Ex-Googler Laments the New Google
February 2, 2012
Nelson of Nelson’s Weblog is “No Longer Loving Google, Inc.” Sour grapes? Perhaps not, as the ex-Google employee maintains he has defended the company many times since 2006.
What changed?
The write up explains:
“This last month has been particularly hard for Google lovers. I took the company’s side in the Kenya mobile fiasco up until the company admitted that, indeed, employees were lying to steal customers from Mocality. Then the big stories about Google Search+ and Google’s new privacy policy. I think one is actively bad and the other is mostly harmless, but both changes are so complex and unpleasantly self-motivated it makes me sad. So now when I read about a friend getting terminated from AdSense with no explanation I just get a headache.
The article goes on to posit that Google has gotten so big that it has shifted its focus from improving the world to improving its own bottom line. The writer has decided to dedicate his energies to “upstarts and startups.” That’s actually not a bad idea.
Cynthia Murrell, February 02, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Social Media Analytics: Relationships with End User Consumers
February 2, 2012
Text Analytics News recently partnered with Useful Social Media to publish a series of interviews with experts in the field of Social Media Analytics. The second installment focuses on the relationships between vendors and their end user consumers.
“Social Media Analytics Expert Interview Series: Part 2” is conducted by the Chief Editor of Text Analytics news, Ezra Steinberg. The interview panel includes: Meta Brown, General Manager of Analytics at LinguaSys; Christine Campbell, Director of Marketing at Socialware; and Pirouz Nilforoush, President & Co-Founder of NetShelter Technology Media. All three interviewees will be speaking at the Social Media Analytics Summit in San Francisco in April. The interview sheds some light on customer interaction; some helpful questions and responses from the interview follow:
“USM: What do you believe the average consumer thinks about companies’ social media listening initiatives?
Nilforoush (Netshelter): I think the average consumer is confused as to why different brands are initiating conversations with them online that can resemble advertising or spam. Brands need to focus their efforts around engaging their top influencers, rather than trying to engage with every single person that has something to say about their brand. It is not a scalable model for the brands and can be annoying for the end user. Instead, brands should focus their efforts on the people that have the biggest impact on their brand. These influencers will do the work for brands on their own and impact the masses.
USM: What would you tell someone who is thinking about employing social media analytics for their company?
Brown (LinguaSys): Start with just one narrow project tied to a specific business problem. Choose something where you feel confident that quick improvement is possible. Plan carefully – what’s the path from data collection to analytics to action to returns? Give yourself the best opportunity to succeed – don’t begin until you have made a plan that gives you a way to demonstrate measurable value for your investment in social analytics!
The interview focuses on planning for implementation of social media analytics and consumer’s thoughts on the topic. Many organizations would benefit by considering the opinions and thoughts provided by these leaders in social media. The full interview can be found here and can give insight on building relationships via social media and what to anticipate during the process.
Andrea Hayden, February 02, 2012
NASA and Technical Information Search
February 2, 2012
I recall a Popular Science feature called “The Top 10 Failed NASA Missions.” I dug through my files and the story ran in March 2009. You can find a version of the article online, at least today, February 2, 2012, at 8 30 am Eastern. Tomorrow? Who knows.
A happy quack to The Doctor Weighs In.
Among the flops mentioned were:
- The Orbiting Carbon Observatory. I thought that the test lasted 17 minutes was interesting.
- Helios. This solar powered flying wing thing managed a 30 minute flight before crashing.
- Genesis. After catching “pieces of the sun” as Popular Science phrased it, the parachute did not open, but scientists were able to pick up pieces from the Utah desert. Progress!
- SBIRS. This was a passel of surveillance satellites. I don’t know much about SBIRS beyond the $10 billion cost overrun. According the Popular Science, one government official described SBIRS as a “useless ice cube.”
I was curious about post 2009 NASA activities. I could not locate a historical run down of alleged missteps, but I found “NASA Glory Mission Ends in Failure”, published by the BBC. The article asserted:
The Glory satellite lifted off from California on a quest to gather new data on factors that influence the climate. But about three minutes into the flight, telemetry indicated a problem. It appears the fairing – the part of the rocket which covers the satellite on top of the launcher – did not separate properly… Exactly the same problem befell NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) in 2009. It too launched on a Taurus XL rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base, and again the fairing failed to separate properly.
Wow. Exactly the same failure. The “Mishap Investigation Board” tackled the problem and apparently failed to fix the flop. I did a bit of poking around, and I learned that the NASA Safety Center analyzes system failures. In fact, there is a Web page called “System Failure Case Studies.” There are some interesting analyses, but I could not spot too many which focused on NASA’s own boo boos.
Curious about this apparent omission, I ran a query for NASA failure on www.usa.gov and www.science.gov. What did I learn? The top hit was from ASK magazine, a source which was new to me. The magazine’s “real” name is Ask the Academy, and it seems to be a Web site. What is interesting is that the top hit on USA.gov was “Success, Failure, and NASA Culture.” I read the article which was published originally in 2008. My hunch is that budget cuts are trimming the staff required to create original content. Recycling is a way to save some tax payer greenbacks I surmise. The 2008 write up republished on January 26, 2012 stated:
Improvement in system reliability came with increased bureaucracy, as systems engineering put a variety of crosschecks and reviews in place. System dependability improved, but these processes and technologies increased the cost of each vehicle. Eventually, and in response to pressures to decrease costs, engineers and managers cut back on safety and reliability measures.
The idea, I think, means that if something worked, then by eliminating the quality processes, the system which works is going to fail. I may not have that correct, but it seems that bureaucracy and efficiency help ensure failure. I never considered this management notion before, and frankly I am rejecting it.
In my experience, the processes which delivered success should be integrated into the work flow. Processes which do not contribute to success become the candidates for rationalization. In short, one engineers to deliver consistent success. One does not make decisions which deliver consistent failure.
The top hit on Science.gov was to “Failure Is Not an Option.” The hit was fascinating because it showed the Apollo 13 flight director in 1970. I did not recall this 1970 mission because I was indexing Latin sermons at some fourth rate university at the time. Wikipedia reminded me:
Apollo 13 was the seventh manned mission in the American Apollo space program and the third intended to land on the Moon. The craft was launched on April 11, 1970, at 13:13 CST. The lunar landing was aborted after an oxygen tank exploded two days later, crippling the service module upon which the Command Module depended. Despite great hardship caused by limited power, loss of cabin heat, shortage of potable water and the critical need to jury-rig the carbon dioxide removal system, the crew returned safely to Earth on April 17.
Okay, I suppose success means getting the crew back, which was a solid achievement in the midst of a mission failure.
So what?
Well, NASA is not exactly the government agency which resonates with consistent technology decisions. When it comes to search, much of the commercial scientific and technical search effort is a result of NASA’s need for an online index. That was in the 1970s, Apollo 13 time too.
Important developments in information access at NASA have been less frequent and, I would assert, few and far between. Today, NASA has a preference for Microsoft SharePoint, and we have learned has concluded its expensive procurement of an automated content indexing system. We are not sure which vendor is prepared to cope with exogenous complexity in the NASA environment.
We would assert that if NASA continues along its present course, successes will blended with some failures. One hopes that when it comes to search and retrieval, NASA makes informed decisions, not choices based on budget limitations, expediency, or overlooking exogenous factors such as complexity.
Stephen E Arnold, February 2, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Protected: Introductory Courses are the Best Way to Learn SharePoint
February 2, 2012
PLM Expert Embraces Next Generation of Data Management
February 2, 2012
A recent blog post titled, Design News Radio Explores Next-Generation PLM, on DesignNews website, announced an interview with Dr. Michael Grieves, a PLM author and professor at the Consortium of Universities for International Studies with the topic being the next generation of PLM. Dr. Grieves has written about how PLM has changed industries for the better in many areas of design and manufacturing.
Within the post we found a most amazing description of PLM:
“PLM was launched more than a decade ago with the lofty vision of creating an enterprise-wide, central repository for all product-related data, from the earliest customer requirements feedback through quality and failure data collected in the field by maintenance and support personnel. The idea beyond this closed-loop vision of PLM was to have continuous workflow and continuous flow of information so every constituent in the product development process, whether in an internal functional group or part of an outside partner, was working off the same set of information.”
Although the description is lengthy we love the focus on data management. Anyone can clearly see that PLM was designed to streamline enterprise search and data management within large organizations. PLM has done wonders since its arrival but as data continues to grow and change new data management solutions must be adopted by companies in order to continue meeting the goals presented first by the original PLM designers years ago.
As Dr. Grieves suggests there must now be a new generation of PLM for it work as efficiently as it has in the past. Companies not willing to invest in the upgrades mandatory to this next level will be left behind dealing with mounds of unreachable data.
Catherine Lamsfuss, February 2, 2012
Training Ideas to Get End Users Understanding SharePoint
February 2, 2012
EndUserSharePoint.com’s Kat Weixel worked with the SharePoint community to build a certification test for team site administrators. The plan details can be read in, “End User Certification: A Test for the Rest of Us.” The community-generated test is not an official Microsoft certification, but it may give just as good insights because it was built by the end user community. Weixel’s goal:
I’m hopeful this will allow IT professionals or others in SharePoint management positions to feel far more comfortable handing out the coveted “full control” of a site. We can ask people to attend training or watch tutorials or read materials…but we can’t easily measure their absorption of all that learning. I think a certification test can really help fill that hole, and I can’t wait to develop it!
It is no doubt that end user training is heading to another level and taking cues from the social and collaboration trends. A certification test could be a handy tool for site administrators looking to get newbies up to speed. However, to really turn your users into power-users in the SharePoint system, you may need more than a Q and A.
To bypass the need for some expensive or time-consuming training, consider a third party solution like Fabasoft Mindbreeze, which extends the capabilities of your SharePoint system. Their Web Parts based information pairing capabilities give you powerful searches and a complete picture of your business information, allowing you to get the most out of your enterprise search investments. And your end users will benefit from the fast and intuitive search with clearly displayed results and simple navigation.
Mindbreeze’s intuitiveness means less training required. They also have tutorials and wikis that are easy to use and more efficient. Here you can browse Mindbreeze’s support tools for users, including videos, FAQs, wikis, and other training options. Check out the full suite of solutions at Fabasoft Mindbreeze.
Philip West, February 2, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
WordFlood 2.0 for “Content Manglement”
February 2, 2012
I’m at a loss for words when faced with software like WordFlood 2.0 Unique Content Generator, discussed on the PC Things blog. The whole point of software like this is to twist other people’s original writings until they are no longer recognizable so a site can post them without getting sued. Search engine optimization is part of the goal, of course. The write up asks:
If you could without any effort produce unique articles at the velocity of ‘thought’, just how many would you produce? If you could change all those Private Label Rights articles sitting in your disk drive into high quality hard cash producing site articles, e-zine articles, blog posts, or ebooks quicker than you ever thought possible, just how much more do you believe you could profit?
Ugh. Is this is what passes for quality content with the iPad crowd? The results cannot possibly hold a candle to professionally produced articles.
These tools are not illegal, but, in this writer’s opinion, certainly immoral. Why should some Web site looking to make a buck make it from mangling my, or any other professional’s, thoughtful words?
Humph.
Cynthia Murrell, February 2, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Brainware Receives Rave Reviews
February 2, 2012
According to The Sacramento Bee article “Healthcare Payments Automation Summit (HPAS 2012) to Feature Brainware Customer Success Stories” Brainware Inc. is on display at the Healthcare Payments Automation Summit (HPAS 2012). Charles Kaplan, Vice President of Marketing for Brainware, brings attention to the excessive amount of unnecessary time that the healthcare industry spends pushing papers and states:
The success of providers like Mayo Clinic, Gundersen Lutheran and Resurrection offer resounding proof that intelligent data capture technology is the key to freeing those resources, turning slow, error-prone, manual data entry routines into efficient, transparent, well-oiled machines for generating profit and opportunity in healthcare.
However, Brainware’s technology could be considered backwoods to some. None of Brainware’s software platforms use taxonomies, indexing or any other type of tagging methods. This is in direct contrast to others such as Access Innovations who pride themselves in offering a full range of tagging features to produce more accurate results. Some might wonder if Brainware and trigrams really are a step in the right direction.
April Holmes, February 2, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Craig Norris Leaves Attensity
February 2, 2012
Chiliad has issued the press release, “New CEO Begins Duties at CHILIAD in Herndon, VA.” Craig Norris is leaving Attensity to head that company. Attensity, owned by Aeris Capital, is positioned as a global natural language analytics company. Chiliad seems to be its direct competitor. Interesting.
Chiliad Chairman Patrick Gross noted a couple of challenges his company’s new CEO has already tackled:
The first is the ability to rapidly search data collections at greater scale than any other offering in the market. The second is to allow search formulation and analysis in natural language. This means that no longer is an elite class of analysts required in order to generate meaningful results, thus reducing the personnel training and skills shortages that plague alternative solutions and put timely discovery at risk. The explosion of ‘Big Data’ is real and valuable findings are buried in vast collections for both enterprises and governments. Chiliad has the opportunity to integrate its innovative, massively scalable solutions with emerging open source software to build customized solutions for the largest-scale clients.
It will be interesting to see how the market reacts to this shift.
Cynthia Murrell, February 2, 2012
Autonomy Serves US Government with Governance
February 2, 2012
It seems our nation is finally getting its records in digital order. The Sacramento Bee reports, “Autonomy Empowers U.S. to Meet President Obama’s New Memorandum on Government Records.” According to the Memorandum, government agencies must standardize their content policies and transfer relevant files to the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. The press release presents Autonomy as the tool for the job:
Autonomy delivers a comprehensive suite of information governance solutions that addresses the broad and varying needs of enterprises and government agencies. With support for over 150 languages and access to over 1,000 file types through 400 pre-built connectors to disparate content sources, repositories and legacy systems, the Autonomy solutions can apply policy consistently to every information source in the enterprise simultaneously, while managing content in place and reducing duplicates across all enterprise repositories.
Autonomy, owned by HP, is a leader in the field of unstructured data management and serves prominent public and private organizations around the globe. The company was founded in 1996, and has made its fortune on the fruit of research originally performed at Cambridge University.
Cynthia Murrell, February 2, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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