Michael S. Goldberg

Independent Writer and Editor

United States of America

I'm an independent writer and editor based in the Boston area. I have led editorial teams at CIO and CSO Magazines, Computerworld and Data Informed. Email: michaelscottgoldberg AT gmail DOT com

Portfolio
Boston University publications
Better Treatment through Big Data | College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences: Sargent College

If you have a sore shoulder, physical therapy is likely to make you feel better. But traditionally, it has been difficult for physical therapists to quantify exactly how much better a patient gets. Now imagine you enter a clinic and, after describing your symptoms and having an exam, the physical therapist shows you a graph charting the progress of people with the same condition.

BU Arts & Sciences Magazine
10/23/2018
Giving Gone Bad

What's wrong with this scenario? In 2014, a charitable foundation established by the agriculture company Monsanto gave $1,350 to a nonprofit arm of the University of Northern Iowa, whose trustees included Iowa Republican Senator Charles Grassley. Monsanto's was one of 11 corporate foundations that gave to charities with ties to Grassley.

Everett Magazine at Boston University
04/21/2017
Alternative Energy and Business

In 2014, Boston's political, civic, and business leaders pledged to cut the city's greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050. Two years later, the city and surrounding communities went further, committing the metropolitan area to go carbon neutral by midcentury.

Everett Magazine, Boston University
10/16/2018
So Much for the Robocalypse

Innovation expert Iain M. Cockburn has heard all about the robocalypse: how artificially intelligent machines will displace many routine jobs. But he remains a techno-optimist. Cockburn, the Richard C. Shipley Professor in Management, believes that AI has the potential to be an invention that spawns many other inventions and economic growth.

Boston University Everett Magazine
10/01/2016
Make Better Decisions

The menu board at Yankee Stadium presents patrons with a list of satisfying, salty choices. Chicken. Steak. Hot dogs. Cheese fries. Peanuts. All ballpark staples. And all of them packed with more than 1,000 calories. The list illustrates the challenges we face in everyday choices, like what to eat at a baseball game.

Bostonia
05/09/2017
A Teacher's Voice | Bostonia

In April 2013, Boston Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham posed a rhetorical question to the city: why aren't there more women in local politics? As the race for an open mayoral seat warmed up, she noted that the emerging field had eight candidates, and none was a woman.

BU Today
02/06/2018
How Decisions Work | BU Today | Boston University

"Attention, Green Line passengers. There is a service disruption due to some track repairs. Shuttle buses will be available between Kenmore and Arlington stations." Regular MBTA patrons know what it feels like to learn about a service change. Thoughts and questions pile up. This train is standing-room only.

Boston University Everett Magazine
08/03/2015
Business Has Changed. Why Haven't Business Schools?

WHILE ITS CUSTOMERS WERE ORDERING MOVIES FROM THE COMFORT OF HOME, BLOCKBUSTER WAS STILL STOCKING SHELVES WITH DVDS. When photography went digital, Kodak stayed monochromed in the past. As Sears was reserving mall anchor sites, Montgomery Ward was clinging to Main Street.

Computerworld
04/13/2015
Mapping the indoors: Location-based apps' next frontier

It's a recent Saturday and I'm searching for Spider-Man -- the comics version -- at the Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Mass. Entering the busy shop across the street from the famous university, one must shuffle carefully through the entrance to avoid bumping into other shoppers.

Boston University Everett Magazine
04/04/2016
Millennials: A User Guide

Associate Professor Jack McCarthy knows what you need to know about millennials. He deals with classrooms full of them every day. In fact, you can trace a line from his undergraduate organizational behavior course to the challenges facing managers in just about every professional enterprise.

CIO
10/29/2015
When Walgreens uses digital mapping, Rx marks the spot

When Jillian Elder needs to build a business case to boost her location-based business intelligence program at Walgreens, she knows the winning trigger: demonstrating that the investment will lead to one additional store, or one better-performing store, in the coming year.

Computerworld
09/29/2014
Asset managers crave location data

Each of the concrete and steel wharfs at the Port of Rotterdam, Europe's busiest shipping hub, hosts the loading and unloading of billions of dollars in goods over its useful life. Managing and maintaining these waterfront structures so that the world's largest cargo containers can dock at them means the difference between collecting revenue and watching ships sail elsewhere.

BU Today
10/28/2015
New BU LAW Clinic Helps MIT Student Entrepreneurs | BU Today | Boston University

Advising on new venture, intellectual property legal issues Rishan Mohamed has almost everything he needs to build his planned tech start-up. He believes in his idea, has customers to validate his online business model, and has valuable experience from previous jobs developing business partnerships at Google and working as a management consultant at Parthenon Group.

BU Today
09/17/2015
Four Junior Faculty Awarded Peter Paul Professorships | BU Today | Boston University

Cited for exceptional accomplishments in their areas of study Junior faculty at Boston University engage in a constant juggling act, balancing the demands of teaching with research and grant and publishing deadlines. That juggling act just got a bit easier for four young faculty who each have published important research and won strong reviews for their teaching.

CIO Magazine
09/28/2014
Big Data Analytics Gets Smarter With Location-based Services

CIO Magazine: October Issue Mapping intelligence isn't just for retailers anymore. Advanced analytics uses location data to reveal new insights about customers and strategy. The "location, location, location" slogan takes on fresh meaning when Jones Lang LaSalle, a $4 billion global real estate firm, applies big-data analytics to it.

Data Informed
01/14/2014
Five Things to Know About IBM Watson, Where It Is and Where It's Going

IBM's new Watson Group, launched to develop and commercialize cloud-based cognitive computing systems, plans to invest $1 billion, including $100 million in venture money to cultivate an ecosystem of applications developed by third parties. Related Stories IBM Watson moves into customer service, readies for new use cases.

Data Informed
02/28/2014
7 Great Visualizations from History

Visualizations have always been about using data to tell a story. The great ones build narrative connections among data points in new ways, reframing the world-often a familiar piece of the world-so that viewers see important issues in a fresh light. Visualizations that predate the advent of information technology hold a special appeal.

Data Informed
10/04/2013
Using Evolutionary Biology to Inform Machine Learning Algorithms

When Lars Hård, an artificial intelligence veteran, discusses developing a recommendation engine for a consumer product like perfume, he talks about harvesting many kinds of data. Product data. Consumer search engine data. Design data having to do with colors that men or women prefer. Pricing data.

Data Informed
07/01/2013
SAP's TwoGo App Combines Data, Design to Address Carpool Challenge

Suppose you and I live within a few miles of each other, and we're headed in the same direction to work every day. If public transit is not an option, why don't we share a ride? We'll save money on gas. Our cars will last longer. We'll socialize along the way.

Data Informed
10/19/2012
Presidential Debates Provide Living Laboratory for Marketers Studying Sentiment Analysis

For those watching, the presidential debates have been full of drama, both on their TVs and on their digital devices. It is that second screen and the data generated by social media users, bloggers and forum participants that provides a living laboratory for sentiment analysis, and reinforces some fundamental lessons for marketers.

Data Informed
01/28/2013
Inside the Obama Campaign's Big Data Analytics Culture

The Obama for America campaign was about facing off against Mitt Romney for the White House. It was about the U.S. economy and jobs, taxes and the national debt, America's standing in the world and immigration.

Data Informed
05/09/2013
Tableau Software's Robert Kosara on Using Data to Tell a Story

Robert Kosara, a visual analysis researcher at Tableau Software, argues that if you want to learn how to tell stories with data, look at the Web. If you examine the right projects, you will find a classroom full of useful exhibits that use data to tell stories and examine questions-and provide lessons for both decision-makers and analytics professionals.

Data Informed
07/08/2013
Esri Users Describe Change Management for Adopting Location Analytics

In the 1980s, you needed a car, a street map, some economic data and a notebook to evaluate sites for a new restaurant. "You'd spend hours driving around the market, scouting locations, looking at the competition, studying demographic characteristics of the area," said Rob Reiner, director of real estate research at Darden Restaurants.

Data Informed
08/14/2013
The Value of In-House Alliances in Adopting Location Analytics

Here's what Cirque du Soleil knows about its typical ticket buyers in North America: They are between 35 to 55 years old. They live in households that earn more than $100,000 per year. Just over half (52 percent) are female. And most of them won't drive more than 60 minutes to see a show.

Data Informed
12/18/2012
The Five Elements of a Data Scientist's Job

To Scott Nicholson, the field of data science is like a playground with a purpose: to use data to understand how people make decisions, and then use that insight to help them make better data-driven decisions. The equipment is all there: the datasets, the technology tools, the statistical algorithms, and an unyielding sense of curiosity.

Data Informed
06/20/2013
Cloud Computing Experts Detail Big Data Security and Privacy Risks

The information security practitioners at the Cloud Security Alliance know that big data and analytics systems are here to stay. They also agree on the big questions that come next: How can we make the systems that store and compute the data secure?

Data Informed
04/17/2013
Geofeedia Structures Twitter, Social Media Data by Location and Time

A day after two bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring more than 170 people, an Instagram user named "amasonicvibes" posted a photo from the sideline on race day. The photo shows crowds of spectators gathered along Boylston Street, watching the stream of runners on the course.

Data Informed
02/14/2013
Podcast: Esri's Jack Dangermond on Marrying Maps with Big Data Analytics

When Jack Dangermond started Esri in 1969, he was among a relative handful of people pursuing a career in geographic information systems who thought computer-generated maps were cool. Now, with the kudzu-like spread of maps in smartphone apps and Web mashups, it's as if the rest of the world has come around to his way of seeing.

Data Informed
11/05/2012
Two Very Different Predictive Models for the Presidential Election

Business analysts would do well to pay attention to the scrutiny that election prediction models engender. While the readouts from a customer analytics project won't rival the passions generated by a close contest for the White House, there are two important takeaways from the political fray.

Data Informed
04/27/2012
Data Scientist Role: Interpreter, Teacher, Visualizer, Programmer and Data Cruncher

Dan Dunn does not call himself a data scientist. Dunn, a product and operations manager at HubSpot, a maker of Internet marketing software based in Cambridge, Mass., refers to himself as someone who "pushes data out to as many people as possible" in his company of IT experts, business intelligence analysts and business leaders, to run experiments, refine hypotheses and-after much iteration and analysis-discover actionable business insights.