Google Goes Sort of Open Source
December 30, 2009
Short honk: If you think Google is abandoning its open source interests, you will find the list in “35 Google Open-Source Projects That You Probably Don’t Know” a useful list. There are about three dozen projects listed. Some of Google’s wizardry will never be tagged open source. Other projects are, when Google has a perception that benefits outweigh risks. My research suggests that open source may not be defined is exactly the same way as some others explain the concept. Some definitions of open source do not include the nuances power, money, and control.
Stephen E. Arnold, December 30, 2009
Yep, ending the year with another freebie. I still will report this to the Federal Highway Administration. Information highway, get it?
IBM Replays Its 1982 Audiotape, We Are Right
December 29, 2009
Lesie P. Norton’s “Smart Play” contains what I call a Microsoft moment. (Note: this link may go dead as part of Rupert Murdoch’s vision for the Web. Subscribe as I do.) I refer to IBM’s licensing of Bill Gates’s outstanding disc operating system. This decision set off a chain of events that involved a possible suicide, the reshaping of the computing industry, and the shift at IBM from a technology company to a technology consulting company. (Just my opinion, IBM PR professional. Please, don’t call me for a briefing.) Now “Smart Play” seems to have documented another interesting point in IBM’s competitive assessment heartbeat. Here’s the passage that caught my attention:
Google paranoia: “Is Google [GOOG] going to become the computing platform for the enterprise? Is a bank going to run itself on Google? Is an airline going to run itself on Google? Is IBM going to run its supply chain on Google? Is Bharti Wireless going to run themselves on Google? Is the banking system of China that we’ve built going to be on Google? Is the Russian Central Bank [network] that we’re building going to be on Google? No. The exchanges we’re building? No.”
No. Got it. Should I outline the conditions under which any of these outfits will shift from IBM to another vendor? No, I don’t need another IBM PR call. I will add this quote to the folder that contains the letter I received that suggests IBM knows exactly what Google is doing. Like pressed flowers in a year book for me. There is a post from SearchEngineLand.com, but that misspells IBM’s top dog’s name. Well, spelling is for dweebs , right? Details, details.
Stephen E. Arnold, December 29, 2009
I was not paid to write this. I must report this fact to the Securities & Exchange Commission when everyone returns to work on Monday, well, maybe Tuesday. If there’s snow, maybe next year?
SharePoint and 100 Percent CPU Usage
December 29, 2009
We love SharePoint and are mesmerized by its search functionality. We spotted the tweet about 100 percent CPU use during indexing. After some clicking, we located “Search and CPU Usage” on MSGroups. The writer wanted to know how to troubleshoot 100 percent CPU usage. The answer delighted us. We find that fresh content and near real time indexing are getting more popular. But if your SharePoint system is under resourced, the fix is easy. Index less frequently. Here’s what the plea for help elicited:
You need check indexing interval. WSS 3.0 default crawling interval is every 5 minute. So if you have many content and indexing can not complete in 5 minute. It’s possible 100% CPU continuously. Yu can change indexing interval on central admin page….from every 5 minutes to every day.
Yep, fresh results in near real time. Obvious solution. Timely information in an index is obviously irrelevant.
Stephen E. Arnold, December 29. 2009
A freebie. Think of this as a late Boxing Day present. I will report this to the IRS.
Instant Social Media Experts. Add Water and Stir.
December 29, 2009
Short honk: Lousy economy, dead end job, no expertise? Some folks see social media as the next big thing. I read “Self Proclaimed Social Media gurus on Twitter Multiplying like Rabbits” and had to agree. I am not particularly social, and I pay someone to tweet for me. Not surprisingly I don’t describe myself as a social media expert or much of an expert in anything at all. Some individuals think I may know something, but those people are clueless and may be candidates themselves to become a social media expert. In the What’s Next Blog write up, I seized on this passage as the kicker:
In May 09 when we first used Tweepsearch to count of the Twitter bios of self-proclaimed social media gurus, experts, superstars and ninjas there were 4,487. A mere seven months later, we were shocked to see that there are now nearly 16.000.
I have noticed that a number of pale gray and azure chip consulting firms jumping on the bandwagon as well. This morning (December 27, 2009), I had to grunt through my digital archive for information about a “leader” in social media. I was numbed by the number and length of studies about social media. I scanned reports from big consulting firms (check to see if I have my billfold) and small outfits (check to see if I have my ballpoint pen). I feel quite alone focusing on search and content processing.
One thing is clear. The search consulting space is suffering and outflow of self appointed “experts”. The addled goose will stay put. I will quack farewell to those who want to mesh content management with social media, ERP with social media, publishing with social media, and the the other combinations of inert chemicals. One may stumble upon the Philosopher’s Stone. Good for that person. Honk.
Stephen E. Arnold, December 29, 2009
Okay, okay, an admission. A neighbor gave me a chocolate chip muffin for Xmas. That was a social act, so I was paid to write about the proliferation of social media experts. Whom should I tell? Maybe the USDA? It was a baked item that appeared to contain organic farm ingredients. Well, knowing that neighbor, maybe not.
Strategic Social Networking
December 29, 2009
Addled Goose’s Note: I paid Jessica Bratcher to write up some of the research the Beyond Search goslings did in 2009. We cannot reveal the names of the clients, and we can’t present the clients’ data. We can, however, summarize some of the trends that we identified in the course of our analyses. I know I have to report when I am paid to write a blog post, but to be on the safe side, I am reporting that I paid to have this shameless marketing collateral written. If this offends your sense of what’s supposed to be in a free Web log, navigate to something with real substance. May I suggest the analysis of the Kindle in the New York Times? Click the link to learn more about “real” journalism, not the swill I generate.
Beyond Search, http://www.arnoldit.com/wordpress, a Web log focused on news, research and analysis about online search and content processing, has released its list of the top 10 social network trends to come in 2010.
According to Patricia Roberts, an advisor to Beyond Search: “Social networks will have far reaching impacts on hiring, competitive intelligence, governance and marketing. The buzz about networks like Twitter and Facebook, and the lack of standardized, robust metrics make it difficult to discern the true implications of social communications in business.”
A list of the top 50 social search systems appeared in the Dec. 23, 2009, story Preliminary List of Beyond Search Evaluated Social Search Systems (http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/2009/12/23/preliminary-list-of-beyond-search-evaluated-social-search-systems/) <http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/2009/12/23/preliminary-list-of-beyond-search-evaluated-social-search-systems/%29>
Research conducted in October and November 2009 provided a wealth of data about the implications of social networks for organizations and professionals. The Beyond Search team analyzed the information access systems focused on social networks and distilled its research into the top ten trends unleashed leading into 2010.
- Virtual organizations will replace traditional business organization models.
- Marketing via social networks will displace direct mail and slower, more expensive ways to build brands and identify prospects.
- Governance of social networking will place significant stress on professional interaction. The shift from local communication to diffused communication will stress confidentiality and security procedures set up to handle a 20th century approach to business.
- Hiring will shift from the traditional hierarchical relationship to an organic, fluid distributed approach.
- Control of information and organizational “secrets” will become difficult, if not impossible to control, without escalating friction between professionals and the organization itself.
- Prohibitions against the use of social networks on company time will increase the likelihood of work arounds, undermining mandated policies.
- Corporations will continue to invest increasing resources in social media, almost always at the expense of traditional media, despite the lack of clear direction and metrics to determine return on investment figures.
- The lack of robust, standardized metrics for social media will make it difficult for organizations to establish and understand the true value proposition of their social media efforts.
- Next year, 2010, becomes the turning point for the use of social network tools in healthcare. We expect increase use for healthcare education and public health alerts.
- Social network technology will displace more expensive, traditional methods in business processes from recruitment to direct marketing.
The strategic use of social network systems and tools will have a significant impact on marketing, security, public relations, recruitment, and management systems. “The meaning of a social network is changing and fast”, said John Lack, MBA, an advisor to Beyond Search. “The implications for business and knowledge workers are not well understood.”
In January 2010, Arnold IT will create a new Web log focused on strategic social network tools, systems and applications. A full description of the new service will appear in the Beyond Search Web log at http://www.arnoldit.com/wordpress.
About Arnold Information Technology and Beyond Search
ArnoldIT.com is an organization specializing in electronic publishing, marketing via electronic media, online system engineering and database design. President Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his office in Kentucky. He works with colleagues worldwide on a wide range of online and content-related projects. Beyond Search is the research arm of ArnoldIT.com. The company’s Web site is http://arnoldit.com, and the Beyond Search blog is at http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/.
Google Everything! Too Late, Dude
December 28, 2009
There were some major events in information access that I recall from my student research. Among the nails on the information highway were:
- The shift from clay tablets to more portable and less breakable media like sheepskin
- The change from hand copied documents to wood block printing
- The move from live performances to recorded performances
- The abandonment of a person on a horse bearing a message to a series of dots and dashes transmitted over a wire.
I am now a veteran of other, somewhat less significant shifts; namely, the move from a mainframe to a gizmo I can hold in my hand. I use a computer to create text instead of writing with a pencil on paper unless the airplane person tells me to turn off any device with a switch. I no longer visit the library to do research because I can access information online. Because I don’t do much scholarly research, I can get by with the free services that offer the effluvia of modern information flows of which this Web log is an example.
The write up called “Search, but You May Not Find” in the Ne York Times reminded me of these previous information disruptions. What is interesting is that when the disruption is finally recognized as significant, it is too late to do much about it. For an interesting example, look at what happened in Europe after the invention and diffusion of the printing press. The technology had been invented in China earlier, but the political climate and consumer climate in Europe was different from that in China when the invention was put in use. In Europe, the printing press set in motion a number of billiard balls, and their complex interactions caused some exciting events. In addition to outright murder and large scale political upheaval, the fracturing of the more or less solid institutions had interesting effects.
This editorial (maybe a better word is polemic) documents that a similar shift has happened. Google has become the new Gutenberg, an idea I developed in my most recent monograph, “Google: The Digital Gutenberg”. As I point out in that monograph, it is now too late to do much about Google. I argued in my 2005 monograph “The Google Legacy” that if Google were killed in 2005, more Googles would proliferate. The reason is that former Googlers would just take their Google learnings and go forward. Ergo: more Googles.
The objections to Google and the implicit appeal of the editorial (maybe polemic) is to stop Google. I don’t anticipate that the anti Google forces will show up in Mountain View with flaming torches and clubs. Today’s methods will be legal and somewhat indirect.
I think suggesting that Google is in some way different from other commercial enterprises is silly. Google is 11 years old, and it is doing what Ronald Reagan supported with enthusiasm. You might want to dust off your economic texts from graduate school, but the pro Google forces will point to that fun writer Joseph Schumpeter or one of his kissing cousins, and you will be talking as Google expands into the soft, fatty underbelly of existing markets.
Someone missed the boat. Image source: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/eduwonkette/upload/2008/06/holding_a_mirror_up_to_the_edu_1/missed-the-boat.jpg
Let’s face facts. The people who are making Google popular are the same people who have made iTunes the big cat in the mobile music world. The children of executives who run publishing companies, television stations, music companies, and other types of media firms are doing the driving. Mom and dad can write essays (maybe even vitriolic ones), but the demographics are tough to fight.
Will “killing Google” accomplish more today than if Google had been “killed” in 1998 or 2004? Nope. The reason is that the shifts from clay to sheepskin make sense because they make certain information tasks easier. In addition, other benefits accrue. These range from intellectual freedom to better, faster, and cheaper. Information is power and when a new medium such as that I described in my monograph “Publishing on the Internet: A New Medium for a New Millennium” emerges, there is not much any one person, industry, or trade association can do. Maybe ?inggis Qa?an could pull it off, but even he would be hard pressed to control the information access methods in today’s world.
My take aways from this op-ed piece were:
- Traditional publishers are using their information dissemination tools to mount a campaign against Google. Other vendors are mentioned, but these guys are small peas next to the Google rutabaga
- The arguments are presented without the context of the demographic shifts that prefer the online approaches exemplified by Google and any other outfit that undermines the former dominate information mode
- The howling, like King Lear’s, is coming too late. The guy is outside, miserable, and not getting much traction. Maybe the outcries will produce a hearing but those take time. Time is running out for the displaced information modes. When Google shows up to answer questions, the company just says we are an ad outfit. What’s more American than marketing?
In short, interesting approach. Too little. Way too late in my opinion. In short, the patricians in New York and London will understand the core truth of Heraclitus’ observation: ????? ??? ??? ????? ?????.
Stephen E. Arnold, December 28, 2009
No one paid me to write this. Heck, I even pay for a hard copy of the New York Times and pay for online connectivity so I can post my added goose musings. I suppose I can report this to TSA, but I think that organization is occupied with other matters today.
An Original Aggregator Teeters on the Brink
December 28, 2009
I sat on this write up for about a week. I read the December 20, 2009, “Revised and Condensed” write up in the New York Times. I don’t know if the piece is available online because I don’t use traditional media’s online services. I am more interested in how the traditional print and magazines to which I subscribe present information about the challenges consumer publishing in the US faces.
For your information, I ran a quick query before scheduling this write up for release on Beyond Search on December 28, 2009, and, to my surprise, this link on the New York Times’s Web site worked. Glory be!
My plan for this write up is to highlight some of the more striking points set forth in the article with the subtitle “A Reader’s Digest That Grandma Never Dreamed Of.” I won’t point out that Ms. Sperling, my anti-Arnold English teacher in high school, would have given the headline writer an F and inked in red: “A Reader’s Digest about Which Grandma Never Dreamed.” But why fiddle around with the small stuff when the overall point of the article is of larger import. I will comment on that at the end of this short write up.
Now that you have the plan of attack, let’s look at the passages I found interesting.
this sentence captures exquisitely the decay, the loss of a future, and the end of a traditional information company :
Walking the hallways now, it’s hard to imagine the bustle. More than half of the building is empty, a ghostly warren of empty cubicles and unused bathrooms. You can walk for long stretches without seeing anyone. A stand-alone brick addition has been condemned because of mold, a company spokesman said.
Ms. Sperling would have inked a circle around “mold” and written you have confused a frame or model with a saprotrophic fungi. Man, she was a picky one. She wanted the word spelled “mould”.
Image source: http://i.pbase.com/g5/61/391661/2/67960731.z5oyTWFv.jpg
SharePoint Sunday: Microsoft Geeks and Sales
December 28, 2009
Not much SharePoint excitement last week. I have been sitting on a post called “The Problem with Sales Guys… (A Peek into Complex Adaptive Systems). The write up is by Paul Culmsee. My hunch is that the point of the essay is to explain that engineers need the sales person, and the sales person needs the engineer. I agree. There was one passage that provided me some food for thought:
If SharePoint were a fast food, it would either be one of those giant steaks that you get your name on the wall if you finish, or the Guatemalan chili that sent the normally invincible Homer into the spirit world. It is so seductive to the sales guys because it is in demand, but their distance to the assholes means that they will think it should be just like any other IT infrastructure oriented project to install. Therefore, some integrators will be doomed to repeatedly bite off more than they can chew and by the time they realize it, the long term damage will be done.
When I read about this, I said to myself, “When Microsoft Fast meets up with SharePoint, there’s going to be a run on Guatemalan chili.
Stephen E. Arnold, December 28, 2009
No one paid me to write this. I would probably not eat Guatemalan chili if it were offered as an inducement. I will report this to the manager of the GSA’s cafeteria outsourcing team. I think Guatemalan chili is on the GSA menu every second Tuesday of the month.
The Nook Hook: Not Knowing What You Do Not Know
December 28, 2009
Short honk: I don’t have a Nook. I read Engadget’s “Nook Fails to Communicate, Download Purchased eBooks”. If true, this Barnes & Noble adventure is another example of folks not knowing what they don’t know. Barnes & Noble runs gift shops with some books in them in Louisville, Kentucky. The idea that a retail outfit can manufacture a consumer device is an example of the “lateral thinking” that Edward DeBono advocated in1970 when technology was different in its reach and scope among book store management. Clicking a hyperlink in a browser makes information technology child’s play. Live and learn that information technology is complicated. I will not include a reference to Google’s investment in technology to permit scaling. I will not toss in a comment about Amazon’s and Microsoft’s investments to achieve a similar end. I will just ask that you read the Engadget post and think about those book lights, notebooks, and greeting cards where books once filled shelves. I am looking forward to other dedicated reading devices from other outfits into the consumer electronics market.
Stephen E. Arnold, December 27, 2009
Okay, I want to be upfront. I was not paid to write this news item. I will report this fact to the Government Printing Office, an outfit still in the paper business and on top of publishing innovations.
Real Journalism Explains the Amazon Kindle
December 28, 2009
I looked at the article “Is Amazon Working Backward” and skipped it. I own a couple of Kindles, and I hate the devices. I am going to be 66, and the gray on gray screen, the dorky controls, and the weird limitations on content search drive me nuts. But some folks at Kindle Review read the article, and I think there was some mild disagreement with the NYT’s method. You can read “NYTimes Misuses Kindle Review States to Attack the Kindle”. Make your own decision. Your can follow the links in the Kindle Review write up. For fun, let’s assume that Kindle Review is on target. This begs the question, which outfit, blog or newspaper, does a better job of handling information in a fair and objective manner? I leave it to you.
Stephen E. Arnold, December 28, 2009
Listen up, people. I was not paid to write this. I am reporting this sad state of affairs to the US Marine recruiter in Louisville, Kentucky.
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