Here is an interview with Rob La Gesse ,Chief Disruption Officer ,Rackspace Hosting.
Ajay- Describe your career journey from not finishing college to writing software to your present projects?
Rob- I joined the Navy right out of High School. I had neither the money for college, or a real desire for it. I had several roles in the Navy, to include a Combat Medic station with the US Marine Corps and eventually becoming a Neonatal Respiratory Therapist.
After the Navy I worked as a Respiratory Therapist, a roofer, and I repaired print shop equipment. Basically whatever it took to make a buck or two. Eventually I started selling computers. That led me to running a multi-line dial-up BBS and I taught myself how to program. Eventually that led to a job with a small engineering company where we developed WiFi.
After the WiFi project I started consulting on my own. I used Rackspace to host my clients, and eventually they hired me. I’ve been here almost three years and have held several roles. I currently manage Social Media, building 43 and am involved in several other projects such as the Rackspace Startup Program.
Rob-Building43 is a web site devoted to telling the stories behind technology startups. Basically, after we hired Robert Scoble and Rocky Barbanica we were figuring out how best we could work with them to both highlight Rackspace and customers. That idea expanded beyond customers to highlighting anyone doing something incredible in the technology industry – mostly software startups. We’ve had interviews with people like Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and Founder of FaceBook. We’ve broken some news on the site, but it isn’t really a news site. It is a story telling site.
Rackspace has met some amazing new customers through the relationships that started with an interview.
Ajay- How is life as Robert Scoble’s boss. Is he an easy guy to work with? Does he have super powers while he types?
Rob- Robert isn’t much different to manage than the rest of my employees. He is a person – no super powers. But he does establish a unique perspective on things because he gets to see so much new technology early. Often earlier than almost anyone else. It helps him to spot trends that others might not be seeing yet.
Ajay – Hosting companies are so so many. What makes Rackspace special for different kinds of customers?
Rob- I think what we do better than anyone is add that human touch – the people really care about your business. We are a company that is focused on building one of the greatest service companies on the planet. We sell support. Hosting is secondary to service. Our motto is Fanatic Support®
and we actually look for people focused on delivering amazing customer experiences during our interviewing and hiring practices. People that find a personal sense of pride and reward by helping others should apply at
Rackspace. We are hiring like crazy!
Ajay – Where do you see technology and the internet 5 years down the line? (we will visit the answers in 5 years 🙂 )?
Rob- I think the shift to Cloud computing is going to be dramatic. I think in five years we will be much further down that path. The scaling, cost-effectiveness, and on-demand nature of the Cloud are just too compelling for companies not to embrace. This changes business in fundamental ways – lower capital expenses, no need for in house IT staff, etc will save companies a lot of money and let them focus more on their core businesses. Computing will become another utility. I also think mobile use of computing will be much more common than it is today. And it is VERY common today. Phones will replace car keys and credit cards (they already are). This too will drive use of Cloud computing because we all want our data wherever we are – on whatever computing device we happen tobe using.
Ajay- GoDaddy CEO shoots elephants. What do you do in your spare time, if any.
Rob- Well, I don’t hunt. We do shoot a lot of video though! I enjoy playing poker, specifically Texas Hold ’em. It is a very people oriented game, and people are my passion.
My technical background includes working on the development of WiFi, writing wireless applications for the Apple Newton, mentoring/managing several software-based start-ups, running software quality assurance teams and more. In 2008 I joined Rackspace as an employee – a “Racker”. I was previously a 7 year customer and the company impressed me. My initial role was as Director of Software Development for the Rackspace Cloud. It was soon evident that I was better suited to a customer facing role since I LOVE talking to customers. I am currently the Director of Customer Development Chief Disruption Officer. I manage building43 and enjoy working with Robert Scoble and Rocky Barbanica to make that happen. The org chart says they work for me. Reality tells me the opposite
Go take a look – I’m proud of what we are building there (pardon the pun!).
I do a lot of other stuff at Rackspace – mostly because they let me! I love a company that lets me try. Rackspace does that.Going further back, I have been a Mayor (in Hawaii). I have written successful shareware software. I have managed employees all over the world. I have been all over the world. I have also done roofing, repaired high end print-shop equipment, been a Neonatal Respiratory Therapist, done CPR on a boat, in a plane, and in a hardware store (and of course in hospitals).
I have treated jumpers from the Golden Gate Bridge – and helped save a few. I have lived in Illinois (Kankakee), California (San Diego, San Francisco and Novato), Texas (Corpus Christi and San Antonio), Florida (Pensacola and Palm Bay), Hawaii (Honolulu/Fort Shafter) and several other places for shorter durations.
For the last 8+ years I have been a single parent – and have done an amazing job (yes, I am a proud papa) thanks to having great kids. They are both in College now – something I did NOT manage to accomplish. I love doing anything someone thinks I am not qualified to do.
one more webinar, but a newer software and a changing paradigm.
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Webinar: Introducing Jaspersoft 4.1- North America
Date: June 8, 2011
Time: 10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET Duration: 60 Minutes Language: English
Self-service Business Intelligence helps individuals and organizations respond quickly to operational and strategic decisions. A driving factor for the success of self-service BI is an intuitive and integrated UI that spans reporting, dashboards, and data analysis. Additionally, the rise of the cloud and big-data environments presents new opportunities for organizations that can analyze and respond to these emerging data sources.
In this webinar, see how the new Jaspersoft Business Intelligence Suite 4.1 release achieves all this and more.
Register now and learn how you can now take advantage of:
Modern self-service BI for reporting and analysis: powerful, unified capabilities for both ad hoc reporting and analysis tasks.
Flexible insight into any data source: a seamless analytics UI for both data stored within relational, OLAP, and big data stores.
Maximum performance—now designed to take advantage of 64-bit processors.
Join the webinar and explore the world’s most advanced and affordable BI suite through live demos, interactive Q&A and more.
Unified drag-and-drop UI for reporting and analytics. Jaspersoft 4.1 delivers powerful, unified drag-and-drop usability to both ad hoc reporting and analysis tasks while supporting both in-memory and OLAP engines. That means easier, more powerful analysis for business users and a faster route to self-service BI.
Insight against any data source. The analytics UI provides easier, more powerful analysis across relational, OLAP, and Big Data stores.
High performance with native 64-bit installer support. With Jaspersoft 4.1, you can also scale BI applications to new performance heights, thanks to full support for today’s powerful 64-bit processors.
Join us for the webinar and see how quickly and easily BI Builders like you can deliver true, self-service BI, combining reports, dashboards, and analytics, against virtually any data source — all through a single, web-based UI.
Win a trip to Vegas and a chance for $2,000 & an iPad2
Are you a business, finance or real estate geek? This contest is for you! In cooperation with The Economist Ideas Economy conference, the Tableau Software Interactive “Viz” Contest will focus on business, finance and real estate data… Find some data then use Tableau Public to analyze and visualize it. That’s all it takes.
What you’ll win
A 3-day trip to Las Vegas and a chance to win $2,000 & an iPad2
The winner chosen by our judges will also take away a free roundtrip ticket to attend the2011 Tableau Customer Conference. This includes 3 night’s accommodations at theEncore and a chance to compete in the Iron Viz championship with the winners of two other contests. The winner of Iron Viz will take away a new iPad2, and $2,000.
Cash for the crowd favorite
After entering you’ll receive a custom bit.ly link to your viz. Tweet, Facebook and e-mail that link to everyone you can! Whoever gets the most clicks through their link will become our Crowd Favorite and receive a $250 debit card.
Recognition from The Economist Ideas Economy
Your winning entry will be announced live on stage at The Economist Ideas Economy conference, and Tableau will issue a national press release naming the winner.
Everyone who enters gets a t-shirt!
Everyone who enters will get a very cool Tableau t-shirt. The winner will also receive increased Tableau Public limits and a free copy of Tableau Desktop (a $1999 value)!
How it works
(Click on the steps to expand and get the details.)
Check the box to view all steps and details.
Step 1
Download the FREE Tableau Public tool
Step 2
Create and publish your “viz” to your blog or website
Step 3
Submit your entry formFill out the entry form and submit by June 3, 2011. A panel of judges will evaluate all submissions based on overall appeal, design elements, and data analysis/findings.
Contest Rules Summary
The following contest is open to legal residents of the United Sates only. You must publish your “viz” on your blog or website to be qualified. Submission form must be submitted by June 3, 2011. Winners will be notified by June 7, 2010. Incomplete applications will not be accepted.
I always liked Citrix products when I was a member of the Technical Advisory Board at the University of Tennessee. I especially liked enabling SAS software , R software, Matlab software , ONLY from a browser.
Data Mining through cloud computing, yes University of Tennessee’s analytics server http://analytics.utk.edu was way ahead in 2009- all these softwares at one portal no software needed on your own PC, simply upload data and work on any analytics software.
Here is a nice citrix webinar on managing Time (so you can read more webinars! nah. I think Youtube live streaming events with interactive question and answers is the way of the future while webinars are for Baby Boomers- you can do a test and control experiment yourself if you are in the webinar business. its a web2.oinar)
Interruptions are productivity killers – between email, phone calls and back-to-back meetings, how do you find time to work on your top priorities?
Join top time-management guru Kent Curtis and learn how to stop “living in your inbox” and start prioritising tasks, messages and appointments according to what is most important.
This webinar takes the best principles from FranklinCovey’s world-class productivity training and teaches you how to apply them while using Microsoft Outlook as your scheduling tool.
Attend this interactive, one-hour webinar to:
Stay focused every day with a reliable planning system utilising Microsoft Outlook.
Control competing demands such as email, voice mail, meetings and interruptions.
Apply a planning process that gets better business results.
Reduce stress by eliminating low priority activities and distractions.
Register for the Webinar
Please forward this to colleagues who might be interested in learning more.
If you do a Google search for Data Mining Blog- for the past several years one Blog will come on top. data mining blog – Google Search http://bit.ly/kEdPlE
To honor 5 years of Sandro Saitta’s blog (yes thats 5 years!) , we cover an exclusive interview with him where he reveals his unique sauce for cool techie blogging.
Ajay- Describe your journey as a scientist and data miner, from early experiences, to schooling to your work/research/blogging.
Sandro- My first experience with data mining was my master project. I used decision tree to predict pollen concentration for the following week using input data such as wind, temperature and rain. The fact that an algorithm can make a computer learn from experience was really amazing to me. I found it so interesting that I started a PhD in data mining. This time, the field of application was civil engineering. Civil engineers put a lot of sensors on their structure in order to understand how they behave. With all these sensors they generate a lot of data. To interpret these data, I used data mining techniques such as feature selection and clustering. I started my blog, Data Mining Research, during my PhD, to share with other researchers.
I then started applying data mining in the stock market as my first job in industry. I realized the difference between image recognition, where 99% correct classification rate is state of the art, and stock market, where you’re happy with 55%. However, the company ambiance was not as good as I thought, so I moved to consulting. There, I applied data mining in behavioral targeting to increase click-through rates. When you compare the number of customers who click with the ones who don’t, then you really understand what class imbalance mean. A few months ago, I accepted a very good opportunity at SICPA. I’m looking forward to resolving new challenges there.
Ajay- Your blog is the top ranked blog for “data mining blog”. Could you share some tips on better blogging for analytics and technical people
Sandro- It’s always difficult to start a blog, since at the beginning you have no reader. Writing for nobody may seem stupid, but it is not. By writing my first posts during my PhD I was reorganizing my ideas. I was expressing concepts which were not always clear to me. I thus learned a lot and also improved my English level. Of course, it’s still not perfect, but I hope most people can understand me.
Next come the readers. A few dozen each week first. To increase this number, I then started to learn SEO (Search Engine Optimization) by reading books and blogs. I tested many techniques that increased Data Mining Research visibility in the blogosphere. I think SEO is interesting when you already have some content published (which means not at the very beginning of your blog). After a while, once your blog is nicely ranked, the main task is to work on the content of the blog. To be of interest, your content must be particular: original, informative or provocative for example. I also had the chance to have a good visibility thanks to well-known people in the field like Kevin Hillstrom, Gregory Piatetsky-Shapiro, Will Dwinnell / Dean Abbott, Vincent Granville, Matthew Hurst and many others.
Ajay- Whats your favorite statistical software and what are the various softwares that you have worked with. Could you compare and contrast these software as well.
Sandro- My favorite software at this point is SAS. I worked with it for two years. Once you know the language, you can perform ETL and data mining so easily. It’s also very fast compared to others. There are a lot of tools for data mining, but I cannot think of a tool that is as powerful as SAS and, in the same time, has a high-level programming language behind it.
I also worked with R and Matlab. R is very nice since you have all the up-to-date data mining algorithms implemented. However, working in the memory is not always a good choice, especially for ETL. Matlab is an excellent tool for prototyping. It’s not so fast and certainly not done for ETL, but the price is low regarding all the possibilities for data mining. According to me, SAS is the best choice for ETL and a good choice for data mining. Of course, there is the price.
Ajay- What are your favorite techniques and training resources for learning basics of data mining to say statisticians or business management graduates.
Sandro- I’m the kind of guy who likes to read books. I read data mining books one after the other. The fact that the same concepts are explained differently (and by different people) helps a lot in learning a topic like data mining. Of course, nothing replaces experience in the field. You can read hundreds of books, you will still not be a good practitioner until you really apply data mining in specific fields. My second choice after books is blogs. By reading data mining blogs, you will really see the issues and challenges in the field. It’s still not experience, but we are closer. Finally, web resources and networks such as KDnuggets of course, but also AnalyticBridge and LinkedIn.
Ajay- Describe your hobbies and how they help you ,if at all in your professional life.
Sandro- One of my hobbies is reading. I read a lot of books about data mining, SEO, Google as well as Sci-Fi and Fantasy. I’m a big fan of Asimov by the way. My other hobby is playing tennis. I think I simply use my hobbies as a way to find equilibrium in my life. I always try to find the best balance between work, family, friends and sport.
Ajay- What are your plans for your website for 2011-2012.
Sandro- I will continue to publish guest posts and interviews. I think it is important to let other people express themselves about data mining topics. I will not write about my current applications due to the policies of my current employer. But don’t worry, I still have a lot to write, whether it is technical or not. I will also emphasis more on my experience with data mining, advices for data miners, tips and tricks, and of course book reviews!
Standard Disclosure of Blogging- Sandro awarded me the Peoples Choice award for his blog for 2010 and carried out my interview. There is a lot of love between our respective wordpress blogs, but to reassure our puritan American readers- it is platonic and intellectual.
About Sandro S-
Sandro Saitta is a Data Mining Research Engineer at SICPA Security Solutions. He is also a blogger at Data Mining Research (www.dataminingblog.com). His interests include data mining, machine learning, search engine optimization and website marketing.
There are four main types of commercial white papers:
Business benefits: Makes a business case for a certain technology or methodology.
Technical: Describes how a certain technology works.
Hybrid: Combines business benefits with technical details in a single document.
Policy: Makes a case for a certain political solution to a societal or economic challenge.
Name the best white paper you ever read? (comment that in the field)..
What categoy of white papers is the best?
Do you think white papers are too expensive or they give adequate ROI?
To be continued- including
demographic and social network analysis of analysts and white paper sponsors to measure interaction effects.
white papers segmented by type of software company
proc freq analysis of the words frequency data viz in white papers written by same analysts for different companies on same topics.
Race and ethnic analysis of influencers and analysts in Business Analysts and Business Intelligence. – Null hypothesis – it is not a white mans world, women, Hispanics and other minorities are adequately represented.
Why I am doing this?
I am writing a white paper on WHO writes a white paper?
Sponsorships are invited- but academics and startups in analytics may be preferred.
DECISION STATS 