Detect Early Signals with Applied Excel: Pioneering Computational Journalism
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- The Origins of Applied Excel
- Detecting Early Signals in Data
- The Concept of "Pre-News"
- The Team and Vision Behind Applied Excel
- Bridging the Gap Between Engineering and Journalism
- Building Tools for Automation and Event Detection
- The Impact in the Newsroom
- Expanding Beyond Journalism
- Focusing on Life Sciences
- Event Detection Platform for Clinical Trials
- Collaborating with Stat News
- Validation and the Value of Journalism
- Anticipating Disruptions in Multiple Domains
- Real-time Data and Context
- Challenges and Solutions
- Dealing with Incomplete Data Sources
- Normalization and Data Aggregation
- Avoiding False Positive Signals
- Transparency and Reducing Emotional Intensity
- The Future of Applied Excel
- Increasing Collaboration and Partnerships
- Building New Data Sets and Event Detection Companies
- Moonshot: A World of Pre-News
- Conclusion
🚀 The Origins of Applied Excel
Applied Excel is a company that specializes in computational journalism and the detection of early signals in data. Born out of the collaboration between a team of computational journalists who previously worked together at the Wall Street Journal, Applied Excel focuses on uncovering Hidden information that can anticipate significant events, which they refer to as "Pre-News." With a background in engineering, data science, and journalism, the team aims to inject the human perspective into their automated systems and provide valuable insights for journalists and other industry practitioners. Their journey began with developing tools for automation and event detection at the Wall Street Journal, which proved to be successful in breaking stories and providing a competitive advantage.
📡 Detecting Early Signals in Data
The core concept behind Applied Excel's work is the ability to detect early signals in data before they become widely known or recognized. They believe that by triangulating information from the public domain and applying data science techniques, they can anticipate significant events, which they refer to as "Catalyst events." These events can range from changes in clinical trials and drug development to shifts in supply chain and transportation. By monitoring different data sources and analyzing shifts in data Patterns, Applied Excel's algorithms are designed to identify anomalies, red flags, and potential catalyst events. This early detection can provide valuable insights and empower decision-makers to take preemptive action.
👥 The Team and Vision Behind Applied Excel
The team behind Applied Excel consists of computational journalists, engineers, and data scientists who share a vision of disrupting and anticipating reactions to the health of people, places, and the planet. The co-founders, Francesco Marconi and Aaron Doucette, previously worked together at the Wall Street Journal, where Marconi served as the R&D Chief and Doucette as an automation engineer. With expertise in both computer science and journalism, they envisioned a company that could bridge the gap between these two domains and build systems that incorporate the perspective of journalists and editors.
💡 Bridging the Gap Between Engineering and Journalism
Applied Excel's unique approach lies in its emphasis on bridging the gap between engineering and journalism. Rather than building purely algorithmic systems for automation and event detection, the team believes in injecting the human perspective into their models. Through knowledge transfer Sessions with specialized journalists, they encode the research processes and intuition of these experts into their algorithms. By understanding the nuances of different industries and developing editorial algorithms, Applied Excel ensures that their models provide real-time data analysis with context and relevance.
💻 Building Tools for Automation and Event Detection
Applied Excel's early work at the Wall Street Journal involved developing tools for automation and event detection. They focused on areas such as monitoring different industry sectors, ingesting large amounts of text data, and building systems for anomaly detection. These tools proved to be instrumental in helping their colleagues break stories and gain a competitive edge. Inspired by the impact of these tools, Marconi and Doucette left the Wall Street Journal in 2020 to build Applied Excel and provide similar systems to journalists and industry practitioners across various sectors.
📰 The Impact in the Newsroom
As Applied Excel's tools were implemented in the newsroom at the Wall Street Journal, they witnessed the transformative power of early signal detection. Their colleagues were able to monitor different areas more effectively, ingest large corpuses of text data, and break stories ahead of the competition. The success and recognition they garnered within the newsroom showed the potential for Applied Excel to extend their systems beyond journalism and provide similar value to industry practitioners in other sectors.
🚀 Expanding Beyond Journalism
Motivated by their initial success, Marconi and Doucette saw an opportunity to broaden the application of their systems beyond journalism. They realized that the same principles they had applied to news stories could be invaluable in industries such as life sciences, supply chain management, and transportation. By providing event detection platforms and early insights, they aimed to empower professionals in these domains to anticipate disruptions and make informed decisions.
🔬 Focusing on Life Sciences
For their initial vertical, Applied Excel chose to focus on life sciences, serving biotech and pharma companies, as well as life sciences investors. The complexity and high stakes of clinical trials presented an ideal opportunity to showcase the capabilities of their event detection platform. By monitoring clinical trials and analyzing shifts in data, their algorithms could offer early signals of potential success or failure. This information would be invaluable for companies and investors in making crucial decisions regarding drug development, go-to-market strategies, and investment opportunities.
⏰ Event Detection Platform for Clinical Trials
One of Applied Excel's flagship offerings is the event detection platform for clinical trials. By monitoring various data sources, such as regulatory agency reports, company announcements, and scientific Papers, their algorithms track and analyze specific shifts in the data. These shifts could include changes in the number of patients being tested, delays in the trial timeline, or adjustments to the trial protocol. By combining these micro changes and identifying patterns, the algorithms can anticipate catalyst events, such as the success or failure of a clinical trial. For clients in the life sciences industry, this platform provides crucial real-time insights for decision-making.
✔️ Collaborating with Stat News
Applied Excel has formed a partnership with Stat News, a leading publisher covering the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. Through this collaboration, Stat News journalists are using Applied Excel's event detection platform to break stories and validate the quality of the information generated by the algorithms. This partnership not only provides real-world validation for Applied Excel's platform but also expands the reach and impact of their insights through Stat News' extensive readership.
🔍 Validation and the Value of Journalism
Applied Excel believes that journalism plays a vital role in validating the quality and relevance of their insights. By working closely with journalists who are subject matter experts in specific domains, they encode their research processes and intuition into the models. This collaboration ensures that the algorithms incorporate the context and editorial perspective necessary for accurate and Meaningful event detection. If the results of their models Align with the acceptance criteria of journalists, Applied Excel considers it a success, as journalists are sophisticated knowledge workers who recognize the value of the information.
🌐 Anticipating Disruptions in Multiple Domains
While Applied Excel is currently focused on the life sciences vertical, their long-term vision is to connect multiple domains and capture the butterfly effect of events. By tracking and analyzing data from various sectors, such as Healthcare, supply chain, transportation, and environmental impacts, they aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of global disruptions. This interconnected view would enable decision-makers to anticipate and mitigate the effects of events, such as natural disasters, pandemics, or changes in regulations. Applied Excel's approach combines specialized event detection with real-time contextual analysis to serve as an early warning system for potential disruptions.
📊 Real-time Data and Context
Applied Excel's methodologies involve analyzing real-time data and providing contextual insights. Their algorithms monitor data sources such as clinical trials, regulatory agencies, and company announcements for specific shifts and patterns. The algorithms then generate alerts and provide interpretations of the data, taking into account the nuances and context of the industry. By bringing together different data points and providing real-time context, Applied Excel aims to equip decision-makers with the information they need to reduce uncertainty and make informed choices before catalyst events occur.
🌐 Challenges and Solutions
Applied Excel acknowledges that their work comes with challenges, particularly in dealing with big data and ensuring data accuracy. With thousands of updates occurring daily, they face the daunting task of filtering Relevant information and avoiding false positives. They address these challenges through rigorous editorial algorithms, which prioritize and validate the information based on its relevance and impact. Data normalization techniques are also employed to handle inconsistencies in data sources and ensure accurate analysis. Through partnerships and collaboration with domain experts, Applied Excel continuously improves its algorithms and methodologies to provide reliable and valuable insights.
🔍 Dealing with Incomplete Data Sources
One of the challenges Applied Excel faces is the incompleteness of some data sources. While they primarily rely on publicly available data, the team acknowledges that certain information may be missing or incomplete. To address this, they leverage multiple data sources and perform in-depth research to Gather as much relevant information as possible. By aggregating data from various sources, they aim to mitigate the risk of relying on incomplete datasets and increase the accuracy of their event detection algorithms.
🔄 Normalization and Data Aggregation
Applied Excel emphasizes the importance of data normalization, especially when dealing with multiple data sources and variations in naming conventions. Standardizing names of diseases, drugs, and companies is crucial for accurate analysis and event detection. By utilizing existing medical taxonomies and dictionaries, as well as building their own, Applied Excel ensures consistency in data representation. This normalization process allows for accurate comparison and analysis, enabling the identification of patterns and anomalies that may signify potential catalyst events.
❌ Avoiding False Positive Signals
Applied Excel understands the potential risks associated with false positive signals. To address this, they employ classification models that account for spin or bias in data sources, such as press releases from companies. By factoring in the nuances of language and understanding the context, their algorithms strive to separate reliable signals from misleading or exaggerated information. Applied Excel's aim is not to predict outcomes but to provide early warnings and red flags, allowing users to make informed decisions based on accurate and contextual data.
✨ Transparency and Reducing Emotional Intensity
Applied Excel values transparency and aims to reduce the emotional intensity associated with information. They recognize that receiving news of a failure or a major change late in the process can be emotionally distressing for stakeholders. By providing early signals and alerts, they allow users to be proactive and mitigate potential risks. Applied Excel's goal is to equip decision-makers with relevant information that reduces uncertainty and helps them navigate challenges effectively.
🚀 The Future of Applied Excel
Applied Excel has ambitious plans for the future. They are focused on growing their client base in the life sciences domain while continuously improving their product and event detection capabilities. As they expand, they aim to build partnerships and collaborations across industries, leveraging their expertise to provide valuable insights and improve decision-making across the board. Their long-term vision is to connect different domains and capture the butterfly effect, understanding the ripple effects of events and enabling proactive measures to address global challenges.
🤝 Increasing Collaboration and Partnerships
Collaboration and partnerships are central to Applied Excel's future plans. They value the input and expertise of journalists, domain experts, and clients. By collaborating with experts who understand the intricacies of specific industries, they can continue to refine their algorithms and ensure accuracy and relevance. Applied Excel also seeks to forge partnerships with news organizations and industry leaders, expanding their reach and impact. Through these collaborations, they aim to validate their methodologies, build trust, and provide valuable insights to a broader audience.
📈 Building New Data Sets and Event Detection Companies
Applied Excel's roadmap includes the continuous development of new data sets and event detection capabilities. By leveraging their expertise in computational journalism and data science, they identify new domains and industries where early signal detection can be of significant value. By incrementally building on existing capabilities, they have the potential to create new event detection companies and platforms tailored to specific industries and their unique challenges. Applied Excel's goal is to provide real-time insights, drive innovation, and empower decision-makers across diverse sectors.
🌍 Moonshot: A World of Pre-News
The ultimate moonshot for Applied Excel is to connect all the different verticals they focus on and capture the butterfly effect of events. This involves understanding the interconnectedness of various industries and anticipating the impact they have on each other. By capturing and analyzing data from different domains, such as healthcare, supply chain, transportation, and environmental factors, Applied Excel aims to provide a comprehensive view of global disruptions. Through their event detection systems, they strive to equip decision-makers with the information necessary to address challenges and create positive change.
Conclusion
Applied Excel, a company founded by computational journalists with expertise in engineering and data science, is pioneering the detection of early signals in data, a concept they refer to as "Pre-News." By triangulating information and applying their unique algorithms, Applied Excel aims to provide valuable insights and alerts that empower decision-makers in various industries. With a focus on the life sciences industry initially, they are building an event detection platform for clinical trials, collaborating with news organizations like Stat News, and continuously innovating to expand their capabilities. Applied Excel's long-term vision is to connect multiple domains, capture the butterfly effect of events, and equip decision-makers with information that enables proactive decision-making in an increasingly complex world. The company's emphasis on collaboration, transparency, and the value of journalism sets them apart and positions them as a leader in the emerging field of early signal detection.
Highlights:
- Applied Excel specializes in computational journalism and the detection of early signals in data.
- They aim to anticipate significant events through triangulating information and applying data science techniques.
- The team consists of computational journalists, engineers, and data scientists bridging the gap between engineering and journalism.
- Applied Excel builds tools for automation and event detection, with a focus on injecting the human perspective into their models.
- Their event detection platform for clinical trials provides valuable real-time insights for decision-making in the life sciences industry.
- Collaboration with Stat News proves the value and validity of their methodologies in journalism.
- Applied Excel envisions connecting different domains to capture the butterfly effect of events and provide preemptive insights.
- Challenges include dealing with incomplete data sources and avoiding false positive signals.
- Transparency and reducing emotional intensity are paramount in their approach.
- Applied Excel aims to increase collaboration, build partnerships, and create new event detection companies.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: What is Applied Excel?
- Applied Excel is a company specializing in computational journalism and detecting early signals in data.
Q: How do they detect early signals?
- Applied Excel triangulates information from the public domain and applies data science techniques to anticipate significant events.
Q: What is "Pre-News"?
- "Pre-News" refers to the hidden information in the public domain that can be accurately interpreted, leading to the anticipation of upcoming events.
Q: Who is behind Applied Excel?
- Applied Excel was founded by Francesco Marconi and Aaron Doucette, who have extensive experience in computational journalism, engineering, and data science.
Q: How do they bridge the gap between engineering and journalism?
- Applied Excel incorporates the perspective of journalists and editors by developing editorial algorithms through knowledge transfer sessions with specialized journalists.
Q: What tools do they build?
- Applied Excel builds automation and event detection tools that provide real-time insights based on data analysis.
Q: What is their focus in the life sciences industry?
- Applied Excel's event detection platform focuses on clinical trials, providing early signals and insights for biotech, pharma companies, and investors.
Q: How do they validate their methodologies?
- They collaborate with news organizations like Stat News, who use their platform to break stories and validate the quality of the information generated by the algorithms.
Q: What is their long-term vision?
- Applied Excel aims to connect different domains, capturing the butterfly effect of events to equip decision-makers with information to address global disruptions.
Q: How do they handle challenges such as incomplete data sources and false positives?
- Applied Excel leverages multiple data sources, performs in-depth research, and employs rigorous editorial algorithms to ensure accurate and relevant event detection.
Q: How do they ensure transparency?
- Applied Excel values transparency and provides context with their information, aiming to reduce emotional intensity and equip decision-makers with reliable and meaningful insights.
Resources: Applied Excel, Stat News
