Columba Global and Its Search System
April 27, 2010
I received an email about a company called Columba Global Systems associated with “naked objects”. A news story with the title “US Analysts Single Out Irish Firm’s Software Package.” became available on April 25, 2010. The document reports a new search system from CGS. I did a quick check of my Overflight repository and located some information. You can get a PowerPoint that provides an overview of the company’s approach at http://www.columba.com/downloads/Columba%20Brief%20Overview.ppt. The company uses components from several vendors to provide its customers with access to the processed content. It is not clear to me if the analyst’s report is an objective summary of the open source intelligence community’s software systems or a sponsored “white paper” / report. There are a number of firms offering “data fusion” products or “mash up systems”. These include Exalead, Fetch Technologies, and Kapow Tech, among others. These systems deliver the type of “one view” of content objects that has been associated with the type of information access in favor among intelligence and law enforcement professionals. In my experience, the key is optimizing the performance of the system. Purpose built systems such as Exalead’s often have an advantage in terms of performance and scalability over systems constructed on toolkits and systems acquired from different vendors. The positioning of the company in the Irish Times’s new story is one more indicator that traditional search is losing ground in some sectors.
Stephen E Arnold, April 27, 2010
UK Government and Its NHS Bot Net Woes
April 26, 2010
I am not sure if this story is spot on. What struck me as important is that the fact the story made it to the blogosphere suggests that security gaps exist within some critical UK agencies. In a country working to keep bad guys at bay, this type of alleged error makes life more difficult for the officials and the pesky elected officials who will ask questions about this alleged matter. The story is “Over 1,000 NHS Desktops Part of Botnet, says Symantec.” The alleged software scripts can do more than make a computer a dumb drone. The scripts can hose data to another computer. Those data could be parsed, queried, and analyzed. If Symantec is correct, there is work to be done. If Symantec is wrong, there is work to be done to keep such reports in perspective.
Stephen E Arnold, April 26, 2010
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Now We Worry about Earth Shattering Research
April 26, 2010
From the too little, too late department comes “Researchers “Addicted” to Bogus Internet Studies.” The point of the story is that researchers gather data and issue findings. The results get sucked into the Dyson Animal that is online information. In a nonce, the findings reveals insights. Folks these days love insights. Here’s a telling passage in my opinion:
The findings are pretty earth-shattering.
Another comment:
It’s too bad the research made such a big deal out of the addiction angle, because there is some interesting data — or at least, some interesting comments from students — about their use of social media and technologies such as texting.
The quest for data is one way to provide some anchor points to the fluid world of online.
My take is different. The authors of studies and the authors of write ups about studies might give some thought to:
- Stating the sample size
- Explaining how the sample was generated
- Providing some hint about the margin for error
- Linking to supporting data.
Until this happens, I take these studies and the reports about “earth shattering” insights as suggestive, not definitive. This applies to academics and the azure chip crowd as well. For an example of research that generates amazing numbers like 500 billion per year, read “The State of Online Word of Mouth Marketing.” Yep, 500 billion and no sample or positioning info in sight.
Stephen E Arnold, April 26, 2010
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Google Engineers Abandon Facebook
April 26, 2010
Interesting story about Google engineers abandoning their Facebook account: “Google Engineering Gaggle Flees Facebook.” Most people are not aware of the type of information an analysis of relationship data can yield. You can see one type of output by navigating to www.cluuz.com and entering a query for “Eric Schmidt”. With a few clicks you can see a relationship map that connects Mr. Schmidt to Jimmy Kimmel as well as Braeburn Capital. Imagine the fine grained information that could be generated by applying similar technology to the Facebook data. I think that Googlers want to be off the Facebook grid for another reason. Google is taking steps to marginalize Facebook. First, Googlers abandon ship. Then Google downplays Facebook and its Microsoft centric services.
One part of the problem is that Facebook seems to have become the next Google. Google’s math club responses may not be enough. Even with Orkut, Buzz, Wave, and Google’s other technologies, Google seems to be struggling to find an answer to the Facebook challenge. Can Google buy Facebook? Too late? Too expensive? Can Google leap frog Facebook? With each passing day, Google seems to be less agile in the social space. Are there opportunities in social search? Yes, but I don’t see Google delivering a service that will change my present social search behavior. The balance of 2010 will be an interesting series of skirmishes between these two firms in my opinion.
Stephen E Arnold, April 26, 2010
Goose and Maverick Agree on the Facebook Thing
April 26, 2010
The addled goose likes the blog maverick. A farm yard of folks who look at the machinations of 20 somethings and offer a different perspective. I liked “Is Facebook the New Internet and How Soon before Microsoft Tries to Buy It ? I see information that increasingly suggests that Google has to deal with a digital Billy the Kid, the founder of Facebook. The new Billy as I shall reference Mr. Zuckerberg figured out that the big text indexing approach was not where the action was going. Google, and to a certain extend Microsoft, missed this insight. Under the able leadership of the News Corporation, MySpace.com found itself marginalized. Google fumbled with Buzz and Microsoft was sufficiently savvy to take a stake in Facebook and rejig some cloud apps for the Facebook ecosystem.
Now along comes the blog maverick who writes:
Everything that the net was 5 or more years ago, Facebook is today. The interesting thing is that Facebook knows it. Slowly but surely they are extending their tentacles into traditional websites, mobile apps (android/iphone/Ipad) and soon your HDTV .
Let’s assume he is correct.
First, the Google approach is yesterday’s news. The Facebook crowd does text but within the Facebook ecosystem. The idea of Google creating a Facebook seems unnatural to me. Google is not social in the way Facebook is. It will be easier for Facebook to offer finding services and it will be cheaper for Facebook to offer this function.
Second, Facebook may not sell even if the numbers are crazy. The reason is that the new Billy thinks he is the fastest draw in Silicon Valley. The only way to find out is to get into duels, not take the money and retire. Facebook may be the next IBM, Microsoft, or Google. The only way to find out is not to sell out but to go all out. That pedal to the metal approach is what I took away from the f8 info storm.
Third, I heard at lunch yesterday (Friday, April 23, 2010) that Microsoft is now moving into consumer online via Facebook and Google is chasing the enterprise. These outfits are like yin and yang. The new magnetic center seems to be Facebook and Google, so far, has been ineffectual in social and not able to build services with Facebook’s benign indifference.
Bottom-line: the goose and maverick are on the same half acre.
Stephen E Arnold, April 26, 2010
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Autonomy and Kainos Tie Up
April 26, 2010
Autonomy announced Evolve. You can read the full story on the Autonomy Web site in the article “Autonomy and Kainos Launch Next Generation Electronic Document Management Solution for Hospitals.” The key feature of the new health-centric system include:
- Automated compliance and information governance
- Security components that comply with regulatory guidelines and the needs of authorized users
- A single, centralized view of information from patient records
Autonomy embeds its search solution in these vertical systems. What’s interesting is that Autonomy is selling solutions, not standalone search. Does this mark a change in Autonomy’s approach to the market or a broader shift in the search and content processing sector? With Autonomy back on the acquisition hunt, which way will Autonomy go? Back office like Brainware? Duplicative services like OpenText? Maybe ERP or CRM?
Stephen E Arnold, April 26, 2010
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Teradata on Unstructured Data
April 25, 2010
Teradata is one of the search vendors who don’t make headlines in faux news releases. The company licenses its industrial strength structured data management and content processing platform to those with “big data” needs. Teradata’s approach is to target specific opportunities and work with its partners. ComputerWeekly.com published “Interview: Teradata CTO Stephen Brobst on the Challenges of Unstructured Data.” Three nuggets from the interview made their way into my Teradata file:
- Teradata wants to work with partners who can integrate their numerical recipes in the Teradata technology. Teradata is working with Attensity and SAS at this time.
- Teradata has experienced some interest from intelligence agencies “around the world”
- “Brobst says initial loading of the data warehouse is best done via optical storage media, but all updates and access are then via the Web.”
If you are not familiar with Teradata, check out www.teradata.com.
Stephen E Arnold, April 25, 2010
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Brainware Goes into Paper Processing
April 25, 2010
Brainware is a mutli faceted company. The company offers cloud based litigation support services. The firm ingests paper, creating searchable repositories. Now the company, according to “Scan Optics Chooses Brainware to Help Process Thirty three Million Pages per Month”, is getting more deeply integrated into hard copy scanning and conversion operations. According to the write up: Brainware
announced that it has entered into a multi-year agreement with Scan-Optics Limited, a global manufacturer of high-speed, high-volume document management and scanning solutions. As part of this agreement, Scan-Optics will incorporate Brainware Distiller into its solution, providing content-based document classification and advanced data extraction for myriad document types.
This is an example of search and content processing being embedded into a enterprise application. The users of the Scan Optics system will have a new function. Search enabled applications are gaining traction as the Brainware deal indicates.
Stephen E Arnold, April 25, 2010
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OmniFind Does XML
April 25, 2010
I never doubted that OmniFind when indexing DB2 tables. The write up “Search XML in OmniFind V1R2” makes this point clearly. If you want to dive into this use of OmniFind, take a peek at the syntax for a query:
> SELECT PRODUCT_ORDER FROM ORDERS WHERE CONTAINS(PRODUCT_ORDER, ‘@xmlxp:”/ORDER/CUSTOMER/TITLE[. contains(“digital indexing operator”)] ” ‘ ) = 1;
More information is available from www.ibm.com.
Stephen E Arnold, April 25, 2010
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Endeca and a New Marketing Angle
April 25, 2010
I was reading “SAP Spend Performance Management: A New Supply Risk and Spend Analysis Option”. SAP is a company whose actions I watch. The story in Search SAP confused me but it included a reference to the search vendor Endeca that surprised me. Here’s the passage that caught my attention. I have added the bold face for the part that I noted:
Stand-out analytics providers in the spend visibility arena with unique capabilities and/or analytics experience include BIQ, Endeca, Rosslyn Analytics and SAP. At the time of publication, SAP appears furthest along (among these) from an analytics-driven supply risk management solution perspective, while Endeca offers the most flexible capability for examining and integrating disparate data sources in a new type of spend visibility/supply risk mashup approach.
I found the notion of Endeca’s embracing “spend visibility/supply risk mashup approach” fascinating. I am not sure what it means, however. The confusion may be a result of the SAP angle, but it suggests that Endeca is moving in a direction of which I was unaware.
Stephen E Arnold, April 25, 2010
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