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Our blogs grew sharply in popularity during 2010, and our witty bloggers stirred up conversations online and in person with their take on industry trends and happenings. Here are our 10 most popular stories from 2010 in ascending order.

10. “Best in BI? Ask the Crowd” by Jim Ericson
“My own opinion on what is or isn't business intelligence software and hardware (not BI itself) has shifted a bit over the years. I could draw it out for you on a sheet of paper, and it likely won't be the same as yours or someone else's view. But that doesn't matter to Howard Dresner, the Gartner analyst turned software executive turned private analyst….” Click here to read full post.

9. “Pros and Cons of Using a Vendor Provided Analytical Data Model in Your BI Implementation” by Boris Evelson
“The following question comes from many of our clients: what are some of the advantages and risks of implementing a vendor provided analytical logical data model at the start of any Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing or other Information Management initiatives? Some quick thoughts on pros and cons…” Click here to read full post.

8. “BI, Analytics and Statistical Science” by Steve Miller
“I've decided based on frustrations with my college recruiting trips last Fall to update the job description for BI consultants I send to schools where OpenBI conducts interviews…” Click here to read full post.

7. “Who Are the BI Personas?” by Boris Evelson
“The world is changing. The traditional lines of demarcation between IT and business, developers and end users, producers and consumers of info no longer work. But every time I attempt to create a matrix of business intelligence personas in this new world … I ended up with something quite unreadable. But there still has to be something that on the one hand shows the realities of the new BI world, yet something that fits onto a single PPT…” Click here to read full post.

6. “Misconceptions About Statistics” by Steve Miller
“I participate in a data mining/predictive modeling discussion group with a major social networking web site. Recently, a topic entitled “Misconceptions about statistics” surfaced, the reaction to an article in the BI media. That post had leveled several criticisms at statistical methods for predictive modeling…” Click here to read full post.

5. “Metadata, Is That What It’s Called?” by Jim Ericson
“Metadata is a word I regularly listen for and cite as a bellwether as data becomes more condensed, collated and understandable. I've bought into the idea of a metadata editor as a likely job skill. I've even started my own campy habit of putting in a plug by ringing a bell sound whenever the word is uttered on the DM Radio shows I co-host with Eric Kavanagh. I may be closer to the reality of metadata management than a network TV show, but, if they're pinging the term, maybe the time horizon isn't as long as I feared…” Click here to read full post.

4. “Standing Up for Agile BI. (Sort of.)” by Jill Dyché
“The theme of last week’s TDWI conference in San Diego was “Creating an Agile BI Environment—Delivering Data at the Speed of Thought.” I sat in on some workshops expecting to learn something new about agile BI, if not eat a little crow. You see, I’d received mixed responses on my assertion recently that agile BI attracted companies “that don’t have the discipline to enforce BI development in the first place…” Turns out I did a lot more of the former than I did of the latter…” Click here to read full post.

3. “Top 10 Ways to Fail at MDM” by Jim Ericson
“I meet a lot of practitioners who are fond of checklists to show how on top of MDM their project managers are… The reverse - what not to do - can be even more illuminating...” Click here to read full post.

2. “11 Answers to ‘Why Isn’t My BI Application Useful?’” by Boris Evelson
“When a user of a BI application complains about the application not being useful - something that I hear way too often - what does that really mean? I can count at least 11 possible meanings, and potential reasons…” Click here to read full post.

1. “Introducing the MDM Market’s Newest 800lb. Gorilla! – Informatica Acquires Siperian” by Rob Karel
“Look out IBM, Oracle and SAP — you’re about to lose a bit of your dominance in the master data management (MDM) market to Informatica. On January 28, 2010, Informatica announced that it acquired Siperian for $130 million (representing the largest acquisition Informatica has made to date)… The impact this acquisition will have on the MDM market should be extraordinary to say the least…” Click here to read full post.

This piece is brought to you by the Information Management editorial staff.