This week, a wealth of industry experts shared their insights into the changing landscape of big data with us. On Monday, Chairman of MBN Solutions Paul Forrest shared his thoughts on how big data can become “the bridge” to success. On Tuesday, Jamal Khawaja informed us why we’ve never been more vulnerable to data hacks and breaches, and what we can do about this. We also spoke to one of the co-founders of Mutinerie about the fast-paced life of coworking spaces. On Wednesday, Philip Berliner shared with us his incendiary and insightful polemic “Social Media is Dead. Big Data is on Life Support.” Here’s our picks of the best big data stories of the week:

TOP DATACONOMY ARTICLES

How Facebook Deal With Their Masses of User-Generated Data

For decades, companies have lived by the mantra “customer is king”. But in the age of the Internet- when users generate hoardes of data, not all of which is useful or accurate- the rules of the game have changed. We recently spoke to Tye Rattenbury, Trifacta’s lead Data Scientist, about how he dealt with the masses of user-generated data in his previous role at Facebook, as well his current role with Trifacta.

The Most Interesting Man in Data Science

From apple grower to fine arts student, from software developer to machine learning PhD- Jose Quesada has done it all. Now, he’s established Data Science Retreat, a course to help people with his passion for growth and development to delve into the world of data science. We recently spoke to Jose about his remarkable story, the Data Science Retreat experience, and why so-called “soft skills” are often the making of future data scientists.

How We Can Use Data Mining to Fight Corruption

“Last year, Transparency International Georgia launched an open-source procurement monitoring and analytics portal, which extracts data from the government’s central e-procurement website and repackages it into user-friendly formats. Users can now generate profiles of procurement transactions made by government agencies, profiles of companies bidding for contracts, & search aggregate statistical data on government spending.”

TOP DATACONOMY NEWS

Mario Gets Self-Aware with Application of Artificial Intelligence                                                                                                

Researchers of the Cognitive Modelling Group at Germany’s University of Tubingen have developed the Mario AI Project wherein a self aware Mario who makes decisions based on what it learns through spoken instructions or concepts and by exploring his environment.

Stack Exchange Gain $40m to Become to Sole Platform That Matters for Dev Hiring Companies

Stack Exchange the startup behind the popular Q&A platform for professional and enthusiast programmers, Stack Overflow, has secured $40 million in investment in a Series D round of funding, it revealed earlier this week.

Facebook Open Sources Deep Learning and AI Tools on Torch

“Facebook in an unprecedented move has open-sourced some of its machine learning tools with the scientific computing framework,Torch. The announcement came earlier last week on Friday, through the Facebook AI Research (FAIR) blog.”

TOP UPCOMING EVENTS

2-3 February, 2015- 14th Wearable Technologies Conference, Munich
     

“The world’s most profound event for wearables will once again gather all important players of the wearable tech ecosystem at the 14th WT | Wearable Technologies Conference in Munich on February 2 and 3.”  

11-12 February, 2015- Big Data & Analytics Summit, Melbourne

“Big Data & Analytics Innovation is back in Australia for two days of inspiring, insightful & educational presentations, panel sessions, interactive discussions and world-class networking. Big Data & Analytics Innovation will bring you right up to speed to assist you with your every need covering an array of topics, themes and problem points.”

TOP DATACONOMY JOBS

Big Data Solutions Architect, adsquare   

This is truly a chance of a lifetime. At adsquare you will be part of a rapidly growing ad tech startup that will add a totally new dimension to the world of mobile advertising. You will work hand in hand with the adsquare team on understanding the real-time, real-world user context. If you are enthusiastic about BIG DATA processing, think analytical and love distributed backend systems with state of the art frameworks you shouldn’t miss out on this opportunity.

Physicist / Mathematician / Computer Scientist as Data Scientist, Blue Yonder

If you would like to be part of a highly innovative, challenging and extremely future-oriented software market, and a young and highly motivated team, then please send us your detailed application.

Stack Exchange the startup behind the popular Q&A platform for professional and enthusiast programmers, Stack Overflow, has secured $40 million in investment in a Series D round of funding, it revealed earlier this week.

The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz and saw participation from existing investors like Union Square Ventures, Spark Capital, Bezos Expeditions, and Index Ventures, bringing the total funds raised till date to $70 million.

Founded in 2008, the startup’s Overflow platform has garnered tremendous respect within the developer community owing to its no frills, programmers-first policy.

“Everything about how Stack Overflow works today was designed to make programmers’ jobs easier. We let members vote up answers, so we can show you the best answer first. We don’t allow opinionated questions, because they descend into flame wars that don’t help people who need an answer right now. We have scrupulously avoided any commercialization of our editorial content, because we want to have a site that programmers can trust,” explained Joel Spolsky, the chief executive of Stack Exchange.Chris Dixon, a personal investor in the company as well as a partner at the Andreessen Horowitz will be joining the board of directors as an observer. He believes that the platform has become, “the indispensable home to the world’s programmers.”

This investment for the New York based startup comes at a time when there is a documented dirge of developers and programmers across various geographies.

With over 26 million developers, Stack Exchange through the Stack Overflow platform  provides a fertile hunting ground for more than 10000 companies including biggies like Amazon and Microsoft, to hire talent, as Fortune points out.There has been disclosure over the company’s valuation or revenue, but it said that it is not profitable.

Read more here.

Follow @DataconomyMedia

(Image credit: Stack Exchange)