Autonomy Lands Fresh Content Tuna
August 13, 2008
Northcliffe Media, a unit of the Daily Mail and General Trust, publishes a score of newspapers mostly in the UK. Circulation is nosing towards a million. Northcliffe also operates a little more than two dozen subscription and ad support weekly regional tabloids and produces 60 ad supported free week shopper type publications. The company also cranks out directories, runs a printing business, and is in the newsstand business. The company whose tag line is “At the heart of all things local” has international interests as well. Despite the categorical affirmative “all”, I don’t think Northcliffe operates in Harrod’s Creek, Kentucky. Perhaps it should?
Autonomy, the Cambridge-based search and Okana (an Autonomy partner) have landed the Northcliffe Media search business; thus, a big content tuna. Okana describes big clients like Northcliffe as “platinum” not “tuna” but I wanted to keep my metaphor consistent and Okana rhymes with tuna.
Okana was Autonomy’s “Innovative Partner of the Year” in 2007. Okana says, “Based around proven architectures, Okana’s range of Autonomy appliance products provide instantly deployable and scaleable [sic] solutions for Information Discovery, Monitoring, and Investigation.Compliance.”
This description of Okana’s offering an “appliance” was new information for me. Also, my research suggests that many Autonomy IDOL installations benefit from training the IDOL system. If training is required, then I ask, “What if any trade off is required for an instant Autonomy IDOL deployment?” If anyone has details for me, please, use the comments section of this Web log.
Autonomy’s IDOL (Intelligent Data Operating Layer) will index an initial 40 million documents and then process new content. The new system will use Autonomy’s “meaning-based computing” for research, information retrieval and trend spotting.
You can read the complete Autonomy news release here. Once again Autonomy is making sales as word reaches me of competitors running into revenue problems. Autonomy’s a tuna catcher while others seem fated to return to port with empty holds.
Stephen Arnold, August 13, 2008
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6 Responses to “Autonomy Lands Fresh Content Tuna”
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How do you make Okana rhyme with Tuna?
Gordon Thompson,
In Kentucky, “una” and “ana” have the same sound. I’m not sure about other parts of the world. The Autonomy sale is the important thing, right? The fact that other vendors’ boats return to shore empty is a pretty strong positive for Autonomy and Okana, right? If I’ve got the facts of the sale wrong, let me know. I personally like the metaphor and image of the landing of a big content fish quite a lot..
Stephen Arnold, August 13, 2008
Stephen, would you please elaborate on “as word reaches me of competitors running into revenue problems”? Putting FAST (2007) aside, what competitors are running into revenue problems?
Training is only required for some part of the IDOL platform. Indexing and searching using both keyword and conceptual search will work “right out of the box”.
Building systems using categorization and taxonomies will require some training of the rules to define the categories. Also this will have to be done with some frequency to maintain the relevance with new content.
Also the knowledge workers might need some training as the end user tools, all though improved by the Verity take-over, are still somewhat complicated.
Frans la Cour,
Thanks for making this important point. The impact of Autonomy as an autonomous system has been significant as was the need for training the system.
Stephen Arnold, August 14, 2008 8 11 pm Central
Seth,
Great question. My answer for a request for information about vendors with revenue challenges is, “No.” Feel free to read the Delphes and Entopia case studies on this Web log, however. A lesson is a lesson in Harrod’s Creek. Watch for a new study later this year. The Web log is a chronological diary of my musings and observations, not a substitute for the work that pays for my burgoo.
Stephen Arnold, August 14, 2008, 8 13 pm Central