Presentations and public speaking for managers

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Last week I did a morning session with practice managers with the Institute of Urban Indigenous Health through UQ Executive Education.  A very switched on group of of women who are doing terrific things – if perhaps drinking a bit too much V to get them through the day.  Anyway, it was a really good half-day – they were presenting their work later that day – and we got to discuss things like what to watch in an audio-visual presentation as well as those five magic things that are important in the world of Rostrum:  Purpose, Content, Structure, Voice, and Body Language.  

Presentation

This was in the city – and I don’t get to go into Brisbane too often, so here are a few photos of me returning to my old haunts:

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And finally, here’s me with the graduating class.  The ladies are (L-R):  Imogen, Marti, Julie, Camile, Alison, Ray, Cassie, Noelene, Leila, Belinda and Samara.  A wonderful group – though it might be time for me to get a haircut and lose some weight.  Hmm.  

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Launch of the new PowerBI Community group in Brisbane

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So I thought I’d do up a small blog, as it’s pretty interesting and relevant.  Tonight I am attending the Microsoft BI user group in Brisbane, and we’re meeting at the Microsoft offices in George Street.

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There has been a release overnight of ‘publish to the Web’ for PowerBI.  Recently there was a competition held in the UK, and we have there a visualisation of M25 accidents that won Best Report in the UK.  It’s all  interactive.

http://community.powerbi.com/t5/Best-Report-Contest/M25-Road-Traffic-Accidents/td-p/17210

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There are open source visualisation templates available as part of the new PowerBI toolset.

We heard also from Peter Ward, who advised that there’s a PowerBI executive group targeted at business groups and sharing about the strategy meeting on the third Friday of every month.  Welcome to attend either or both groups.  Bring that ‘PowerBI goodness’ back to your own organisation.

Ron Dunn from Wardy’s IT gave the main presentation for the evening, and the overarching theme is practical implications of PowerBI.

One key point is the vision for Microsoft BI reporting.  Here, the vision is on interactive reports – that’s Power BI Desktop.  Then there are spreadsheets – and of course, that’s Excel.  Report builder is good for Paginated reports, whereas mobile reports use Datazen.

PowerBI is Microsoft’s competitor to Tableau and Qlikview.  Tableau is kind of expensive, and possibly better at Infographics.  Power BI is a maximum of $12 per user per month – though there are free versions available – whereas say Tableau might be $2,000 per seat.

PowerBI is moving away from ‘cloud only’.

Power BI Desktop is a free download.  It does geospatial representations a map.  Connects via data source connectors to data sources.  Lets you pick a number of visualisation sources, and drag-and-drop to build an interactive dashboard.  The visualisations are linked to each other.

In many ways, some of the functions are moving out of Excel into Power BI as a tool.

Does have visualisations in reporting services, although its integration with Sharepoint is somewhat limited.

Noted that Microsoft is moving its releases of PowerBI to more monthly releases rather than yearly.

Works with both on-premise and Cloud data.  So, you can have some of your data on-premise; proper support for this seems to be coming later.

Need to check out ideas.powerbi.com – this is a forum run by Microsoft where ideas can be voted on.  This is actively managed and communicated on.

This really creates problems for organisations that run with locked desktops and such like.

Ron has some thoughts on these matters to close.

  • Power BI is unbeatable value (free is quite good if it’ll do what you want)
  • Power BI is designed for millennial freedom (i.e. locked down desktops?  Pfft)
  • Power BI is not a complete BI solution (need the BI stack for that)
  • Power BI is a rapidly evolving work in progress
  • Power BI is for people, not applications
  • Power BI is amazing
Question and Answer sessions
In the wrap up at the end, one point was ‘How does Power BI deal with data governance?’.  And of course the answer here is that it doesn’t.  This means that Power BI does not follow data governance rules in its implementation – you can end up having your data that is subject to rules that Power BI completely stomps over.  So no, it doesn’t do that.
What about Excel and Power View?  Answer – it is going to continue to be supported.  As noted in the vision, there’s PowerBI Desktop, Excel, Integrated Reporting, and mobile reporting (Datazen).  Tonight’s discussion focussed on PowerBi Desktop.

The Rise of Bіtсоіn

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In thе раѕt three mоnthѕ alone, thе рrісе оf Bіtсоіn hаѕ: rіѕеn ѕtеаdіlу from below $250 tо thе low- tо mіd-$300 rаngе, ѕріkеd past $400, plunged bасk dоwn tоwаrd $300, stabilized аrоund $325, ѕurgеd аgаіn раѕt $350 around Blасk Frіdау, thеn jumped еvеn hіghеr — аftеr a роtеntіаl unсоvеrіng оf Bіtсоіn’ѕ creator — to about $430 аѕ of this morning.

Taking a wider аnglе to lооk at the year, thе high, $437 according to Blосkсhаіn.іnfо, was about twо аnd hаlf tіmеѕ іtѕ low, $177 — and these gуrаtіоnѕ don’t even bеgіn tо mаtсh those ѕееn frоm 2013 to thе bеgіnnіng оf thіѕ уеаr, when the price wеnt frоm thе teens to $1,200 аnd bасk down toward thе $200ѕ, that was when everyone started realizing they should be learning how to buy bitcoin.

Thоugh 2015 has рrоvеn to bе thе уеаr that vеnturе саріtаl аnd Wаll Strееt bet оn the blосkсhаіn (shorthand fоr thе dіѕtrіbutеd ledger tесhnоlоgу behind Bіtсоіn), with соmраnіеѕ rаngіng from Gоldmаn Sасhѕ to American Exрrеѕѕ, frоm Nаѕdаԛ tо Klеіnеr Pеrkіnѕ, investing іn ѕuсh vеnturеѕ, аnd VC investment іn thе sector tоtаlіng $314 mіllіоn ассоrdіng to Pitchbook, іt’ѕ nоt сlеаr whеrе thаt lеаvеѕ the сurrеnсу.

There hаѕ bееn ѕоmе movement оn Wall Strееt around it: еаrlіеr thіѕ year, thе New Yоrk Stосk Exchange lаunсhеd a Bіtсоіn іndеx, NYXBT; the Bitcoin Invеѕtmеnt Truѕt (GBTC), a trust whоѕе ѕhаrеѕ can bе hеld in IRA, Rоth IRA аnd оthеr brоkеrаgе аnd investment ассоuntѕ as well аѕ раѕѕеd оn to bеnеfісіаrіеѕ, bеgаn the trade forex; аnd the Winklevoss twіnѕ lаunсhеd Gеmіnі, a fully lісеnѕеd and rеgulаtеd Bitcoin еxсhаngе, in еаrlу Oсtоbеr. Thеу also hаvе іn the wоrkѕ аn ETF, whісh, like GBTC, could арреаl to institutions, pension plans аnd 401(k)ѕ thаt might want exposure to Bіtсоіn but wоuld not bе able tо оwn thе сurrеnсу dіrесtlу.

Day 1 of 2016 – Painfully moving home office on a public holiday? Argh!

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Well, according to science fiction (fantasy) movies, 2016 is supposed to be a year of all sorts of technological marvels.  Well, it certainly is that, but no technology marvel that anyone made a movie about.  WiFi man, anyone?  

Today I officially started my new role as Lecturer (BIS) at University of Queensland.  I’ve had just over two years as a post-doctoral research fellow, and now I have a lecturer role at UQ.  Mainly, I think, because I’ve managed to teach MBA students pretty well – certainly not because of my research at this stage, though I do have four papers in the pipeline.

Officially, today is a public holiday in Australia – not sure if it ever wasn’t a holiday and people just gave up pretending to work after New Year’s Eve.  Unfortunately, today was a day my daughter insisted on recalling a conversation we had three years ago.  The one I said that, when she started Grade 5, she could have the bigger room downstairs that I am using as an office for her bedroom – we would do ‘swapsies’ on the room.  Well, after an itinerant tenant (my sister-in-law who has been completing her nursing degree), my daughter insisted on remembering the conversation and it’s time to up stumps and rationalise my office into the smaller room.  It’s working out OK though I’m taking the chance to get a standing desk sorted and, frankly, I miss having a place to sit.  

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Maybe I’ll be able to scam a tub chair in here, or a standing chair.  It’s generally working out OK I think – though as this room is upstairs I think I’ll be organising air conditioning in this room for those hotter days – it faces west and is near a very thin roof.  Pleasant enough tonight though and I can isolate myself and write – hopefully, with a cup of coffee.  Though I’ll have to go up and down my 23 step staircase to do that.  Ah well, that’s what a standing arrangement is all about, right?

Oh yes, the standing part of the desk is clearly an Ikea hack – the longer coffee table and shelf with brackets so I can have two monitors going at once from my Macbook Pro.  I just need to clear up the junk on my desk now and the office is semi-sorted.  

Here’s the stuff for my Ikea Hack standing desk (inspired by posts made online by many others):

  • Lack Coffee table at $A29.99
  • Ekby Tryggve shelf – well, that’s what I bought but that’s no longer available at Ikea.  Essentially, it’s a wide pine shelf 30cm x 120cm.  A fine replacement would be the Ekby Hemnes shelf, same dimensions (119cm x 28cm) for $A29.99.  Though myTryggve shelf was less than that – I paid $9 and only $20 for the coffee table.  Ikea Inflation?    
  • Two Ekby Valter brackets with screws – $5 each.  

Nothing too amazing, it was really easy to put together and cheap enough that if it doesn’t work out I give it all to St Vinnie’s.  Or take the coffee table off and put it in the wardrobe, never to be seen again.  

Anyway I’m really sore from lugging that desk upstairs, and her room downstairs, and still have a metric crapload to do – so I’m just gonna see if I can get Elite Dangerous to work…

P.S. yes that’s a typewriter holding up my second monitor.

Google’s Algorithm Updates: Navigating SEO in a Constantly Changing Landscape

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Google’s Algorithm can significantly impact your website’s visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs), making it crucial for digital marketers and website owners to stay informed and adapt their strategies accordingly. This article delves into the nature of Google’s algorithm updates and offers guidance on how to navigate SEO in this dynamic environment.

Understanding Google’s Algorithm Updates

Google continually updates its algorithm to improve the relevance and quality of search results for users. These updates range from minor adjustments that go unnoticed to major updates that can shift the SEO landscape overnight. Major updates like Panda, Penguin, and BERT have historically targeted low-quality content, spammy link practices, and the ability to understand natural language, respectively.

The Impact on SEO

When Google rolls out a significant update, some websites may experience drops in rankings and traffic, while others could see improvements. The impact depends on how well your site aligns with the principles Google emphasizes with each update, such as quality content, user experience, and mobile-friendliness.

Strategies for Navigating SEO in a Changing Landscape

  1. Focus on Quality Content: High-quality, relevant content has been the cornerstone of Google’s recommendations. Ensure your content provides real value to your audience, answers their questions, and is well-researched.
  2. Optimize for User Experience (UX): Google’s algorithm updates have increasingly focused on UX, including site speed, mobile-friendliness, and interactivity. A site designed with the user in mind will likely perform better in SERPs.
  3. Embrace E-A-T Principles: Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T) are critical for websites, especially in YMYL (Your Money Your Life) niches. Demonstrating your credentials and ensuring your content is fact-checked can bolster your site’s standing.
  4. Stay Informed: Keep abreast of SEO news and Google’s announcements. Websites like Search Engine Journal, Moz, and Google’s Search Central Blog are excellent resources for learning about algorithm updates and SEO best practices.
  5. Use Web Analytics: Tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console can provide insights into how your site is performing in terms of traffic, rankings, and engagement. These tools can help identify areas affected by algorithm updates and guide your optimization efforts.
  6. Be Prepared to Adapt: Flexibility is key in SEO. If you notice a drop in rankings after an update, be prepared to analyze your content and SEO strategies and make necessary adjustments.
  7. Build a Diverse Traffic Strategy: Don’t rely solely on organic search traffic. Diversify your traffic sources through social media, email marketing, Link building services, and other channels to mitigate the impact of algorithm changes.