Linguamatics and Chemaxon Hook Up for Text Mining
February 7, 2012
Unlike Web search, Text Mining is the discovery of new, previously unknown information, by automatically extracting high quality information from written documents and texts.
According to a recent news release entitled “Linguamatics and Chemaxon Announce Project to Enhance Text Mining in Chemistry” text mining software creator Linguamatics and software developer ChemAxon have announced that they are partnering for a new and exciting project that is code named “ChiKEl”, or Chemically Informed Knowledge Extraction from Literature.
The release states:
ChiKEL will provide the first interactive text mining system designed for chemistry, integrating advanced chemical search and extraction of relationships between structures and other biological or chemical entities. By combining chemical search and text mining, users will be able to perform chemical structure and biological searches to extract structured information for further analysis from patents, scientific articles, and internal documents.
The scientific processes of finding and extracting information is becoming more and more relevant as structured and unstructured information continues to grow at an increasingly rapid pace. By Integrating name?to?structure and structure search directly within an interactive text mining system, ChiKEl enables structure search to be mixed with linguistic constraints for more precise filtering.
Jasmine Ashton, February 7, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
The Internet: Wonderland or Wasteland?
February 7, 2012
For years the Internet has increasingly become the go-to source for information, networking, shopping, and socializing. You can read the news on any major news outlet, check the weather for the day, send messages to friends and family, and buy anything your heart desires, all before getting out of bed or having your first cup of coffee, and all at the touch your fingertips.
The Internet can easily be considered the greatest medium for information, and it has completely transformed the way we communicate, the way we shop, and even the way we learn. While the Internet can certainly be considered a convenience, is there ever a point when too much information or too much access is a problem?
In the recent report “Are We on Information Overload?” posted on Salon.com, Thomas Rogers interviews David Weinberger, author of recently published Too Big to Know, on the impact the Internet has on knowledge today and if the vastness of readily available information is too much for our minds to handle. According to Weinberger:
Ask anybody who is in any of the traditional knowledge fields, and she or he will very likely tell you that the Internet has made them smarter. They couldn’t do their work without it; they’re doing it better than ever before, they know more; they can find more; they can run down dead ends faster than ever before. In the sciences and humanities, it’s hard to find somebody who claims the Internet is making him or her stupid, even among those who claim the Internet is making us stupid….Curiosity can lead you to lots of bad directions. It can steer you wrong and waste your time, but it is fundamental. We need it more than anything else if we’re going to try to understand our world. Now we have a medium that is as broad as our curiosity.
I really don’t know if I can say that the Internet has made me smarter (especially with the constant flow of nonsense I expose myself to on a regular basis on social networking sites), but it’s certainly made doing my job easier on many occasions.
The information you can find on the Internet is limitless, and if you can’t find something, you have the ability to put it there so the next person can find it. As Weinberger suggests, it is a great tool for the curious mind. If the curious mind suffers from lack of focus, though, then I would imagine overload is a definite possibility.
Stacey Duwe, February 7, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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Discovery Engines and Information Overload Management
February 7, 2012
Are discovery engines the cure for information overload? The Darwin Awareness Engine Blog lists “How to Manage Information Overload: 6 Ways Discovery Engines Help.” First, a distinction: a discovery engine goes further than a search engine, offering tools to refine a search, consolidate data, and apply context to the results.
Discovery engines, states writer Romain Goday, help users navigate overwhelming data because they: focus on topics, not people; go straight to the source of information; supply information through a single channel; let users discover what they didn’t know that they didn’t know; often go through a curation process; and reduce anxiety by combining and ranking sources. See the write up for details on each point.
The article asserts:
Managing information overload requires tools that deliver ‘awareness’ of topics and filter out irrelevant information will become indispensable. The challenge is to do so without losing the ability to make unexpected discoveries. Content discovery engines are addressing this need with a multitude of approaches. The market remains very fragmented but we can expect important players to emerge in the next few years.
I’m sure we can. Our concern is that information may be lost through the auto-selection process. Is it wise to rely on an AI for such an important task? Do we have a choice at this point, or has the big data monster grown too big for the human touch?
Cynthia Murrell, February 7, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
How Amazon Could Win the Technology War
February 7, 2012
When we think about the battle between the technology giants, Amazon is not generally one of the titans that comes to mind. However, the recent Search Engine Watch article “How Amazon Is Competing With Apple and Google” sets out to prove us wrong.
According to the article, Amazon is one of the few companies that can match Google in sheer computing power. While the company is often overshadowed, in reality Amazon has created products that could potentially out compete Apple, Google, and Microsoft in key areas of the online media landscape.
The article states:
While Google makes Android tablets and Apple produces the iPad, Amazon has launched the Kindle Fire. While Google has Google Docs storage and Apple has iCloud, Amazon has the Cloud Drive. In the “vs Google” arena, the list keeps going: Google Music competes directly with Amazon MP3, Google Checkout faces Amazon Checkout, and YouTube covers the same territory as Amazon Unbox.
The article also provides an interesting info graphic that shows all of the markets that Amazon is competing with other technology companies in, as well as a headline analysis of why Amazon could come out on top. If we don’t watch out, Amazon could leave these other tech giants in the dust.
Amazon has been one step ahead of Google for a number of years. When Udi Manber quit Amazon for Google, Amazon’s technology unit upped its game. Now Amazon, not Google, seems to have momentum in the battle against Apple.
Jasmine Ashton, February 7, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
NASA and Innovation
February 6, 2012
Short honk: Navigate to “USA Kills Mars Missions.” Now NASA once suggested innovation, boldness, and a try-and-try-again approach to quality control. Remember O rings? If the news story is accurate, NASA is pulling out of another possibly bold adventure. The story said:
The American space agency looks set to pull the plug on its joint missions to Mars with the European Space Agency. Nasa has told Esa it is now highly unlikely it will be able to contribute to the endeavors, which envision an orbiting satellite and a big roving robot being sent to the Red Planet.
To make the story more important, there was a quote to note; to wit:
"I cannot pretend the situation is not grim," commented Dr David Parker, director of science, technology and exploration at the UK Space Agency (UKSA).
Now one must ask questions about other innovations; for example, the search and content processing system in use at NASA. Bold or mousey? The good news is that this pull out is an example of exogenous complexity, which dooms an action due to considerations beyond a manager’s control.
Stephen E Arnold, February 7, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Social Media Addiction
February 6, 2012
I am not sure I believe this story, but thar she blows: “Facebook and Twitter Are More Addictive Than cigarettes or Alcohol, Study Finds.” The Fox News writer has not spent much time with hard drug types so I suppose the omission to references to controlled substances is an indication of intelligent life. Here’s the passage I noted:
A team from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business recently conducted an experiment involving 205 people in Wurtzburg, Germany to analyze the addictive properties of social media and other vices.
Now that’s a real world institution for sure. What did the researchers “find”?
“Modern life is a welter of assorted desires marked by frequent conflict and resistance, the latter with uneven success,” said Wilhelm Hofmann, the leader of team conducting the study. Hofmann suggests people may fail to resist social media so much because there is no obvious or immediate downside to checking services like Twitter or Facebook. He does warn that these services can ultimately be a huge drain on users’ time, however. “Desires for media may be comparatively harder to resist because of their high availability and also because it feels like it does not ‘cost much’ to engage in these activities, even though one wants to resist,” Hofmann said.
Wurtzburg is a long way from the goose pond. Chicago is about six hours by either air or auto. The goose is obviously to close to both the source of the data and the wizards who figured out that social media is worse than alcohol. Wow.
How would I search for this study? I would probably use the keywords specious, untenable, and statistically valid but conceptually flawed. Go University of Chicago. Get another Nobel Prize for this type of work.
Stephen E Arnold, February 6, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Inteltrax: Top Stories, January 30 to February 3, 2012
February 6, 2012
Inteltrax, the data fusion and business intelligence information service, captured three key stories germane to search this week, specifically, how governments are embracing and utilizing big data analytics, especially during this early stage in the 2012 political cycle.
We got a good overall look at the issue from the story, “Government Healthcare and Analytics Make a Good Team,” showed how, as the title implies, this pairing is making some impressive waves in the world.
Another story, “Social Media and Politics Share Big Data Love” showed us how Ron Paul and others have utilized social media to get a better take on the issues.
Finally, the most promising of our stories, “Government Grows Into Big Data Workhorse” shows how governments around the globe could kick start a big data revolution.
Analytics and big data are growing by leaps and bounds. However, it seems as if government can be its best friend and often tries to be so. We’re going to keep chronicling this partnership, because we sense big things on the horizon.
Follow the Inteltrax news stream by visiting www.inteltrax.com.
Patrick Roland, Editor, Inteltrax, February 6, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Protected: SharePoint 2010 Governance with DocAve Software
February 6, 2012
Gartner Predictions Include PLM and Cloud Services
February 6, 2012
With companies across all industries still struggling to survive after the past few years of economic recession across the globe it is nice to see there is a light at the end of the tunnel. At least that is what analysts at Gartner predict as reported in the article, Gartner Looks Beyond 2012, Sees Big Changes for Payers, Providers, on Healthcare IT News. After studying several industries Gartner produces a report with some very interesting predictions based upon the global economy, technology trends and social media.
A few of the highlights from the report were listed in the article and are as follows,
“Among Gartner’s predictions affecting the healthcare industry in the coming years: By 2014, 30 percent of U.S. private healthcare payers will acquire providers, forcing integration of application suites as delivery and finance merge…By 2015, 30 percent of smart grid projects will leverage cloud services to address big data from converging technologies…By 2014, the five largest product life cycle management software providers will make social networking an integral part of their solution.”
There is a continuing shift to cloud services and new data management solutions as evidenced in the report discussed in the article. As more industries are forced into cloud services due to the economy enterprise search and data management must also adapt. If these predictions hold true it would be a wise decision for businesses to stop viewing cloud services as an ‘if’ and begin making plans on integrating their own enterprise into this brave new world of big data and cloud services.
Catherine Lamsfuss, February 6, 2012
Checklist: Before you Escalate a Ticket to Microsoft Support
February 6, 2012
Joel Oleson of SharePoint Joel blog recently published a list of “7 Things You Should Do Before You Escalate to Microsoft Support” when troubleshooting a system issue. Oleson’s in-depth list goes beyond the obvious troubleshooting that Tier 2, Tier 3, and Engineering should do and includes checklist items such as reading up on your service pack and cumulative update level, rebooting, working with the entire team to isolate the issue, and reviewing code. First on the list:
You know one of the first things Microsoft support will want to know is what version and patch level you are at. If you’re way back, they are going to ask you to upgrade. At a minimum you should be on the latest service pack to address the majority of bugs they will point to. Now understanding that there are different tolerances to patching, this will be something you will need to decide. My recommendation is you don’t install a CU unless you need it. Well, when you’re dealing with what you think is a bug, there’s a chance it’s fixed a CU rollup or more recent CU.
Oleson also suggests reaching out to social solution forums, such as Twitter or the Microsoft Newsgroups.
Steps to help prevent long man hours on the phone with tech support while your system is not functioning properly are, of course, welcome. But this checklist sure sounds like a lot of trouble. Depending on your organization, you may not want to devote the time and effort for extensive troubleshooting prior to calling tech-support. We think it would be easier to go with a simple third-party solution like Mindbreeze, cutting down on the costly man hours.
Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise provides consistent and comprehensive information access to both corporate and Cloud sources. The seamless Cloud solution makes sure you find the right information you need at any time. Check out the full suite of solutions at Fabasoft Mindbreeze.
Philip West, February 6, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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