Category: Data

  • Synthesising Semantle Solvers

    Synthesising Semantle Solvers

    Picking up threads from previous posts on solving Semantle word puzzles with machine learning, we’re ready to explore how different solvers might play along with people while playing the game online. Maybe you’d like to play speed Semantle against an artificially intelligent opponent, maybe you’d like a left-of-field hint on a tricky puzzle, or maybe…

  • Second Semantle Solver

    Second Semantle Solver

    In the post Sketching Semantle Solvers, I introduced two methods for solving Semantle word puzzles, but I only wrote up one. The second solver here is based the idea that the target word should appear in the intersection between the cohorts of possible targets generated by each guess. To recap, the first post: Solution source…

  • Data Mesh Radio

    Data Mesh Radio

    I joined Scott Hirleman for an episode (#95) of the Data Mesh Radio podcast. Scott does great work connecting and educating the data mesh community, and we had fun talking about: Fitness functions to define “what good looks like” for data mesh and guide the evolution of analytic data architecture and operating model Team topologies…

  • Data mesh: a lean perspective

    Data mesh: a lean perspective

    Data mesh can be understood as a response to lean wastes identified in data organisations. I paired with Ned Letcher to present this perspective at the LAST Conference 2021, which was much delayed due to COVID restrictions. Lean wastes including overproduction, inventory, etc, may be concealed and made more difficult to address by centralised data…

  • The Business Case for Data Mesh

    The Business Case for Data Mesh

    I collaborated with with some colleagues to share our experiences with data mesh and how to frame the benefits for an executive audience, written up in an article titled The Business Case for Data Mesh.

  • Data mesh at Data Engineering Melbourne Meetup

    Data mesh at Data Engineering Melbourne Meetup

    Here’s the recording of my presentation on data mesh at the Data Engineering Melbourne Meetup, on 26 August 2021. We covered architecture, building blocks and more. Lots of great questions and discussion. Thanks as always to organisers Harmeet Sokhi, Timothy Findlay, and Andrew Jones!

  • Slackometer Hello World

    Slackometer Hello World

    Project Slackpose gives me one more excuse for hyperlocal exercise and number crunching in lockdown. Last time, I briefly touched on balance analysis. This time, I look at tracking slackline distance walked with my newly minted slackometer. Inferring 3D Position I’m working only with 2D pose data (a set of pixel locations for body joints)…

  • 7 Wastes of Data Production

    7 Wastes of Data Production

    Update: there is a more recent talk & summary of this content at 7 wastes of data production – when pipelines become sewers. I realised recently that this is one of the lenses through which I look at the data engineering world, but I had never expressed these (lean) wastes explicitly. This post might be…

  • Governments’ Handling of COVID App Data

    Governments’ Handling of COVID App Data

    I was able to contribute to this article from FST Media: Exposing the fault lines in governments’ handling of Covid app data. I talked about the need for citizens to have trust in the collection and use of data, lest lack of trust undermine the utility of the data. If the risks aren’t properly managed,…

  • Guiding the Evolution of Data Mesh with Fitness Functions

    Guiding the Evolution of Data Mesh with Fitness Functions

    I presented this webinar with Zhamak Dehghani – see the recording Guiding the Evolution of Data Mesh with Fitness Functions. There was great engagement with the topic and we captured some questions and further thoughts on this mini-blog post, published a little later. This presentation brought together the idea of architectural fitness functions from the…