Protected: Google Docs and SharePoint Can Collaborate
January 13, 2012
Mobile Users May Say No
January 13, 2012
In such a heavy mobile based technology world, businesses understand the need to be in tune with what customers are doing on these devices and readily jump on their ability to collect data from those who are willing to share. However, according to the Ontrack Data Recovery News article “Business Data Collection “May Face Backlash From Mobile Users,” users may no longer be so eager to share. “Businesses’ ability to collect data from those using mobile and pad devices may be short lived, as individuals become more cagey about what they are willing to share.” According to the article business data collection is going to gain even more popularity in 2012 but the importance of privacy and data security is also going to grow. Psychologist Graham Jones makes a bold prediction “Business which focus on tapping into geolocation and so on will probably only have a relatively short life, as human beings batten down the hatches and increase their privacy.” From phone tapping in Congress to sharing on Facebook, privacy is becoming an issue. Seems more and more people have adopted the philosophy “just keep it to yourself.”
April Holmes, January 13, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Google Plus Desperation Marketing
January 12, 2012
The reaction to Google Plus makes clear the lack of understanding that exists about pervasive online products and services. I am cranking away on my Enterprise Technology Management column, a for fee task, but I had to take a moment to offer some observations on the hurricane of hoo-hah which is raging.
Navigate to “Google Likely to Face FTC Complaint over ‘Search Plus Your World‘”. The story does a good job of explaining the new servicer in a way that appears to make sense to a person who uses online but does not understand its imperatives; to wit:
Google calls the new feature rolling out to users of its English-language search engine “Search Plus Your World.” It blends information such as photos, comments and news posted on its Google+ social network into users’ search results. It mostly affects the one in four people who log into Google or Google+ while searching the Web. Those users will have the option of seeing search results that are customized to their interests and connections, say, a photo of the family dog or a friend’s recommendation for a restaurant. Google has been working for years to create a personal search engine that knows its users so well it delivers results tailored to them. It’s also trying to catch up to social networking giant Facebook, which, with more than 800 million users, knows its users far better than Google does. But critics contend Google, a laggard in social networking, is using its dominance in Internet search to favor its own products and take on its chief competitor.
Like many of the other posts from “experts” and pundits, a number of assumptions operate to characterize Google’s actions are controversial, limiting, or designed to have quite specific consequences for users, competitors, and stakeholders.
My view is based on the research I conducted from 2001 to 2008, the period in which the bulk of my Google work took place. If you are curious about my monographs, there are descriptions of these publications at this Infonortics’ link for the Google Trilogy.
First, once a company captures a “place” in online, the successful service acts like a magnet. An unsuccessful service in the same space pulls marginal users at first and then “pumps” those users into the primary place. Google was an early entrant in social with Orkut. For reasons which I am not at liberty to discuss, that service did not capture a “place”. MySpace did but failed to respond to the Facebook approach. As users flowed to Facebook, the Orkut, MySpace, and other social services began to amplify the Facebook service. The result was the steady expansion of the service despite its flaws. As those who have watched a service benefit from the competitors’ amplification of the dominant service, there is little which can be done to halt the growth. Facebook, like Yahoo in directory services and Google in traditional Web search demonstrated, the new service surges and then has its own life cycle. Not even shooting oneself in the foot or regulation can stop the expanding service from becoming a monopoly. Facebook has achieved that position and it will eventually decline. For now, Facebook, like it or not, is the social focal point. Google has limited choices. One of its options is the walled garden and taking tactical actions that will get Google back into a growth position in the disputed “space.”
Second, when a competitor tries to capture the number one position in a new space, the work we have done over the last 30 years suggests:
- The maximum market share which the tactical actions can yield will be about 60 percent of the leader’s market share. Usually, the share is much less. Facebook, therefore, is not likely to be significantly affected in the short and mid term by Google’s or any other competitors’ action. Facebook is at greater risk of making errors in judgment related to management, money, and technology than what Google or any other competitor does. So Google is under pressure and Facebook is cruising.
- The dominant service benefits from the added visibility to high profile tactical moves create. It would not surprise me if Facebook benefits from Google’s actions related to expanding its walled garden, getting into he said, she said arguments with services like Twitter, and its senior management making statements which throw dry logs on a raging digital marketing fire. In short, Google is helping out Facebook if our research is on the money.
Imagine how difficult it must be for Google to be largely excluded from social services. Now consider that the focus of Google is upon capturing a space which may be unobtainable. Do you expect Google’s thinkers to find a checkmate type of solution from the company’s recent tactical actions? I don’t. I think Google is trying to find a solution, not implementing a solution.
Finally, Google is now in a precarious positions. As I write this, the search services from Yandex.ru and Yandex.com are often more relevant than those delivered by Google’s service. The Yandex technology like Baidu’s and Jike’s shares some characteristics with Google’s. The shift in precision and recall at Google is a direct result of manual and automatic adjustments to the advertising imperative that keeps Google in revenue growth mode. Services which focus on precision and recall deliver results which our research indicates are more relevant when measured by traditional information retrieval yardsticks. Google, therefore, is now at increased risk of a thrust at its core business by capable, technically adept competitors. Little wonder why some have reported that Google is sending mixed signals or that Google’s management is engaged in healthy discussion about what to do a situation which simply did not exist when Google grew due to the inattention of its competitors in 1998 to 2004 and in 2006 to 2007 when there was zero significant awareness of the “legacy” of the Google method. Now the “legacy” is part of Facebook’s and other competitors’ equipment for living. Google is in an unfamiliar position. As I have learned in my own online work, the unfamiliar translates to an increased likelihood for acting with a certain blindness. One can get hit by a very loud, very large, and very slow moving bus when one is blind.
Net net: Google is at a turning point. The evidence is the discussion about Google Plus and its walled garden approach, the spectrum of commentary about what is a quite predictable, if ill considered innovation from Google, and from the comments made by Google’s competitors.
Because online services, if they grow to more than 65 percent of a particular market, naturally become monopolies. Management will take credit for this success, but it is often inevitable, not the result of a brilliant executive decision. Online monopolies chug along and then—boom—arrive and get noticed. A recent example is the Apple iTunes, iPhone, iPad situation.
I want to see how the power flows from centroid to centroid in dataspace. The physics of information permit behaviors which are difficult to predict and have unforeseen consequences. One consequence: desperation marketing. She has swept in with Google Plus I submit.
Stephen E Arnold, January 12, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Protected: Throwing SharePoint Taxonomy to the Masses
January 12, 2012
When SharePoint Training Falls Short
January 12, 2012
SharePoint is an expansive and time intensive implementation for any organization. Therefore, much attention has been devoted to SharePoint training in enterprise circles. SharePoint Engine offers one viewpoint of SharePoint training in, “How to Cope When SharePoint Training Doesn’t Connect.”
Within the context of the web site’s attention to the issue of training, they state:
We’re [sic] spent plenty of time emphasizing the importance of SharePoint training, even taking plenty of time to tell you about effective SharePoint training techniques. Despite all our advice, though, there’s still a chance that your training just won’t hit home with your audience. What causes this dissonance? What can you do to prevent it? And what can you do to fix it once it’s already happened?
The tips offered include reexamining the training, refocusing the training, reformulating the training, or even reapplying the training to see if it will stick the next time around. We understand that SharePoint is unwieldy, and getting an entire staff to be comfortable working with the application can be tricky. However, we wonder if such extensive training is an effective way to spend an organization’s time and budget. Perhaps a simpler, more intuitive solution could be found to prevent such extensive workshops.
Fabasoft Mindbreeze is a solution that is more easily implemented and more intuitively created. The interface and search features both respond to a more natural approach:
Be well informed – quickly and accurately. The data often lies distributed across numerous sources. Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise gains each employee two weeks per through focused finding of data (IDC Studies). An invaluable competitive advantage in business as well as providing employee satisfaction.
Extensive support and training is also offered by Fabasoft, along with tutorials and online help available 24/7 on the web site. The idea here is that extensive training should not be required for employees to be able to use such software.
Emily Rae Aldridge, January 12, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Is PLM Destin to Collide with Social Media?
January 12, 2012
Companies are clamoring to reach millions, if not billions, through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and their counterparts. However, there is a debate (probably on Twitter) as to how product lifecycle management (PLM) and social media fit together. The To-Increase Blog takes a look at “PLM Integation With (Wait for It…) Social Media Technology.”
The blog, which turns to Siemens’ Social Media in PLM presentation at COFES 2009 as a source, agrees that an airplane will not be designed on Facebook, but there are other social media aspects to take advantage of.
Siemens presentation goes on to discuss the concept of social computing, and how these concepts could apply to product development. For instance:
- A ‘Tweet’ could be equatable to an instant communication of a design challenge
- A ‘comment’ could be equatable to shared, public feedback on design issues or concepts
- A ‘news feed’ could be equatable to progress issues or statuses
Social media and PLM technologies really are very similar. For example, Inforbix’s technological solutions were inspired by a need to connect multiple pieces of data located in different places together. Inforbix’s ability to interconnect data and share it with people throughout the company looks a lot like the social networking structure. PLM and social media have already started to intersect – maybe because they are more similar than people think.
Jennifer Wensink, January 12, 2012
Please, Do Not Feed the Oracle
January 12, 2012
SAND Technology provides Enterprise Analytic Database Platforms. SAND Analytic Platform is a column based management system that focuses on optimizing data sharing throughout entire Enterprises. Mike Pilcher Chief Operating Office of SAND Technology provides an amusing view of Oracle in the SAND.com article “Just One More Water-Thin Mint, Mr.Ellison?.” He uses a Monty Phyton film to describe Oracle’s morbidly obese product line and the result of adding Endeca to the mix. “you will remember Mr. Creosote eating just one more wafer-thin mint too many… before exploding into a million messy pieces. Is the acquisition of Endeca Oracle’s one wafer-thin mint too many?” Oracle is not designed for Big Data analytics and Endeca just adds to the confusion. Pilcher feels “Extracting and augmenting structure onto unstructured data and merging it with structured data is the future of Big Data analytics, “ and praises Oracle for realizing this but points out the importance of having “a database designed and built to handle it, not a monster overfed on an endless supply of wafer-thin acquisitions.” Looks like Pilcher is really saying “Please don’t feed the Oracle.”
April Holmes, January 12, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Prediction Data Joins the Fight
January 12, 2012
It seems that prediction data could be joining the fight against terrorism. According to the Social Graph Paper article “Prediction Data As An API in 2012” some companies are working on developing prediction models that can be applied to terror prevention. The article mentions the company Palantir “they emphasize development of prediction models as applied to terror prevention, and consumed by non-technical field analysts.” Recorded Future is another company but they rely on “creating a ‘temporal index’, a big data/ semantic analysis problem, as a basis to predict future events.” Other companies that have been dabbling in big data/prediction modeling are Sense Networks, Digital Reasoning, BlueKai and Primal. The author theorizes that “There will be data-domain experts spanning the ability to make sense of unstructured data, aggregate from multiple sources, run prediction models on it, and make it available to various “application” providers.” Using data to predict the future seems a little farfetched but the technology is still new and not totally understood. Everyone does need to join the fight against terrorism but exactly how data prediction fits in remains to be seen.
April Holmes, January 12, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
eDiscovery Search May Not Be Worth It
January 12, 2012
According to the eDiscovery Daily blog piece “eDiscovery Case Law: Plaintiff Not Required to Review Millions of Pages of Unallocated Space” eDiscovery search is in big trouble. The case I-Med Pharma, Inc. vs. Biomatrix Inc. shed light on eDiscovery search and how troublesome it can be. This case highlights the dangers of carelessness and inattention in e-discovery,” District Judge Dickinson Debevoise wrote in his ruling. eDiscovery has made its way to Congress. Attorney William Butterfield, a partner at Hausefeld LLP was one of several asked to testify before the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution on the costs and burdens of eDiscovery according to the Clear Well Systems article “Q&A with William P. Butterfield on his Testimony Regarding the Costs and Burdens of eDiscovery Before the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution.” He and others stressed the importance of letting the Judicial Rules Review Committee continue to handle the situation instead of Congress prematurely interfering. Butterfield felt that “Nothing during the hearing led me to believe that Congress would interfere with the Rules Committee’s work and process.” Looks like eDiscovery dodged a bullet.
April Holmes, January 12, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Real Journalism: The Anterior in the Aeron Method
January 12, 2012
Short honk: I admire companies which can survive after technology renders their methods obsolete. One example is the crafts people who carve mallards in northern Indiana. Another is the “feet on the street” stringers who write about major events around the world. Well, I suppose I should say, “Seat on the sofa” or “anterior in the Aeron”, not “feet on the street.” I am referring to the time honored practice of the Associated Press’s use of mobile humans to cover events. The key is putting humans in state capitols, capturing the wisdom as it flows from the mouths of the elected representatives, and writing up the good stuff. Of course, with local newspapers chopping staff, the AP has been the go-to source for state politicos’ antics for many years.
The “real” journalist’s research vehicle. This is the Herman Miller Aeron Chaise 2/3. Kick back and get the news via an Internet connection. No need to talk to humans. No reason to ask vapid questions. No need to get a first hand feel of the crowd. Put the anterior in an aeron and produce news. Get static, dude. Image source: http://www.kalkwijk.com
The company takes a different approach to events such as the anachronistic Consumer Electronic Show. CES is held in the new, spiritual and emotional heart of America—Las Vegas. As you may know, this is a city where a destination looks as if one could walk to the status of Liberty in a couple of minutes. The spatial distortion often means a slog of 30 minutes through a crowd of America’s most intelligent and productive citizens.
Navigate to “Microsoft CEO Hits Familiar Chord in CES Swan Song.” Skip the ambiguity of “swan song” and pondering whether its reference is to Mr. Ballmer, Microsoft, or CES itself. Here’s the new “real” journalism method:
The Associated Press watched Ballmer’s speech in Las Vegas on a webcast.
Whether it is an online university or an update on a legal matter via YouTube.com, why go to an event, interview attendees, check out the crowd reaction, and maybe ask a “real” question? Irrelevant to modern news work.
Here in Harrod’s Creek, this 67 year old goose does not go to many trade shows and he never, ever visits Las Vegas. The older, gentler America in rural Illinois and the mine drainage choked pond are what he prefers.
Does he miss “real” life and information by relying on his Aeron and Internet connection? Well, he thought he did. But what’s good enough for the AP, a “real” news outfit is definitely good enough for an old person like me. Life as it is viewed is definitely better than life as it is actually experienced. Here’s another video on YouTube that makes the first hand experience essentially irrelevant. Good to know how news works today. A video is just like life now. Progress? Not for me but that’s a personal opinion.
Stephen E Arnold, January 12, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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