Dataset Analysis

Hello again!

For our second assignment we were asked to perform a few tasks involving the analysis of a dataset.

Task 1 - List (bullet list of items) five "insights", chunks of knowledge, or deeper questions that you either encountered or gained while exploring the data.

• Cereals which appeal more to older generations seem to appear mainly on shelf 3 (All Bran, etc). Perhaps useful information can be obtained from this?
• Perhaps more hot cereals could be included? I am fairly sure there are more than just 3 brands of hot cereals on the market currently.
• It seems that most cereals have either 25% or 100% vitamin fortification. Perhaps this could be used to call into question why there are no cereals with fortification levels between these two amounts?
• Calories per serving does not exceed 150 for any cereal and those that have 150 calories are few. Perhaps more cereals with high calorie densities should have been included in the dataset?
• It seems that most cereals have a weight of one ounce per serving, yet the serving size varies quite a lot despite this. Perhaps these two attributes could be used to determine the approximate density of each cereal?

Task 2 - Write one paragraph about the process you used to do the exploration and analysis.

I loaded the dataset into Excel. I then went through each column manually and searched for patterns in the data. Since the dataset is not very large, this was not very difficult. I made sure to see if any multiple attributes correlated with each other in any way.

Task 3 - write one paragraph about challenges or problems that you encountered in doing the analysis this way.

I attempted to create a graph using the simple Excel charts, but this did not prove to be very helpful compared to simply searching through the data manually. However, in larger datasets, a chart or other visual representation of the data would likely be necessary as combing through the data manually would be impractical. I feel a more useful data analysis tool or a dataset more compatible with Excel would be helpful in more easily discerning patterns within the dataset.

Information Quality

Hello everyone!

For our first assignment in this class, we were given the task to explore the concept of information quality.

I searched the internet for resources of information regarding the topic. I used Google as my search engine. I used both the term collections “Aspects of Information Quality” and “Information Quality.”

I chose the following ten sites as I felt they the best represented the topic. Please note that each of these resources I chose have the Utility and Accessibility aspects of Information Quality. I had no trouble finding and accessing these resources and each one aided me in what I was trying to accomplish, which was to learn more about information quality. I will mention at least one criteria for each source that supported my reasoning for choosing it.

      1.    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_quality – Current, Objective 

I chose this resource as Wikipedia is one of the most frequently updated sources of information available (This page was updated just a couple weeks ago). While it may not always be 100% accurate due to its ability to be edited by anyone in its community, this also helps ensure that biases are limited in their effect on the quality of the information provided

2.    http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/iq/iqg.html - Unique

While this resource may not be current, the subject of Information Quality is one that is not necessarily heavily reliant on current information regarding the topic itself. I Chose this resource as it mentions the aspect of Utility which I did not see on any other resources. This Uniqueness is an aspect that makes this resource particularly high value for my uses.

3.    http://www.wheel.ie/content/information-quality – Unique

I chose this resource for its uniqueness as well. To me, it does a good job of pointing out why businesses should value information quality. I did not see this very often in other resources.

4.     http://www.muhlenberg.edu/depts/abe/business/miller/mdiqual.html - Wide scope, Completeness

This page does a good job of covering a wide spectrum of different criteria of Information Quality. It also sufficiently delves into each one to explain the reasoning behind them.

5.    http://web.mit.edu/tdqm/www/tdqmpub/AIMQJun02.pdf - Unique, Complete

This resource delves deep into the analysis of the best criteria for IQ and does so very extensively. I came across no other resources that did so.

6.     http://www.qualitydigest.com/jul/godfrey.html – Coherent, Unique

This resource uses a story to make the material easy to relate to and understand, which I feel makes its message more Coherent. I also feel like this resource is Unique as it mentions the possibility of information being inaccurate due to incorrect data. If the root of the information is incorrect, the information itself will also be incorrect. It is also Unique due to its approach on creating a plan for ensuring good quality information. I did not see either of these aspects often in the other resources.

7.    https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/fedreg_final_information_quality_guidelines  – Completeness, Unique, Integrity, Comprehensive, Objective, Validity

As the guidelines for Information Quality standards for federal agencies, this resource covers multiple IQ criteria. As this information is being provided by the Government, it should be safe from tampering (Integrity). It is Unique to the U.S. federal agencies. As it is meant to guide these agencies in maximizing Information Quality, it is thorough and complete.

8.    http://web.mit.edu/tdqm/www/tdqmpub/KahnStrongWangCACMApr02.pdf – Completeness

This resource uses the implementation a model called the PSP/IQ model to evaluate information quality. This aspect as well as how extensively the paper discusses the topic is why I chose it.

9.    http://www.diss.fu-berlin.de/diss/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/FUDISS_derivate_000000002736/02_Chapter2-Information-Quality.pdf;hosts= unique, completeness

This resource covers several types of IQ criteria and thoroughly explains each. The unique part that I noticed was its analysis of many catalogs regarding what constitutes good IQ and the frequency of certain criteria within these catalogs.

10.  http://web.mit.edu/tdqm/papers/other/evans.html Unique

This paper is unique in its usage of a visual implementation of a framework to be used for the improvement of IQ. There are also several other implementations of graphics this resources uses to analyze IQ which I believe makes the subject more digestible.