Clustering is super important in all systems that deal with any kind of information. In information retrieval systems like digital libraries and search engines they are used to group the documents into clusters. These are all documents that share similarities.
This can get really really complex very quickly, and there are loads of different clustering methods happening at all different stages to produce sufficiently exact results. Here I'm sharing with you a presentation on the topic which isn't too involved and is quite high level. There are some maths but you can ignore them if you like, you won't completely lose out or anything.
If like me you missed the web 2.0 expo in NY, you can still watch the footage on YouTube, here are some of the talks I'm sad I missed:
First up, Gary Vaynerchuk with "Building Personal Brand Within the Social Media Landscape"
A few things he says in this talk:
- Don't do things you hate
- Give a shit about your users - answer emails, give a crap about your user base.
- Start with yourself, ask "what do I want to do for the rest of my life?" and monetize that.
- Keep Hustling, it's the most important word ever.
- You need a business model - make some cash along the way.
- Legacy is greater than currency.
"Ive turned down 40 television deals. There's no reason for me to share the equity. My content is mine The people that controlled it - newspaper, television, and radio- are no longer in control, and that is a huge factor that people have not totally wrapped their head around. - you need to build brand equity".
- If you love it, you will win. Get out there and network.
- Which tool should I use, tiwttter, facebook,...? - all of them! Communicate with your user base all the time. It's a massive opportunity.
- Work 9-5, 7-2am work on your idea.
- Be patient.
Next up: Jay Adelson - "Organizing Chaos: The Growth of Collaborative Filters"
A few snippets:
- Before all you had was information on clicks and you used PageRank and BackRub, but now there is a wealth of information to be collected from users.
- The younger generation don't have the privacy issues that the older generation have. They're happy to share info online.
- We're moving from a "seek" culture to one where we're constantly connected.
- Next gen = find people like you and use that collective wisdom to find things that are specifically interesting to you.
- Future of Digg - they collect loads of data on you, and then they're going to change the front page so it's unique to you.
Tim O'Reilley also did a talk, you can watch it here.
I'm a phd student in Computer Science, and I work in seo as well. I've DJed for 5 years (now just for fun) and I've been dedicated to Ashtanga yoga for 4 years after a long stint in extreme sports. My favorite word is "orange".
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