Quote to Note: PowerPoint
December 16, 2011
I encounter PowerPoint “decks” when indexing enterprise content. I should emphasize the plural. The bane of PowerPoint is that users skip over the metadata. When indexing an enterprise corpus, there are lots of versions of a particular PowerPoint deck. To make matters more interesting, some decks include confidential information. Running a query on a PowerPoint collection without figuring out versions, duplicates, access rights, and date and time conflicts makes for a long spell of opening, scanning, closing with the cycle repeated many times.
The quote appeared in the write up “PowerPoint Alternative Closes $14 Million Funding.” (Note: this is a Murdoch Wall Street Journal link which can go dark without much warning.)
If you have ever sat through a death-by-PowerPoint presentation (once described by commentator Michael Bywater as “the most loathsome, vicious and immoral piece of software ever produced.”)
I find the sequence loathsome, vicious and immoral fascinating. Software, not its users, are loathsome, vicious, and immoral. Hmmm. Software, not the users. I want a T shirt with the phrase printed across the chest area. Quite a conversation starter I wager.
Stephen E Arnold, December 16, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Protected: Trade Tips and Prices at the SharePoint StackExchange
December 16, 2011
IBM Redbooks Reveals Content Analytics
December 16, 2011
IBM Redbooks has put out some juicy reading for the azure chip consultants wanting to get smart quickly with IBM Content Analytics Version 2.2: Discovering Actionable Insight from Your Content. The sixteen chapters of this book take the reader from an overview of IBM content analytics, through understanding the details, to troubleshooting tips. The above link provides an abstract of the book, as well as links to download it as a PDF, view in HTML/Java, or order a hardcopy.
We learned from the write up:
The target audience of this book is decision makers, business users, and IT architects and specialists who want to understand and use their enterprise content to improve and enhance their business operations. It is also intended as a technical guide for use with the online information center to configure and perform content analysis with Content Analytics.
The product description notes a couple of specifics. For example, creating custom annotators with the LanguageWare Resource Workbench is covered. So is using the IBM Content Assessment to weed out superfluous data.
The content is, of course, slanted toward working with IBM solutions. However, there is also some more general information included. This is a good place to go to get a better handle on content management.
Cynthia Murrell, December 16, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Intelligent Search Vital to Product Lifecycle Management Solutions
December 16, 2011
To be successful and turn products into profits, you need a product lifecycle management (PLM) system that helps you create higher quality products. Launch new products in less time and at a lower cost. Control your production processes instead of letting them control you. Infor’s PLM software helps you do all of this, reducing your time to scale by 50% or more, reducing materials usage by 20% to 50%, and increasing your on-time launches to 98%.
Catherine Lamsfuss, December 13, 2011
Keeping Data Governance Under Control
December 16, 2011
Adopting an enterprise solution is often seen as a move towards simplifying an organization’s data organization and retrieval needs. However, if it is not handled appropriately, an organization can create an enterprise model that creates more problems than it solves. The white paper, “Create a SharePoint Data Governance Model,” discusses how an organization can prevent loss of control in regulating their SharePoint sites.
SharePoint collaboration sites grow and grow and grow… and all too often grow to a point at which they are out of control. That’s not good – not if you’re a SharePoint admin. This 12-page paper will help you create a data governance model to bring those SharePoint sites back under control. Read the paper to see a simple model for data governance based on a typical SharePoint content management process. Each section discusses one major activity related to data governance within the document management lifecycle, and how it relates to key organizational roles like IT Administrators, Corporate Risk/Compliance Officers, Content Owners and Information Workers.
Download the full text of the white paper to learn more. We also recommend exploring third party solutions to fill in some of the gaps that SharePoint has yet to close. Fabasoft Mindbreeze offers a suite of solutions that are designed with usability and uniformity in mind. Mindbreeze works in conjunction with an already existing SharePoint implementation or as an alternative to SharePoint. Read more about their Folio software:
“Fabasoft Folio is the standard software product for Enterprise Content Management, Collaboration, Compliance Management, agile Business Processes and Information Governance. The solution provides uniform, reliable and controlled management of digital content in the enterprise. Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise links Fabasoft Folio for uniform enterprise-wide information access.”
The moral of this story – control your enterprise solution, do not let it control you. Best practices and other suggestions can help your organization optimize SharePoint, but other third party solutions, such as Mindbreeze, might produce better results with less effort.
Emily Rae Aldridge, December 16, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Connexia Characterizes CXAIR
December 16, 2011
Connexia has put out a new white paper detailing its search & business intelligence application titled “CXAIR: Technology Overview.” Ease of use is one of the primary selling points for this product. We learned from the write up:
The product has been designed around 3 core principles: speed, flexibility and performance. CXAIR is designed for use by everyone, not just analysts, and knocks down many of the barriers prevalent in traditional BI technologies to finally make reporting, ad-hoc analysis and dash-boarding as easy and as straightforward as searching the Internet.
The paper also boasts of single-point access to data from multiple data stores; drill-down-able visualization tools, including Venn diagrams; multi-dimensional cross tabulations; and rigorous security features.
Do check out the paper for more details. Keep in mind, though, that there are lots of folks in the fusion and business intelligence space, many of whom style themselves as the “next generation” or something similar. A few examples include Digital Reasoning, PolySpot, and JackBe. (As in “Jack be nimble.” Cute.)
Connexia, founded in 2006, focuses on tying together business intelligence, enterprise search, and data access. It prides itself on making data management accessible to non-techies.
Cynthia Murrell, December 16, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Hewlett Packard Lusts after Big Data
December 16, 2011
As Web users continue creating structured and unstructured data at higher volumes than ever before we are starting to need technology to analyze it.
According to the Dec 1, Front Line article “HP Predicts 50 Zettabytes of Data will be Created Annually by 2020,” Hewlett Packard (HP) predicts that by 2020, fifty zettabytes (fifty billion terrabytes) of data will be created every year. This will present a major challenge for businesses.
Prith Banerjee, head of HP Labs, said at the firm’s Discover event:
By 2020 there could be as many as 10 billion people on the planet and some four billion of these will be online interacting on social networks. While now there are 2.5 million tweets per day this will rise to tens of millions.There’s also going to be a huge increase of sensors on the network measuring everything from temperature to heart monitoring. We expect there to be one trillion sensors by 2020.
HP Labs is currently working to address this issue by investigating technology that tracks a variety of complex events which must be correlated so that patterns can be detected. It could contextually analyze what customers say on twitter a mere ten seconds after the tweet is sent.
What will Autonomy’s role in this big data love fest be? Stay tuned.
Jasmine Ashton, December 16, 2011
Google Intern Explains Android Lag
December 16, 2011
Leave it to a student intern. Not even the X Factor interns reveal the inside scoop about technology.
Here’s a useful insight into the Google method of “good enough.” Apple Insider reports that a “Former Google Intern Explains Why UI Lag Occurs More Often in Android than iOS.” The intern in question is one Andrew Munn, who ironically took to Google+ with his explanation.
Munn, who interned on the Android team, listed several reasons for the slowness of Android as compared to Apple’s iOS. See the write up for specifics, but it all boils down to one thing. The article asserts:
The original Android prototype didn’t have a touchscreen, as it was meant to be a BlackBerry competitor. As such, Android’s architecture is meant to support a keyboard and trackball. Munn further claimed that after the original iPhone arrived in 2007, Google rushed to complete Android, but ‘it was too late to rewrite the UI framework.’. . . ‘Android is the only mobile OS left that existed pre-iPhone,’ the report noted.
The current state of affairs may be acceptable to Google now, but more may be needed to capture half the market for smart TV sometime in 2013. Munn, for one, is confident that his former team will make the rewrite. “Eventually,” he said.
We’re waiting for an intern to explain open that is closed and fragmentation that is not fragmented. Is UX pronounced “Yuk”?
Cynthia Murrell, December 16, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Isys: Eliminating Search Speed Bumps
December 15, 2011
I thought speed bumps were sleeping policemen. ISYS Search tackles them. Thump. Squish. Navigate to “Isys Tackles Enterprise Search Speed Bumps.” The idea is that Isys can make a problematic findability problem a non issue. According to the write up:
The new version features ISYS 1-Click File Finder indexing, analytics and search technology, as well there are seven major new application features. ISYS Research Accelerator is a customizable interface that lets business users search and refine the results the way they want – and make the information easily available and actionable for others. ISYS Information Map offers an advanced visual navigation tool that lets business users see and explore the links between pieces of information. The new Timeline Refinement Bar makes large results sets easy to navigate and ensures users know they’re getting to the most accurate and recent versions of documents. ISYS Enterprise 10.0 introduces Multi-core Indexing, which promises to significantly improve indexing speed and robustness, with multiple ‘worker tasks’ able to handle unlimited filename lengths and unlimited document container depths. Users can now view common document formats (like MS Office, Adobe PDF) the way they were intended, with full layout, fonts, images and hit-highlighting. ISYS Enterprise 10.0 can search by document type extension across 400+ document, file and email types. Also, there are native 32-bit and 64-bit Server Versions to allow organizations to make use of their existing hardware.
The write up did not include information about license fees, visualization, extensibility, application programming interfaces, and customer support options. You may want to contact the company for these details. I did not include Isys in my “The New Landscape of Enterprise Search.” The company hit my radar with its connector licensing strategy, which struck me as an interesting idea. This new release reminds me that Isys is in the enterprise search market. That sector is in flux with other vendors repositioning themselves, throwing around buzzwords, and reinventing themselves as big data analytics companies. Isys is using the the lingo of a more traditional, pre mobile app approach to enterprise search. You can get more information at the Isys Information Center. One question: Will I get a ticket for speeding down the enterprise information highway with the goddess of he goddess of motherhood, magic and fertility? Kentucky is a pretty conservative place.
Stephen E Arnold, December 15, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Search: Down the Funnel
December 15, 2011
Here I am in a rat hole of a hotel on my way to a meeting in the pre dawn hours. I click on a headline “Using Search and Social Strategically to Win New Business.” It is one of those odd ball Forbes Magazine articles. I am not sure if the write up is an ad, an editorial, a feature, or a crazy PR move designed to give me an upset tummy.
The idea is that a big company called Siemens figured out how to use search and social media to drive people “down the funnel.” I was baffled. I get the metaphor of a funnel. Dump oil in the big part of the funnel and put the little part in the motorcycle’s dipstick thing. Quit when the crankcase is full. Well, sort of. Here’s the passage that explains Siemens’ method:
o put this idea into action, Siemens Enterprise Communications turned to the experts at gyro to develop and execute the plan to push search and social “down the funnel” and align it against supporting an identified opportunity. Instead of focusing on getting in the consideration set, we set our sights on developing a program to help influence decision-makers at the point of purchase.
Wow.
The idea was to buy ads and post messages on social networks. The “secret” is explained in this segment:
So here’s where the fun started: We used geotargeting to place ads within a 50-mile radius of the city that housed our prospects, influencers and key decision-makers. Then we used social platforms—Facebook and LinkedIn—to segment prospects and deliver employer-specific ad copy. Our social tactics also helped ensure that our competitor (who could outspend us if they so chose) didn’t see our campaign; essentially, we needed to stay under their radar. In the event that our prospect did not take a desired search action, we used remarketing to continue interacting with customers across the Web through other online content platforms, such as regional news sites and ESPN.com.
But if one is under the radar, won’t other people miss the program as well? Minor point.
Three observations:
First, search does not mean information retrieval. Search means something different from my understanding of finding information. This is the search engine marketing type of search. SEO is under pressure and my Overflight system is easily confused with articles about sales, not about locating on point information. Grrr.
Second, there is some sort of tie up going on among the company providing the services (Gyro, an advisor to Forbes) and the article itself. I am not sure what’s what, but this type of case study is what real journalists produce, I am glad I got kicked out of a business class and was forced to study Anglo Saxon.
Third, the notion of using social networks to fool competitors tells me quite a lot about the acumen of the competitors. How can one be confident that a competitor was not participating in the “conversation” and playing mind games with the wizards who cooked up the program.
“Down the funnel” has an intriguing graphic too. I want to stay out of the funnel. Too bad about the meaning of the word “search”. I would suggest that search has gone “down the toilet” but that may be too harsh. How about “down the drain”? Fun.
Stephen E Arnold, December 15, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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