Enter July Blog Challenge – O.R. and Social Networking; Review June Entries on “O.R. and Muggles.”
As we say a final farewell to our favorite Harry Potter characters this summer and return to the land of the Muggles, I have to wonder what these muggles – non-wizardy folks with no magical ability – had to say about the events that were taking place right under their noses. Did they even realize they were benefiting from the magic surrounding them? Were the “Mudbloods” ever at a graphic design conference trying to explain how the society they worked for had the potential to make the world a better, more efficient place to live? Oh, wait, that was me.
One of the challenges we face is getting the OR/MS and analytics professions more recognized in fields that need it the most. Many times this requires an explanation and selling of the benefits of O.R. to the uninitiated. So this lighthearted blog challenge for June inspired some of our own O.R. wizards to give their take on trying to explain operations research and analytics to “muggles.” And while it may not be magic, O.R. does have the power to transform.
A warm welcome to David Woods, who posted his first entry to the INFORMS Blog Challenge! He posted on his blog, Simplexify, “Let’s learn from owls and disrupt the postal service.” Note to David: Maybe team up with Mike Trick based on his upgrade from being a mail muggle.
The Capgemini Blog Team submitted four entries in a series featuring the potential for analytics in the London 2012 Olympic Games, including comics!
- Olympic tickets – were you in the winning segment?
- Olympic Tickets bought – How do I get there?
- Mining Olympic Data Gold
- Forecasting a Successful Olympics
"Modelling Magic", the blog entry from O.R. at Work’s John Poppelaars, gives a great condensed history of O.R. and some examples of the magic in action.
“The Science of Better Owl Deliveries,” posted by David Smith, convincing us that O.R. is alive and well at Hogwarts.
Laura McLay gives 10 good reasons "Why We Need Operations Research" on her blog, Punk Rock Operations Research.
“The model as spell and the solver as a wand: O.R. magic for a muggles’ world,” submitted by Thiago Serra.
Mike Trick blogs on “Explaing O.R. to, and being, a Muggle.”
O.R. by the Beach not only blogged but provided a three-part series, written and illustrated by Talleys Yunes, titled “Rescue Mission.”
Paul Rubin blogs on “Hitting the Muggles from All Sides.” And while we take full responsibility for the term “muggles” in the challenge, hopefully you get a bump in traffic anyway.
July’s challenge is O.R. and social networking. Send entries to graphics@mail.informs.org by August 4th.
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