A couple of months ago, I came across an interesting slide deck reviewing some of the initiatives that Narrative Science have been involved with, including the generation of natural language interpretations of school education grade reports (I think: some natural language take on an individual’s academic scores, at least?). With MOOC fever in part focussing on the development of automated marking and feedback reports, this represents one example of how we might take numerical reports and dashboard displays and turn them into human readable text with some sort of narrative. (Narrative Science do a related thing for reports on schools themselves – How To Edit 52,000 Stories at Once.)
Whenever I come across a slide deck that I think may be in danger of being taken down (for example, because it’s buried down a downloads path on a corporate workshop promoter’s website and has CONFIDENTIAL written all over it) I try to grab a copy of it, but this presentation looked “safe” because it had been on Slideshare for some time.
Since I discovered the presentation, I’ve been recommending it to variou folk, particularly slides 20-22? that refer to the educational example. Trying to find the slidedeck today, a websearch failed to turn it up so I had to go sniffing around to see if I had mentioned a link to the original presentation anywhere. Here’s what I found:
The Wayback machine had grabbed bits and pieces of text, but not the actual slides…
Not only did I not download the presentation, I don’t seem to have grabbed any screenshots of the slides I was particularly interested in… bah:-(
For what it’s worth, here’s the commentary:
Introduction to Narrative Science — Presentation Transcript
We Transform Data IntoStories and Insight…In Seconds
Automatically,Without Human Intervention and at a Significant Scale
To Help Companies: Create New Products Improve Decision-MakingOptimize Customer Interactions
Customer Types Media and Data Business Publishing Companies Reporting
How Does It Work? The Data The Facts The Angles The Structure Stats Tests Calls The Narrative Language Completed Text Our technology platform, Quill™, is a powerful integration of artificial intelligence and data analytics that automatically transforms data into stories.
The following slides are examples of our work based upon a simple premise: structured data in, narrative out. These examples span several domains, including Sports Journalism, Financial Reporting, Real Estate, Business Intelligence, Education, and Marketing Services.
Sports Journalism: Big Ten Network – Data InTransforming Data into Stories
Sports Journalism: Big Ten Network – NarrativeTransforming Data into Stories
Financial Journalism: Forbes – Data InTransforming Data into Stories
Financial Journalism: Forbes – NarrativeTransforming Data into Stories
Short Sale Reporting: Data Explorers – JSON Input
Short Sale Reporting: Data Explorers – Overview North America Consumer Services Short Interest Update There has been a sharp decline in short interest in Marriott International (MAR) in the face of an 11% increase in the companys stock price. Short holdings have declined nearly 14% over the past month to 4.9% of shares outstanding. In the last month, holdings of institutional investors who lend have remained relatively unchanged at just below 17% of the companys shares. Investors have built up their short positions in Carnival (CCL) by 54.3% over the past month to 3.1% of shares outstanding. The share price has gained 8.3% over the past week to $31.93. Holdings of institutional investors who lend are also up slightly over the past month to just above 23% of the common shares in issue by the company. Institutional investors who make their shares available to borrow have reduced their holdings in Weight Watchers International (WTW) by more than 26% to just above 10% of total shares outstanding over the past month. Short sellers have also cut back their positions slightly to just under 6% of the market cap. The price of shares in the company has been on the rise for seven consecutive days and is now at $81.50.
Sector Reporting: Data Explorers – JSON Input
Sector Reporting: Data Explorers – OverviewThursday, October 6, 2011 12:00 PM: HEALTHCARE MIDDAY COMMENTARY:The Healthcare (XLV) sector underperformed the market in early trading on Thursday. Healthcarestocks trailed the market by 0.4%. So far, the Dow rose 0.2%, the NASDAQ saw growth of 0.8%, andthe S&P500 was up 0.4%.Here are a few Healthcare stocks that bucked the sectors downward trend.MRK (Merck & Co Inc.) erased early losses and rose 0.6% to $31.26. The company recentlyannounced its chairman is stepping down. MRK stock traded in the range of $31.21 – $31.56. MRKsvolume was 86.1% lower than usual with 2.5 million shares trading hands. Todays gains still leavethe stock about 11.1% lower than its price three months ago.LUX (Luxottica Group) struggled in early trading but showed resilience later in the day. Shares rose3.8% to $26.92. LUX traded in the range of $26.48 – $26.99. Luxottica Group’s early share volumewas 34,155. Todays gains still leave the stock 21.8% below its 52-week high of $34.43. The stockremains about 16.3% lower than its price three months ago.Shares of UHS (Universal Health Services Inc.) are trading at $32.89, up 81 cents (2.5%) from theprevious close of $32.08. UHS traded in the range of $32.06 – $33.01…
Real Estate: Hanley Wood – Data InTransforming Data into Stories
Real Estate: Hanley Wood – NarrativeTransforming Data into Stories
BI: Leading Fast Food Chain – Data InTransforming Data into Stories
BI: Leading Fast Food Chain – Store Level Report January Promotion Falling Behind Region The launch of the bagels and cream cheese promotion began this month. While your initial sales at the beginning of the promotion were on track with both your ad co-op and the region, your sales this week dropped from last week’s 142 units down to 128 units. Your morning guest count remained even across this period. Taking better advantage of this promotion should help to increase guest count and overall revenue by bringing in new customers. The new item with the greatest growth opportunity this week was the Coffee Cake Muffin. Increasing your sales by just one unit per thousand transactions to match Sales in the region would add another $156 to your monthly profit. That amounts to about $1872 over the course of one year.Transforming Data into Stories
Education: Standardized Testing – Data InTransforming Data into Stories
Education: Standardized Testing – Study RecommendationsTransforming Data into Stories
Marketing Services & Digital Media: Data InTransforming Data into Stories
Marketing Services & Digital Media: NarrativeTransforming Data into Stories
Bah…:-(
PS Slideshare appears to have a new(?) feature – Saved Files – that keeps a copy of files you have downloaded. Or does it? If I save a file and someone deletes it, will the empty shell only remain in my “Saved Files” list?
