July 2014 Summaries

GraphGist: Modeling Food Recommendations` We take great pride in our community of out-of-this-world graphistas who showcase their Cypher-prowess through GraphGists, Asciidoc files rendered in our browser. Every week we highlight a GraphGist and recognize the awesome graphista behind it. This week's GraphGist of the Week is "Food Recommendations" by Justyna Gromada, which maps out food allergies, types, preferences, and ingredients to find the perfect recipe for dinner parties. We encourage users to submit their own GraphGists or learn how to create one on our gist.neo4j.org platform. Additionally, we provide resources to learn more about graph databases with a free copy of O'Reilly's Graph Databases ebook.

During the last week of July, the Neo4j team had a great time at the Open Source Conference (OSCON) in Portland, OR. They met old friends and made new ones, learned about graph use-cases, data modeling, and complex query performance, and showcased several fascinating use-cases for graphs. The team published a GraphGist explaining the data model and some use-cases as well as a GitHub repository with conversion scripts and load scripts for Neo4j databases. They also created an interactive visualization using Twitter Search API to import OSCON-related tweets into Neo4j, which captured the implicit interest graph around OSCON. Additionally, they explored Portland's city, enjoyed local food and craft beers, and hosted introductory training classes, BoF sessions, and a GraphPub meetup. The team also showcased their approach to deep learning with graphs using pattern matching algorithms and rendered text elements efficiently. Finally, they celebrated Oregon's microbreweries by creating a tasty GraphGist celebrating the beer culture.

Bees in a beehive rely on connections and networks to spread information, a concept that parallels marketing in the digital age. Marketing professionals can learn from this natural world by leveraging graph databases to improve data analysis and gain deeper insights. Graph databases provide a powerful tool for marketers to analyze relationships between data entities and make more informed decisions. By tapping into the power of graph technology, businesses can unlock new levels of intelligence and analytics, enabling them to ask questions and get more meaningful answers from their data.

Graph databases have become increasingly popular, with their modern instantiations such as Neo4j and Alchemy.js being well-represented at the O'Reilly-hosted OSCON conference in Portland, Oregon. The benefits of graph visualization are highlighted by Huston Hedinger, Founder and CEO of GraphAlchemist, who notes that it can provide insights into various domains, including social networks and supply chain networks. The Neo4j team successfully engaged with attendees, answering questions about graph databases and even creating an interactive Twitter graph mapping the conference participants' social interactions.

Notable changes include the introduction of a new low-level locks API and the Forseti lock manager in the kernel, as well as improved error messages and logging for high availability and clustering. Additionally, a cost-based planner has been added to Cypher, a query language used in graph databases. These updates aim to enhance performance and reliability in various aspects of the system.

The Neo4j team analyzed Twitter activity around OSCON (Open Source Conference) and created a graph model representing users, tweets, hashtags, and shared links. They used the Twitter Search API to collect data on mentions of "OSCON" and then populated their graph model with nodes and relationships using Cypher, Neo4j's query language. The resulting graph highlights implicit connections between users based on shared hashtags, mentions, and links, allowing for discovery of new groups or topics of interest. A visualization tool was created to display this data, showing how people are connected through shared interests, and can be used to test custom queries on the graph model.

Dr. Jim Webber, a renowned expert on Neo4j and graph databases, has captivated audiences worldwide with his engaging presentations using a unique blend of memes, anecdotes, and language that resonates with diverse groups. At GraphConnect 2013 in San Francisco, he referenced cultural icons like Doctor Who and South Park to hold the attention of his audience. His talks have been subject to scrutiny, with an audience member detecting 19 curses in a single presentation, which was later represented in a graph by Rik Van Bruggen, known as the Swearing GraphGist. Dr. Webber will be speaking at GraphConnect SF 2014, promising an entertaining and informative experience for attendees. The conference, held on October 22, 2014, features talks from prominent speakers in the field of graph databases and applications, with Neo4j training courses offered prior to the main event.

The Neo4j community has created a GraphGist, a collection of innovative Cypher queries and models, including one for the Tour De France competition. The GraphGist is a showcase of the community's creativity and expertise in graph databases. This week's featured GraphGist, created by Lorenzo Speranzoni, highlights the use of graph technologies for modeling the Tour De France competition. The Neo4j community invites users to contribute their own GraphGists to the collection, with resources available to learn more about graph databases.

Ian Robinson introduces tools and techniques for building a system around a graph engine, experiment with graph data, and using it in an application.` `He works on research and development for future versions of the Neo4j graph database.` `Robinson has a long-held interest in connected data and was previously one of the foremost proponents of REST architectures before focusing on graph databases.

Neo4j is a graph database provider that will be sponsoring OSCON 2014 in Portland, Oregon. Neo4j's team, along with their friends at GraphAlchemist, will have multiple sessions and meetups throughout the conference to discuss graph databases and interact with the community. They will also host various events such as Birds of a Feather sessions, an Office Hour, and a knowledge cafe. Neo4j experts, including Michael Hunger and Kenny Bastani, will be available to answer questions and provide training on using Neo4j for building recommendation apps and full stack development with Node, Angular, and Neo4j. The company values configuration over implementation through its open source tool Alchemy.js, which allows users to easily create interactive graph visualizations.

The Graph Visualization Contest is now open and runs through October 1, 2014. To enter, submit a graph visualization on Twitter using the hashtag #ShowMeYourGraph and tagging @GraphConnect. Prizes include a free pass to GraphConnect 2014 San Francisco, an iPad Air, and other items. Winners will be announced on October 2, 2014, and their visualizations will be printed as posters for all attendees. Previous winners have included David Fauth and Ramiro Gomez for their creative representations of PAC contributions and the James Bond character graph.

The GraphConnect 2014 San Francisco contest is now open, encouraging users to submit their graph visualization projects via Twitter. The contest aims to showcase innovative and creative graph visualizations, with prizes including a free pass to the conference, an iPad Air, and other goodies. Winners will be announced on October 2, 2014, and all entries will be highlighted at the conference. Previous winners have included notable graph visualization projects, such as representations of PAC contributions in the 2012 election cycle and the James Bond character network.

Polyvore, a social commerce company, has successfully maintained its company culture while scaling up rapidly, according to Scott Bonneau, the company's VP of Engineering. He attributes this success to the use of agile technologies and small teams of adaptable engineers who can move quickly and make informed decisions about investment in robustness versus cost savings. This approach enables the team to achieve a high level of cohesion and collaboration, allowing them to respond effectively to the fast-paced nature of their industry. As a result, Polyvore is able to leverage Neo4j for graph-based data management at GraphConnect 2014 San Francisco on October 22.

The native Java API for Neo4j provides a high degree of control over how graphs are stored and queried, allowing developers to optimize queries for the best performance. The Cypher query language is a declarative query language with an innovative SQL-like syntax for graphs, enabling users to tell Neo4j what they want without specifying how to get it. When a Cypher query is executed, Neo4j translates it into an execution plan that describes a set of data operations arranged sequentially until a result is generated. The typical approach involves sending queries and parameters in a POST request to the Neo4j database server using a "driver" framework or library.

The text discusses the findings from a hackathon event hosted by the author's team in London, where developers and football fans collaborated to analyze data using Neo4j, a graph database. The analysis revealed interesting trends and insights, including the fact that Mexico took 80 years to get revenge on France after their initial loss in 1930. Another notable finding was the "Victor's Curse," which states that only three world champions have made it to the finals in the tournament following their victory. Additionally, the text highlights the benefits of using graph databases like Neo4j to manage and explore data, citing examples from businesses such as Shutl, an eBay company, which uses Neo4j to optimize its delivery routes. The author concludes that graph databases will change the way organizations think about and harness big data, offering a glimpse into what's possible with this technology.

eBay is presenting at GraphConnect 2014 SF, where Volker Pacher will discuss how eBay Now uses Neo4j to power same-day shipping logistics. The company has adopted graph databases as part of its efforts to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its operations. This presentation aims to provide insights into the use of Neo4j in real-world applications, specifically in the context of e-commerce and logistics. By attending GraphConnect 2014 SF, attendees will have the opportunity to learn more about the benefits and challenges of using graph databases like Neo4j in their own organizations.

The Graph database is driving tech city start-ups with its unique capabilities. It allows for modeling complex relationships between data entities and querying them efficiently, making it an attractive solution for various industries. The articles and videos on the platform showcase different use cases such as data analysis, business intelligence, and web development, highlighting the graph database's potential to solve real-world problems. Experts share their experiences and insights on using Neo4j, a popular graph database, to extract insights from complex data sets, build scalable applications, and improve decision-making processes.

The Neo4j team is celebrating the Fourth of July with four blog posts and two bonus resources. The posts cover various topics, including hierarchical pattern recognition, set-based operations, scaling concurrent writes, and importing data from Google Spreadsheets using LoadCSV. Additionally, there are two bonus resources: a recruitment graph model by GraphAware and a video on visualizing a deep learning algorithm for mining patterns in data by Kenny Bastani.

The author of an article recently discovered a clever way to import data from Google Spreadsheets into Neo4j using the Load CSV capability. This method leverages two key capabilities: Google Spreadsheets' ability to export data in CSV format and Neo4j's Load CSV feature, which can handle data at any URI, including remote locations on the network.