👋 Hey there! I'm TJ. I write about data products, technology, software, and economics.
I'm a husband and father, living in Singapore, and from the Philippines. I explore data engineering and accounting at Titanium Birch.
Data Science for Operational Impact
Data science for operational impact is quite an interesting field of study that has more intersections with social sciences and requires more organizational savvy.
Much of the data science discourse at the time was geared towards what I call Product Data Science, where the goal was to build highly scalable machine learning systems that solve a general problem (think Uber’s surge algorithm). However, I think an equally interesting area of data science is what I’d call Operational Data Science, where there is significantly more iteration, working with domain experts (local marketers, country managers), to solve problems with “human-in-the-loop”.
Thinking about data science this way has enabled me to overcome many adoption barriers in my past work.
I presented this at SGInnovate, a data science incubator bootcamp in Singapore, while I was still at Uber.
Exploring the world of Philippine online news
The Databeers Manila crowd at the Google Philippines office.
Last week, I had the chance to speak at Databeers Manila, which is a data science event infused with the power of good ol' beer. The event was held in the Google Philippines office, and beer was care of Katipunan Craft Ales.
On Data Visualization Design
Last year, I was invited to speak at World Information Architecture Day 2016 in Manila, held at A-Space, Makati. I covered an introduction to data use cases, and how to think about designing data visualizations, and why I think designing the right ways for people to consume insights from data is just as important than our ability to process or analyze them.
The video is up for people to watch. Please let me know your thoughts at the comments section.
If you’d like to view the slides more clearly, I’ve uploaded them to slideshare:
On Minimalistic Maps: Mapping Population Density in the Philippines
Minimalistic maps
Taking the idea from the Population Lines Print by Spatial.ly / Dr James Cheshire, we plot local population density maps for the Philippines in the same style. The data is taken from the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC).
Fête wisely this 2016
Contributed Post
This is a contributed post from Carl Dominick Calub of TALAS Data Intelligence
It’s Fête 2016!
For you who have just heard about it, you can visit their FB page to know if you should know about it. The gist is music-lovers the world over celebrate Fête dela Musique — World Music Day — in June every year. In the Philippines this year, the 22nd Fête will be held on 18 June 2016 in Makati.
Where in Makati? EVERYWHERE. It’s the ultimate bar-hopping event for audiophiles! Multiple gigs called pocket stages are set up in different bars. Each stage showcases a different genre. This year, there will be 21 pocket stages. That means 21 different genres!
There are also two main stages that play alongside the pocket stages for those who don’t fancy spelunking around Makati. While each pocket stages is dedicated to a specific genre, the main stages feature a more diverse lineup of artists.
The main stages serve as convenient samplers of the different music themes. But the pocket stages are more interesting for people not just because they offer a more immersive experience, but also because there’s a problem to solve. If you can visit all 21 gig locations, then you can enjoy your share of concerts for the year. The cherry on top: you don’t have to pay a single peso!
With that many stages, it can be a very daunting task though. So how do we make it easier? Let’s follow the data.
On the Elections: Election Fingerprints
In this elections series, we’ll explore various aspects of the 2016 Philippine National Elections, from fraud detection to the differences in how our country votes. In this first instalment, we learn about election fingerprints and how they may be used to detect fraud in the form of ballot stuffing or vote padding.
On Facebook News in the Philippines: Using topic modeling to find trends in online news coverage
Facebook has become one of most visible sources of news in the Philippines, and it has arguably played a huge role in shaping Filipino views. We take a look at how the Philippines news cycle evolved with by using topic modeling.
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