More urban innovation

Next Cities announces a new infusion of funding for urban innovation:

Bloomberg Philanthropies announced Wednesday a three-year commitment that will send eligible cities up to $1 million annually to support the creation of “innovation delivery teams” that will use data-driven, results-oriented approaches to solve vexing urban problems.

Big Data is hard work

So says the NY Times today.

“It’s an absolute myth that you can send an algorithm over raw data and have insights pop up,” said Jeffrey Heer, a professor of computer science at the University of Washington and a co-founder of Trifacta, a start-up based in San Francisco.

Yup.