April 2015 Summaries

Graph databases, particularly Neo4j, are gaining popularity due to their ability to effectively store and retrieve varied data connected by rich relationships, which relational databases struggle to express. This technology is being utilized in various industries such as social media, e-commerce, and logistics, where understanding interconnections is crucial. The demand for graph database skills is high, with a strong community and high salaries offered, making it an attractive career path for those looking to future-proof their jobs. Graph databases offer speed and efficiency in taking products to market, building solutions quickly, and performing complex searches at high speeds, making them suitable for real-time data analysis and location-based tasks.

In order to extract insights from graph databases, visualization is crucial. New technologies like WebGL and web workers are changing the landscape of large-scale graph visualization on the web. GraphConnect Europe is an event where attendees can learn about new opportunities and challenges of interactive graph visualization, as well as hear from hot startups and global companies about their use of graph databases in their applications. Sébastien Heymann, CEO of Linkurious, will introduce the open-source JavaScript library Linkurious.js for large-scale graph visualization, which aims to democratize network thinking and has a long history dating back to his co-founding of Gephi in 2008.

Neo4j is being used in the art world to analyze sentiment, big data, color analysis, and make recommendations. The graph database can manage big data directly and help identify connections between unexpected topics, revealing new insights such as Vincent Van Gogh's inspiration from Paul Rubens' colors. IT architects Lorenzo Speranzoni and Enrico De Benetti demonstrate the power of Neo4j in modeling an exploration of art and color. GraphConnect Europe is a conference that brings together graph database experts to share knowledge on using graphs to power applications, offering a free ebook and discounted tickets with a special code.

GraphConnect Europe is an upcoming conference that brings together hundreds of graph database experts from across Europe to share knowledge and insights on how to power applications with graph technology. The conference features a diverse lineup of speakers, including industry leaders and experts from top companies like Orange, Tom Sawyer Software, Pitney Bowes, Trifork, and adidas, who will be sharing their experiences and expertise on various topics such as predictive analytics, graph visualization, customer information management, deep learning, and more. The conference also includes a range of community-focused tracks, including "Graph Theory in Practice" and "Unlock Value from the Connectedness in Existing Relational Data", aimed at helping attendees unlock value from existing data by leveraging graph technology. Additionally, the conference features a series of sessions called "From Zero to Graph" designed to help attendees take their next step in graph project development, as well as an exclusive session on the development process of Neo4j and its future releases.

Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) is implementing a fully automated system for monitoring over 60 interlinked operational applications using Neo4j and Splunk, with the goal of enabling production chain monitoring, root cause analysis, and impact analysis. The new system will utilize Neo4j as part of big data tooling, allowing for efficient management of complex weather data and improving overall efficiency in the industry.

The Neo4j community participated in the Winter Challenge, sharing interesting graph models and use-cases. Seventeen entries were received, with winners selected in four categories: Solving JOIN pain, Making a wish come true, A library of everything, and Amaze us - Give your best and show us a graph application beyond imagination. Winners receive an Amazon Gift Card worth $500, while all participants are considered winners and will receive a Neo4j T-Shirt and a free ticket to GraphConnect Europe or SFO. The judges praised the submissions for their quality and thoughtfulness, with notable mentions going to entries that showcased creative graph search and insights, as well as innovative use-cases in supply chain management and content management. The community's efforts will be featured on Neo4j.com pages, showcasing the power of graph databases and Cypher usage.

This conference, GraphConnect Europe, will focus on the growing world of Graph Database technology and bring together hundreds of graph database experts from around Europe to share their experiences. The event aims to help attendees understand who they are, what they like, and how to build great teams through social network analysis and other techniques. Matt Wright's presentation on Superpowers for Recruitment will utilize Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning, and Data Visualization to help the recruitment industry find the right job candidates and build successful projects. The conference also offers a free ebook on graph databases, allowing attendees to learn more about this technology and discover how it can be applied to their applications.

Graphs Are Everywhere`: The featured Neo4j posts from around the web cover a range of topics, including the meaning of graph databases, performance improvements, and everyday life applications. `Learn Something New`: A collection of tutorials and guides on using Neo4j with various programming languages, such as Ruby on Rails, Node.js, and Cypher queries. `The Sky’s the Limit`: Inspiring stories of people doing innovative projects with Neo4j, including distributed computing, data science, and creative applications like finding a perfect drink based on mission statements.

Spring Data Neo4j is an open-source library that enables automatic mapping of Java domain hierarchies to and from Neo4j graphs, achieving maximum performance with standalone Neo4j server deployments. The library has been re-designed for improved performance and introduces innovations such as non-reflection based classpath scanning, variable-depth persistence, smart object-mapping, user-definable session lifetimes, and more. Vince Bickers and Michael Hunger will showcase the library's capabilities in a talk at GraphConnect Europe, where hundreds of graph enthusiasts from across Europe will gather to learn about graph database technology. The conference is focused on the growing world of Graph Database technology, with hot startups and global 2000 companies sharing their experiences on how graphs power their applications.

The Neo4j team has introduced the Cypher Query Optimizer, codenamed "Ronja", which is designed to improve query execution times by producing an optimized query plan. The optimizer works on read-only queries with a specific structure and performs several steps including converting the input query string into an abstract syntax tree, optimizing and normalizing the AST, creating a query graph from the normalized AST, creating a logical plan from the query graph, rewriting the logical plan, creating an execution plan from the logical plan, and executing the query using the execution plan. Ronja is particularly beneficial for queries containing multiple nodes that can be reached via indices and/or pattern predicates, resulting in significant improvements in execution times.

The speaker discussed the basics of Neo4j, a graph database, and its use cases. They introduced common pain points that relational databases face and how Neo4j addresses them. The speaker then demonstrated the Neo4j Web interface, which allows users to query and visualize data in an interactive way. They used the Northwind example to show how to transform a relational model into a graph model and import data using Cypher, Neo4j's query language. The speaker answered questions from the audience, covering topics such as indexing, data modeling, spatial functionality, certification programs, and enterprise pricing models. They also discussed the limitations of Neo4j in handling binary data and the need for manual lucene indexes for full-text search. Throughout the presentation, the speaker emphasized the benefits of using a graph database like Neo4j for storing and querying complex relationships between data entities.

Felienne Hermans, a developer, presented at GraphConnect Europe about optimizing her product's backend using graph databases. She replaced Excel's backend with Neo4j, resulting in improved speed and usability. This talk is relevant for users working on legacy software optimization or developing new interfaces. The presentation highlights the benefits of using graph technologies for applications.

GraphConnect Europe has announced the addition of Felienne Hermans, a professor at Delft University of Technology specializing in spreadsheet technology, to its conference agenda. Felienne will introduce Neo4j to the spreadsheet community and share her experience replacing Excel's backend with Neo4j, highlighting its impact on speed and usability. GraphConnect is an annual conference focused on graph database technology, bringing together over 600 attendees from Europe to learn about using graphs in applications.

The author is analyzing basketball performance using data from the past four seasons, considering factors such as team relationships, crowd bias, and player motivation. They use a graph model to represent these relationships, leveraging tools like Neo4j to store and query the data. The model takes into account historical data, team performance, and Pythagorean Expectation to predict win probabilities between teams. By applying this model to hypothetical matchups, the author demonstrates its potential for making accurate predictions.

Neo4j, a popular graph database, has released version 2.2.0, which includes a hidden feature that renders the Neo4j Browser in ASCII art, inspired by the CEO's demand for a text-only interface. The new feature was developed by JavaScript Ninjas Oskar Hane and Alistair Jones, who overcame the challenge of graph visualization layout to bring this unique display to the browser. The feature is now available as a CEO-only option, allowing users to view the Web Interface in pure ASCII format.

The European Union has declared 2015 as the "Year of the Brain," a fitting timing for Neo Technology's announcement of its latest graph database, codenamed "Matrix." This new product offering exceeds current capabilities in terms of storage and parallel processing power on a single machine, allowing customers to import and index areas of the brain on demand. Matrix was developed through close collaboration with world-leading neurobiologists, brain researchers, and software engineers in Sweden and the United Kingdom, enabling the creation of a graph representation of human thought and memory. The technology uses existing Neo4j capabilities, such as LOAD CSV, to create linking brain facts as nodes and relationships in the graph, and can be accessed through a dedicated brainwave-import module. Matrix is expected to enable deep insights into the mind, advancing fields like machine learning and computer vision, and will be compatible with other EEG headgear like MindWave.