Concept Searching Offers Taxonomy Management
July 13, 2010
SharePoint just got better thanks to Concept Searching. They’ve just announced the addition of a Distributed Taxonomy Management feature that will work within the conceptClassifier for SharePoint.
The experts all agree this is a good move, but one that should have been adopted by SharePoint as a foundation for their product. Nevertheless, it’s here now and will be a boon to companies with large document libraries and taxonomy needs.
Transparency for the end user is one of the special features of this application and a central server coordinates all the locking and unlocking of the nodes.
The whole idea that Concept Searching offers Taxonomy Management is of little surprise to an industry familiar with their work. When it comes to statistical metadata generation, this is the only classification software company in the world using concept extraction and compound term processing to provide access to information. The company founded in 2002.
Rob Starr, July 13, 2010
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Autonomy: A Real Success. CMSWatch: Maybe Another Real Miss?
July 12, 2010
In Harrod’s Creek, I can easily spot the real squirrel hunters. They have food. Mostly laconic, these hunters have a big pile of dead squirrels as proof of their competence. There is also the smell of fresh burgoo wafting from their log cabins. I can smell ability from my goose pond.
Lousy hunters have empty gun belts and squirrels shot when snacking on store bought food used to lure the critters. That’s a real danger — cheap tricks or just shooting wildly, often putting bird shot in an innocent’s backsides or the face like the 2006 incident between Vice President Dick Cheney and Texas lawyer Harry Whittington. Some faux hunters have just shot themselves in the foot. Ouch!
Azure chip consultants is a synonym for “bad hunter” in my opinion. Source: http://api.ning.com/files/LCP2NCaWo-ptCqGncB3hGsX8vuh8dnDzSJ0iLnkibas_/18holeinhandG.jpg
One of my two or three readers sent me a link to a write up called “Don’t Ogle Search If You Really Want Content Management”. In my opinion, the write up relies on insinuation, not facts. (I think that some folks are immune to facts, but I find facts useful.) In the article’s headline, the word “ogle”, for example, is one I don’t associate with information retrieval. (The publisher of this “ogle” opinion piece caught my attention in July 2008 with its similar assault on Attivio. My response to that misleading article is here.)
Yet another example of factless criticism of a vendor appears in this segment of the “ogle” write up about Autonomy, one of a very small number of search and content processing vendors with a consistent track record of technical breadth, sales, revenue, and profit:
From an initial focus on enterprise search tools, Autonomy has become a roll-up vendor after acquiring a variety of other information management suppliers such as Interwoven. As a financial strategy this can be successful, and investors seem to cotton to Autonomy. As a technology strategy, vendor roll-ups are problematic. Autonomy’s technology strategy is to rip legacy search subsystems from acquired products, replace them with some pieces from its own IDOL toolset, and then promote its particular approach to search as a distinct advantage for you. Specifically, Autonomy will try to sell you on the value of “meaning-based computing.” Even if you can get your mind around what meaning-based means, you should remain skeptical that Autonomy has technically spectacular or original services here. More importantly, you risk getting sidetracked from your original goal of, say, creating a user-friendly repository for your 50,000 Office documents.
These statements are presented without verifiable foundation to support the allegations in my opinion.
Autonomy is on track to hit $1.0 billion by the end of calendar 2010. The company has a proven track record of improving the performance of the companies it acquires. Autonomy’s management has demonstrated its ability to integrate quickly its acquired products with IDOL (the firm’s integrated data operating layer). The result is Autonomy’s knack of transforming the acquired companies’ position in their markets.
But there are other data that shed light on Autonomy’s track record, which I have documented Autonomy’s technology in my writings such as Beyond Search (Gilbane, 2009), the Enterprise Search Report (CMSWatch.com, 2004-2006), and Successful Enterprise Search Management (Galatea, 2009). Here are three points that must not be overlooked:
- Autonomy has 20,000 plus customers plus around 1,000 licensees of its technologies for use in other enterprise software and systems
- Autonomy has made intelligent acquisitions that has given the firm a strong presence in eDiscovery, rich media, and fraud detection. Autonomy has recently pushed into online marketing using capabilities from Ineterwoven and its IDOL framework. My research reveals that Autonomy has acquired companies to bring its technology to new markets so more content can be understood.
- Autonomy has grown its revenues and generated a profit, making it possible for other UK based technology companies to ride the Autonomy horse in the race for government and venture funding.
In December a year or so ago, at the International Online Conference, in my for-fee, end note debate, I challenged Andrew Kanter (Autonomy), Charlie Hull (Lemur Consulting), and Dr. Charles Oppenheim (Loughborough University) about their views of search, content processing, and related fields. In front of an audience of about 300 search professionals, I pointed out that key word search was dead. I pointed out that most search systems did not understand the meaning of processed information. Autonomy’s Andrew Kanter strongly and politely disagreed with me. As I recall, he said to the audience and me:
Autonomy IDOL is the only product in the market that can understand the meaning and concepts of all information in any language, including audio and video. This has big implications for the content management market as no other vendor can do this.
I demanded some concrete examples to support his position. Mr. Kanter without missing a beat gave me four concrete examples drawn from Autonomy’s work in intelligence, search enabled applications, fraud detection, and rich media.
What did I do?
Brainware and Paper
July 12, 2010
I used to work with Harvey Poppel. You, gentle reader, will not remember Harvey, who invented Harvey Balls. He was the Booz, Allen guy who coined the phrase “the paperless office.” Like many of the BAH clan in the 1970s, there were some smart, prescient dudes sprinting up and down the staircase between floors 25 and 25 at 245 Park Avenue South. Harvey was into the digitization of memos, reports, presentations, and other hard copy effluvia.,
Problem. Paper remains popular. The paperless office is not yet a reality even though another New Yorker, Alan Siegel, worked long and hard on the paperwork reduction stuff for years. Woody Horton tried his hand at this goal. I remember being in a meeting in June 2010 when the notion of a paperless operation floated from the blather.
That’s 35 or 40 years, right? Harvey had a good idea.
The reason this is important is that the search vendor Brainware has discovered a source of business hooking up with outfits converting paper into digital information. Several other search companies are nosing around this market sector. I don’t want to sneeze when I get too close to converting paper into searchable ASCII, however.
You can read about Brainware’s deal with OPEX. The story is “Brainware and OPEX Partner to Deliver Scan to Post Automation.” The write up says:
By implementing a combined OPEX and Brainware Distiller solution, companies can streamline the entire document processing cycle, including reducing the tedious and expensive steps of removing the documents from envelopes or file folders, prepping those documents for scanning, and then actually performing the scanning operation. The net result of this solution is that related documents, envelopes and transactions can be kept together and handled a minimum number of times, allowing these items to be quickly and easily routed and processed through companies’ Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Customer Support, Legal departments, and others — all while delivering the unparalleled touchless pass rates, instant visibility, reduced cycle times, and error reduction for which Distiller is known.
Google’s in this business too. Too bad for Harvey. As smart as he was, he missed his call for a paperless office. Converting hard copy to searchable ASCII may not be exciting but it is revenue to Brainware and a source of legal thrills for Google.
Stephen E Arnold, July 12, 2010
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Amateur Sleuthing: Looking behind an Email Address?
July 12, 2010
Short honk: I am not endorsing the method disclosed in “How To: Find the Person Behind an Email Address.” You may find the techniques useful. Enjoy being Dick Tracy. Don’t forget your wrist radio.
Stephen E Arnold, July 12, 2010
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Cyberthreats: Real or Disinformation?
July 12, 2010
A real case can be made for the fact the military is taking a page from 1984 and banging the drums of our fears. That according to Bruce Schneier in a recent column on the CNN Opinion page.
He makes a case the military and government are fighting a seesaw battle over all the hyperbole surrounding the misuse of the prefix ‘cyber’. Schneier provides a few convincing examples making us wonder if in the case of ‘cyber security’ Orwell was right.
The case is made terms like cyber Armageddon and cyber war are inflammatory and nothing to worry about . At least not right now. To quote the article. “ Words have meaning and metaphors matter.”
Can anyone else remember before the military was prompting us with cyber war and the agenda was being controlled, a time when another fine piece of writing warned us about the dangers of believing ‘War is Peace?’ and similar philosophies? Information or disinformation?
Rob Starr, July 12, 2010
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Autonomy, CA, and Enterprise Message Manager
July 12, 2010
Your weekly dose of Autonomy goodness follows:
Message Manager, the popular enterprise search engine, just boosted its capabilities when it was snapped up by Autonomy Corporation. Red Orbit announced this leap forward in a recent article, “Autonomy Announces Availability of Idol-Based CA Message Manager,” and showcased the ways IDOL, its meaning based search platform, will enhance Message Manager.
“The integration of Autonomy IDOL into Message Manager brings advanced automation to information governance tasks based on IDOL’s ability to understand the meaning of information,” the article says. “This significantly reduces the levels of manual effort for classifying, monitoring and managing large and growing volumes of data.”
In addition, current Message Manger users will receive an upgrade of sorts, including, “access to more than 400 connectors and over 1,000 file types, including text, audio and video.”
We see more and more mergers like this, which clearly points toward the growing power of searches.
Pat Roland, July 12, 2010
Freebie but the goose wants some stale bread for writing so much news about the Cambridge kids.
Semantic Valley, Italy
July 12, 2010
In the hills of Italy, there is a Semantic think tank waiting for you to throw them a curveball. A recent Semantic Web article, “Semantic Valley Consortium Wants to Help Business Get Going With the Semantic Web,” detailed the creation of a conceptual linguistics organization with ties to IBM, Expert System and Oracle. Situated in the northern Trentino Valley of Italy, Semantic Valley focuses on moving thought processes away from standards-focused and academic discussions to determining ways to improve ROI on things previously thought impossible. “The consortium says it hopes to potentially produce new products and contribute to the content technology market by promoting synergy between research centers and companies,” the article claims.
This is an exciting prospect because the more thought put into semantic technology, the better machines will understand the world wide Web.
Are these three leaders following in the footsteps of the First Triumvirate. Of the three, I know Julius Caesar ended up on top only to get immortality, a great deathbed quote, and the rumor that he plotted the whole show for the benefit of his grand nephew.
Will history repeat itself? Is the Semantic Valley on Google Maps?
Pat Roland, July 10, 2010
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Germany Dings Facebook
July 11, 2010
Maybe Germany has lost its patience with American companies. First, the country failed to see the innocence of the Googlers who were suck down broadcast Wi Fi data. Now Facebook is in the barrel. “German Officials Launch Legal Action against Facebook” makes clear that German authorities are not amused by Facebook. For me, the key passage in the write up was:
“We consider the saving of data from third parties, in this context, to be against data privacy laws,” said Johannes Caspar, head of Hamburg’s Data Protection Authority. Mr Caspar said he had received a number of complaints from people who had not signed up to Facebook, but whose details had been added to the site by friends. He accused Facebook of saving private data of non-members without their permission, to be used for marketing purposes.
Fun loving Californians often find their Bay to Breakers enthusiasm inappropriate for some folks. Like Google, Facebook will have to deal with what probably looks like an annoyance from Silicon Valley.
Good Bullenbeisser. Good boy.
In my experience, German officials may demonstrate some of the characteristics of the Bullenbeisser. Under slung jaw. Tenacious grip. Single mindedness. Oh, stubborn. Sometimes mean. Probably indifferent to adults running naked in the California sun.
Stephen E Arnold, July 11, 2010
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Digital Info Death Ray
July 11, 2010
Traditional Web sites are wounded; many are in peril, starved for traffic. Not even the huffing and puffing search engine optimization gangs can pump up these deflating properties. But the digital death ray is affecting some giants in electronic dissemination as well.
It seems that the Associated Press ( yes, those are the newspaper people ) are getting ready to take on bloggers in some kind of strange cyber battle over the blogs allegedly siphoning traffic away from the paper editions of what’s called ‘hot news.’
In a move that really seems like the terrible trashing around of some dinosaur that’s become panicked by a new faster and more streamlined and immediate species, it’s alleged Dean Singleton ,chair of the Associated Press, has orchestrated a cease and desist order against a Colorado blog for quoting parts of relevant news stories that first appeared in print. This all from Techdirt.com.
At the center of the legal stand is the argument that if the site only provides a few clicks, they have no fair use of First Amendment rights. Interesting premise no doubt and it’s important to remember that the argument centers on the infringements to other Associate Press websites.
Still, wouldn’t it be easier to turn that boat around and go with the inexorable current?
Rob Starr, July 11, 2010
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Publishing Help is on the Way?
July 11, 2010
Publishing remains one of the toughest industries to be a part of, but one aspect of this work just got a lot easier thanks to OpenPublish. This Calais-powered publishing suite comes as a direct result of the pairing of Thompson Reuters with Phase2 Technology. The result is a Drupal compatible program aimed to help medium-sized and small publishers reduce costs and get more bang from offline content.
OpenPublish provides support on a variety of content, ranging from articles, to blogs and even content monetization tools. In addition, it helps build an online presence by including functionality for email forwarding, social bookmarking, RSS feed capabilities and allowing for readers to leave comments.
This is an exciting development for any publisher because as the rising costs of production and competition from other media, this industry needs help catching up. With many commercial content management systems crashing on the rocks, this solution may be worth a close look. The open source magnetism may be a plus too.
Pat Roland, July 11, 2010
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