I would like to make this non-commercial and reusable. The vision is that any non technical person should be able to use any ml algorithm without needing to understand low level details of the algorithm. I'm thinking of creating a plug and play like visual workflow that is tailored towards concepts that a business analyst can understand but hooking this into libraries like mahout and graphlab underneath. The goal is to create recommendation models and graphically run evaluations around these models by using or refreshing training data. If you guys are interested in discussing in more detail I'd suggest quick Skype or joinme to talk in more detail. Also in my brief experience I've observed that the biggest barrier from a business analysts's perspective to understanding the power of ML is that they're used to tools like Saas and a general fear of the technical complexities behind some of these algorithms.
Sent from my iPhone On Mar 24, 2013, at 1:14 PM, Ted Dunning <ted.dunn...@gmail.com> wrote: > Saikat, > > This sounds fairly interesting. > > Are you talking about a non-commercial or commercial interest in doing this? > > I ask because a non-commercial interest would probably mean that you would > be willing to donate more of your code but would have less time to spare. > A commercial interest would probably mean you could spend more time, but > would want to build something that you don't share. > > Both options can be interesting. > > On Sun, Mar 24, 2013 at 6:45 PM, Saikat Kanjilal <sxk1...@hotmail.com>wrote: > >> Hey Guys, >> I've definitely been interested in being a committer for a while now, have >> build services around a few of the algorithms, however I'm usually at a >> loss on where to start, maybe docs, I'm interested in building a neural net >> or genetic algorithm implementation as well as building out an >> infrastructure that surrounds mahout /graphlab that allows non technical >> analysts to train data and pick algorithms and make tradeoffs with results. >> My goal is to build a tool around low level frameworks that bridges the >> gap for analysts to setup a recommendations plugin that can be embedded >> into any ecommerce app. Would love to hear best places I can help that are >> of immediate need. >> >> Sent from my iPhone >> >> On Mar 24, 2013, at 10:36 AM, Grant Ingersoll <gsing...@apache.org> wrote: >> >>> >>> On Mar 24, 2013, at 1:31 PM, Sebastian Schelter wrote: >>> >>>> Hi Grant, >>>> >>>> how would/could such a scale back look like? >>> >>> It's a good question and I don't have a good answer. The Recommender >> stuff always seems to be the most active (you and Sean do a ton of work!), >> so that is one possibility, but I can't see I really like it, since I'm a >> heavy user of both clustering and classification (but I really restrict >> myself to what I know works). I also use the colocation work and it pretty >> much just works too, so that covers a lot of the code base for me. >>> >>> In the end, it probably doesn't make sense to scale back, but instead >> look at getting more committers on board sooner rather than later. >>> >>> -Grant >>> >>> >>> >>>> >>>> Best, >>>> Sebastian >>>> >>>> >>>> On 24.03.2013 18:30, Grant Ingersoll wrote: >>>>> Personally, I think the bigger issue is that most of the committers >> (me included) are not very active, so we either need to identify other >> committers sooner rather than later or really scale back the project to >> just those areas where we have activity. >>>>> >>>>> I know I struggle to find time to contribute, esp. in moving the ball >> forward on issues that are non-trivial usually requires a significant >> amount of effort to understand the math, etc. >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> On Mar 24, 2013, at 6:08 AM, Isabel Drost-Fromm wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> Hello, >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> this is to those of you using Mahout or lurking on the mailing list >> somewhere. >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> In the current Mahout board report [1] it became apparent that Mahout >> has a >>>>>> large number of users. However looking at the dev list there's barely >> any >>>>>> activity left: Committers including myself are drowning in help >> requests that >>>>>> they cannot keep up with or have been surprised by life taking away >> more of >>>>>> their time than a few months and years ago. Contributors wait for >> long until >>>>>> they get feedback on patches getting frustrated along the way. >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> In the software world if there are no more resources to support a >> released >>>>>> version that version usually is marked as “no longer maintaned”, being >>>>>> subsequently retired and replaced with a new version. >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> At Apache projects that are lacking resources, energy and support go >> through a >>>>>> similar process: Usually they get moved into the Attic – which means >> that >>>>>> mailing lists are closed though archives remain searchable, bug >> trackers are >>>>>> marked as read only. Honestly as a project founder my personal goal >> for Mahout >>>>>> always was to build a sustainable community that would survive core >> people >>>>>> having less time for the project at some point in time. I'd be >> distressed to >>>>>> see Mahout go to the Attic. >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> If you are an active Mahout user and want to help – what can you do? >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> At the current point Mahout doesn't need any new algorithms (though >> high >>>>>> quality contributions that come with people maintaining them within >> the >>>>>> project are of course welcome). What the project needs is much >> simpler even >>>>>> for beginners: >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> - help answering mails on both dev and user list >>>>>> >>>>>> - help reviewing patches that come in: Having another contributor say >> “yes, >>>>>> this looks valuable and correct” can be a big help for committers – >> and can be >>>>>> the first step for you to become one yourself. >>>>>> >>>>>> - help with documentation – both for developers and users of the >> project. >>>>>> >>>>>> - help with structuring documentation to make it easier for others to >> find the >>>>>> relevant information. >>>>>> >>>>>> - help with making our build faster and easier: There are a few quick >> wins in >>>>>> terms of long running unit tests, there certainly are areas that lack >> testing. >>>>>> >>>>>> - help with code cleanup – there are areas that do not adhere to our >> coding >>>>>> conventions (standard Java, but with two spaces for indentation) – >> make >>>>>> changes in small batches >>>>>> >>>>>> - help with optimising existing implementations >>>>>> >>>>>> - if you truly believe that your algorithm or implementation is >> faster: Be >>>>>> bold. Prove that it really is faster for all relevant use cases and >> work with >>>>>> the community to replace existing code with your optimised version. >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> Also help with what areas you are using and what exactly you see >> missing is >>>>>> welcome. >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> It would be awesome to see Mahout gain activity. But in order to >> achieve that >>>>>> the project really does need your help. >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> Isabel >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> [1] < >> https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/MAHOUT/Monthly+Progress> >>>>> >>>>> -------------------------------------------- >>>>> Grant Ingersoll | @gsingers >>>>> http://www.lucidworks.com >>> >>> -------------------------------------------- >>> Grant Ingersoll | @gsingers >>> http://www.lucidworks.com >>
