The Southwest, Smith, Social Media Storm Front
February 18, 2010
Beyond Search does not cover the social media space. Our companion Web log, Strategic Social Networking, does. You can view our new Social Media video by navigating to http://ssnblog.com and clicking on the video graphi or click the logo below:
The subject of this week’s two minute video is the storm front triggered by the interaction of Southwest Airlines, movie director Kevin Smith, and social media. Our take? Quite a mess, and most organizations are powerless because social media is moving more quickly than management. We had two emails about the carved bird featured in the video. That’s the inspiration for the SSNBlog’s logo… a social and technical term (you know, one of those social birds that flock near your restaurant table in Cassis).
Okay, I paid myself with money from my own pocket to write about my video. I am not sure how this disclosure of self compensation strikes you, but I think Ralph Waldo Emerson would probably have whipped up one of his exciting essays were he alive and fresh from penning “Compensation.” I think this type of payment to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That outfit understands zeros.
Smart Business Network Columns
February 18, 2010
Stephen E Arnold’s nine columns for Smart Business Network are now online. You can access these discussions of search, eMarketing, and social networking by clicking the graphic below or you can navigate to www.arnoldit.com/articles/sbn.
A new series of columns for Smart Business Network will focus on using Google to generate sales and revenue for your business. The first article in the 2010 series jumps into Google Local, free coupons, and mobile search. Read the column in the next few weeks to learn how to get a free slice of pepperoni pizza.
Stephen E Arnold, February 18, 2010
This is a marketing column marketing my marketing columns. Ah, a possible tautology. I will report self-funded tautologies to the Office of Management & Budget, an outfit familiar with tautologies and probably pepperoni pizza.
Microsoft Document and Records Management
February 18, 2010
I received an email from a chipper PR type pitching me on “information governance.” After a bit of “who are you” and “why are you calling me”, I realized that “information governance is marketing talk for document management. I am fighting a losing battle as I age. I know that there are different approaches to document management. If I want to keep track of documents, I use a document management system. If I have to keep track of documents for a nuclear power plant, I use a records management system. There’s a lot of talk about “information governance,” but I don’t have a clear sense of what is under that umbrella term
To confuse me even more, I happened across a document called “Application Lifecycle Management.” The idea is that SharePoint applications have a sunrise, noon, and sunset. I will not talk about squalls, earthquakes, and landslides in this environmental metaphor for SharePoint applications. You can find this information on the MSDN.
I wanted to know how Microsoft Fast search fit into this lifecycle management. I didn’t find much information, but I did locate two documents. One was titled “Introducing Document Management in SharePoint 2010” and the other was “Introducing Records Management in SharePoint 2010”. Both flowed from the keyboards of the Microsoft Enterprise Content Management Team Blog.
Okay, now I was going to learn how Microsoft perceived Document and Records Management.
Document Management
What about document management? Since the fine management performance at Enron and Tyco, among other companies, document management has become more important. The rules are not yet at the nuclear power plant repair level of stringency, but companies have to keep track of documents. The write up affirms that SharePoint used to be a bit recalcitrant when managing documents. Here’s the passage I noted:
As we looked at how our customers were starting to use the 2007 system’s DM features, we noticed an interesting trend: These features were not just part of managed document repository deployments. Indeed, the traditional DM features were getting heavy usage in average collaborative team sites as well. Customers were using them to apply policy and structure as well as gather insights from what otherwise would have been fairly unmanaged places. SharePoint was being using to pull more and more typically unstructured silos into the ECM world.
Those pesky customers! The Document Management write up runs down features in the new product. These include more metadata functions, including metadata a a “primary navigation tool.” Here’s a screen shot. Notice that there is no search box.
So much for finding information when the metadata may not be what the user anticipated. Obviously a document management system stores documents, transformations of documents like the old iPhrase, or pointers to documents or components of documents that reside “out there” on the network. The write up shifts gears to the notion of “an enterprise wiki and a traditional enterprise document repository.”
Records Management
The Records Management write up did not tackle the nuclear power plant type of records management. The write up presented some dot points about records management; for example, retention and reports. Ah, reports. Quite useful when a cooling pipe springs a leak. One needs to know who did what when, with what materials, what did the problem look like before the repair, what did it look like after the repair, which manufacturer provided the specific material, etc.
The point of the write up struck me as “the power of metadata” or indexing. Now the hitch in the git along is that multiple information objects have to be tagged in a consistent manner. After all, when the pipe springs a leak, the lucky repair crew, dosimeters on their coveralls, need to read and see the information objects related to the problem. Yep, that means engineering drawings, photos, and sometimes lab tests, purchase orders, and handwritten notes inserted in the file.
My conclusion is that Microsoft content management, regardless of “flavor”, may be similar to Coca-Cola’s New Coke. I am not sure it will do what the company and the user expect.
Stepping Back
I know that thousands, possible millions of customers will use SharePoint for document and records management. I want to point out that using SharePoint to manage a Web site can be a tough job. My view is that until I see one of these systems up and running in client organization, I am skeptical that SharePoint has the moxie to deliver either of these functions in a stable, affordable, scalable solution.
Even more interesting will be my testing search and retrieval in both of these systems. With zero reference to search and a great dependence on the semi magic word taxonomy, I think some users won’t have a clue where a particular document is and will have to hunt, which is time consuming and frustrating for some. In my experience, lawyers billing clients really thrive on hunting. Everyday business professionals may not be into this sport.
From a practical point of view, two posts, each built on a single platform with feature differences confused me. Is not a single write up with one table with three columns another way to explain these two versions of SharePoint.
In short, more confusion exists within the mind of the addled goose. The content management “experts” have created some pretty spectacular situations in organizations with SharePoint. Now it is off to the Sarbanes Oxley and Department of Energy school of “information governance.” Will SharePoint get an A or an F? Will SharePoint shaped to the rigors of document management and records management face a high noon or a Norwegian winter’s sunset?
Stephen E Arnold, February 18, 2010
No one paid me to write this. Since I mentioned nuclear energy, I will report my doing work for nothing to the DOE. I prefer the building next to White Flint Mall, which is now a white elephant in some ways.
Someone Said It, Facebook Is a Problem for Google
February 18, 2010
I react to what I see in the open source information flow. I was quite happy to read “Don’t Count Out Facebook as a Competitor to Google.” Google managed to match Facebook’s disjointed approach to user privacy. Neither company is the Olga Yosifovna Preobrazhenskaya (darn good Russian dancer) of social media. Nevertheless, these two companies with their skill in the Plexico Burris Method continue to chase one another. Shooting oneself with regards to privacy could be fatal I suppose. Facebook with its wounds is hounding the Google.
Web Pro News wrote:
Facebook has surpassed Yahoo as the #2 site online in the U.S. in terms of unique visitors, just under Google. In December, according to Compete, Facebook’s unique visitors in the U.S. had increased by over 121%. That’s pretty incredible, because I seem to recall Facebook being pretty popular in late 2008 too.
The Google is chasing some big fish, but I think Facebook might be one of those creatures from the depths of the demographic ocean. Gmail’s Buzz might not be the net to catch the Facebook beasties. Facebook’s search is not too spiffy, but it has users and keeps getting more.
Stephen E Arnold, February 18, 2010
No one paid me to write this article. Because I mention the deep sea, I think I must report fishing without a catch to NOAA.
More Google Book Push Back
February 18, 2010
My position on Google Books is that when this project is dead, no one will scan books. Sure, there will be fragmented collections like those available from the commercial database publishers and some folks with time on their hands at various national libraries. But the big idea is pretty much dead unless some extra terrestrial action occurs. Where lawyers are concerned, extra terrestrial actions are not unknown. I still can hear “If the glove don’t fit, you must acquit.”
You may want to take a look at some interesting push back regarding the Google Book project in the TechCrunch write up “Gary Reback: Why the Technology Sector Should Care about Google Books.” There are quite a few interesting factoids in the write up; for example:
Once upon a time, Google claimed it employed neutral, mathematically-based algorithms to prioritize search in ad listings. But last November Google admitted to the Washington Post that only search results from Google’s content competitors are listed according to neutral algorithms. Search results from Google’s own properties, like maps, news and books, are now listed first, the algorithm notwithstanding. Even more recently Google admitted that it changes the rank ordering of paid search ads to prioritize its own company messages.
Yep, the hybrid approach to content processing where human data and that generated from semi autonomous agents is “discovered” by Google watchers. The method appears in a stack of Google patent documents, but some people just realized how the Google plumbing moves digital water from A to B and what chemical treatments are applied prior to its discharge.
I recommend reading this TechCrunch article for three reasons:
- It appears to suggest that Google is a monopoly although a different type of monopoly
- The write up presents examples of how today’s Google seems to be a bit different from more benign views of Google in the “Larry and Sergey eat pizza” types of analysis.
- A big stick is now beating Googzilla about the ears.
Stephen E Arnold, February 18, 2010
No one paid me to write this. Since I reference the mistreatment of Googzillas, I suppose I need to report this lack of payment and my culpability for suggesting the use of intellectual force against Googzillas to the director of the National Zoo, where most animals are treated humanely.
Global ETM Dives into Enterprise Search Intelligence
February 18, 2010
Stephen E Arnold has entered into an agreement with Global Enterprise Technology Management, an information and professional services company in the UK. Mr. Arnold has created a special focus page about enterprise search on the Global ETM Web site. The page is now available, and it features:
- A summary of the principal market sectors in enterprise search and content processing. More than a dozen sectors are identified. Each sector is plotted in a grid using Mr. Arnold’s Knowledge-Value Methodology. You can see at a glance which search sectors command higher and lower Knowledge Value to organizations. (Some of the Knowledge Value Methodology was described in Martin White’s and Stephen E. Arnold’s 2009 study Successful Enterprise Search Management.
- A table provides a brief description of each of the search market sectors and includes hot links to representative vendors with products and services for that respective market sector. More than 30 vendors are identified in this initial special focus page.
- The page includes a selected list of major trends in enterprise search and content processing.
Mr. Arnold will be adding content to this Web page on a weekly schedule.
Information about GlobalETM is available from the firm’s Web site.
Stuart Schram IV, February 18, 2010
I am paid by ArnoldIT.com, so this is a for-fee post.
Will the iPad Able to Float Publishers’ Boats?
February 17, 2010
My answer to this question about a product that has not shipped containing information that I don’t know about at prices that are fuzzy is, “Nope.” Apparently, I am not alone in my skeptical goose pond. “Publishers Skeptical of Apple iPad Business Model” reported other Doubting Thomases. In my reading, some of the publishers mentioned in the Apple Insider write up are not sure that the iPad and its business model will deliver big bucks. For me, the most interesting comment was:
One unnamed newspaper senior media executive said Apple’s reluctance to share consumer data beyond sales volume is “pretty damn close” to being a deal breaker.
Caravaggio’s Doubting Thomas, 1597
Another point of interest:
Some publishers also said Apple’s revenue model, which gives the content provider 70 percent of sales while Apple keeps 30 percent, does not make much sense for subscriptions. Publishers are also reportedly concerned that they will see the same impact iTunes had on the music industry in 2003, when individual song sales from Apple severely impacted consumer purchases of full albums.
In my business, I start with assumption that a person pretty much does the same thing that worked in the past again. Sure, there are some minor changes, but a biochemist usually does biochemical stuff. My hunch is that Apple does Apple stuff. Hope is a wonderful human quality, but I assert that Apple starts work thinking about how to make life better for Apple. Publishers, well, maybe a resource to be used as needed?
Stephen E Arnold, February 17, 2010
No one paid me to write about Apple. With food as a metaphor, I will report writing for no money to the Department of Agriculture. I wonder if a relative of Johnny Appleseed works at a regional research lab now?
Firmware Content Processing
February 17, 2010
Finally a public document surface about running content processing on a chip. The story appeared in a PC Magazine Web log with the title “Kaspersky Patents Hardware Antivirus Approach.” In the azure chip search consulting world, there has been little awareness of the method of putting multiple chips on a single chip. Using this chip and onboard instructions, Kaspersky has been able to put antivirus in hardware. From my point of view, this makes clear the following trends:
- Intel showed considerable interest in content processing, search, and metatagging with its wild investment in Convera. Since that deal, Intel has been fiddling around with the idea of using hardware to handle certain types of content processing. The investment in Endeca was less about Endeca’s future in enterprise search and eCommerce and more about Intel’s gaining more insight into the computational loads of content processing in my opinion.
- A number of gizmo manufacturers, including Cisco, have been poking around in value added content processing in firmware, in devices, and in combinations. So far, not much has poked its nose from the Cisco labs, but there has been keen interest in the types of solutions that companies like Exegy have developed and for which the St Louis crowd charges big bucks.
- A number of search vendors have rolled out appliances. These include Google, Index Engines, Thunderstone, and even Autonomy. It is a a short step from a box to an engineer’s thinking about squishing text and content processing into smaller and smaller form factors.
My method in this Web log is to wait until there is a public document to which to hook my for fee research. Thanks, PC Magazine, Kaspersky, and the USPTO. More to come.
Stephen E Arnold, February 17, 2010
No one paid me to write this. Since I mentioned the USPTO, I will report non payment to this fine institution. I wish to point out that I did not comment on the news about USPTO not accepting a facsimile transmission because it was upside down. I really need a separate blog for these types of information events.
Brainware, More Scanning and OCRing
February 17, 2010
Brainware flashed my radar as a search and content processing company. I received a link to a news release that reminds me of the Kofax and Fujitsu marketing messages from several years ago. The write up’s title was “Brainware Extends Distiller Solution to the Corporate Mailroom.” The product strikes me as a scanner, software, OCR, and content processing. The write up said:
This solution automates the mailroom process and allows business intelligence to be drawn from documents faster…Brainware Distiller’s content-based classification technology allows the system to accurately sort documents without templates, keywords, zones, barcodes or other forms-based techniques. Additionally, the system is able to process documents in any format, including scanned images (TIFs), PDFs, faxes, emails, word processing and spreadsheet formats, and many more. Once classified, Brainware Distiller extracts relevant indexing information as well as any specific fields of data and line-item detail that are required to process the document. As a single platform for any document type, Distiller is uniquely capable of picking up all documents from the mailroom, processing them based on the type of document they represent, and passing the relevant information directly into the transactional or content management systems.
My experience in big companies is that the mail room is a major league strike out. At one insurance company, snail mail circulated on carts for up to 72 hours before it was delivered within the organization after the snail mail item was in the mail room.
My question is, “What has happened to Brainware’s trigram search technology?” Is search, once the company’s core competency, now embedded in document scanning? I knew the search market was becoming a commodity, but scanning hard copy seems to be a persistent and old problem. More when I find out if search is still a focal point. The Sirsi Dynix run at enterprise search, using the Brainware trigram method and its add-on component for dealing with certain terms, has also dropped off my radar. News anyone?
Stephen E Arnold, February 17, 2010
No one paid me to write about document scanning, image processing, and classification of items. I think I have to report this type of technology to the US Post Office, an outfit responsible for certain deliveries to large organizations. Like me, the USPS often works in rain, sleet, snow, and hail.
Comcast, The Platform
February 17, 2010
I just got off the phone with a person who wanted to know if I had information about the “finding and search” system used in Comcast’s Web TV publishing system. I told the caller to give another person a call. I don’t know much about Comcast beyond its owning NBC and the management gaffes visible in the Jay Leno – Conan incident.
I turned to another matter, but I decided to poke around and see what Comcast is doing in TV publishing. What surprised me was that the company has a unit called “ThePlatform”, which is an online video service. The idea is that a person in charge of a program – what I call a TV show – can use ThePlatform to transform the TV show for gizmos like the forthcoming iPad.
I located a news story in Multi Channel called “Comcast’s ThePlatform Overhauls Video System with MPX.” In the write up, this passage jumped out:
Billed as the biggest revamping in ThePlatform’s 10-year history, MPX — released initially in a “beta” version — includes a new console for managing video assets; a way to automate processes to publish large video libraries across the Web, mobile devices and set-top-boxes; and personalization features. In addition, the new publishing system is built on a new service oriented architecture (SOA), which ThePlatform says provides additional reliability and scalability. One of the key new features in MPX is the “smart publish profiles,” which lets video publishers set up profiles with specified formats, transcoding parameters, thumbnail generation, bit rates and other assets for each target platform or device, such as a Web site or Apple’s forthcoming iPad.
This makes sense. There are new distribution opportunities available to outfits like Comcast. Paying another company to repurpose video content does not sense to the Comcast analysts. Comcast has Rogers Communications in Canada using the revamped platform.
I located a screenshot for the service in Media Post. I see a search box at the top of the screen, and I wondered if Comcast was indexing the spoken component of the video or just using the metadata plugged in by the user. When I search video, I want to know who was mentioned, where the snippet is, and a link to jump to the key frame where the information allegedly is.
The Comcast service has some competition. Players include:
- Brightcove, the essential platform for every professional online video project
- Veeple, a company whose technology can “dramatically increase conversion using interactive video”
- PermissionTV, now Visible Gains which asserts: “Engage with video. Close with confidence.”
- Vimeo, which greeted me with “video sharing for you”
Media Post notes in “ThePlatform Seeks To Stay A Step Ahead Of Video Syndication Scrum With New Publishing System”: …its [ThePlatform’s] biggest competition comes from the in-house platforms that publishers decide to build themselves.” Media Post added:
Founded in 2000, thePlatform services many top video syndicators, including the BBC, CNBC, PBS and Gannett (including USA Today). About 80 companies now participate in thePlatform Framework, which spans the world of online video, including ad campaign management systems, ad sales networks, analytics and reporting, content delivery networks, content protection, media formats, transcoding engines, payment processors, syndication outlets, and video search.
My observations are:
- I wonder if this platform scales. Video poses a petascale problem. If the audio track is converted to search able text, that means even more computational load. My question is, “Does Comcast have the technical expertise to build this type of system, scale it, and then fund the R&D needed to keep pace with technology changes in certain related fields such as on the fly translation?”
- I wonder if the search system can provide a user to low latency results. As more content flows through a system and more devices must be supported in content transformation, Comcast is going to need a big honking server set up. I don’t think of Comcast as being a leader in online technology based on my experience with Comcast high speed data services. My question is, “Does Comcast have the expertise to keep the system working with low latency over time?”
- I wonder if the ease of use of the system will be given high marks by the licensees. I don’t think of Comcast’s Web site or its technical information as being much above average. My question is, “What happens if a lower cost, easier to use online service becomes available?”
I think this is an interesting subarea of search and content processing. With rich media getting more attention in various market sectors, Comcast might become a competitor to such companies as Autonomy.
In the back of my mind, I keep wondering if Google will provide such a service. Interesting thought I suppose but far beyond my wing span.
Stephen E Arnold, February 16, 2010
I was not paid to admit my ignorance. I suppose such silliness must be reported. Which Federal agency has jurisdiction? Oh, I remember. The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Great visionary, Mr. Wilson. He may have inspired Comcast.
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