's Latest On The Hype Cycle

Gartner's latest update on the Hype Cycle. (Thanks to Debbie Weil's blog, 'cause that's how I heard about it.) --WTP

Measuring Our Happiness by the Words We Use

Some words are happy, some words are not so happy. If we use happy words, then we're probably happy, right? That's the research strategy explained in this article in the NYTimes: "Does a Nation's Mood Lurk in Its Songs and Blogs?" 

A intriguing way to use the data. A valid measure of societal happiness? Could be.  --WTP