IBM and Social Graphs of Mobile Callers
August 2, 2009
Slashdot’s article “IBM Uses Call-Detail Records To Identify “Friends” tickled my memory. First, you will want to read the technical paper “Social Ties and Their Relevance to Churn in Mobile Telecom Networks” which is a Portable Document Format file. Next navigate to i2, now a unit of Silver Lake Sumeru I recall hearing. As you browse through the i2 site, do you see indications that the Analyst’s Notebook permits similar “friend identification.” I have also seen other tools that can process a range of data and generate relationship maps and graphs. The comment that interested me in the Slashdot item was:
IBM claims its patent-pending snooping software can now identify circles of ‘friends’ who tend to exhibit the same profit-threatening behavior. ‘We believe that our analysis is a first of its kind that exploits the underlying social network in a telecom call graph,’ boasted a team of IBM researchers and a UMD prof.
It will be interesting to see if IBM’s approach conflicts with other patents. I wonder if i2 and the other companies in the i2 market sector will push back on IBM’s claims for its technology. i2 has been around for a number of years, and in its early days was the bright eyed lad for some UK intelligence operations.
Stephen Arnold, August 2, 2009
Google on the Future of Digital Books
August 1, 2009
Media Bistro ran a fascinating article that is classic Google. I heard Dan Clancy speak earlier this year. I I read the BayNewser’s “Google Engineering Director Spells Out Vision for the Future of Digital Books.” Mr. Clancy is an engaging speaker. He is gentle in appearance, manner and rhetoric.
The point of the write up, in my opinion, was well expressed in this passage:
Google will partner with all interested retailers, so you’ll be able to buy books wherever you like—at an online site or your neighborhood bookstore. The books themselves will be stored “in the cloud,” meaning out on some Google server, rather than on your computer hard drive or in a device you own. And you’ll be able to read them on any device you want—e-reader, phone, computer, or netbook.
BayNewser points out that this vision is different from the pending deal with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers. How different? Mr. Clancy is presaging the future. The “pending deal” is about the past. Navigate to BayNewser and read the extensive quotes yourself.
When I read the article, I asked myself, “Is revisionism an increasingly important tool in Google’s public relations arsenal?” And, “Will Google knit together its various publishing initiatives so an author can create, store, and sell books via Google?” Publishers seem to be a litigious, easily disintermediated group when I look to the future.
Stephen Arnold, August 1, 2009
US and UK Sing Different Tweets
August 1, 2009
Apparently Twittering at the White House is a no-no, but government agencies in the United Kingdom are getting a 20-page how-to (“…why and how we intend to establish and manage a corporate presence on the microblogging social network Twitter.com.”) You can get a copy at http://www.scribd.com/doc/17313280/Template-Twitter-Strategy-for-Government-Departments or http://mashable.com/2009/07/28/uk-government-twitter-guide/. Included is a basic Twitter how-to, objectives for using it, plans for data crunching, risks inherent and how to recognize them (Reduce by registering alternative names), and guidelines for setting up accounts to properly represent the departments. There are also tips on third-party tools to help the effort. In my opinion, it’s a good guide to using Twitter that focuses on the positives. Also check out Mashable’s guide to Twitter at http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/.
Public Records Pro
August 1, 2009
Here’s a useful list for the budding detective who is searching for people-related data: http://buyvoa.com/internet-computer/online-records/public-records-search/. One of the options is Public Records Pro, http://www.publicrecordspro.com/search.php?hop=bodyany, a search service that returns public, birth, death, marriage, and divorce records. It touts that its search interface combines 23 unique databases and 400+ million public records. Government Records.com, http://www.government-records.com/?hop=bodyany, is another service. Be aware that some services charge fees for complete reports. I did a search on my own birth records at Public Records Pro, and it wanted $2.95/month for complete access. Using online services like this can offer unparalleled access to huge amounts of material spread across the country or world through one site with a single interface, so if that’s your interest, this article might help you.
Jessica Bratcher, July 31, 2009
Microsoft and the Open Source Muddle
August 1, 2009
SeattlePI published “Why Did Microsoft Really Release Open-Source Code?” Good question. The write up does not answer the question. I am forming the notion that open source is a mess, particularly when publicly traded companies, hungry start ups with and MBA on deck, and feisty math club members engage in the game, “Who violated the open source license?” The article presents both sides of a complicated problem. Commercial companies in the open source game are supposed to follow rules. Microsoft says it was acting for the community. The open source crowd thinks Microsoft was caught with its hand in the digital cookie jar. In my opinion, the “soft force” of open source will find itself trying to deal with the “hard force” of commercial enterprises. As the battle wages, companies trying to figure out how to control software costs look at the open source mud wrestling and realize that both sides in this squabble warrant watching closely.
Stephen Arnold, August 1, 2009
Internet Fact Round Up
August 1, 2009
News.com in Australia cranked out a useful Internet fact round up. The story “How Big Is the Internet?” includes some useful factoids. For example, the story cites Google’s estimate that it has indexed “more than one trillion Web addresses” is supported with Microsoft’s statement that the Web have “over one trillion” Web pages. For me the key point is that Google has indexed content and Microsoft has talked about content. Let me point out three other factoids that I noted:
- China has more Internet users than the US has people
- Mobile Internet access is growing and fast
- 1.5 billion people worldwide use the Internet.
Visit the original story for more details.
Stephen Arnold, August 1, 2009
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
