India’s digital transformation

The country can only derive the digital dividend of faster growth, more jobs and better services by expanding affordable Internet access to all/

There is little doubt that China has stolen a march on India when it comes to leveraging the Internet. Of the top 20 Internet companies in the world, 13 are American, five are Chinese, with one each for Japan and the United Kingdom. Alibaba, China’s largest e-commerce company, has a market capitalisation that is 25 times higher than that of Flipkart, the largest e-commerce company in India.

Why did India, which has had the remarkable achievement of being the largest exporter of information technology services and skilled manpower among developing countries, fall behind China in digitally transforming its economy? Is it now making a comeback? The World Bank’s recently released World Development Report (WDR) ‘Digital Dividends’ provides some answers.

The WDR finds that digital technologies have spread rapidly throughout much of the world, but their digital dividends — the broader development benefits from using these technologies — have lagged behind. In many instances digital technologies have boosted growth, expanded opportunities, and improved service delivery. Yet their aggregate impact has fallen short and is unevenly distributed.

The report argues that for digital technologies to confer their full benefit on society, it is vital to close the digital divide, especially in Internet access. But greater digital adoption will not be enough. To get the most out of the digital revolution, countries also need to work on its “analogue complements” — by strengthening regulations that ensure competition among businesses, by adapting workers’ skills to the demands of the new economy, and by ensuring that government institutions and others are accountable.

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16 analytic disciplines compared to data science

What are the differences between data science, data mining, machine learning, statistics, operations research, and so on?

Here the author of the post compares several analytic disciplines that overlap, to explain the differences and common denominators. Sometimes differences exist for nothing else other than historical reasons. Sometimes the differences are real and subtle. He also provided typical job titles, types of analyses, and industries traditionally attached to each discipline.

Comparison with other analytic disciplines

Machine learning
Data mining
Predictive modeling
Statistics
Industrial statistics
Mathematical optimization.
Actuarial sciences
HPC
Operations research
Six sigma
Quant
Artificial intelligence.
Computer science
Econometrics
Data engineering
Business intelligence
Data analysis
Business analytics

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Five alternatives to Microsoft Office 365

Microsoft has released Office 365 and for those that like the idea of having an on-line office suite, but don’t want to have to pay the cost of the Microsoft solution, where do you turn? Are they comparable alternatives? I am happy to answer with an emphatic ‘yes’. Some of the available alternatives offer a feature-for-feature alternative, whereas some go a few extra miles and offer additional features that make them superior to the Microsoft offering.

But what are these alternatives? Outside of Google Docs, most of the alternatives live on the fringes. That doesn’t mean they aren’t worth giving a try. In fact these alternatives should very easily fill all of your on-line office suite needs.

Let’s dig into the list of applications so you can see if one (or more) of them can serve as an alternative for you and/or your company.

1. Zoho
2. OX
3. Google Apps
4. Think Free Office
5. Live Documents


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Google Apps v. Office 365 summary: Which is better?

In this post, the author Ian Hardenburgh, who over a period in a series of posts had compared Google Apps and Office 365 on a number of feature groups, such as basic productivity applications, e-mail and messaging, calendar, content and document management, and apps and professional services marketplace line of products has provided the wrap-up segment and presented a single consolidated comparison chart (see link to an Excel-based chart).

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Face-Off: Google Apps vs. Office 365

Dozens of reviewers from around the world have compared Google Apps for Business to Microsoft Office 365. I read my fair share of these shootouts in preparation for this article.

But instead of having one person in a small lab set up and test the suites, I reached out to actual customers: you, the Redmond reader. Some 20 of you told us in detail about your Google and Microsoft online productivity experiences.

One thing became clear in all of my reader interviews: Google Apps can really stir emotions -- happy and hostile in seemingly equal measure.

"We've used it for more than two years and never had downtime. It has integrated chat and video -- with excellent real-time quality. Collaboration is so simple. We've had no problems setting up MX records like Microsoft Exchange, and there's generous storage space," says Redmondmag.com reader Zailano, who continues effusing praise. "Searching for e-mails is super fast and accurate; importing files and contact lists is a breeze, and it's spam-free without [the user] having to pay a premium for anti-spam tools," he says. The best part? "It's cheap -- practically free."

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