At the JSM 2011 conference in Miami earlier this week, we conducted an informal poll of attendees on their attitudes to respect to Big Data, statistical software, and data science. JSM is the largest gathering of statisticians in North America, and attendees were invited to complete a survey after logging into the Wi-Fi network.
Of the 190 respondents to the question "How strongly do you identify with the statement, 'I consider myself a data scientist'", more than 85% (164) agreed or agreed strongly. 9.5% (18) responded "don't agree" to the statement. Given that there's been some controversy over the use of the term "data science" instead of "statistics" in some circles, it's interesting that so many statisticians at JSM are comfortable with the moniker.
Also of interest in the survey was the respondents' predictions of how their use of statistical software packages are likely to change over time. Asked, "In the next 24 months, do you expect your use of the following products / languages to increase or decrease?", 44.6% expected their use of R / Revolution R to increase. (Only 2.4% predicted a decrease.) Similar figures for other software packages are shown in the chart below.
You can read other results from the survey in the press release linked below.
Revolution Analytics: 97 Percent of Data Scientists Say 'Big Data' Technology Solutions Need Improvement
How many use Revolution R and how many use R?
Posted by: andy | August 05, 2011 at 07:47
For a different perspective, Don't Shun the "S" word.
Posted by: John Johnson | August 06, 2011 at 06:08
Interesting that Salford Systems isn't included on this list. Does anyone else use this software package? http://www.salford-systems.com/salford-predictive-miner.html
Posted by: Heather | August 08, 2011 at 10:36
David, what is the link to the post where you discussed the number of downloads R has had (and correlated it with number of data scientists maybe)? Having trouble finding it and want to cite it. I thought it was this post, but doesn't look like it.
Posted by: Ryan Rosario | August 26, 2011 at 16:54
@Ryan, this is the post you're looking for - but the details are embedded in the Prezi on the R Ecosystem. I'm working on a detailed blog post on the topic, but in the meantime this PDF version, R-ecosystem.pdf (8343.4K PDF) might be useful - check pages 25-27.
Posted by: David Smith | August 27, 2011 at 09:10