Yahoo, Flubs, and an Azure Chip Consulting Firm
May 12, 2012
The addled goose steers clear of icebergs. But Yahoo, flubs, and an azure chip consulting firm keep appearing in my Overflight system. The most recent item to catch my attention was “Heidrick & Struggles Slaps Back at Thompson’s Yahoo in Blame Game Over ResuMess.” In terms of Web indexing, this headline is a keeper. I am not sure how many hits “resumess” had prior to this article, but it will be a zingy word going forward.
The point of this write up is that an azure chip consulting firm in the business of recruiting blue-chip or maybe azure chip executives defended itself and its professionalism. Here’s the passage in the “real” news story I noted:
[Scott] Thompson [the CEO with the flub on his bio] did not name the firm, but he was clearly referring to Heidrick & Struggles, which handled that placement. It was also working on the Yahoo CEO search, after the Silicon Valley Internet giant fired its former CEO Carol Bartz last fall. But, because it had originally placed Thompson at eBay, the firm did not work on his hiring at Yahoo.
Ah, the same firm—Heidrick & Struggles–was involved with eBay and Yahoo. Some questions:
- What did the headhunting firm have in its files about Mr. Thompson? Perhaps an “old” version of Mr. Thomson’s curriculum vitae?
- Did anyone request a transcript from Mr. Thompson’s college? If so, who and when? What did the transcript reveal?
- Why did the azure chip consulting firm write a letter without some hard data. I have been in meetings in which highly paid consultants armed with stacks of “facts”, clippings, data, and interview notes. Why not present some of this information?
A mistake happened somewhere along the line. As a curious type of person, I was hoping for some more substance to what is a most interesting affair. Oh, I graduated from Bradley University with a major in poetry. Now I am an addled goose floating in a pond filled with mine run off. Iambic pentameter or perhaps something with a Catullus dactylic Hexameter. I should have applied for a job at eBay or Yahoo in my youth. Engineers, MBAs, accountants, and movie moguls have not fared particularly well. A spondee to you, gentle reader. A struggle one might say.
Stephen E Arnold, May 12, 2012
Sponsored by HighGainBlog
The Ailing State of Health Info Tech
May 12, 2012
No wonder search for medical information within an institution is darned near impossible. O’Reilly Radar reports on "The State of Health IT According to the American Hospital Association." The extensive article details the American Hospital Association‘s findings and describes the implications in depth. Journalist Andy Oram laments:
"The most poignant aspect of the AHA letter is its careful accumulation of data to show the huge gap between what health care calls for and what hospitals, vendors, standards bodies, and even the government are capable of providing."
It seems like we should have closed that gap by now, but I guess that’s like those jetpacks we still don’t have. In brief, the AHA found the following: basic quality and cost control measures are commonly skipped; the meaningful use reforms created for electronic health records are often meaningless; doctors still record much of their data in unstructured formats; quality reporting measures are unreliable and vary widely between hospitals; and government agencies are dragging their feet in making changes they are pushing others to adopt right away. (Government hypocrisy? Shocking.)
See the article for its comprehensive analysis of the issues. The part that most catches my eye is the discussion on electronic health records. The EHR concept seems simple enough, and obviously necessary, but apparently it isn’t that simple. For one thing, existing hospital and doctor office staff aren’t all computer savvy. Another problem seems to be inadequate standards, specifications that failed to take some important details into account. Vendors have had to improvise on those points, which means a huge difference in scope and quality between EHR systems. What a mess.
Oram concludes his examination with:
"What I find particularly troublesome about their report is that the AHA offers no hint that the hospitals spent all this money to put in place new workflows that could improve care. All the money went to EHRs and the minimal training and installation they require. What will it take for hospitals to make the culture changes that reap the potential benefits of EHRs and data transfers?"
Excellent question.
Cynthia Murrell, May 12, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Infor Trailblazes the Future of Workplace Social Technology
May 12, 2012
Market Watch recently reported on a new enterprise software solution in the news release “Infor Delivers the Next Step in Software: Social Business Applications.”
According to the release, enterprise software provider Infor has announced the release of a new enterprise software solution that has the advanced capability to collaborate and communicate. What does this mean exactly?
The New Workspace works similarly to social networking tools and provides a similar interface. But it also works as a great asset to workplace decision making by providing role-based and contextual information from multiple applications in a single interface.
When describing the benefits of the New Workplace, the article states:
“Workspace also helps manufacturers address the critical problem of attracting and energizing young workers, particularly millennials. With Workspace, younger generations of workers are able to interact with one another in a way similar to their interpersonal interactions online. They can share and discuss their work with each other in an intuitive, familiar environment, helping to excite them and ignite the creative collaboration that fuels innovation.”
Due to rapid technological advancement it is imperative that companies adapt to meet the needs of the next generation of employees. This innovative new platform is an excellent step towards achieving this.
Jasmine Ashton, May 12, 2012
Publishers Sour on Apps
May 12, 2012
Have you noticed a slowdown in attempts to app-ify traditional publications? Technology Review describes "Why Publishers Don’t Like Apps." Writer Jason Pontin describes early attempts of publishers to cure their Internet woes with apps. They seem to have expected tablet and smartphone users to relate to the written word more like, well, the written word than like a Web site. Sure, most of the projects supported some limited interactability, but publishers also expected people to be happy viewing simple replicas of print materials. And, they expected to be able to charge for this paltry access.
Problems abounded from the beginning, including grossly underestimating costs (an age-old problem), and technical difficulties converting print matter into apps. The write up emphasizes:
"But the real problem with apps was more profound. When people read news and features on electronic media, they expect stories to possess the linky-ness of the Web, but stories in apps didn’t really link. The apps were, in the jargon of information technology, ‘walled gardens,’ and although sometimes beautiful, they were small, stifling gardens. For readers, none of that beauty overcame the weirdness and frustration of reading digital media closed off from other digital media.
"Without subscribers or many single-copy buyers, and with no audiences to sell to advertisers, there were no revenues to offset the incremental costs of app development. With a couple of exceptions, publishers therefore soured on apps."
Ah, so publishers don’t like apps because the golden goose is a sparrow and lays small monetary eggs. Got it.
Cynthia Murrell, May 12, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Facebook in Numbers
May 11, 2012
Not surprisingly, Facebook showed off some big numbers in a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The May 3rd, 2012 S-1 filing, detailed in a post titled “Facebook’s Numbers,” contains the basic business and financial information on popular social networking site Facebook.
The author states:
“I like to look at raw numbers every once in a while, without external influence, to recalibrate my ability to judge the magnitude of things. Here are some of the numbers from Facebook’s most recent S-1 filing(published on May 3rd) which I think are important as metrics to compare against when thinking about relative success and opportunity.”
Here are some interesting data included in the write-up:
- 526 M worldwide total daily active users
- 901 M worldwide total monthly active users
- $1,058 M worldwide total revenue last quarter
With numbers like this, no wonder the IPO valued the company around $86 billion. The company plans to sell shares for $28 to $35 each, which will raise roughly $10.6 billion, making it the fifth highest IPO in history. We knew Facebook was big, but now this IPO is just begging us to buy stock.
Andrea Hayden, May 11, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Onix Inks Deal With Federal Government
May 11, 2012
A $34.9 million contract with the federal government has recently been inked and means big business for a Detroit Avenue tech company.
Onix Networking will provide cloud-computing services to the Department of the Interior, according to the Lakewood Patch article, “Lakewood Company Lands $35 Million Contract with Federal Government.” The company, founded in 1992, provides services like cloud computing, storage solutions, and Enterprise search. It is also a Google-centric vendor. The article asserts:
“The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said shifting to a cloud-based email system will modernize the ways the agency does business and cut costs, amounting to ‘good government, plain and simple.’
He added that the contract is part of an initiative to ‘leverage modern technology to save up to $500 million in taxpayer dollars by 2020.’
The news may mean more growth for the Detroit Avenue company as it looks to expand into its nearly 40,000-square-foot location in the Georgetown Row half of the former Bonne Bell headquarters at the corner Detroit and Graber avenues.”
What else does this news release mean? Since Onix is a long-standing partner with Google (the first Google Premier Enterprise company to be precise,) it means the Google Search Appliance, at least in the US government market, is still alive and kicking.
Andrea Hayden, May 11, 2012
Sponsored by IKANOW
Bing Given a Facelift to Draw Search Traffic
May 11, 2012
Bing’s popularity has cooled in the shadow of Google and the company is attempting to change its image.
According to recent article, “Microsoft Gives Bing Search Engine Major Overhaul,” Bing is being revamped to increase popularity of the search site and draw traffic away from Google. The firm states the changes will get rid of “unnecessary distractions.” This includes the old navigation menu, the header, and categories for refining search. The article states:
“‘Over the past few months, we’ve run dozens of experiments to determine how you read our pages to deliver the link you’re looking for,’ Microsoft’s Bing Team noted in a recent blog post.
‘Based on that feedback, we’ve tuned the site to make the entire page easier to scan, removing unnecessary distractions, and making the overall experience more predictable and useful. This refreshed design helps you do more with search–and gives us a canvas for bringing future innovation to you.’”
The attempt from Bing to attract traffic and revenue is not lost on us. We are impressed with the boosted performance and sleek look and look forward to more provident changes from the Microsoft company.
Microsoft has also embraced the “old” Excite three column interface from the 1990s. You can read about the Facebook “column” in “Introducing the New Bing: Spend Less Time Searching, More Time Doing.”
The issue is, of course, when a person wants to search for a company with an unusual spelling–for example, Innttensity–the task becomes more difficult if the spelling is not known by the user. Research is now more social, not necessarily better in our view.
Andrea Hayden, May 11, 2012
Sponsored by IKANOW
Document Management, The Future and the Cloud
May 11, 2012
There is a lot of serious negotiating going on regarding the future of document management and the inevitable movement to the Cloud. Transitioning to the Cloud eases the burden of ownership and upkeep. Yet, there are other issues to consider such as security, compliance, and buy-in from employees. A full discussion is provided in the story, “Does the Future of Document Management Lie in the Cloud?”
The author discusses the needs of IT managers, and even conveys that IT managers are finding their users to have increasingly higher expectations:
They also want secure remote access from anywhere, and not just via computers, either: smartphones, netbooks, and tablet computers must be full participants. Corporate management has its requirements as well: reliable backup and resilient business continuity, so that a localised outage doesn’t leave information workers idle. And both groups never want to be told that storage has filled up.
So how does an organization juggle the needs of user experience, security, compliance, and storage? Many third-party solutions are emerging that do a good job of attending to all of these needs, while providing continuous updates as the technology progresses. One such third-party solution that we like is Fabasoft Mindbreeze. Their Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise solution is highly adaptable and intuitive, all while performing well against the competition in the Cloud.
In its integration with Mindbreeze Insite, Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise utilizes the power of Wikipedia and internal sources to feed public-facing websites.
Mindbreeze InSite integrates itself smoothly into Mindbreeze’s hybrid model. As before in Fabasoft Folio Cloud and Wikipedia, you can now make your own website searchable in the Cloud with InSite and make this data source instantly available to all internal users.
For users who want to move to the Cloud, but are concerned about potentially negative side effects, consider smart third-party solutions such as those offered by Fabasoft Mindbreeze.
Emily Rae Aldridge, May 11, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Technology Solutions for CAD Based Document Control
May 11, 2012
Since many of their business decisions require quick action, manufacturers must remain aware of emerging technology and should implement those solutions that allow for the most efficient access to and application of their internal operational and product information.
For example, as described in the press release entitled “Global Competitiveness in Mining Industry Depends on Technology” that recently appeared on ITWeb’s site, Kumba Iron Ore’s Sishen Mine in South Africa recognized that its SAP-based system for managing the documents associated with its production processes as well as its computer-aided design (CAD) engineering drawings required an update to reflect the operation’s need for a more functional and secure electronic document control system that allowed for version control and document digitization. A supplementary product to Sishen’s SAP system that addressed these product lifecycle management (PLM) needs was designed and implemented in partnership by NokusaEI and CIDEON Software. As described by Dolf Engels, a solution analyst with Sishen, this updated system has benefits beyond enhanced document access and security:
“Changing to the new system is also a huge improvement to the maintenance timescale. Processes were sped up, efficiencies were enhanced and value-add was received through additional compliance and risk reduction components.”
Inforbix also provides cloud-based, scalable, and affordable PLM solutions that enable enterprises to find, reuse, and share CAD drawings and other vital product and operational data.
Tonya Weikel, May 11, 2012
German Mathematicians: A Harbinger of Big Trouble for Sci-Tech Publishing
May 11, 2012
If you pay attention to scientific and technical publishing, you may know that there are significant financial pressures on sci tech publishers like Elsevier, Springer, and their compatriots. But the customers face financial pressures as well. Universities have taken steps to reduce their costs. Libraries have had their budgets cut. Tenure windows have been shut. Even the composition of a university’s faculty has undergone major changes. Some adjunct professors have to moonlight to cover their basic necessities.
I noted a short news item from the technical institute in Munich known as TUM or Technische Universität München. Without a University of Kentucky grade basketball team, most of my neighbors in Harrod’s Creek ignore this outfit. If you are into math, you pay attention to what the institution does.
Navigate to this news item and you will read:
Because of unsustainable subscription prices and conditions, the board of directors of the mathematics department has voted to cancel all of its subscriptions to Elsevier journals by 2013.
Negotiations are underway to work out a deal. The Elsevier organization is meeting to figure out how to prevent an “occupy Wall Street” type of activity among other German universities. If Elsevier does not come up with a solution and quickly, the company would have to cope with push back from authors who are annoyed with the Elsevier publishing policies and fees and cancellation of subscriptions from its best and most prestigious customers.
In short, we may have the first blinking of a yellow caution light for the professional publishing sector. Most consumers don’t know how much it costs to get four or more issues of a technical publication for one year. Some of the articles have been in the editorial and peer review oven for months. Online content is getting better and may be “good enough” for most researchers and students. In the case of math, online delivers more timely results and broad access to a technical write up can yield quicker, higher value commentary.
Will the loss of a single math department’s subscriptions have a significant impact on Elsevier’s financials this month? No. If the cancellation fever spreads and hybridizes with push back from authors, Elsevier could be in trouble, probably within a quarter or two.
Don’t agree? That’s okay. Just post your views in the comments section of this blog.
Stephen E Arnold, May 10, 2012
Sponsored by IKANOW
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