BrainSpace Strives to Replace Search Technologies
April 24, 2012
Enterprise search technology certainly needs a boost, but PureDiscovery claims to have created something to replace the outdated technology altogether.
The Dallas-based startup has introduced BrainSpace, a technology that doesn’t index data or require users to search for information on a platform. Instead, information will flow to users based on what they want to know as they interact with other content. According to the recent article, “Say Goodbye to Search and Hello to BrainSpace,” the company is already popular in the world of eDiscovery. The article asserts:
“But PureDiscovery has its eyes on even bigger fish, which is why it calls itself the first “post-search company.”
What PureDiscovery really wants to do — and what it’s working on for some customers — is build interest graphs for every user within the company. Aside from determining relationships between documents, that also means determining relationships between people, and between people and documents. It also means mashing up social-graph information with interest-graph information in order to improve how results are ranked and displayed, [CEO Dave] Copps said.”
Though the idea of matching people to documents without completing a search, it seems farfetched to us. Prediction and social analyzing can work to an extent, yet to reach the goals this company has eyes on, mind readers and magicians may be called upon. Perhaps some job recruiting can be completed at Pottermore.
Andrea Hayden, April 23, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Was There a Google Identification Hiccup?
April 24, 2012
The Fail Blog is notorious for reporting incidents when humanity hysterically fails. Had they read ZDNet’s, “Larry Page’s Identity Crisis: The Dead Weight of Google+” they would have posted it on their front page with a giant “FAIL” in the corner. Google+ cannot compete with Facebook. No one is signing up for Google’s social networking site, so they are relying on advertising to bring in the people. Google claims 50 million people have signed onto the service, but they are counting anyone who signs up for active Google services. One can conclude the number is much lower.
When Larry Page took over as Google’s CEO last year, he wanted to differentiate himself from his predecessor. Page relied on Google+ to mesh all of its applications into one cohesive whole, but Google fails to understand how a user uses his or her identity. Google users generally have more than one Gmail account. Google does not allow combine to mesh their accounts into one dashboard. The multiple accounts create an identity crisis in Google, because users want to be one person, not multiples.
“The issue of fragmented identity is longstanding and can bear partial responsibility for the fact that people sign up for new third-party services using identity mechanisms from Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, not from Google. People only tend to have one identity for each of those successful social networks.”
It’s easier to keep track of yourself across multiple third party accounts than dozens of Google profiles. Google+ will never be able to compete with Facebook. Maybe Google should concentrate on its strengths and building them up, rather than crossing into someone else’s territory.
Whitney Grace, April 24, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Conversation? I Think Not
April 23, 2012
In my dead tree edition of the New York Times, I read “The Flight from Conversation” by an MIT professor and author. The newspaper put the story on page one of the Sunday Review section with a jump to pages six and seven. The online version was visible to me this morning (April 23, 2012) as “Opinion. The Flight from Conversation.” I am never sure which New York Times story will be available to whom or for how long, so you are on your own if you get a 404 or a begging for dollars screen.
What I know is that “conversation” is idealized in today’s thumb typing world. Defining conversation is useful. Holding a conversation is getting to be an exercise in human interaction archaeology.
Does this Thomas Kinkade painting represent a real place? Does discourse today provide “conversation” or an idealized notion of give and take among and between individuals?
Straight away let me say that I found the write up interesting because it was chock full of “hooks”. I had a boss at Booz, Allen & Hamilton in the days when the firm had a pretty good reputation for management and technology consultant. This particular manager collected “hook phrases,” which he hoped to use in his reports, speeches, and his various writings. On my first pass through the Flight article I noted these keepers:
- Devices change what we do and who we are
- Turn desks into cockpits
- The Goldilocks [sic] effect
- Put ourselves on cable news
- Automatic listeners
- Confuse conversation with connection
- Illusion of companionship without the demands of relationship
- New devices have turned being alone into a problem that can be solved
- Device free zones
- Casual Fridays and conversational Thursdays
Quite a payload. Upon reviewing my collection of hooks from the essay, the author should be working for CNN or CNBC.
The key point of the write up is that instead of engaging in conversation, the thumb typing generation likes being with people and being online. I agree. The notion of checking email in the middle of a face to face conversation with a person at KY Fry or lunch chatter at a trade show often warrants some digital supplements. I get paid to attend to trade shows, but not even money can cut through the marketing blather, the pitches from consultants looking for work, and speakers who are nervous about giving a talk which will avoid controversy, make a good impression, and sell someone something.
My concern is not about the essay. The anomie of modern society has been an idea kicking around since I experienced college lectures from razor sharp academics. I started thinking about the assumptions on which the essay rests. For example, how easy is it at MIT or any big name university focused on funding, start ups, and getting faculty to function as magnets which pull cash for chairs to get faculty to make themselves available for students who want a conversation? Are those office hours real or the academic equivalent of vaporware?
Inteltrax: Top Stories, April 16 to April 20
April 23, 2012
Inteltrax, the data fusion and business intelligence information service, captured three key stories germane to search this week, specifically, how three of the biggest supporters of analytics are fairing.
Surprisingly, transportation has taken a shine to analytics, as we discovered in “Transportation Analytics Grows Crucial to Success”.
Not so surprisingly, government spending is leaning heavy on analytics. “Intelligence Community Leads Public Sector Analytics” showed how spy agencies love analytics.
Unfortunately, the one-time titan of analytic love, the medical field, is falling behind, as we learned in “Healthcare Analytics Needs a Boost”.
While there are thousands of industries that utilize big data analytics, these three are probably the most visible. Their successes and failures are important elements of the analytic story and ones we’ll be monitoring daily.
Follow the Inteltrax news stream by visiting www.inteltrax.com
Patrick Roland, Editor, Inteltrax.
April 23, 2012
OpenText Offers Content Auto Classification Solution
April 23, 2012
Open Text recently reported on a new transparent and defensible auto-classification designed for records managers in the article release “Open-Text Auto Classification.”
According to the article, very few companies a sound information governance strategy with appropriate records management services in place and therefore fail to dispose of their unstructured content that is no longer in use.
As a response to this paradoxical issue, the article states:
“At the core, the issue is that content needs to be classified or understood in order to determine why it must be retained, how long it must be retained and when it can be dispositioned. Managing the retention and disposition of information reduces litigation risk, it reduces discovery and storage costs, and it ensures organizations maintain regulatory compliance.”
The article goes on to explain why many end users fail to go through the tedious process of cataloging and managing their information and then advocates for Open Text’s auto classification solution. We found this article to be an interesting explanation of the Nstein technology with some new twists and recommend it as a great read for those interested in understanding records management more thoroughly.
Jasmine Ashton, April 23, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Open Search News: News about Open Source Search
April 23, 2012
As technology continues to evolve, a space has been created for more news sources than ever before. Even more importantly, each news site is able operate within its own niche. OpenSearchNews.com is a free service published Monday through Friday by Arnold IT, the publisher of Beyond Search and an expert in search and content processing.
The microsite’s content includes: critical commentary, information about products, and highlights additional sources of information about open source search.
Emily Aldrich, the information service’s editor said:
“Open source search has become a fast-growing segment of the enterprise search and big data markets. The number of companies competing in this segment is growing. The phenomenon is global with solutions available from Canada, the Danish Library, and entrepreneurs in the Russia. We are reporting on the companies, trends, and products which offer an alternative to the seven figure solutions from proprietary enterprise search solutions.”
Open source search is a relatively new development that is transforming enterprise search as we know it. Open Search News is one of the best sources for news on this burgeoning field.
Jasmine Ashton, April 23, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Mindbreeze Holds its Own in Forrester Assessment
April 23, 2012
Fabasoft Mindbreeze was included in a recent Forrester assessment of enterprise search offerings. Twelve vendor/products were analyzed, grouped into three categories: specialized, integrated, or detached. The official assessment will require an account to access, but CMS Wire does a good job of giving us the overview in, “Forrester Evaluates Enterprise Search Landscape, None Open Source.”
Today, the impetus for search enterprise search is much the same as it was decades ago: Finding information quickly. We just have exponentially more information and often have to find it more quickly. Despite the age of search, according to Forrester, many organizations don’t see enterprise search as a fundamental service like email. However, as content sizes continue to grow, become more diverse and the workplace is filled with a generation of web-savvy workers who just expect search to work, enterprise search solutions that help staff quickly locate information in disparate and diverse sources is becoming more of a necessity.
Here are a few of our initial observations:
First, we are just as shocked as the author at the lack of open source coverage. Open source is a growing force in the enterprise search market, driving innovation. Many of the successful commercial vendors are incorporating features pioneered in open source.
Secondly, Microsoft’s SharePoint offering, particularly its FAST search received no “excellent” ratings in any category. However, SharePoint is still seen as an obligatory tool for a broad enterprise infrastructure.
Lastly, Fabasoft Mindbreeze holds its own as a relatively small and young company amidst many big players such as IBM and Microsoft. Fabasoft Mindbreeze shines as a specialized tool, flexible and intuitive in meeting the specific needs of a fast moving market that are often overlooked by big infrastructures like SharePoint. In fact, many organizations use Mindbreeze as an add-on to an existing SharePoint infrastructure to increase efficiency and user satisfaction without costly customization.
Fabasoft Mindbreeze continues to win recognition, including an inclusion in KM World’s 100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management for four years running.
Mindbreeze, a Fabasoft subsidiary and a leading provider of software for enterprise search and information access, is again listed among the 100 companies in knowledge management. Fabasoft Mindbreeze has thus made the grade for the fourth time.
Keep an eye on the fast moving world of enterprise search, and check out the offerings of Fabasoft Mindbreeze to see if they might be a good fit for your enterprise.
Emily Rae Aldridge, April 23, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
PLM Cloud Based Future Is Here
April 23, 2012
Forward-looking organizations are increasingly realizing that implementing product lifecycle management (PLM) technology as an enterprise-wide data management tool can empower them to administer their often complex and fragmented product-related information with more efficiency in terms of cost, access, and applicability. Such gains can ultimately translate into increased product visibility and revenue in the targeted market.
In addition to seeking out PLM solutions that offer utility to the entire enterprise, cutting edge organizations in a variety of industries are frequently demanding cloud-based PLM products as discussed in the article entitled, “Increased Investments in Product Research to Drive Gains in the Global Product Lifecycle Management Market, According to New Report by Global Industry Analysts, Inc.”, that recently appeared on MaxFax.org,
“Another interesting trend worthy of note is the growing popularity of cloud-based on-demand PLM services/solutions and the initial impetus extended by the 2007-2009 recession to push cloud-based PLM out of its orbit. The bad economy has been feeding the market for cloud computing as cash- and revenue-starved companies prowl for IT solutions that are cost-effective and require minimum to zero investments and low management of computing resources. Technically, the feature of multi-tenancy, or the ability to scale up or scale down services on demand, makes fiscal sense in taut economic conditions. Simplicity in implementation and low costs are prime factors driving adoption of clouds by large and small enterprises alike. The rise in the number and variety of vendor products/offerings in this space will additionally drive acceptance.”
Considering this trend, Inforbix, whose scalable and affordable PLM products are already cloud-based, is strategically poised to partner with those progressive organizations seeking to implement an innovative, state-of-the-art data management application that enables their whole enterprise to find, reuse, and share product information easily.
Tonya Weikel, April 23, 2012
WideStat Collects and Provides Data on Web Sites
April 23, 2012
An interesting service has turned up with a report on Exorbyte. The site is named WideStat, and calls itself a “Website Worth Calculator.” The page is a collection of statistics, many of which are displayed in colorful charts. Pretty.
We are not sure if these types of auto-complete Web services help or hinder a search and content processing vendor. Here is what it has to say about our old friend, Exorbyte:
“Exorbyte.de has #662,408 traffic rank in world by Alexa. It gets 726 internet visitors per day. Visitors to it view 2.9 unique pages each day on average. Estimated daily time on site 02:45 seconds. It has an average of 786 pages indexed in major search engines like Google. There are an average of 124 links pointing back to exorbyte.de from other websites. Exorbyte.de has the potential to earn $15 USD in advertisement revenue per day. It has an estimated value of $5,227 USD. Out of the 30 unique keywords found on exorbyte.de, ‘exorbyte’ was the most dense. This site has Google PageRank 4 of 10.”
As a aside, think about how much more readable that would have been had a human written or translated it. Just a thought.
We are not sure if these types of Web services help or hinder a search and content processing vendor. Besides, the 726 daily visitors to the company’s Web site strikes us as quite low. We recommend you check your company on WideStat and see what tidbits it may have picked up about your business.
Headquartered in Konstanz, Germany, Exorbyte was founded at the turn of the century. The company provides search and data matching software and solutions for online ecommerce, directories, and data quality applications. Their core platform is colorfully named MatchMaker.
Cynthia Murrell, April 23, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
IBM Pushing Watson Through Video Marketing: A Good Thing?
April 23, 2012
Watson, IBM’s supercomputer, triggered media furor when it defeated two of the world’s best Jeopardy players in the much-publicized “Man vs. Machine” challenge early last year. Now, the same supercomputer system is being pitched by the company as a valuable healthcare resource that would help diagnose medical conditions and recommend treatments.
Wall Street Technology Association’s abstract of the webcast “Rebroadcast IBM Watson and Medical Records Text Analytics” reports the following:
With IBM Content Analytics and its healthcare-specific solution called Medical Records Text Analytics, the Natural Language Processing technologies used in Watson are available to unleash the content traditionally locked in doctor’s notes, clinical records, journal articles, desk references, drug uses / interactions, and many other medical content sources.
This move by IBM to embrace videos to promote its products and services is effective, but will only work on video-oriented IT procurement managers who don’t have the time and patience to read through pages upon pages of product manuals. The problem with videos is that they are not the real thing. Similar to the three-part Jeopardy episode that shows a machine trumping the best human players, video marketing relies heavily on post-production. Expertly done post-production will easily allow you to forge and optimize the ambiance, background, music, and other elements.
While we know that Watson is from the technology mogul IBM and uses proven search technologies like Lucene, SPARQL, and Indri, it needs more than a winning streak in a popular game show and videos with testimonials merely from healthcare industry professionals to prove its worth in providing solutions for businesses belonging to different industries.
Tell me, IBM. How else can you convince us to purchase your costly POWER7 servers and adapt Watson if there are other proven and inexpensive natural language processing solutions out in the market?
Lauren Llamanzares, April 23, 2011
Sponsored by Polyspot
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