Random Acts of Analytics

Fantasy football is big business, generating profits in excess of $1 billion through cable deals, advertisements, draft guides, buy-in fees and various endorsements. New York Times data scientist Boris Chen uses a clustering algorithm to aggregate expert ranking data for fantasy football analysis – and blogging about it.

As analytics proliferates everywhere, we are starting to see random acts, or not so random acts of analytics. Analytics are addressing new challenges, no matter how minute. Last week, Fast Company profiled True&Co, a company that is moving bra design from fashion models to data models.

There is also MouseWait, a mobile application which helps you map your Disney visit to avoid wait times. MouseWait aggregates and analyzes data from its membership of Disney Park visitors for its crowd Index.

We also found a Canadian company that monitors sleep and uses analytics to predict alertness.  It advises sports teams, like the Vancouver Canucks, on bed times so they can be more alert at a travel game in a different time zone. Considering the Canucks will log 48,510 travel miles this season, this information could be a competitive advantage.

These acts are solving seemingly mundane problems in truly amazing ways.