Update: The Forbes story about R will now be in the December issue (bumped up from the January issue), so be sure to get your post your stories about R to the Mean Business blog by November 17.
Steve McNally of the Forbes Mean Business blog says R is a name you need to know for 2011. He cites some great examples of R in action:
Facebook has used R to figure out that “just two data points are significantly predictive of whether a user remains on Facebook: (i) having more than one session as a new user, and (ii) entering basic profile information.”
For non-data-wonk professionals, R can make pretty pictures of complex information. Anyone capable of creating a spreadsheet can load that same sheet into R and begin playing with plots, charts, and graphs. This should not be undervalued: making a management presentation fraught with data (think: ad page sales by geography; segmented by industry; year-to-date; vs. last year-to-date) is a lot more palatable when there’s a stunning infograph in your deck.
Forbes is also crowdsourcing content for their January issue and is looking for graphs, charts and success stories about R. I've suggested the examples from the "R is Hot" series and the Revolution Analytics case studies, but I'm sure you have other great suggestions. Let Forbes know in their comments (Forbes.com registration required) or here.
Forbes: Names You Need to Know in 2011: R Data Analysis Software
Thanks, David -
We've actually just heard the "Names You Need to Know" magazine feature has been moved up to the December 20 issue.
That makes deadline for consideration ~a week from now.
With hope, the R community represents, sends examples, joins the conversation.
I appreciate your participation. If you hear of anything that should be noted, please let me know in my post's comments.
Posted by: Steve McNally | November 11, 2010 at 15:38