Deciding On the Importance of Metadata: A Forgone Conclusion?
March 18, 2011
We were surprised to see “Judge Scheindlin Decides that the Metadata Is “Integral” in FOIA Case: Fmr. Judge Ron Hedges Weighs In“. Around the pond, as is the case within the industry, this is a point that was assumed settled some time ago. What took so long for these legal eagle guys to catch up?
The crux of the piece is a case involving the application of metadata of four separate Government agencies and how it relates to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). When these agencies were petitioned for documentation under the FOIA, they did not provide the corresponding metadata. Currently there is no precedent which covers metadata’s incorporation into the public record. Citing a class action suit involving the Department of Homeland Security in which unlawful search and seizure of property fostered a debate regarding metadata production, the judge made this statement:
“[b]y now, it is well accepted, if not indisputable, that metadata is generally considered to be an integral part of an electronic record.”
Of course, the government was not ready to concede. They went on to argue that the information must be requested and then reviewed before its release, a point that finds backing amongst other parties. To read the full debate, see the source article.
What can we take away from this? Very little in reality. Still no absolute rules are formed in regards to metadata, regardless of its inherent significance. The continuing conversion to digital information, coupled with our progress in efficient manipulation of data, seems to have outpaced the writing and applications of the governing laws. This issue is far from resolved, though the hope seems to be that it will serve as a foundation for future discussions.
Sarah Rogers, March 18, 2011
Freebie
Google and Its Alleged Trojan
March 18, 2011
The H Security reports “Google’s Security Tool Infected with Trojan.” Wow. Just. . . wow. Google’s Android Market Security Tool, intended to delete contaminated apps, has itself been contaminated by a trojan the H Security article alleges:
As users have been told to expect to see the application running on their phones clearing up the damage the Droiddream trojan did, there’s a good chance they won’t be suspicious of it. According to reports though, at present, the trojan-infested version of the tool is only in circulation on an “un-regulated third-party Chinese marketplace” and appears to only affect users of a particular Chinese mobile network.
Okay, so we in the States don’t have to worry about this. For now. The program, known as BGServ, sends texts containing user data to a control server. Think twice about any app that asks for permission to send text messages. If this allegation is accurate, will it have an impact on Google’s enterprise efforts? I surmise that my colleagues and I would think twice, assuming this shocker is true.
Cynthia Murrell March 18, 2011
Freebie
Protected: Microsoft Posts Fresh SharePoint Information
March 18, 2011
IBM Watsonizes Big Data, We Think
March 17, 2011
A headline passed our radar “IBM Launches Big Data “Boot Camps” from eWeek.com. We were a big surprised because IBM has been in the big data game for years. Plus IBM owns Cognos, SPSS, and big daddy database DB2 that slices and dices.
But information technology workers have been drafted and are being shipped off to boot camps to learn about Big Data issues. IBM, the commanding officer behind this deployment, is sending recruiters out to IBM partners, colleges, and clients to educate them about IBM business analytics and information management software.
Big data is a new term being thrown around in the IT world. It is described as:
The term Big Data typically refers to datasets that grow so large that they become awkward to work with using on-hand database management tools. Difficulties include capture, storage, search, sharing, analytics, and visualizing. As the world becomes increasingly instrumented, with sensors collecting data from all manner of sources, the Big Data phenomenon will continue to grow.
The boot camps were by the same outfit that brought American TV couch potatoes IBM’s Watson on Jeopardy. Companies are searching for new technology like Watson and the number crunching tools offered by IBM. We think the boot camps help educate—maybe sell—decision makers about a trend that has been beaten to death since MapReduce was first revealed by the Google and then morphed into Hadoop years ago.
IBM’s foot soldiers will learn about big data management and certain big data number crunching skills, data management planning/governance (what is governance anyway?), and software designed specifically for big data. Maybe Hadoop? Technology from Digital Reasoning?
IBM said the main focus would be on colleges and future students, but they will still depend on their partners and clients to expand the boot camp initiative.
I mentioned Watson earlier and how IBM is using his invention as a way to push analytics. Since Watson is so smart, why not ask him the correct way to approach big data? (I hope this is not too “snarky” so we get an AOL type request to be friendly to a $100 billion in revenue outfit that can crush a goose like a tiny insect.) Integration of these different IBM “moving parts” is too big a job for the goslings in Harrod’s Creek.
Whitney Grace, March 30, 2011
Freebie unlike IBM’s recycled open source software products
Sophia and Reputable Content
March 17, 2011
Killer Startups reviews promising new internet companies, and one of their recent selections caught our eye: “Sophia.org- Online Information You Can Trust.”
Sophia is different because it provides “lesson packets” which bring together text, images, and video from myriad Web sources. They insist that the information is trustworthy because many of those assembling these packages are experts. They also have in place a system for rewarding quality content. As KillerStartups puts it:
To me, the real strength of Sophia lies in how the site enables people to gather together the richest content found on sites that are often plagued by unreliable information such as YouTube, and have it all gathered in easy-to-assimilate packages. The amount of time students could save through a service like this can make a true difference in their ever-hectic lives.
Trusted content is good. Give it a whirl at Sophia.org.
Cynthia Murrell March 17, 2011
Freebie
IBM OmniFind Tip: Corrupt Index Ruining Your Day?
March 17, 2011
Short honk: IBM’s support page contains a little item titled “OmniFind Enterprise Edition Returns Extra Invalid Search Results when Index is Corrupted.” When using OmniFind 9.1, fixpack 1, a power outage during your crawl can corrupt results, causing invalid search data to be returned. Fortunately, the fix is not difficult: just re-crawl. Time-consuming, but easy. So this is open source. What happens with Watson? Interesting question.
Cynthia Murrell, March 17, 2011
Freebie unlike IBM’s on site service and the FRUs we know and love
Iron Mountain Stratify: A Hill to Climb
March 17, 2011
Has Stratify taken a hit as competing eDiscovery products have gained momentum?
Once called “The purple Yogi,” Stratify–an eDiscovery Product by Iron Mountain–was the darling of In-Q-Tel, the CIA Investment Unit. Stratify repositioned itself, and in late 2007, Iron Mountain, then a paper document storage company, snapped up the firm.
Author Chris Mellor, in “Iron Mountain’s eDiscovery Made 2010 a Rusty Mess,” reported:
- Iron Mountain bought Mimosa, a system relying on technology from such vendors as dtSearch, a modestly-sized vendor of search technology primarily for Microsoft-centric installations.
- Iron Mountain intended to integrate Mimosa’s NearPoint eDiscovery product into its Total Email Management Suite. That would have helped Iron Mountain grow, but the implementation was flawed.
- Competing eDiscovery products entered the market, and prices plummeted. Missing this trend, Iron Mountain decision-makers did not lower their prices in time, and sales took a big hit.
- Iron Mountain did see some revenue increases from other sides of its business, including other products acquired from Mimosa, but this was far offset by losses from the eDiscovery side of its business.
So what’s next for Iron Mountain?
Recognizing the error of their ways, CFO, Brian McKeon, expressed the company’s commitment to getting back on track:
We’ve corrected these issues and reduced our cost structure in line with current revenues. The impact on revenue growth from eDiscovery will continue into 2011, but our cost actions will offset these impacts, sustain margins and position us well for profit gain as we get growth back on track.
To us, this sounds like a bit of a hill to climb with a purple yogi and a content system based on a very basic search and retrieval system.
Stephen E Arnold, March 17, 2011
Freebie
Baloney Content
March 17, 2011
But wait, there’s more! (Baloney, that is)
Want a great example of baloney content? You may spot some at Blogmoneyprofit.com.
We were amazed by this Web site, which, at first glance, looks like it might provide some useful information for would-be bloggers on how to make money online. Spend just a few minutes on the site, however, and you’ll discover it appears to be some hard-sell ads and empty promises, far more likely to take your money than help you make it.
Is it possible that Blogmoneyprofit.com is a bit like a bad relationship: once you discover it just isn’t what you thought it was it’s still hard to leave. Something keeps calling you back. Like this message:
WAIT BEFORE YOU GO!
CLICK THE CANCEL BUTTON RIGHT NOW
TO STAY ON THE CURRENT PAGE.
I HAVE SOMETHING VERY SPECIAL FOR YOU!
Click “Cancel” and a box might appear asking you to “Sign up for a FREE keyword niche report and get a chance to win a FREE 7-day blog profit e-course. “
We ran a query for “BlogMoneyProfit” and it came up number one on Google. Is the Google algorithm change aware of a value in this site we cannot discern? We thought the search was a synonym for “Can you spell spam-o-rama?”
When I tried to leave the Web site, I saw another offer. I thought that parting message was worse than a bad relationship. I thought the ad was similar to a late night infomercial. I was unaware of a product called Autopilot Profits, which is also in the Google index. Google’s algorithm change may be a great improvement, but it seems to keep these interesting entries in its index. The product is described as a “Plug and play, in-a-box money system.” The ad never explains what this is, exactly, but promises you don’t have to sell a product or even have a Web site. Just turn it on, and “It can’t stop sending you cash … even if you want it to!” I surmise the promise of money appeals on many levels.
How much does this cost? Not $1,997, not $797, not even $297. Just $27! But this introductory price won’t last long, so you’d better act now!
Uh … right.
Now, to be fair, blogmoneyprofit.com does contain some useful information, but nothing you can’t find from other sources – like Google – but without the get-rich-quick gimmicks. (In fact, blogmoneyprofit.com basically uses a list of search engines. We found a possible similarity between the lists on our ArnoldIT.com site and this blog money profit thing. Interesting.
Robin Broyles, March 17, 2011
Freebie
Protected: SharePoint Search Content
March 17, 2011
Facebook, Semantic Search, and Bad News for the Key Word Crowd
March 16, 2011
You can wade through the baloney from the pundits, satraps, and poobahs. I will cut to the chase. Facebook can deliver a useful search service without too many cartwheels. There are three reasons. (If you want to complain, that’s what the comments section of the blog permits. Spare me personal email and LinkedIn comments.)
First, there are upwards of 500 million users who spend more time in Facebook doing Facebook things than I would have ever believed. I don’t do “social” but 500 million or more people see me as a dinosaur watching the snow flakes. Fine.
Second, the Facebook users stuff links in their posts, pages, wall crannies, and everywhere else in the Facebook universe they can. This bunch of urls is a selection filter that is of enormous value to Facebook users. Facebook gets real people stuffing in links without begging, paying, or advertising. The member-screened and identified links just arrive.
Third, indexing the content on the pages to which the links refer produces an index that is different from and for some types of content more useful to Facebook members than laundry lists, decision engine outputs, or faceted results from any other system. Yep, “any other”. That situation has not existed since the GOOG took the learnings of the key word crowd, bought Oingo, and racked up the world’s biggest online advertising and search engine optimization operation in the history of digital mankind.
Navigate to “New Facebook Patent: the Huge Implications of Curated Search” and learn Bnet’s view of a patent document. I am not as excited about the patent at the Bnet outfit, but it is interesting. If one assumes that the patent contributes to the three points I identified above, Facebook gets a boost.
But my view is that Facebook does not need much in the way of a boost from semantics or any other hot trend technology. Facebook is sitting on a search gold mine. When Facebook does release its index of member-provided sources, four things will take place over a period of “Internet” time.
- The Google faces a competitor able to index at lower cost. Google, remember, is a brute force operation. Facebook is letting the members do the heavy lifting. A lower cost index of Facebook-member-vetted content is going to be a threat. The threat may fizzle, but a threat it will be to the Google.
- Users within Facebook can do “search” where Facebook members prefer to be. This means that Facebook advertising offers some interesting opportunities not lost on the Xooglers who now work at Facebook and want a gigantic payday for themselves. Money can inspire certain types of innovation.
- Facebook is closed. The “member” thing is important to keep in mind. The benefits of stateful actions are many, and you don’t need me to explain why knowing who a customer is, who the customer’s friends are, and what the customer does is important. But make the customer a member and you get some real juice.
- Facebook competitors will have to find a way to deal with the 500 million members and fast. Facebook may not be focused on search, but whatever the company does will leverage the membership, not the whizzy technology.
Bottomline: Facebook has an opportunity in search whether it does laundry lists, facets, semantics, or any combination of methods. My question, “When will Facebook drop its other social shoe?”
Stephen E Arnold, March 16, 2011
Freebie unlike the ads big companies will want to slap into Facebook outputs for its members
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