Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Jigynaasaa - A statistical analysis of the blog so far.


I have heard that - Statistics is like a bikini, what is reveals is suggestive, what it conceals, vital.
Well, I have attempted a statistical analysis of our blog and the following are the findings -
1. With reference to Pareto chart (Wilfredo Pareto supposedly talked of "the vital few and trivial many" concept for analysis of data) on blog contributions, there appears to be more than meets the eye. Why?
2. A blog is supposed to excite the audience(improper choice of word, maybe) to respond , or to be dickensian, " Cry for more". The pareto chart of efficiency tells a different story. I defined efficiency as - number of comments received per blog - therefore divided the number of comments by the number of blogs posted and you suddenly see a change in the roll call of the vital few. Do psephologists agree? Maybe I can earn a place for myself as Dorab Sopariwala's assistant?
3. Democracy is my pet "punching bag". It closely competes with "Time". The pareto chart on the monthly contributions needs some reaffirmations -
a. The blog started on 01 March 2009, which was a Sunday (so much for the much touted Day of Rest)
b. A week therfore conveniently started on a sunday and ended on a Saturday. The pareto on the weekly contributions is in pursuit of splitting the data finer so that it might reveal a hidden structure! Bah! Vital, unfortunately is still concealed. Methinks we are hitting the law of diminishing returns with Pareto, lets try Process Capability.
4. Process capability is an indicator of how controlled any normal process is. I took the numbers of blogs week-wise for the two months of June and August and tried to see if we indeed had formulated a process by default after starting in March 09, did we come to some sort of a stability in the rate at which we were blogging?In others words were we all Blogging , Walking aur sab Fit ho gaye? My verdict on the analysis of the data of "two most blogged months viz. June and August" is - "We have been having a ball, man!" Absolutely no control on the rate of blogging,during the most productive period, but taken as a whole from March to today, an average of one blog per two days approximately. Sounds like an analysis of population control methods used in India by Ghulam Nabi Azad or more like the Met depatrments sanctimonius predictions of the Indian monsoon!
In short, while we were most productive (that is in June and August) we were most uncontrolled, sometimes 18 blogs a week , sometimes not even one. Very bad for ardent followers.
Moral:
1. Analysing numbers tells one nothing about the stock.
2. Quality and meaurement of quality are distinct. for want of better tools we use numbers.
3. While I attempt to practise some lean six sigma, I realise that I have miles to go before I can be called a specialist.

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