Are Text Analytics Companies Learning the Silicon Valley Way?
August 11, 2011
Seth Grimes, founding chair for the Text Analytics Summit, interviewed three experts in order to find out what it is that Silicon Valley and the world of text analytics have in common. The full interview, “What Can Text Analytics and Silicon Valley Learn From Each Other?” can be found at Text Analytics News.
Grimes reports, “Business markets are global, yet the Bay Area stands out as a source and consumer of innovative technologies and in particular, as a pace-setter for the online and social worlds. With the Text Analytics Summit coming to San Jose, I reached out to a few west-coasters who are making Valley text analytics news: Nitin Indurkhya, principal research scientist at eBay Research Labs; YY Lee, COO of FirstRain; and Michael Osofsky, co-founder and chief innovation officer at NetBase.”
Osofsky explains the balance between precision and recall in text analytics, and urges Silicon Valley to understand that time and energy should be devoted to experimenting to find a balance between the two principles. On the other hand, Silicon Valley’s fast and exciting nature could be a good influence on the text analytics world. Software can be launched, edited, and evolved quickly and risks can be taken. Absorbing a bit of that mentality could enable text analytics to be a little more innovative and adventurous.
Indurkya encourages the text analytics world to adopt the Valley principle of “fail often and fail quickly.” In this way, he explains, innovation happens and failure does not bog down the overall momentum.
Lee encourages text analytics companies to focus separately on each of three equally important components: 1) Input 2) Internal process 3) Presentation. Each of the categories falls broadly under the category of text analytics and yet Lee stresses each must be treated independently during development.
Grimes concludes with his own collective thoughts on the three interviews.
The key takeaways that I see in these responses involve problem and product focus, agility, and the desirability of pulling and integrating information from multiple sources with the application of a variety of analytical techniques, in order to achieve technical and business goals. There’s no “Do X, Y, and Z” formula here, but there is definitely a sense of the rewards that are possible if text analytics is done right.
Out-of-the-box thinking is beneficial in any business arena, but especially those known more for rigidity than innovation.
Emily Rae Aldridge, August 11, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search. And our own Stephen E Arnold is speaking at this year’s November 2011 event.
The Text Analytics Summit has been a staple of the text analytics community for the past 7 years. To help this community grow, the Text Analytics Summit is finally coming to the west coast to foster new networking opportunities, promote more healthy knowledge sharing, and create strong, long-lasting business relationships. Text Analytics is essential for maximizing the customer experience, effectively monitoring the social media world, conducting first-class data analysis and research, and improving the business decision making process. Attend the summit to discover how to unlock the power of text analytics to leverage new and profitable business opportunities. Whether you’re interested in taking advantage of social media analytics, customer experience management, sentiment analysis, or Voice of the Customer, Text Analytics Summit West is the only place to get the inside information that you need to stay ahead of the competition and profit from text mining. For more information, click here.
Another Take on Lousy Web Search
August 11, 2011
As society is quickly becoming more mobile phone based, the internet industry workers should shift developments in that direction. That is the assertion of the article, Is Web Search in Need of a Shake-Up?, on Locker Gnome. The article reviews an academic paper of similar name, Search Needs a Shake-Up, by Oren Etzioni.
The high and the low of the paper is that search engines’ techniques have largely not changed in the twenty years the world-wide-web has existed and that is simply not acceptable. Since the invention of the internet (thank you, Al Gore) and web, the devices conducting searches have changed beyond what Gene Roddenberry ever imagined.
Once, web surfers were tied down to desktop computers, but now the majority of web users are accessing the internet via their Smartphones or tablets. Because of the limits (mainly screen size) of such devices, web searches should have evolved to become more user-friendly, moving beyond the algorithms that got it thus far. The article explains,
“A search engine of the future should be more than a trained monkey that knows how to find strings of text — it should be able to intelligently discern the connections between what’s being sought after and pertinent entities — such as people, places, and things — for a more sharply relevant series of results.”
As any good infomercial sales person knows, once a problem is identified, there’d better dad-gum be a solution! Etzioni did not disappoint. He recommends Reverb, an open-source tool developed by his own University of Washington Turing Center, as an important first step for the next generation of search engines.
Catherine Lamsfuss, August 11, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
A Tip for Adding Muscle to SharePoint
August 11, 2011
There are hundreds of articles on the invisible web that highlight ways to improve your SharePoint experience by planning, altering programs, writing new code, changing library formats, and customizing the search. The Nothing But SharePoint web site is doing a series of feature articles that highlight the top ten ways to enhance the collaborative content program. “Top 10 Tips for Success with SharePoint #4” has an interesting take, rather than concentrating on SharePoint’s weaknesses the author suggests developers play into its strengths.
So what does SharePoint offer? The “lists” feature does more than list information; it addresses many businesses requirements and scenarios. Lists is very similar to Excel and a great way to organize business terms and acronyms in a glossary, a frequently asked questions page, preferred suppliers, phone numbers, online request forms, and software/applications catalog. SharePoint is also an excellent tool to manage metadata for easy usability and findability, not to mention developing a governance/taxonomy system. Lastly, the process automation features streamlines business workflows and make tasks more efficient.
The article sums up the strengths of SharePoint as delivering features “straight out of the box.” But, the article notes, “there are many features, functions and options to exploit in SharePoint, which can take many deployments from ordinary to useful.”
Best way to add muscle to SharePoint is to “take the time to investigate these strengths, so you can build the ‘killer’ solution that will help your business understand the promise of its SharePoint investment early, and derive value quickly.”
Concentrating on strengths is an age-old strategy. Try it out, while you’re at it try out SurfRay Ontolica.
Whitney Grace, August 11, 2011
Sponsored by SurfRay, developers of Ontolica for SharePoint
Content Analyst and iCONECT Team Up
August 10, 2011
The Content Analyst folks bought me dinner once. Nevertheless, my memories of a Taco Bell event have faded, and we wanted to let you know about the announcement “iCONECT Development, LLC Announced an Integration with Content Analyst Company, LLC.” ICONECT provides law practitioners with litigation support and collaboration software. Content Analyst furnishes advanced search tools and indexing technology.
Content Analyst’s software eschews the keyword approach and, instead, recognizes concepts and categories. ICONECT also works with categories, and places related documents in nested folders. The company focuses on improving document review workflow, their clients’ most time-consuming process.
The press release quotes Kurt Michel, President of Content Analyst, regarding the partnership:
We are excited that iCONECT has selected Content Analyst’s unique Dynamic Clustering and Categorization capabilities to help their partners and end-users reduce the time and cost of document review. We look forward to working with the iCONECT team and their industry leading partners to bring the power of Content Analyst’s advanced analytics to the thousands of attorneys using iCONECT software.
Our thoughts: Content Analyst is looking more like an original equipment manufacturer, providing technology as PLS did more than a decade ago. Nothing wrong with that approach.
Stephen E Arnold, August 10, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
Is Microsoft Implementing a Haphazard Search Strategy?
August 10, 2011
Nothing fires up Microsoft centric service firms like criticism of Microsoft Fast technology. We’re pleasantly surprised by this enthusiasm, which is generally lacking when we mention other vendors’ “search challenges.”
We think choice is a good thing, until it gets overwhelming. Redmondmag.com works on “Sorting Out Microsoft’s Mixed-Up Enterprise Search Strategy.” Writer Paul Korzeniowski posits that Microsoft’s array of six search alternatives is just too disjointed:
The various search alternatives vary in capabilities, sophistication and price, so there should be something for just about every enterprise. However, the Microsoft strategy can leave customers bewildered. The various products are largely autonomous, so it may not be easy to move from one to another. In addition, there are conflicting reports about which of the search engines Microsoft considers strategic, so there’s a possibility that companies may standardize on solutions that will eventually lose their luster and maybe even be phased out.
Korzeniowski emphasizes that Microsoft is not the only purveyor of enterprise search solutions to suffer from an incoherent strategy. The article analyses the problem in depth, including words on security, pricing, and the fate of Fast Search. We suggest reading it through.
We agree that the “experts” are a bit out of touch with the challenges Fast Search presents. We recommend you buttress your reading of the Redmondmag article with the corresponding chapter in the Landscape report, published by Pandia.com, in which Stephen Arnold digs into parts of Fast that most so-called experts ignore, don’t know, or simply find too darned confusing to figure out. One thing is certain. Our leader, Stephen E Arnold, will be delighted to have his views of azure chip consultants confirmed.
Cynthia Murrell August 10, 2011
Of course, this write up is sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
XT Modules Compliment Attivio AIE Platform
August 10, 2011
ITBriefing.net tells us, “Attivio Announces XT Modules to Complete the Big Data Picture.” We think Attivio is an interesting company, and these offerings underscore their unique approach.
The company believes businesses must go beyond data aggregation to sophisticated contextual analysis. The new modules augment Attivio’s Active Intelligence Engine (AIE) platform. The article quotes Donald Fienberg, vice president and analyst at a consulting firm opined:
IT leaders must not focus on the obvious issue of volume alone, but equally consider the other elements of velocity, variety and complexity, which Gartner refers to as the broader category of Extreme Information, as well as the key area of access enablement. If they do focus too narrowly, their enterprises will have to make massive reinvestments within a couple of years to address the other dimensions of big data.
The XT Modules aim to help clients to avoid that reinvestment problem by doing it right the first time. The modules include: the AIE Recommendation Engine, which identifies relationships that can be leveraged to increase online buying; the AIE Classification Engine, which automatically categorizes documents; the Cloudera Connectors Package; Individual Hive, HDFS and Hbase Connectors; and the XT Services & Assessment Pack.
Provided they function as promised, these tools should provide a leg up to Attivio’s clients.
Cynthia Murrell August 10, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
Google vs. Facebook: Peewee League or World Cup of Social
August 10, 2011
Search vs. Social Media. Google vs. Facebook. The two sides seem to be locked in what some pundits and “real” experts see as an epic battle for ultimate Internet supremacy. Slow news day? Brilliant insight?
Both sides have significantly changed the online landscape. With Google’s new Google + social network, the two are now fighting over essentially the same territory, and ultimately the same advertising revenue. The Guardian reports in, “Google and Facebook Get Personal in Battle for Social Networking Rewards.” We learned:
Ultimately the real battle is over cold, hard cash. Google made 97% of its revenues, or $32.3bn, in the past 12 months from advertising. eMarketer, meanwhile estimates that Facebook’s largely ad-generated revenues will grow from $0.74bn in 2009 to $5.74bn in 2012 – yet the site has hardly begun rolling out truly personalized, targeted advertising. If there is any of Google’s lunch to be eaten, it is here.
Google has admitted to being behind the curve in the social media game. Facebook is deeply entrenched and has momentum on its side. Google maintains that at its heart it is still a search company, but Google + can add another level to the personalization and identity of the searcher. They are not trying to recreate exactly what Facebook has done, and that’s exactly the problem.
World Cup?
We noted this passage:
Though Google+ is an intelligent attempt at a social networking tool, it seems a typical Google product in that it is brilliantly, heavily engineered but lacks the human focus required for a social network – the fuel that has propelled Facebook to 750 million users.
Yammer and SharePoint: Collaboration Insight
August 10, 2011
We recently reported that SharePoint and Yammer had a tête-à-tête that lead to a promising working relationship, where Yammer would bring it’s social networking features to SharePoint’s collaborative content program. Social networking is a big feature that SharePoint users have asked to see improvements on since version 2010 deployed. Chieftech’s Blog has another idea on the this relationship in the article, “Yammer Or SharePoint? The Deloitte Experience.”
The article reports that Pete Williams from Deloitte Digital, an audit, consulting, financial advisory, risk management, and tax services firm, explained that SharePoint is a system that works too hard, while Yammer gives immediate results while still going the extra mile. While SharePoint is described as overkill, the company still has a social intranet based on Microsoft SharePoint called D Street that is combined with Newsgator.
Based off their experience with D Street, Deloitte recommends, “[That one should] slowly roll out changes to Enterprise 2.0 tools rather than overhaul the entire infrastructure at once. Changes in taxonomy, capabilities and structure can confuse workers and elicit a bad first impression.
The article adds, “Don’t forget the importance of moderation, management and risk management.”
After reading the article, you’ll see that both platforms have their strengths and weaknesses. A combination of the two is actually the way to go, though one can’t help but wonder if this marriage will be a constant competition. You can add another improvement to SharePoint search with SurfRay Ontolica.
Whitney Grace, August 10, 2011
Sponsored by SurfRay, developers of Ontolica for SharePoint
SharePoint: On Premises and in the Cloud
August 9, 2011
We learned some exciting news in the Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog. On July 26, 2011, Microsoft unveiled a new video learning series in “SharePoint Online Learning Materials for IT Professionals.” The focus of the information is particularly useful because the information embraces both on premises SharePoint installations and cloud deployments.
Microsoft offers a comprehensive video learning series on these subjects:
- An introduction to the five part series
- A review of the most common scenarios for on premises and cloud implementations
- A discussion of user considerations in a dual deployment set up
- A summary of the support options available to developers and licensees
- A conclusion which hits some of the highlights of previous four videos.
Microsoft has also include a narrated presentation, “Exploring SharePoint Online for IT Professionals,” which is ideal for getting up to speed when waiting for a meeting to begin or standing online at the airport.
To cap the information, Microsoft has made available a new white paper, “Microsoft SharePoint Online: An Overview for Enterprise IT Professionals.” The document is 16 pages long and covers development considerations, online administration, tips for managing sites and users, how to information about user identifies, and an excellent discussion of security for groups. The white paper also includes a group of links to relevant information, including Office 365 information.
The new administrative console is the starting point for managing sites and pages.
At Search Technologies we pride ourselves of keeping up to date on Microsoft’s SharePoint technology. We do a significant amount of work in the SharePoint search arena, especially with the Fast Search option. We find that high quality information about SharePoint an essential ingredient in the recipe for success. For more information about our professional services, visit our Web site at www.searchtechnologies.com.
Iain Fletcher, August 9, 2011
Is Thomson Reuters Chasing after LegalZoom?
August 9, 2011
Here’s another “me too!” development. Taume reports, “Thomson Reuters Launches Westlaw Form Builder.” LegalZoom offers a client the forms required to create a limited liability corporation for less than $100. A lawyer may charge quite a bit more.
Completing an unending stream of forms is a time-consuming aspect of any legal office, and Thomson Reuters hopes their online tool will spell efficiency for its clients. The press release explains what the company hopes will distinguish its product from the competition:
Attorneys can access more than 20,000 official and lawyer-tested forms anytime and anywhere they have an Internet connection. Westlaw editors continually update the forms to ensure they are current, eliminating the need to download upgrades or verify citations. Unlike static forms, Westlaw Form Builder allows users to customize forms, making them specific to a given client and case. And every Westlaw Form Builder plan includes links to any cited authority or commentary on WestlawNext without incurring additional charges, helping users understand the legal context surrounding a particular form.
Completed forms are downloadable, and client data is stored, saving time on re-entry.
Thompson Reuters provides information management tools to clients around the globe in fields from financial and legal to science and health care. And, of course, the company is a respected source of world news coverage. But Thomson is targeting attorneys who are increasingly cost sensitive. Maybe attorneys are using LegalZoom too? The search system works. Oh, LegalZoom looks like a pretty good bargain. Buying legal information from an outfit like Thomson Reuters? Well, it can be more expensive in my experience.
Cynthia Murrell August 9, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
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