Injecting Your Own Bias

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Injecting Your Own Bias

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@DBA_ANDY SSC-Addicted Points: 492 More actions · Answer 1

jay holovacs (3/24/2010)
Andy-452557 (3/24/2010)
It's interesting that this is so much an "East vs. West" issue - but living in the Midwest (Nebraska - smack dab in the middle) it is pretty much a wash either way....travel to Seattle or Miami is equally prohibitive.
Maybe if it were somewhere nearby (did somebody previously suggest Minneapolis?) it would be different...
True but flights to Minneapolis are generally more expensive than to LA or NY, no matter where you are.
In the overall cost of a trip, the exact dollars of flight cost difference (assuming the flight is properly shopped for) are only smallish percentage.

Yes, but if you live in a ~500 miles circle it can be cheaper to drive....:-P (just my own bias)

Jack Corbett SSC Guru Points: 184393 More actions · Answer 2

jay holovacs (3/24/2010)
Andy-452557 (3/24/2010)
It's interesting that this is so much an "East vs. West" issue - but living in the Midwest (Nebraska - smack dab in the middle) it is pretty much a wash either way....travel to Seattle or Miami is equally prohibitive.
Maybe if it were somewhere nearby (did somebody previously suggest Minneapolis?) it would be different...
True but flights to Minneapolis are generally more expensive than to LA or NY, no matter where you are.
In the overall cost of a trip, the exact dollars of flight cost difference (assuming the flight is properly shopped for) are only smallish percentage.

My issue isn't the cost in $'s but in time (including the time change) as I think it is with most East coasters. I also think that there is a perceived cost difference based on distance. If the Summit is on the East coast or say Dallas, I can travel Monday and Thursday, but going to Seattle makes it much harder on the body to travel those days. I feel I need to get to Seattle Sunday to have Monday to recover from all day traveling and it is easier to fly back on Friday so I'm not arriving home at 2am.

Jack Corbett
Consultant - Straight Path Solutions
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Ralph Nickname SSC Journeyman Points: 88 More actions · Answer 3

I believe the term for what you are describing is implicature. Glad to see the recognition that this non-logical part of data presentation is ever present. That's certainly a topic in and of itself. BTW, I'd like to see a PASS in the Southwest, so I'd support change of location.

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 734488 More actions · Answer 4

Andy-452557 (3/24/2010)
It's interesting that this is so much an "East vs. West" issue - but living in the Midwest (Nebraska - smack dab in the middle) it is pretty much a wash either way....travel to Seattle or Miami is equally prohibitive.
Maybe if it were somewhere nearby (did somebody previously suggest Minneapolis?) it would be different...

Denver

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 734488 More actions · Answer 5

I think there's a price perception from some people that don't travel a lot that a flight from xxx city to Orlando might be cheaper than a flight to Seattle. The reality is that the price difference is typically negligible for most people.

However, many of the more vocal people on the East Coast realize the time is an issue. With fewer flights and choices all the time, going long distances means an extra 2 or sometimes 3 days lost from work and/or family to get to the Summit. That's a much bigger deal than cost.

Bill Nicolich SSCommitted Points: 1865 More actions · Answer 6

Denver
Denver
Denver

I mean, let's do Denver everybody! Wait. Where did that idea come from? It just popped in there.

We could throw a barbeque in Steve's backyard. We'll get sauces in lots of different color so when people start getting altitude sickness, we'll get the "technicolor yawn" effect going.

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Jack Corbett SSC Guru Points: 184393 More actions · Answer 7

Bill Nicolich (3/24/2010)
Denver
Denver
Denver
I mean, let's do Denver everybody! Wait. Where did that idea come from? It just popped in there.
We could throw a barbeque in Steve's backyard. We'll get sauces in lots of different color so when people start getting altitude sickness, we'll get the "technicolor yawn" effect going.

We can't do Denver. That would at least double my costs as my wife would want to go to meet Steve's wife and play with the horses.

Jack Corbett
Consultant - Straight Path Solutions
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Grant Fritchey SSC Guru Points: 398696 More actions · Answer 8

Steve Jones - Editor (3/24/2010)
...many of the more vocal people on the East Coast...

Now who the heck are you talking about?

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dma-669038 SSCrazy Points: 2773 More actions · Answer 9

Steve, would be very interested in knowing why you think the board is biased or mis interpreting the data. Personally I think the main issue with PASS on any problem be it moving conference location, changing election strategy, offering more to chapters or anything, is that it has gotten too big to be a purely volunteer run group. The volunteers starting from board members seem stretched to the extreme even to maintain status quo - status quo meaning run one conference, and keep the show going as is. My impression has been quite strongly that the huge demands on personal time that this work needs does not allow room for thinking and implementing change.

Regarding location i think Bill Graziano expressed doubts once about where we can 'pull it off' elsewhere with same degree of success when we are set in Seattle with logistics. I dont believe he meant attendance, but just the effort they need to put in around other logistics, i think we need to cut them slack on that.

To my mind unless more people come forward to share the burden (Kevin Kline mentioned last year about fewer and fewer people coming forward) - we have to let them do what they are able to do and keep our criticism to minimum.

Just some thoughts.

Andy Leonard SSChampion Points: 10134 More actions · Answer 10

I recognize bias when I see it, whether it's mine or someone else's.

I guess I'm curious why Denver or Minneapolis or Chicago won't work. The PASS Summit 2007 was in Denver. Were their problems?

:{> Andy

Andy Leonard, Chief Data Engineer, Enterprise Data & Analytics

SQLRNNR SSC Guru Points: 281334 More actions · Answer 11

I would like to see the Summit move around. It might give me an opportunity to see different cities.

Holding it in Seattle is fine by me, I like the area. Holding it in Denver would be fine too - been there numerous times and I like the area. I could handle Orlando, Atlanta, New Orleans, Baltimore, and NY as well (just to name a few east coast locations).

Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
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ramdas.narayanan Ten Centuries Points: 1214 More actions · Answer 12

Having the PASS Summit on the east coast would be great for example if it were held in Atlanta,Orlando,New York. Folks like me could drive down and cut down on costs, just my 2 cents.

TravisDBA SSCoach Points: 15780 More actions · Answer 13

CirquedeSQLeil (3/24/2010)
I would like to see the Summit move around. It might give me an opportunity to see different cities.
Holding it in Seattle is fine by me, I like the area. Holding it in Denver would be fine too - been there numerous times and I like the area. I could handle Orlando, Atlanta, New Orleans, Baltimore, and NY as well (just to name a few east coast locations).

Would Miami/Fort Lauderdale ever be out of the question? I can tell you one thing you would certainly enjoy the weather during the winter down here. 🙂

"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"

Don Day SSC Enthusiast Points: 102 More actions · Answer 14

As data professionals, we often end up not only presenting data back to business people, but we also influence them with the way that we handle data, display it in reports, even with the queries we write to aggregate information. It's entirely possible that in doing we inject our own bias into the results. It could be something as simple as the size or font we choose, or more subtle in the way we discuss the meaning of data with a business analyst when designing the software. Even the names we pick for tables or other data elements exposed in an Excel report or a Report Builder data source can influence how others view the data.
It's hard to guard against your own bias, but as the guardians, managers, and transformers of data, we ought to be aware that we can influence others and be aware of where we might do it, especially if we're helping gather or present information back to others.[/B]

I hope I'm not taking too much of a tangent on the article by suggesting that Google would do well to read and remember these paragraphs.

OCTom SSChampion Points: 11785 More actions · Answer 15

jay holovacs (3/24/2010)
I'm not sure that it makes such a big difference where it is held. Other than people within a few hundred miles of the target city, flying on a plane is not that much different in cost by distance (pricing is more affect by all sorts of details as the time of flight and the scheduling details). Indeed flights to major target cities like LA, NY, Seattle are often much cheaper than flights to smaller cities.
Other costs (food lodging) are pretty much the same no matter where it is held.

True. But, where I work, flying to Seattle is a tough sell (for whatever reason). Some of us work for employers that put constraints on travel destinations.