The Data Vault: The best data news, 14-20 September

Dennis Rhoads is a senior business intelligence technical lead consultant with more than 30 years' experience in the BI industry. With his knowledge of the industry, he is a sought-after resource who uses his experience to deliver powerful and agile BI solutions that provide value in a matter of days, not months.

NEWS ANALYSIS: A big data analysis tool from ICG Solutions trains the big guns of the intelligence community on Twitter as a way to see who the winners and losers were in the Sept. 16 Republican debate.

© f11photo Business schools and their partners in the nascent edtech sector are exploring digital analytics to improve students' academic performance. Elite universities have been adapting technology used to predict a student's final grade to improve their overall results.

Building a basic dashboard with a few bar and line charts and some labels is a really good start, but to be able to draw some real insight from your data you'll need some additional features that enable users to dig deeper and investigate the information they are seeing.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is dramatically accelerating the pace of innovation in the transportation industry-especially the cars and trucks we drive every day. And when you apply the laws that have been driving technology innovation for decades-Moore's Law and Metcalfe's Law-it's not long before our automobiles will resemble smart devices on wheels and your vehicle may very well be the most expensive computing device you own.

In the last of the the Future of London series, presented by Transport for London, we talk to Shashi Verma, the transport authority's Director of Customer Experience, about big data and new methods of payment.

Whether naturally occurring or man-made, crises and disasters bring chaos to the people in their path. Learn how governments, nonprofits, and businesses are using big data and analytics to respond in fast, efficient ways. Natural disasters, economic upheavals, and illegal activities happen.

Originally Published on the ECOreport Lux Research just released a report stating that as prices keep falling, "Big Oil" is increasingly using smarter sensors and "Big Data" to manage risks, cut costs by increasing efficiency, and increase revenues.

Limejump is a classic example of a startup bringing a big data and cloud-based solution to a legacy market, and in doing so has the potential to transform that market. Calling itself a technology-driven utility, the company helps high-energy intensity businesses and small-scale distributed generators plug into the National Grid's demand response programmes.

As the old saying goes, "Adapt or die." Businesses are often learning the hard way that if they don't transform the way they interact with customers they risk losing to companies that move faster. These innovative companies know how to change their business models with new business realities.