Teradata released the third State of Business Intelligence Survey today, which found that interest in big data analytics careers is on the rise. However, there is a significant gap between the number of students interested in these opportunities and the amount of hirable talent in the pipeline.

Working as a data scientist (or related position) requires taking a large data set, modeling it, and gleaning insights. As the hype surrounding big data continues, the demand for people with these skill sets is increasing, along with salaries. But just like top tier athletics, not everyone has the requisite talent or ability to follow a career in this field and there is a major, global shortage of data scientists. And despite the fact that two out of three students surveyed agree or strongly agree that there are job opportunities for them in data-savvy careers, only 16 percent are actually considering careers in this area.

Accordingly, employers still struggle to find potential hires. Analytics hiring managers reported that their largest needs for recent graduates are for IT or systems analytics (35%), program developers (32%), data managers (30%), and business analytics (22%). In the survey, one-third of employers identified a lack of experience as their greatest challenge, followed by insufficient business skills, insufficient technical skills, and a general lack of candidates. A lack of communication skills is also an issue.

Preparing students for real-world employment is partly the responsibility of the teachers. Forty-one percent of professors reported an increase in the number of BI or analytics courses at their university, but they also identified six areas where businesses can help them meet the challenges of creating qualified employees: providing large data sets, suitable cases, staying current with practices, technical support and training, realistic and meaningful experiences, and access to contemporary enterprise software.

The tech industry is a competitive job market and companies are always looking for qualified, experienced data scientists who combine technical expertise with creative thinking and communication skills. The responsibility does not lay only on the students, but on the universities, teachers, and companies that turn them from students into successful employees. A degree alone is not enough.

The survey was conducted by Barbara Wixom, an associate professor of commerce at University of Virginia’s McIntire School for Commerce and a research affiliate at MIT’s Sloan School of management. The study was sponsored by the Teradata University Network, which includes 3,400 faculty members, 1,600 universities, and thousands of students. TUN is a free web portal for students and teachers working in this field.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock

The results found that 37 percent of Bay Area investors have put money into a startup, and yet fewer than 23 percent plan to do so within the next three years. It would seem the wealthy are looking elsewhere for investment opportunities. As Morgan Stanley’s regional manager Michael Struckman said, “it appears that despite the boost the small companies have given the region, local investors are beginning to cool on the idea of startups.”

73 percent of respondents cited risk as the primary deterrent and expressed fear over losing their money. Millionaires, however, were less concerned on this front than people with between $100K and $1 million in assets. One-third of investors were concerned about possible legal difficulties, while 16 percent were afraid of personal failure.

When they do decide to invest in startups, investors said that innovative ideas are the most important characteristic. 19 percent expect to take a significant role in the ventures, and 58 percent of investors prefer to invest as part of a group.

The survey included 1,000 US investors aged 25 to 75 with $100,00 or more in investable household financial assists, with an “oversample” of 305 San Francisco investors. Of those, one-third interviewed had $1 million or more in household financial assets. 46 percent of the men polled said they have invested in startups, while only 29 percent of women polled had done so.

Photo Credit: Simone van den Berg/Shutterstock 

StudyBlue has raised $9 million for to provide students with a “digital backpack.” It is a cloud-based platform with web, iOS, and Android apps that enable students to store and organize their course material. The cloud and mobile technology provide for studying anytime, anywhere, while the social component makes hitting the “books” more engaging and interactive.

All of the content on StudyBlue is crowdsourced and shareable. The 2.5 million users have created 100 million study materials, such as flashcards, study guides, and quizzes. Students can customize their search results by school, class, professor, subject, or textbook. They can also use the social tools to collaborate with other students, compare notes, ask questions, and work together to master the information. StudyBlue tracks what students are studying and connects them with other people tackling the same material.

Budget and performance issues riddle our education sector, and both students and teachers struggle to find the resources they need. Rather than targeting institutions or teachers, StudyBlue focuses on “a generation of ambitious digital natives” that are looking for a modern alternative to traditional study methods.

“There is no money to solve today’s educational stalemates, and we can’t ask more of teachers,” said founder Chris Klundt in an email interview. “If educational outcomes in this country are going to improve, the improvement will come from the successful application of technology to the problems we face—at scale and cost effectively.”

Educational platforms, portals, and apps have erupted over the past few years as entrepreneurs and consumers alike see tremendous opportunity in this space. Crowdsourced phenomenons like Khan Academy, Udemy, and Grockit are changing the landscape of higher-education, and tablets are increasingly becoming valuable learning tools. Even if institutions are reluctant to change, students, it seems are not. StudyBlue is growing by 50,000 users a week, and the company said engagement levels are high, with around 1,000 students on the platform at any given time.

StudyBlue was founded by Klundt in 2009 as a platform for online study groups and launched its current incarnation in 2010. This brings its total funding to $14.7 million. Great Oaks Venture Capital led this round, with participation from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and existing investors. StudyBlue is based in Madison, Wis., where Klundt attended university.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

In the movie theaters, 2012 was the end of the world as we know it. For traditional offline clothing retailers, 2012 could be pretty much the same thing.

According to a new study by Google and Compete, 2012 marks a key switch: the first time that more than half of retail clothing purchases — almost 60 percent, actually — are either online or influenced by the web. That influence ranges from checking prices at competing stores to skimming product reviews to getting directions to the store … or even watching video previews online.

“We’re seeing massive changes in the use of digital, mobile devices, and video in driving apparel sales,” says Todd Pollak, Google’s industry director for retail.

Source: Google

Devices consumers daily check while shopping for clothing

Those shifts include shopping on tablets or smartphones: A startling 24 percent of clothing shoppers use mobile devices on a daily basis to research deals, prices, or product information. And 75 percent research clothing online after seeing an offline ad.

One of the most significant is that the most effective online marketing in terms of driving offline sales is video.

“Four out of ten shoppers who watched a product video online later visited the store online or in person,” Pollak says. “And 34 percent of clothing shoppers are likely to buy after watching an online video ad versus only 16 percent after watching an ad on TV.”

Those videos are not just product ads or company-produced infomercials; they include customer testimonials, reviews, and other user-generated content.

Source: Google

Where consumers watch videos while shopping

Google’s study showed that shoppers who use video are heavier spenders than the average consumer: 25 percent buy clothing more than once a month, versus only 16 percent of non-video researchers. In addition, another 28 percent have spent more than $500 on clothing in the past half year. Only 2 percent of consumers who do not check online videos while shopping have spent that much.

Pollak attributes the power of online video to the nature of the web: shoppers can click away at any time. Staying and watching the ad indicates a level of interest that can’t be inferred from passively consuming a TV ad spot.

So what can offline retailers do?

A strong e-commerce website is table-stakes, as is a site that is easily accessible from a mobile device. Using video in product and sales presentations would to be a key factor, as well as enabling the creation or addition of user-generated video content to your website.

And adding online ads to offline campaigns wouldn’t hurt either. That’s not just a self-serving message from Google: It aligns with data that retail intelligence firm RapidBlue shared with me a couple of weeks ago.

Offline retailers who aren’t already using digital better hurry, however. They are rapidly approaching one of the biggest shopping seasons of the year: back to school. At $84 billion, back to school shopping ranks second only to  Christmas.

And if Google’s right, at least $42 billion of that spend will be influenced by what consumers see and do online.

Image credit: Deklofenak/ShutterStock

Greg Perreault, a doctoral student in the university’s School of Journalism, recently examined five titles that incorporate spiritual themes in their storylines — Mass Effect 2, Final Fantasy XIII, Assassin’s Creed, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. He found that each game “problematized religion” by closely tying it to violence.

“In most of these games there was a heavy emphasis on a ‘Knights Templar’ and crusader motifs,” he said. “Not only was the violent side of religion emphasized, but in each of these games religion created a problem that the main character must overcome, whether it is a direct confrontation with religious zealots or being haunted by religious guilt.”

Perreault (pictured) tells VentureBeat his study did not originally focus on violence. “In general, I tend to think that studies of violence in video games are passe. I set out interested in the depictions of organized religions versus spiritual religions, expecting to find organized religions depicted far more poorly than spiritual [ones].”

However, he says a game that connects religion with violence isn’t necessarily portraying it negatively. He uses the character Thane in Mass Effect 2 as an example, a deeply spiritual assassin who joins in the player’s quest to save the galaxy from the Reapers. “This is an interesting case because his religion doesn’t ‘inform’ the violence, although it allows for it,” he said. ”His religion basically says that the body and soul are separate. So the body can be used as a tool by someone else, and thus his assassinations aren’t anything he bears guilt for — the person who hired him bears the guilt. But Thane still feels guilty. He thinks about his victims, he prays for his victims. So is the religion violent here? Not necessarily, although it allows for the violence he commits — and must commit – in order to save the galaxy.”

While he cites Mass Effect 2 as an example of a game that portrays its spiritual themes in a positive light, Perrault says Assassin’s Creed is the most critical title he researched. “The game revolves around the search for something called the Piece of Eden. It allows you to control people’s minds. The argument is that the parting of the Red Sea, the turning of water into wine, the Resurrection — all of it was courtesy of church leaders who used the Piece of Eden to convince people a miracle occurred. The Templars, who appear to be exactly what they’re called, want it so they can use it to control the people. The Assassins, who are depicted as Enlightenment era secularists, want to keep it from them. As it turns out in the end, the Assassins don’t have good intentions with this thing either.”

Aware of the problems it could cause, Ubisoft puts a disclaimer on each Assassin’s Creed title saying that the game was designed by a “multicultural team.”

While the study observed a relationship between violence and video games, Perreault says he does not believe developers are creating an intentional commentary on religion.

“It doesn’t appear that game developers are trying to purposefully bash organized religion in these games. I believe they are only using religion to create stimulating plot points in their storylines. If you look at video games across the board, most of them involve violence in some fashion because violence is conflict and conflict is exciting. Religion appears to get tied in with violence because that makes for a compelling narrative.”

“I hope [the developers] take away that the thoughtful writing and imagery of their games doesn’t go unnoticed,” he added. ”I hope this propels great writing into all the great conversations of our society in video games, which I think ultimately will lead to better and better games.”

Perreault presented his findings at the Center for Media Religion and Culture Conference on Digital Religion.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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“We chose World of Warcraft because it has attributes we felt may produce benefits – it is a cognitively challenging game in a socially interactive environment that presents users with novel situations,” says Dr. Anne McLaughlin, an assistant professor of psychology at NC State and co-author of a paper on the study.

Researchers from the school’s Gains Through Gaming laboratory have found that playing WoW can boost spatial ability and focus in adults who scored poorly in those areas prior to spending time with the game. The university had an experimental group comprised of 60 to 77-year-olds play WoW on their home computers for approximately 14 hours over the course of two weeks, then tested their cognitive skills against a control group who didn’t play. When comparing test scores, the study found that the gamers saw a much greater increase in cognitive functioning, although the effect varied according to each person’s baseline score.

“The people who needed it most – those who performed the worst on the initial testing – saw the most improvement,” says Dr. Jason Allaire, an associate professor of psychology at NC State and co-author of a paper on the study.

Pre- and post-game testing showed no change for participants when it came to memory. So while spending time in Azeroth might help grandma concentrate, it apparently won’t help her find her car keys.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The study, Trends in Digital Gaming: Free-to-Play, Social, and Mobile Games, claims 135 million people play at least one hour per month compared to 56 million in 2008. Seventeen percent of all gamers have downloaded a title on their smartphones, up from 7 percent in 2008. About 80 percent play free-to-play (F2P) games on the PC or log into Facebook to spend time on the farm or frontier.

Online and mobile gaming are transforming the industry, the study says, changing it from one focused essentially on packaged goods sold at retail to one that provides services to consumers.

“Instead of ending support of customers after they buy individual game titles, game companies now focus on building gamer communities and developing ongoing relationships with their customers,” said Parks Associates research analyst and study author Pietro Macchiarella. “The positive effect of this approach is that game monetization can be extended beyond the point of sale. Unlike traditional offline games, the online world allows the industry to earn revenue even when people play the same game repeatedly.”

Macchiarella says F2P titles remove the barriers of retail costs and subscription fees, which can be big turnoffs to casual gamers. These players see the microtransaction model — where one buys individual virtual items or upgrades to enhance the gaming experience — as a way to reduce expenditures because it allows them to spend according to their budget.

However, Parks Associates has found that people who spend money on these titles tend to spend amounts that are comparable to the cost of traditional titles. Those who spend money on Facebook games average about $29 per month, while those who pay for virtual goods and upgrades in free-to-play games spend about $21 per month on average. Macchiarella says these amounts are not too far from the $24-$27 per month spent on average by incidental and occasional gamers on new console titles.

Due to the ease of making microtransactions on smartphones and tablets, the study predicts mobile gaming will expand industry revenues over the next several years.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The company hosts more than 100 million public member profiles, which means there’s quite a bit of useful information to be gathered if you look hard enough. LinkedIn Senior Data Scientist Monica Rogati narrowed down the study to tens of thousands of startup founder profiles, and in the process came across some insights that may surprise you.

For example, Rogati found that 65 percent of entrepreneurs on the service are above age 30, which puts a bit of a damper on breathless reports on wunderkind CEOs like Facebook’s 27-year-old Mark Zuckerberg. The study also found that only two percent of entrepreneurs founded multiple companies.

When it comes to education, technical majors dominated (except civil engineering). “While computer engineers find it easier to start companies in their areas of expertise, building a bridge or hospital requires a different approach,” Rogati wrote.

The study also found that most entrepreneurs went to business school, with Stanford, Harvard and MIT Sloan leading the pack. The figure stands in contrast to well-publicized college dropouts like Zuckerberg and Bill Gates.

Rogati notes that founders in the study were highly mobile in previous jobs, staying for around 2.5 years, compared to the national average of 4.4 years. That figure alone is interesting, since it points to a certain amount of restlessness that leads people to start their own companies.

Do you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur? Take DoubleClick founder Kevin O’Connor’s quiz and find out.

The study surveyed 1500 consumers and found the most common reasons given for a social media breakup are that the company sends too many messages (“The stalker”), the consumer receives too many messages in general from companies (“The belle of the ball”) or the company’s communications become boring and repetitive (“The spark is gone”).

Around a quarter of consumers are more mercenary and “only after one thing”. They sign up to receive messages from a brand only to receive a one-time offer and then opt out.

Consumers who follow a brand through Facebook and Twitter are also much less likely to formally indicate that they are no longer interested in receiving information from a company and just ignore it (“not returning your calls”).

A social relationship with a brand begins when you become a subscriber, fan, follower or consumer of the company’s products. As in any new romantic relationship, how it develops depends on whether the brand’s social media persona veers towards indifference, repetitiveness or just plain desperation.

93 percent of US online consumers receive at least one permission-based email once a day and 70 percent open emails from their favorite companies. But 91 percent have unsubscribed from a company’s emails, while a more passive-aggressive 17 percent will delete emails rather than actively unsubscribe. 54 percent unsubscribe when they receive too many emails, while 49 percent unsubscribe because the emails become repetitive or boring.

Facebook fans pose particular problems for online marketeers in that their expectations vary wildly. Facebook users like a company’s Facebook page for all kinds of reasons from self-expression and identification with the brand, the desire to learn more about the products and interact with other users to getting special offers. 51 percent of Facebook fans say they do expect to receive marketing messages from companies they have “liked” while 40 percent don’t! Consumers under 25 are least likely to expect to receive marketing messages from companies they like on Facebook.

Since 42 percent of US consumers (64 percent of Facebook users) have liked a brand on Facebook, this is a puzzle marketeers need to learn to solve. 55 percent of those who liked a brand decide later change their minds, but many of those don’t  bother to formally unlike the company (see image left). When they do un-like, 44 percent of users do so because they receive many posts and 38 percent because the posts were boring and repetitive.

56 percent of active Twitter users follow at least one brand. 41 percent have followed a brand and then unfollowed later. However, Twitter users much less likely to unfollow than Facebook (55) or email (91) users. 52 percent unfollow because posts were boring and repetitive while 39 percent said the company posted too frequently.

One interesting conclusion of the study is what is important to consumers in their relationships with companies. “Consumers we spoke to didn’t talk about authenticity. They talked about caring, and caring goes much deeper. Caring conveys the sentiment that brands place the best interests of their customers ahead of their own balance sheets.”

So in the end, it’s all about the love.

The report saw both deal size and overall number of seed investments drop to levels not seen since the beginning of the decade.

So has the seed bubble finally burst? The new data suggests it may be well on its way to doing so.

Although a handful of closely watched deals have reaped major seed-round rewards — overshadowing more anemic growth elsewhere and giving rise to national news coverage of events like Angelgate – those few instances don’t tell the whole story, Jeffrey Sohl, director of the UNH Center for Venture Research at the Whittemore School of Business and Economics and an author of the report, told VentureBeat.

“Valuations for seed have certainly been falling according to our data, which make sense because everyone’s net worth is dropping and the economy has certainly grabbed a lot of net worth from angels’ portfolios,” said Sohl.

He added that while a number of “super angels” may have been in the spotlight for deal size and type over the last year, the vast majority of angels have been sitting on the sidelines as they wait for the overall economic climate to recover.

In the first half of 2010, 65 percent of membership in angel groups were “latent” angels, or individuals who have the necessary net worth but have not made an investment — an increase of non-participation from 2009 of 54 percent and 36 percent from 2008.

The study, “The Angel Investor Market in Q1Q2 2010: Where Have All the Seed Investors Gone?”, concluded that total investments in the first half of 2010 were $8.5 billion, a decrease of 6.5 percent during the first two quarters of 2009.

That lead to a 9 percent decline in total dollars as investors “lost their appetite” for seed funding.

“These data indicate that while angels remain committed to this investment class, they do so with a cautious approach to investing. Angels are committing fewer dollars in more deals, a result of the lower valuations,” said Sohl.

“Without a reversal of this trend in the near future, the dearth of seed and start-up capital may approach a critical stage, deepening the capital gap and impeding both new venture formation and job creation,” he said.