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Erik Gfesser

📍 Greater Chicago Area

New Book Review: "Agile Data Warehouse Design"

New book review for Agile Data Warehouse Design: Collaborative Dimensional Modeling, from Whiteboard to Star Schema, by Lawrence Corr and Jim Stagnitto, DecisionOne Press, 2011, reposted here: Good step-by-step guide for capturing data warehousing requirements and building dimensional models from these requirements through modelstorming (data modeling plus brainstorming) with business

Rave Run: Arkansas River Trail and Clinton Presidential Park (Little Rock)

The fifth post in the series I started a couple years ago, unabashedly based on a regular spread in Runner's World Magazine called Rave Runs, in order to share interesting routes with other runners. Why a post on running within a blog that concentates on business and technology?

New Book Review: "Practical Machine Learning"

New book review for Practical Machine Learning: Innovations in Recommendation, by Ellen Friedman and Ted Dunning, O'Reilly, 2014, reposted here: This work is a short, white paper sized text that walks the reader through practical aspects of machine learning recommendation, specifically for those who are new to this

New Book Review: "Star Schema"

New book review for Star Schema: The Complete Reference, by Christopher Adamson, McGraw-Hill Osborne Media, 2010, reposted here: For technologists looking for a thorough exploration of the traditional data warehouse star schema, nothing compares to this book. Other reviewers are correct that although works by Ralph Kimball are classics in

Pro Bono: IEEE Chicago Section Statistician - Part 5

My last post in this series on my pro bono efforts outside of the workplace as Statistician for the IEEE Chicago Section mentioned that I walked the Membership Development Chair through the visualizations of my latest monthly presentation to the team, partially in preparation for his request of me to

IEEE Senior Member Grade Elevation

For anyone wondering about IEEE grade elevation to Senior Member, I received the following notification via email today after my elevation was approved following the application, recommendation, and review process: Dear Erik Gfesser, It is a great pleasure to congratulate you on your elevation to the grade of IEEE Senior

Personal Reading List: 3Q2014

My personal reading list for July, August, and September 2014. Color Key: Special Notes, Currently Queued, Completed Reading. Updated throughout the Quarter. At Bat (Schnell) Applied Predictive Analytics: Principles and Techniques for the Professional Data Analyst, by Dean Abbott, Wiley, 2014. By invitation from Amazon. Async JavaScript: Build More Responsive

New Book Review: "A Culture of Purpose"

New book review for A Culture of Purpose: How to Choose the Right People and Make the Right People Choose You, by Christoph Lueneburger, Jossey-Bass, 2014, reposted here: The content presented in this work, while centering on building cultures of purpose in organizations, also focuses on sustainability because Lueneburger has

Pro Bono: IEEE Chicago Section Statistician - Part 4

This post is the fourth in a series on my pro bono efforts outside of the workplace as Statistician for the IEEE Chicago Section, a new position that I filled in September 2012 after the membership development team realized that ongoing data analyses and reporting was needed around declining enrollment.

New Book Review: "Data Science for Business"

New book review for Data Science for Business: What You Need to Know About Data Mining and Data-Analytic Thinking, by Foster Provost and Tom Fawcett, O'Reilly Media, 2013, reposted here: As the authors discuss in the preface to this text, the content presented here provides a conceptual foundation