Book Synopsis

Data Simplification: Taming Information With Open Source Tools addresses the simple fact that modern data is too big and complex to analyze in its native form. Data simplification is the process whereby large and complex data is rendered usable. Complex data must be simplified before it can be analyzed, but the process of data simplification is anything but simple, requiring a specialized set of skills and tools.

This book provides data scientists from every scientific discipline with the methods and tools to simplify their data for immediate analysis or long-term storage in a form that can be readily repurposed or integrated with other data.

Drawing upon years of practical experience, and using numerous examples and use cases, Jules Berman discusses the principles, methods, and tools that must be studied and mastered to achieve data simplification, open source tools, free utilities and snippets of code that can be reused and repurposed to simplify data, natural language processing and machine translation as a tool to simplify data, and data summarization and visualization and the role they play in making data useful for the end user.

Review Quotes

"As there is a "gold rush" encouraging the workforce training of data scientists, this gritty "Rules of the Road" monograph should serve as a constant companion for modern data scientists. Berman convincingly portrays the value of programmers and analysts who have facility with Perl, Python, or Ruby and who understand the critical role of metadata, indexing, and data visualization. These professionals will be high on my shopping list of talent to add to our biomedical informatics team in Pittsburgh."

"Data Simplification provides easy, free solutions to the unintended consequences of data complexity. This book should be the first (and probably most important) guide to success in the data sciences. I will be providing copies to my trainees, programmers, analysts, and faculty, as required reading." --Michael J. Becich, MD, PhD, Associate Vice-Chancellor for Informatics in the Health Sciences, Chairman and Distinguished University Professor, Department of Biomedical Informatics, Director, Center for Commercial Application (CCA) of Healthcare Data, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine