Background:

This dataset was developed using web scraping techniques, which extract data from websites. Web scraping is largely an automated solution; it is also an area of research that is rapidly growing. Data from web scraping is typically analyzed using text processing and artificial intelligence tools. 
 

The data are from TED, a nonpartisan and nonprofit organization. TED spreads ideas, primarily via short talks that can be accessed on the internet. As noted on its website, TED was initiated in 1984 as a conference where technology, entertainment, and design ideas were shared. At present, TED Talks cover topics ranging from science to business to global issues. More information about TED can be found at the following website: https://www.ted.com/. Learning about the organization and its talks may be useful to develop your data analytic strategy. 
 

This case study is currently a data competition on Kaggle (https://www.kaggle.com/). You may wish to check out what others have done with these data, although the analyses to date have been primarily descriptive in nature. 
 

Your analysis in this case study will focus on the use of inferential techniques to analyze the data. As well, you should consider innovative approaches to measure popularity of the talks, beyond the conventional measure of the number of views of a talk.