Iron Mountain Management Shift
April 14, 2011
I pay some attention to Iron Mountain. My first exposure to the company came in a meeting focused on putting paper documents someplace “safe”. Iron Mountain seemed to have a safe place, an “iron” mountain I suppose. The company snagged Purple Yogi, now Stratify, and more recently Mimosa Systems. Both of these acquisitions relate to search and content processing. I don’t have much to say about these acquisitions. Search is more of an issue for an Iron Mountain customer, not the top brass. When I read “Iron Mountain CEO Steps Down, Will Be Replaced by Chairman,” I figured that someone is not happy.
The passage that caught my attention was:
New York hedge fund Elliott Management Corp. last month called for a review of Iron Mountain’s strategy, saying the company’s effort to expand its international and digital businesses hasn’t generated enough returns. Iron Mountain provides business storage and maintains documents including records, electronic files, medical data and e-mail.
Is there a fix? Sure. Will it come quickly enough in today’s financial market? Who knows. I think that the problems of paper, electronic data, and finding are a volatile mix. Obviously the chemistry is not quite right. Storage should be a search enabled application. Iron Mountain may want to consider a shift in the firm’s center of gravity. An eccentric orbit often becomes increasingly difficult to stabilize.
Stephen E Arnold, April 15, 2011
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A Warning to AOL Top Dogs
April 14, 2011
AOL may have a chance now that Arianna Huffington is on the job. I think the silly stuff will go away, and the basics are going to put front and center. Now AOL’s top dog is a Xoogler, and before the management twists and turns at Google revealed how “controlled chaos” does not work so well, the Xoogler was set. Big money, a brand, and a dream for “publishing”. The happy “AOL way” may be going in a direction that the former Xoogler did not anticipate. I would hazard that the Xoogler did not think that the acquisitions of Arianna Huffington’s content company would upset the Xoogler’s dreams of a bright, happy future.
The first indication that Ms. Huffington may be the next boss of AOL can be seen in the write up “About that Lawsuit”. Upon reading the article, I noticed this passage:
The key point that the lawsuit completely ignores (or perhaps fails to understand) is how new media, new technologies, and the linked economy have changed the game, enabling millions of people to shift their focus from passive observation to active participation — from couch potato to self-expression. Writing blogs, sending tweets, updating your Facebook page, editing photos, uploading videos, and making music are options made possible by new technologies. The same people who never question why someone would sit on a couch and watch TV for eight hours straight can’t understand why someone would find it rewarding to weigh in on the issues — great and small — that interest them. For free. They don’t understand the people who contribute to Wikipedia for free, who maintain their own blogs for free, who tweet for free, who constantly refresh and update their Facebook pages for free, and who want to help tell the stories of what is happening in their lives and in their communities… for free.
What I took from this passage was:
Autonomy Boosts the Discipline of Indexing
April 14, 2011
We found the story “Indexer Flourishes as Search Fails” quite interesting. A few days ago Autonomy, a global leader in enterprise software and “meaning based computing”, released its new service pack for WorkSite Indexer 8.5 as well as for its new Universal Search Server. While the indexer has done well and received many good reviews, the notion of a “universal server” is a difficult concept. The pre-Microsoft Fast Search & Transfer promised a number of “universal” functions. When “universal” became mired in time consuming and expensive local fixes, some vendors did a global search and replace.
The service pack touts a new Autonomy control center which simplifies the management structure of a multi server environment, improved query returns, additional control over Autonomy’s IDOL components, and an automatic restart feature in case service is snarled due a problem outside of Autonomy’s span of control during a crawl. Network latency continues to be an issue despite the marketing hoo-hah about gigabit this and gigabit that. Based on the information we have at ArnoldIT.com, thus far the service pack has been deployed with little or no trouble.
We have heard some reports that the the Universal Search Server can create some extra perspiration when one tries to deploy multiple WorkSite engines. According to the article cited above, we learned:
Autonomy has identified this as a high priority issue and expects to have a resolution out in the very near future.
Autonomy has been among the more responsive vendors of enterprise solutions. We are confident a fix may be available as you read this or in day or two. If you are an Autonomy licensee, contact your reseller or Autonomy.
Stephen E Arnold, April 14, 2011
Freebie but maybe some day?
eDiscovery World Sounds Familiar
April 14, 2011
According to the Centre Daily Times, Clearwell Systems has created a new game that takes social gaming into the realm of finances, legalese, and economics.
The long and sort of it is this. Gamers are issued challenges to collect relevant documents, process, analyze, and review all collected documents in order to fulfill the real life “electronic discovery” experience that they will go through in the workplace. As each part of the work flow is finished gamers will be rewarded with experience points and build savings for their company.
“Clearwell Systems, Inc., a leader in intelligent e-discovery, today announced the release of eDiscovery World, which marks the company’s groundbreaking foray into social gaming.”
Now, not to be rude but this all sounds vaguely familiar. The RAND Corporation has already created the “game theory” and still utilizes its effectiveness by continuing to create simulated real life economic situations. How can it be groundbreaking if it’s already been done?
It’s worth wondering what Clearwell has that RAND lacks considering that they’ve entered the competition fairly late in the game.
Stephen E Arnold, April 14, 2011
Are Newspapers Facing an Even More Bleak Future?
April 14, 2011
I heard a recent This Week in Law discussion about pay walls. The observations were interesting, but the juicy bits were the ways to get around pay walls. Interesting because most of those offering ideas were either “real” lawyers or aspiring lawyers. In a Digital Journal write up called “Future of Media Preview: A Q&A with the National Post’s Chris Boutet” some of the comments left me with a sense that the future of certain newspapers (digital and paper) was in doubt.
According to Boutet, in order to be an effective journalist today you must have fearlessness and above and beyond that a strong sense of adaptability and curiosity as well as a willingness to take risks and experiment as traits suitable to burgeoning journalists because they must constantly be willing to accept the changing platforms of new media in order to connect with readers.
Journalism is an ever changing chameleon and some print publications in Canada are going from the “print first” to a “media first” approach to putting together their newspaper. In the media first approach you build a strong online paper and create your print publication around that, the print should enhance and increase the focus of the online source. Boutet concedes that this is a bold strategy but it frees up space in the paper for more commentary, analysis and feature pieces instead of “breaking” news.
One passage caught my attention and probably the attention of non technical journalists:
Some of the best online news organizations are where they are today because they embraced a more agile, startup-like approach to their product development. Experimentation and innovation is key as the industry forays deeper into the digital space and we learn better ways to reach and serve our readers. Top-down, boardroom-style direction can’t react quickly enough to the ever-changing landscape. Building a product system around small, independent teams of reporters, editors, designers and developers is an excellent way to encourage creative thinking and speed up the implementation/evaluation cycle. Also, bring more developers into your newsroom. You really can’t have too many.
Okay, I wonder how the non technical journalists perceive this suggestion. Experimentation is the name of the game for Boutet. He has experimented with plugging articles via Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Tumblr.
My question is this, if newspapers are to go “truly digital” and papers are to become a novelty item, how will they solve the problem of advertising dollars? How can they make it more profitable for companies to advertise on the web unless they can promise that they will have the same number of people viewing their ads? For example, The Courier Journal in Louisville, Kentucky has a daily readership of more than half a million people Monday through Saturday and more than 600,000 on Sunday, that does not count residual readership. The problem is that the newspaper is a shadow of its former self when the daily was owned by the Binghams. Quality, not profit, was important to the Binghams. Now I am not sure what is important for the CJ. Certainly not search in my opinion.
How can a paper ever promise companies that online advertising will exceed that? Right now it won’t and I wouldn’t bet my retirement on digital newspapers becoming widespread and traditional newspapers fading out any time soon.
Leslie Radcliffe, April 14, 2011
Freebie unlike the daily print Courier Journal
Improving Health via Analytics and a Competition
April 14, 2011
We have been poking around in health care information for about eight months. We have an exclusive briefing that covers, among other things, what we call the “shadow FBI.” If you are curious about this shadow FBI angle, shoot us a note at seaky2000 at yahoo dot com. One of the goslings will respond. While you wait for our return quack, consider the notion of a competition to improve health care information in order to make health care better.
Competition promises better health care stated:
The goal of the prize is to develop a predictive algorithm that can identify patients who will be admitted to the hospital within the next year, using historical claims data.
According to the latest survey from the American Hospital Association more than 70 million people in the United States alone will be admitted to a hospital this year. The Heritage Provider Network believes that they can change all of that. The HPN will be holding a two year competition that will award $3 million dollars to the team that can create an algorithm that accurately predicts how many days a person will spend in the hospital over the next year.
An algorithm that can predict how many days a person will spend in the hospital can help doctors create new more effective care plans that can help “nip it in the bud” if there are any causes for concern. If possible the algorithm could help to lower the cost of care while reducing the number of hospitalizations.
This will result in increasing the health of patients while decreasing the cost of care. In short, a winning solution will change health care delivery as we know it – from an emphasis on caring for the individual after they get sick to a true health care system.
HPN believes that an incentive based competition is the way to achieve the big breakthroughs that are needed to begin redeveloping America’s health care system.
Leslie Radcliff, April 14, 2011
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Protected: How Time Flies
April 14, 2011
Brainware Sambas to Latin America
April 13, 2011
Brainware blog has announced that Brainware Inc. has efficiently moved into some of the most prominent businesses in Latin America thanks to the help of OM30, a prominent business process outsourcer based in Latin America that specializes in knowledge management.
Brainware offers “intelligent access to information” which in you and me speak means accurate data removal. The software relies on a small sample to interpret many thousands of document formats and has the ability to be integrated with already in place platforms.
“We tested competitive products, including offerings from Kofax and ReadSoft, but Brainware, with its best-in-class Distiller product, offered the strongest results,” said Marcello Burattini, Chief Executive Officer at OM30.”
Brainware helps OM30 to continue the critical analysis, systems integration and digitization that they are known for.
Stephen E Arnold, April 13, 2011
Bilingual Search at PaginasAmarillas.com
April 13, 2011
We learned via PRNewswire’s “YaSabe.com to Provide Bilingual Local Search for U.S. Hispanics at PaginasAmarillas.com” that PaginaAmarillas is now bilingual.
With over 50 million Hispanics now living in the U.S., it only makes sense to address that niche. YaSabe and Publicar, S.A. are teaming up to do just that with their bilingual products and services search deal.
Hispanics everywhere can relate to the Paginas Amarillas brand,’ said Carlos Caceres, Internet Business Director at Publicar. ‘Partnering with YaSabe, we will provide a world-class local search experience at PaginasAmarillas.com for the 50 million Hispanics that live in the United States.
Publicar S.A. blankets South and Central America with access to multimedia content, directory assistance, internet search services, and other digital products.
Ya Sabe, Inc. connects U.S. Latinos with resources from local businesses to national brands. Their bilingual search, complete with access to a live human for recommendations, taps into the almost $1 trillion in combined disposable income wielded by Hispanics in this country.
This new service promises to be a welcome tool for Spanish speakers in this country. It is also a smart business move. Check it out at PaginasAmarillas.com.
Cynthia Murrell, April 13, 2011
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Kalam Showcases New Language Translation Software
April 13, 2011
The Silicon India News article “Kalam Launches Language Translation Software” introduces a new program launched by former president Kalam. The Machine Translation (MT) system is designed to transplant languages on the Internet and is the collaboration of 17 institutions. The new program was recently introduced at the 20th International World Wide Web Conference. We learned:
“According to Rajeev Sangal, Director, IIIT Hyderabad, the MT System was based on the computational paninian grammar (CPG), which works very well for free word order languages, and Indian languages in particular.
India has hundreds of languages and this new technology could be a direct step towards breaking down the language barrier that exists even within the country itself. There are a limited number of languages available on the market right now but there are immediate plans to introduce more in the near future. The translation program definitely sounds promising but in a world where most people have access to the free Google translation program it seems hard to compete. Over time additional language pairs will be added. Most of the enterprise search vendors with multi-lingual support handle a number of languages. Kalam is focusing on languages often not included in the standard language pair pack.
April Holmes, April 13, 2011
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