Author: Thomas Stoeckle

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05: Fake news, Google rankings and augmented intelligence

In episode 5 of the Small Data Forum podcast hosted by LexisNexis – our Christmas and year-end edition – Neville Hobson, Sam Knowles and I reflect on fake news and their distribution networks, the alleged gaming of Google search rankings, the promise of augmented intelligence and broad questions of how civil societies deal with the emerging and evolving challenges. Do we need more regulation? And who will regulate the regulators?


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04: Brexit, Trump and the challenge of better forecasting with better data

Our latest Small Data Forum podcast focuses on recent surprise political outcomes and the mechanisms at play: the psychology of predictions, the new phenomenon of fake news, echo chamber effects and the way data was analysed and interpreted.

Recent expressions of democratic political will – the UK referendum on EU membership, the US presidential election – have surprised most observers and commentators.

Both outcomes, ie Brexit and Trump, were not what most of the polling data indicated. This episode of the Small Data Forum is asking whether we should and could have seen this coming.


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03: Improving athletic performance – the growing role of data in sport

The 2016 Olympics in Rio was labelled the most technologically advanced games to date.  How are advances in gathering and analysing data being used to improve athlete performance?

LexisNexis recently published the third podcast in the Small Data Forum series, where I discussed the growing role of data analytics in professional sports with Neville Hobson, Senior Business Consultant at IBM and Sam Knowles, Founder & Managing Director of Insight Agents.


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02: The role of data in Regrexit

Episode 2 of our Small Data Forum podcast focuses on the role and use of data in the campaigning for the EU referendum in the UK.

Neville Hobson, Sam Knowles and Thomas Stoeckle discuss the outcome of Brexit and Regrexit (the so-called buyers’ remorse of some leave voters, following an immediate change in the argument and presentation of facts, as well as data evidence of negative effects on currency, share prices etc.).

Ranging from failed predictions and misinformation, to the need for more learning and education related to data, to the use of data visualization and linguistic analyses and Bayesian statistics to segment audiences and identify archetypes, the conversation focuses on how data can and must become the solution rather than the problem.


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01: Small Data Forum podcast episode 1

Jigsaw puzzle

Big Data can be intimidating, but it can be increasingly valuable for communicators and information professionals.

The Small Data Forum, held on 17thMay at the Hospital Club in London’s Covent Garden, was an initiative from LexisNexis Business Insight Solutions to educate businesses about the challenges of Big Data.

The breakfast seminar, moderated by IBM’s Neville Hobson and Sam Knowles, Managing Director of Insight Agents, discussed ways to turn data into insight that delivers increased business value.


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