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DATA MINING THE TWITTER MINEFIELD Politics is more than what you see on Twitter. But a new analysis of Boston electeds online activity shows theres plenty of information to be gleaned from politicians feeds and follower lists, especially when it comes to the citys mayoral and council elections.

Legislata, a productivity software for politicians, ran the numbers to rank the top 8,225 accounts followed by city councilors and members of Bostons state delegation.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley, a former city councilor, tops the list. Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins, now the nominee for U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, is next. Shes followed by a tie for third between City Councilor Annissa Essaibi George, former state Sen. Linda Forry, the state Democratic Party, and state Attorney General Maura Healey.

Mayoral hopeful Essaibi George is followed by a higher percentage of Boston electeds than any of her rivals for the citys top job, and even former mayor Marty Walsh. But City Councilors Michelle Wu and Andrea Campbell, and Acting Mayor Kim Janeys campaign account, all have more followers to help broadcast their messages to wider audiences a helpful tool as they fight to secure one of the top two spots in the September preliminary.

There are also clear differences in the candidates messaging. Wu tweets most about climate and community and emphasizes words like bold and change. Campbell frequently uses words like equitable and accountability and often mentions the police. Janey, the first woman and Black person to serve as the citys top executive, focuses on proud and joy and history in her messaging. Essaibi George leans into hashtags like #getbosbacktobiz and #citykidswin, while former city economic development chief John Barros uses affordable most frequently.

Twitter followers dont necessarily equal support. But if the percentage of Boston electeds following certain candidates did translate to turnout, the four at-large council seats up for grabs would likely be won by incumbents Michael Flaherty and Julia Mejia, and newcomers Ruthzee Louijeune and David Halbert, the Legislata analysis shows. That projection actually aligns with a recent analysis of at-large candidates cash flows and citywide networks from Rivera Consulting, which also favored those candidates for the at-large seats.

All politics is local, especially on Boston political Twitter, Legislata founder and CEO Chris Oates said. More city councilors follow the Dorchester Reporter than the Boston Globe, and some of the most followed reporters and columnists are the most hyperlocal, like Dorchester Reporters Bill Forry, Adam Gaffins Universal Hub and Chris Lovett of Boston Neighborhood Network News. See the full list here.

GOOD MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS. Have a tip, story, suggestion, birthday, anniversary, new job, or any other nugget for the Playbook? Get in touch: [emailprotected]

TODAY Rep. Lori Trahan, House Speaker Pro Tempore Kate Hogan and local officials highlight federal investments to support the Assabet River Rail Trail extension at 12:30 p.m. in Stow. Janey hosts a press conference to discuss the latest Covid-19 updates and the launch of a mental health response pilot, 1 p.m. at Boston City Hall. Wu works a shift at Bon Mes food truck at 1:30 p.m. in Dewey Square to raise awareness for supporting small businesses. Campbell is a guest on "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell" on MSNBC.

Massachusetts coronavirus cases spike 962, hospitalizations keep rising, by Rick Sobey, Boston Herald: Massachusetts health officials on Wednesday reported a spike of 962 coronavirus cases, as daily infection counts keep climbing amid the more highly contagious delta variant. The 962 cases is the highest single-day case count in nearly three months.

A message from The Massachusetts Coalition for Independent Work:

83% of app-based drivers in Massachusetts want to remain independent while accessing expanded benefits. The Massachusetts Coalition for Independent Work is dedicated to securing flexibility, providing new benefits and guaranteeing an earnings floor for app-based drivers. Learn more, and join our advocacy for independent workers.

Baker shields tax credits for medical devices, shipping companies, by Christian Wade, CNHI/Gloucester Daily Times: Gov. Charlie Baker is moving to protect tax credits for companies that make medical devices and for importers and exporters who use the states shipping ports. Baker said the tax breaks encourage innovation and economic activity and should be maintained, in a message notifying the Legislature of his veto of an addendum to the state budget that would have ended three tax credits.

State Rep. Williams: Were Going To Push For $1 Billion For Black And Brown Communities, by Edgar B. Herwick III, GBH News: State Representative Bud L. Williams is calling on the state to invest $1 billion of federal funds in Black and Brown communities. This came Wednesday at a virtual roundtable discussion, as state lawmakers are currently working to determine how to distribute some $5.3 billion in federal COVID-19 recovery funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

Baker: All Staff In Long-Term Care Facilities Must Be Vaccinated By Oct. 10, by Meghan B. Kelly, WBUR: The Baker administration announced Wednesday that all staff in long-term care facilities, including skilled nursing facilities and the state's two Soldiers' Homes, must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Oct. 10. The mandate marked Gov. Charlie Baker's first order to require vaccination in any private or public workforce.

Contact tracing ramping up yet again, by Bruce Mohl, CommonWealth Magazine: The states contact tracing effort is ramping up again in the midst of a resurgence in COVID-19 cases. The program was scheduled to shut down in September but instead the contract with the operator, the nonprofit Cambridge-based Partners in Health, is being extended through the end of the year. The number of contract tracers, currently at 130, is also being increased by as much as 300.

Vaccine the latest shot featured at nightclubs, by Jill Harmacinski, Eagle-Tribune: LAWRENCE COVID-19 vaccines have been available at pharmacies, clinics, pop-up sites and even block parties. Now, people can grab a drink and a shot at some local nightclubs. Vaccine availability is being increased across the city with more block parties in parks. And, starting Aug. 13, you can also get a vaccine in a nightclub, Mayor Kendrys Vasquez announced.

Provincetown to certify businesses based on COVID-19 vaccination policies, by Drew Karedes, Boston 25 News: There are three certificates: 1. Venue requires all staff to be vaccinated 2. Venue requires proof of vaccination to enter 3. All venue staff are vaccinated, and proof of vaccine is required to enter.

Boston Superintendent Brenda Cassellius is no longer licensed to run school system, by Andrea Estes and James Vaznis, Boston Globe: Boston Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius license to run a school system in Massachusetts has expired because she never took the states certification exams, a turn of events that puts her in violation of her contract. ... The deadline for taking the test and securing a new license was last Saturday. Cassellius apologized to the School Committee Wednesday night after the Globe published a story about her license lapsing, saying it was due to a misunderstanding over licensing deadlines. She told them she is scheduled to take the tests on Aug. 14.

Plans for Boston Methadone Mile hotel housing scuttled in face of community opposition, by Sean Philip Cotter, Boston Herald: The controversial plans to house homeless in a vacant Methadone Mile hotel are dead, the main proponent told locals. Victory Programs had sought to move 14 to 35 people living on the streets in the rough area known as Mass and Cass or Methadone Mile into the hotel at 891 Massachusetts Ave. ... The idea, backed by a state grant, was to use the hotel as transitional housing for people on the streets, stabilizing them before moving them out of the Mile, which continues to worsen as a haven of violence and open-air drug use.

Boston: Only One Mayoral Candidate Says Moving Money From Police To Social Services Is A Top Priority, by Saraya Wintersmith, GBH News: A little more than a year has passed since protesters defied pandemic quarantine orders and spilled into Boston streets, decrying racism and police brutality and calling for defunding the Boston Police Department. Now, with about a month to go until the city's Sept. 14 preliminary election, most mayoral candidates have narrowed their focus to improving the Boston Police Department's response to mental health crises cases. Only one, city councilor Andrea Campbell, is charging full-steam-ahead with a plan to restructure the department and reduce its budget by $50 million, about 12.5% of this year's allocation.

Boston Mayoral Candidates Address City's Racial Wealth Gap, by Anthony Brooks, WBUR: All the major Boston mayoral candidates say they have ambitious plans to take on one of the most stubborn problems facing the city: The glaring racial wealth gap. It also matters that the current field of candidates is historically diverse, which means that when some of them talk about how to close the wealth gap, it's personal.

Child care is now a major political issue. Heres how the Boston mayoral candidates want to reform it, by Stephanie Ebbert, Boston Globe: Four of the five major contenders have presented detailed campaign plans on the issue and all have endorsed the recent recommendations of the Birth to Eight Collaborative, a coalition of parents, nonprofits, schools, and advocates working to ensure all children are prepared to succeed when they enter school.

Campbell escalates COVID-19 clash with Janey, by Danny McDonald and Jasper Goodman, Boston Globe: Councilor Andrea Campbell on Wednesday afternoon ramped up criticism of Acting Mayor Kim Janey over her handling of the pandemic. And a day after invoking slavery and birtherism in response to a question about New York Citys new proof-of-vaccine requirements, Janey stood fast, defending her approach to COVID-19 as sensible and equitable, and emphasizing the importance of the public getting vaccinated."

At-large hopefuls weigh-in on 'vaccine proof' idea, by Katie Trojano, Dorchester Reporter: Acting Mayor Kim Janey has come under fire from mayoral rivals after appearing to balk at New Yorks move and comparing requiring the proof to slavery and birtherism. We asked the at-large city council hopefuls to share their stances.

Annissa Essaibi George: The Boston.com interview, by Nik DeCosta-Klipa, Christopher Gavin, and Zipporah Osei, Boston.com: In the crowded field of self-identifying progressive Democrats running to be Bostons next mayor, Annissa Essaibi George is often defined in contrast to her opponents. ... The daughter of immigrants and a lifelong Dorchester native, Essaibi George emphasizes her focus on the most pressing struggles faced by the citys most vulnerable, like homelessness and mental health issues that she saw up close as a former East Boston High School teacher. Id like to be the teacher candidate, Essaibi George says, calling her classroom experience as an invaluable part of her bonafides as a mayoral candidate.

A message from The Massachusetts Coalition for Independent Work:

Some FIRST IN PLAYBOOK endorsements: EMILYs List is endorsing Framingham Mayor Yvonne Spicer and Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller in their reelection bids, and is also endorsing Vilma Martinez-Dominguez in the Lawrence mayors race. These strong women leaders have what it takes to confront the challenges in their communities. We know they will continue to work tirelessly on COVID-19 recovery, affordable housing initiatives, infrastructure modernization, and investments in local schools, EMILYs List said in a statement.

EMILYs List is also endorsing four women seeking reelection to the Boston City Council: District 1 Councilor Lydia Edwards, District 8 Councilor Kenzie Bok, District 9 Councilor Liz Breadon and at-large Councilor Julia Mejia.

Boston City Council at-large candidate Ruthzee Louijeune has been endorsed by United Auto Workers Region 9A, per her campaign. We are inspired by Ruthzees campaign of progressive values and inclusive style of leadership, UAW Region 9A regional director Beverley Brakeman said in a statement.

District 3 City Councilor Frank Baker has endorsed Bridget Nee-Walsh for Boston city councilor at-large, per her campaign. Working families can trust her to fight for good jobs with good pay and benefits, strong public schools, affordable housing, and public safety, Baker said in a statement.

IBEW Local 2222 and Mass Voters for Animals have endorsed Mary Tamer for Boston City Council District 6, per her campaign.

Whats At Stake In Somervilles Mayoral Race? by Adam Reilly, GBH News: When it comes to who, exactly, calls Somerville home, the city has been changing for years, with Asian, Latino and Black residents comprising an increasingly large portion of the citys population of 80,000. Still, Somervilles mayors have always been white a streak Will Mbah hopes to break this fall. Current mayor Joseph Curtatone, who took office in 2004, decided not to seek a tenth term this November.

Twenty-eight proposed laws and two constitutional amendments have now been filed with the state attorney generals office, the first step in a lengthy and costly process to advance ballot initiatives that touch on everything from legalizing the sale of consumer fireworks, to voter identification laws, to classifying gig-economy workers as independent contractors.

The Boston Globes Emma Platoff details the Massachusetts GOPs effort to test opposition to critical race theory. The state GOP is also backing measures to preserve the lives of children born alive and to require voters to present identification at the polls, a topic that drew multiple petitions.

The Boston Heralds Erin Tiernan reports on a ballot question that would attempt to roll back the contentious Transportation Climate Initiative. That petition was filed by Republicans including GOP gubernatorial candidate Geoff Diehl, and Democratic state Rep. Colleen Garry. Its also backed by the conservative-leaning Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance.

Another initiative petition aims to bring back some long-banned happy hour drink specials a topic of recently renewed debate.

Most of the proposed questions are unlikely to make it to the 2022 ballot, reports CommonWealth Magazine, noting that even if they pass muster on constitutional grounds with Attorney General Maura Healeys office, they would still require the gathering of more than 93,000 voter signatures, a time-consuming and expensive process. The AG's office plans to publish a list of certified petitions on Sept. 1.

Speaking of the 2022 ballot: Watchdogs blast Massachusetts millionaire tax proposal as state awash in excess tax revenues, by Erin Tiernan, Boston Herald: Fiscal watchdogs blasted the Massachusetts millionaire tax proposal as the state is awash in more than $5 billion in excess tax revenues and billions more in federal coronavirus relief."

About the 2020 ballots: Geoff Diehl calls for forensic audit of possible irregularities in Massachusetts 2020 election, by Erin Tiernan, Boston Herald: Republican candidate for governor Geoff Diehl has challenged Gov. Charlie Baker to conduct a forensic audit to investigate possible irregularities during last years election. Diehl also pledged to combat the extension of mail-in voting parameters.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) are seeking a national memorial day to commemorate the more than 614,000 people who have died from Covid-19 in the United States and those still suffering from the virus. The senators introduced a resolution yesterday proposing that the first Monday in March be designated as Covid-19 Victims and Survivors Memorial Day. More from the Washington Posts William Wan.

Trahan touts 'forever chemicals' cleanup bill, by Christian M. Wade, CNHI/Eagle-Tribune: Communities would receive money to help clean up the forever chemicals contaminating their drinking water and sewage treatment systems under a plan working its way through Congress.

Mexico sues U.S.-based gunmakers over flow of arms across border, by Mary Beth Sheridan and Kevin Sieff, Washington Post: The Mexican government sued several major U.S.-based gun manufacturers Wednesday, alleging that lax controls contribute to the illegal flow of weapons over the border. The unusual suit filed in U.S. federal court in Boston seeks unspecified financial compensation from the companies but does not target the U.S. government.

A message from The Massachusetts Coalition for Independent Work:

The Massachusetts Coalition for Independent Work is dedicated to securing flexibility in scheduling, providing new benefits including healthcare stipends, paid sick time, paid family & medical leave and occupational accident insurance and guaranteeing an earnings floor for all app-based drivers in Massachusetts.

We're banding together with drivers, community partners and elected officials to protect the flexibility and independence that drivers value, while expanding their benefits.

Learn more, and join our advocacy for independent workers.

Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop Investigate How Climate Change Impacts Most Vulnerable Populations, by Phillip Martin and Hannah Reale, GBH News: Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop are launching a cooperative project to understand how climate change will specifically affect low income residents, people of color and other vulnerable residents. Ultimately, the aim is to find gaps in the regions approach to combating climate change, centered first and foremost around the communities likely to be most affected by it, and then form recommendations about how to take them on.

Safety Steps Required of Donors To Attend Baker Fundraiser, by Colin A. Young, State House News Service (paywall): Anyone attending the outdoor fundraiser on Sept. 2 for [Gov. Charlie] Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito at public relations maven George Regan's home at the Willowbend Country Club in Mashpee is asked to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or to get tested for the virus 48 hours ahead of the bash.

Maybe he heard Baker: Obama Significantly Scales Back 60th Birthday Party as Virus Cases Rebound, by Annie Karni, New York Times: The party plans had been months in the making and many invitees had already arrived on Marthas Vineyard when former President Barack Obama belatedly announced he was canceling his huge 60th birthday bash scheduled for Saturday."

Former Gov. Deval Patrick On Cuomo Allegations: There Does Have To Be A Reckoning, by Greater Boston staff: [Former Gov. Deval] Patrick did not call outright for Gov. Cuomo to resign, but said the allegations should be taken seriously. These are very very serious charges from a very credible source, he said. There does have to be a reckoning. If my opinion counts for anything, hell take these allegations seriously and not dismiss them out of hand.

TRANSITIONS Robyn Kenney joins the Diehl campaign as communications director. Janey appointed Dr. Alison Brizius as commissioner for Bostons Environment Department.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to former ambassador, Biden deputy campaign manager, MA-03 candidate and current chief of protocol nominee Rufus Gifford; Christina Pacheco, and Jim Puzzanghera of the Boston Globes D.C. bureau.

Want to make an impact? POLITICO Massachusetts has a variety of solutions available for partners looking to reach and activate the most influential people in the Bay State. Have a petition you want signed? A cause youre promoting? Seeking to increase brand awareness among this key audience? Share your message with our influential readers to foster engagement and drive action. Contact Jesse Shapiro to find out how: [emailprotected].

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DATA MINING the TWITTER MINEFIELD Contact tracing RAMPING UP again UNPACKING the BALLOT INITIATIVES - Politico

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Could bitcoin mining be the salvation of the embattled nuclear energy industry in America?

The owners of several nuclear power plants, including two in Pennsylvania, have formed ventures with cryptocurrency companies to provide the electricity needed to run computer centers that mine bitcoin. Since nuclear energy does not emit greenhouse gases, the projects investors say, the zero-carbon bitcoin would address climate concerns that have tarnished the energy-intensive cryptocurrency industry.

Talen Energy, the owner of the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station near Berwick, Pa., announced this week that it has signed a deal with TeraWulf Inc., an Easton, Md. cryptocurrency mining firm, to build a giant bitcoin factory next to its twin reactors in northern Pennsylvania. The first phase of the venture, dubbed Nautilus Cryptomine, could cost up to $400 million.

Talens project could eventually use up to 300 megawatts or 12% of Susquehannas 2,500 MW capacity. Its the second bitcoin-mining venture in the last month that involves owners of Pennsylvania nuclear facilities.

Last month Energy Harbor Corp., the former power-generation subsidiary of First Energy Corp., announced it signed a five-year agreement to provide zero-carbon electricity to a new bitcoin mining center operated by Standard Power in Coshocton, Ohio. Energy Harbor owns two nuclear units in Ohio and the twin-unit Beaver Valley Power Station in Western Pennsylvania.

A nuclear fission start-up, Oklo, also announced last month it signed a 20-year deal with a bitcoin miner to supply it with power, though the company has not yet built a power plant.

In recent years, commercial nuclear operators have struggled to compete in competitive electricity markets against natural gas plants and upstart renewable sources such as wind and solar. Unfavorable market conditions have hastened the retirements of several single-unit reactors, such as Three Mile Island Unit 1 in Pennsylvania. Lawmakers in New Jersey, New York and Illinois have enacted nuclear bailouts, paid by electricity customers, to stave off early retirement for other plants.

The cryptocurrency deals would provide nuclear generators with reliable outlets for their power, and bitcoin miners with predictable sources of power at cheap prices, along with a zero-carbon cachet.

Nuclear energy is uniquely positioned to provide power to crypto mining companies and other major energy users who have committed to a carbon-free future, John Kotek, senior vice president of policy development and government affairs at Nuclear Energy Institute, said in an email.

The nuclear industry views the crypto craze not as a crutch but as a launching pad for expansion. U.S. nuclear power plants are ready and able to supply miners with abundant, reliable carbon-free power while also providing new business pathways for the nuclear developers and utilities, increasing their operating profits, and potentially accelerating the deployment of the next generation of reactors, Kotek said.

Nuclear producers arent the only power generators getting in on the trend. Stronghold Digital Mining, a bitcoin miner that registered last month for a $100 million initial stock offering, plans to build its bitcoin mining operation in northwestern Pennsylvania, powered from Venango County waste coal. While its bitcoin would not be zero-carbon, it would reduce environmentally harmful piles of waste coal.

Energy and cryptocurrency experts say several trends are shifting the market in favor of U.S. nuclear power producers.

In May, Chinese regulators announced new measures to limit bitcoin mining in several regions that failed to meet Beijings energy-use targets. Bitcoin production levels have fallen since then, forcing bitcoin producers to relocate to places with low operating costs and cool climates to reduce the costs of cooling the bitcoin data centers. The state of Washington, which has lots of inexpensive hydroelectric power, has undergone a huge boom in bitcoin mining.

Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer virtual currency, operating without a central authority, and which can be exchanged for traditional currency such as the U.S. dollar. It is the most successful of hundreds of attempts to create virtual money through the use of cryptography, the science of making and breaking codes hence, they are called cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin mining is built around blockchain technology, and it involves generating a string of code that decrypts a collection of previously executed bitcoin transactions. Successful decryption is rewarded with a new bitcoin. The supply of bitcoins is limited to 21 million nearly 90% have already been mined. So the remaining bitcoins become increasingly scarce and more difficult to extract.

Data centers operated by bitcoin miners randomly generate code strings, called hashes, to solve the puzzle and earn new coins. Worldwide, miners on the bitcoin network generate more than 100 quintillion hashes per second thats 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 guesses per second, according to Blockchain.com. The first phase of the Nautilus project in Pennsylvania would generate five quintillion hashes per second.

Such guesswork requires muscular computing power, robust internet connections, and lots of electricity. Smaller bitcoin miners have teamed up in consortiums to pool their computing power. Bigger players have built huge data centers devoted exclusively to producing lines of random code.

Mining cryptocurrency is an international, profitable, and energy-intensive business, ScottMadden a management consulting firm, said in a paper it published last year. Bitcoin mining consumes an estimated 0.5% of the electricity produced worldwide or about as much as the country of Greece.

Some lawmakers have called for greater regulation of cryptocurrency, citing the enormous amount of resources required to produce it. There are computers all over the world right now spitting out random numbers around the clock, in a competition to try to solve a useless puzzle and win the bitcoin reward, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) said in June, calling for a crackdown on environmentally wasteful cryptocurrencies.

But as a business proposition, bitcoin has appeal. ScottMadden, the consulting firm, suggested last year that nuclear operators in some states were in a unique position to profit from cryptocurrency ventures.

Diverting 1 megawatt of power to an efficient mining operation could conservatively generate top-line revenue of $900,000 a year and profits of $650,000, not accounting for cooling, repairs, or technicians, according to ScottMadden. Its analysis predicts that a project could break even in about 15 months.

The consulting firms conceptual project was based upon a bitcoin price of $9,275. The price of a bitcoin last week varied between $38,000 and $42,000.

Such numbers no doubt got the attention of Talen Energy, which plans to divert about 180 MW to the first phase of the Nautilus Cryptomine, which would be producing bitcoin at the Susquehanna plant in Luzerne County.

I think its a great opportunity for our plant, said Dustin Wertheimer, vice president and divisional chief financial officer of Talen Energy. He is based in Allentown, home to Talens previous owner, PPL Corp. Talen is now based in the Woodlands, Texas.

Unlike other crypto projects in which the power generator is an arms-length electricity supplier, the Nautilus Cryptomine is a 50-50 venture between Talen and TeraWulf. The project would be directly connected to the Susquehanna plant behind the meter, in industry parlance and would avoid any transmission costs from the grid.

The direct connection also guarantees that the operation is sourced exclusively with carbon-free energy, Wertheimer said.

Youve seen some of the press and the negative publicity that bitcoin has received recently and the impact of fossil fuel, Wertheimer said. So thats a great thing for us to have a direct connection into a carbon-free power source.

The cryptomine would be located inside a 200,000-square-foot building about four football fields. The mining operation would be built on a data center campus that Talen is developing next to the Susquehanna plant. The data center would generate about 1,000 construction jobs, Wertheimer said. The cryptomine would employ about 50 people to operate.

The first phase of the project would cost about $350 million to $400 million. The Nautilus venture is negotiating with fiber-optic providers to bring in super-charged internet connections required to transmit and receive the huge amounts of code it generates, Wertheimer said.

As you look across the United States, and you look at kind of the challenges that are facing nuclear plants, I think this is a great opportunity to prolong the life of a lot of plants, he said.

The Future of Work is produced with support from the William Penn Foundation and the Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the projects donors.

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Zero-carbon bitcoin? The owner of a Pennsylvania nuclear plant thinks it could strike gold - The Philadelphia Inquirer

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Businesses live by their processesthe prescribed sets of actions their employees take to get things done. When processes run well, the business runs well. When processes run poorly, the business risks a host of hazards, from loss of revenue to customer dissatisfaction to compliance violations. Most businesses have a general idea of how their processes should run, but lack insight into the day-to-day details of execution. Without this insight, how can they make improvements that yield real results?

Process mining offers one solution, and for many years it served businesses well. However, in todays increasingly complex environment and amid growing pressure to do morefaster and at lower costsorganizations need more intelligent solutions.

In this article, well explore what process mining is, what it can (and cant) do for businesses looking to optimize their processes, and how Process Intelligence offers a more effective approach.

What is process mining

Process mining uses actual data from information systems to create a model that accurately reflects how a process executes.

Applications such as CRM and ERP systems, as well as other systems of record, automatically create event logs that record every action taken. The data in these logs can be collected, or mined, to create an audit trail of the processes the applications are involved in. This works even when multiple applications are used in a single process. Process mining technology follows these audit trails to build a process model showing the details of the end-to-end process, as well as variations. Business users can analyze these models to find out if the processes are functioning as they should and, if not, investigate the root causes of deviations from the optimal path.

How process mining works

Before process mining, the only way for businesses to analyze the performance of their processes was through interviews with business users and manual data reviewsa slow, tedious undertaking with a high margin of error. Process mining allows organizations to leverage automation to paint accurate pictures of real-world process performancefaster, easier, and more accurately than manual approaches.

Where process mining falls short

Process mining offers enormous advantages over manual approaches to process analysis, but it has its limitations. For example:

How Process Intelligence bridges the gap

A new generation of process analytics solutions goes beyond traditional process mining.Process Intelligencecombines BI-like metrics with a set of process-specific analytics to offer detailed insights into complex processes from end to end. Unlike traditional process mining, Process Intelligence enables businesses to view their processes in real time and analyze patterns that lead to bottlenecks or disruptions.

Here are the top four advantages Process Intelligence offers over traditional process mining:

1. Timeline-based analysis

Process mining uses the schema method of process analysis, which involves converting process data into a flowchart (schema) and then analyzing the flow of all iterations through that schema. The shortcoming of this approach is that few business processes fit into a well organized flowchart. By the time all valid variations to a process are considered, the schema often becomes a tangled mess with limited usefulness.

By contrast, Process Intelligence uses atimeline approach, which creates an unfiltered, unedited history of every process iteration from beginning to end. These timelines are then analyzed so that they can be compared, filtered, searched, aggregated, etc., similarly to how a BI application analyzes records in a table. The timeline approach offers complete visibility into the process from end to end, even when some steps are performed using multiple systems. And the numerical analysis approach of Process Intelligence, as compared to the schema-centric approach of process mining, works equally well on all types of processes, as compared to basic process mining that only works well on processes with little variability in terms of the sequence of steps.

2. Continuous improvement

Traditional process mining is focused on looking at historical data. While this approach can offer valuable insights into what worked well and what didn't, it falls short of offering solutions for present and future iterations.

Process Intelligencemonitors processeswith new data coming inreal and near-real time, watching every iteration and alerting process owners for deviations that could cause delays or other problems. By enabling continuous improvement, Process Intelligence continues to deliver ROI as businesses capitalize on new opportunities to make processes work faster and smarter.

3. Reduces compliance risks

When businesses run traditional process mining applications, users can review the output to identify present and past deviations that could lead to compliance issues. This approach relies on the expertise of the users reviewing the data.

Process Intelligence enables users to define process rules that align with the organizations compliance requirements and to instruct the system to watch for violations. When one or more of those rules is broken, the system alerts users right away, enabling them to take immediate action to rectify the deviation and to ensure that it will not happen again. Process Intelligencealerting rulescan also be defined to call a service when an alert is triggered, to automatically deal with the problem. This capability can mean the difference between discovering an issue just in time, before it affects a business compliance status, and finding it when it is too late to be fixed and has already caused problems elsewhere in the workflowor worse, learning about it after a violation has been reported.

4. RPA enhancements

According to Ernst & Young, between30 and 50 percent of initial robotic process automation (RPA) projects faildue to lack of quantifiable process data. As businesses deploy RPA for more intricate processes in more complex environments, the pressure to deliver positive ROI has increased dramatically, and traditional process mining can offer only limited support in yielding the returns that businesses are seeking.

Fortunately, Process Intelligence can be just as valuable to digital workers (RPA "bots") as it is to human employees. Todays Process Intelligence solutions can includeprocess mining and task mining. As with process mining, task mining is looking for the significant events in a process. Task mining adds the ability to record a users manual actions on their computer to capture manual process steps to be used alongside the steps gleaned from system of record log files. By applying Process Intelligence to manual as well as automated processes, businesses uncover new opportunities to improve RPA results:

Why Process Intelligence is the future of process improvement

For many years, process mining applications served process owners well, saving countless manual hours and helping businesses discover opportunities for improvement. Process Intelligence provides a new approach to process improvement that improves on process mining. Process Intelligence works with all processes, simple and highly variable, manual and automated. Process Intelligence will monitor every process instance as each new step occurs, alerting or even taking automated action whenever a process behavior of interest is seen.

Process Intelligence supports RPA initiatives by identifying good automation candidates and then monitoring and reporting on the process that bots participate in. Process improvement can now reach a new level in delivering on its promises of greater productivity, reduced risk of costly compliance violations, and the streamlined efficiency that can create happier customers, happier employees, and a greater competitive edge.

Ready to leverage the data you already have for business process improvement? Click the button below to get started.

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What Is Process Mining (and Why Isn't It Enough)? - IDM.net.au

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during the forecast period. Various factors such as. need to incorporate real-time big data mining with visualization of results, increasing adoption for AI-based graph database tools and services to drive market, and growing demand for solutions that can process low-latency queries are expected to drive the adoption of graph database solutions and services.

New York, Aug. 06, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Graph Database Market with COVID-19 Impact Analysis, By Type, Application, Component, Deployment Mode, Vertical And Region - Global Forecast to 2026" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05436929/?utm_source=GNW

COVID-19s global impact has shown that interconnectedness plays an important role in international cooperation. As a result, several governments started rushing toward identifying, evaluating, and procuring reliable solutions powered by AI. graph databases and AI are invaluable to organizations managing uncertainty in real-time, but most predictive models rely on historical patterns. The use of graph database and AI has accelerated in the COVID-19 pandemic period. This has helped organizations engage customers through digital channels, manage fragile and complex supply chains, and support workers through disruption to their work and lives. New practices, such as work from home and social distancing, have led to the requirement of graph database solutions and services and the development of digital infrastructures for large-scale technology deployments. The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 brought accelerating changes in consumer preferences and behaviors and putting pressure on brands to keep pace and provide a personalized customer experience. Enterprises have witnessed a reduction in their operational spending and are now focusing more on business continuity and sustainability.

Technology and service providers have been facing significant disruption to their businesses from COVID-19. Hence, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the global financial markets and has created panic, uncertainty, and distraction in the operations of global corporations.

The cloud segment to have the largest CAGR during the forecast periodBy deployment mode, the graph database market has been segmented into on-premises and cloud.The CAGR of the cloud deployment mode is estimated to be the largest during the forecast period.

The cloud-based deployment helps businesses more efficiently process and report data findings, enhance collaboration, and enable decision-makers to get faster access to business intelligence leading to its higher adoption in the graph database market.

The SMEs segment to hold higher CAGR during the forecast periodThe graph database market has been segmented by organization size into large enterprises and SMEs.The market for SMEs is expected to register a higher CAGR during the forecast period as cloud-based solutions and services help them improve business performance and enhance productivity.

Whereas the large enterprises segment is expected to hold a larger market share in the graph database market during the forecast period due to the affordability and the acceptance of emerging technologies.

Among regions, APAC to hold higher CAGR during the forecast periodAPAC is expected to grow at a good pace during the forecast period.Opportunities for smaller graph database vendors to introduce graph database solutions for numerous sectors have also increased.

All these factors are responsible for the expeditious growth of the graph database market in the region.Companies operating in APAC continue to focus on improving customer services to drive market competitiveness and revenue growth.

China, Japan, and AnZ have displayed ample growth opportunities in the graph database market.

Breakdown of primariesIn-depth interviews were conducted with Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), innovation and technology directors, system integrators, and executives from various key organizations operating in the graph database market. By Company: Tier I: 35%, Tier II: 45%, and Tier III: 20% By Designation: C-Level Executives: 35%, D-Level Executives: 25%, and Managers: 40% By Region: APAC: 30%, Europe: 30%, North America: 25%, MEA: 10%, Latin America: 5%The report includes the study of key players offering graph database solutions and services.It profiles major vendors in the global graph database market.

The major vendors in the global graph database market include Oracle Corporation (US), IBM Corporation (US), Amazon Web Services, Inc. (US), DataStax (US), Ontotext (Bulgaria), Stardog Union (US), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (US), ArangoDB (US), Blazegraph (US), Microsoft Corporation (US), SAP SE (Germany), Teradata Corporation (US), Openlink Software (US), MarkLogic Corporation (US), TIBCO Software, Inc. (US), Neo4j, Inc. (US), GraphBase (Australia), Cambridge Semantics (US), TigerGraph, Inc. (US), Objectivity Inc. (US), Bitnine Co, Ltd. (US), Franz Inc. (US), Redis Labs (US), Graph Story (US), Dgraph Labs (US), Eccenca (Germany), and Fluree (US).

Research CoverageThe market study covers the graph database market across segments.It aims at estimating the market size and the growth potential of this market across different segments, such as components, type, deployment mode, organization size, application, vertical, and region.

It includes an in-depth competitive analysis of the key players in the market, along with their company profiles, key observations related to product and business offerings, recent developments, and key market strategies.

Key Benefits of Buying the ReportThe report would provide the market leaders/new entrants in this market with information on the closest approximations of the revenue numbers for the overall graph database market and its subsegments.It would help stakeholders understand the competitive landscape and gain more insights better to position their business and plan suitable go-to-market strategies.

It also helps stakeholders understand the pulse of the market and provides them with information on key market drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities.Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05436929/?utm_source=GNW

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Original post:

The global graph database market size to grow from USD 1.9 billion in 2021 to USD 5.1 billion by 2026, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of...

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