Russian Government Embraces Internet Censorship
August 9, 2012
Is this the future of the Internet? MIT’s Technology Review announces, “Russia Tightens Its Grip on the Net.” Framed as an attempt to protect children (who could argue against protecting children?), a new bill passed by Russia’s lower parliamentary house calls for the creation of an official roster of sites with “forbidden” information. The bill is expected to make it through the upper house and across Putin’s desk into law.
Images of drug use and child porn are listed as ban-able, of course, but so is anything that “may cause children to undertake actions threatening their life or health” and “any other information banned by court decisions.” That’s quite a lot of wiggle room. Research editor Mike Orcutt writes:
“Russia’s online scene is vibrant and diverse, and, at least until now, has been relatively open to many kinds of expression. Services like blogging network LiveJournal, which is immensely popular in Russia, have become platforms for outspoken dissent. LiveJournal expressed doubt that the new law would be enforced fairly, since a banned website’s only outlet for appeal would be the Russian court system, known to be loyal to the Kremlin. ‘Unfortunately the practice of law in Russia indicates a high probability of the worst case scenario.'”
What a surprise. First China, now Russia. Elsewhere the calls for suppression are not (yet)as evident, but many governments are “nervous” about uncontrolled and free information. For these folks, control is desirable. Informed citizens, not so much. After all, that can get very messy.
Cynthia Murrell, August 9, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Genetics Company 23andMe Acquires Web Site CureTogether
August 9, 2012
Here we have an intriguing development for a company in which Googler Sergey Brin has an interest. MIT’s Technology Review reveals, “23andMe Expands its Data Mining Operations.” The personal genetics company has acquired CureTogether, an online forum wherein about 25,000 members discuss their diseases, treatments, and lifestyle choices. A valuable resource for folks living with illnesses—and a wealth of healthcare-related data.
Writer Susan Young reveals:
“23andMe sells DNA tests directly to consumers who send a spit sample to the company for genomic screening of up to 1 million genetic variants, which are a mix of both recreational (e.g. the genetic basis for tongue rolling) and serious medical traits (e.g. genetic factors associated with Parkinson’s Disease) as well as variants that indicate a customer’s ancestry.
“The amount of the purchase was not reported and is 23andMe’s first acquisition, according to the San Francisco Business Times.”
The name 23andMe, of course, is a reference to humankind’s 23 chromosomes. The company’s worthy mission is simply “to be the world’s trusted source of personal genetic information.” The acquisition of CureTogether should help them toward that goal. Founded in 2006, 23andMe makes its home in Mountain View, California. If you’re curious about their service, take a look at this fact sheet.
Cynthia Murrell, August 9, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Valve Expand Steam Android App
August 9, 2012
The search function on Steam’s Android app provides evidence that Valve may intend to branch out beyond games. The Verge reports, “Steam Store Search Shows Categories for Non-Gaming Apps.” Granted, when writer T.C. Sottek encountered the new, non-game headings there were no apps under any of them. But why create the categories if the company doesn’t plan to populate them? The write up states:
“The ‘Genre’ section of the app’s index lists genres like ‘accounting, education, software training’ and ‘photo editing,’ with a total of ten additional categories over those shown in the Steam desktop client — though none of the categories contain any software. There’s obviously no guarantee that this means Valve intends to sell more than just games, but it’s not unreasonable to think that the company might someday go down that road: it’s already working to streamline the selection and release process for games on its platform with Steam Greenlight, and could conceivably do the same with other software genres.”
Steam is Valve‘s very successful online game platform, currently hosting over 1,800 games. Some are their products, but many others are from third parties. More than an effective way to distribute software, the platform also allows users to build communities around many of the titles, complete with a chat feature. Valve declares that their Source game engine is “considered the most flexible, comprehensive, and powerful game development environment out there.” The company began in 1996, and receives its mail in Bellevue, Washington.
Cynthia Murrell, August 9, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Owning Content? Not If You Are Tiny and Smallish
August 8, 2012
I read a Google Plus post from Lon at this link. I think it would be semi helpful if posts had titles and author inserted dates. But, hey, I am tiny. Actually I am insignificant. I have come to accept my smallness. Yet, unlike me, Lon is not happy. He had a public domain video from NASA taken “down” from YouTube. Some “real” journalists asserted that the NASA video was their intellectual property. In the present governmental set up, these outfits might be correct. Who knows? Lon writes:
I just came home to my inbox filled with dispute claims from no less than FIVE news organizations claiming this footage as their own. BS. It’s mine. And now YouTube says it might start running ads against content I created and handing that money over to these crooks who are essentially bigger players with the ability to claim rights to content they do not own. The worst part is that Google clearly is not requiring these “rightsholders” prove they actually own the content. But it’s somehow incumbent upon me to prove my innocence. This is outright theft of my content – plain and simple.
I am in no position to figure out if YouTube is doing its job well or the algorithm is one of those summer intern things. I don’t know if the content is in the public domain.Didn’t World War II bombers carried logos and messages? Maybe the ?NASA video is a logical extension of branding. Does the Curiosity have corporate sponsorship?
A happy quack to http://www.diecastaircraftforum.com/military-model-aircraft/87621-1-72-b-1b.html.
Perhaps everything is fair game in the government. A certain Illinois elected official made an attempt to sell a governmental office. The General Services Administration tries to run itself as a business. The lobbyist I met for breakfast two years ago suggested he “owned” a contact in some entity in DC.
The notion of fair seems to be fuzzy particularly if one if tiny. When one if big like Apple and Samsung, “fair” gets a real work out. I assert that it is tough to search for a content object when it has been “disappeared.” Trimming content to reduce information overload could be a benefit to some. Honk.
Stephen E Arnold, August 8, 2012
Sponsored by Augmentext
Basho Releases Riak 1.2
August 8, 2012
Basho proclaims, “Riak 1.2 Is Official!” Riak is the powerful open source, distributed database behind many scalable, data-intensive Web, mobile, and e-commerce applications. The software’s newest version has creator Basho celebrating. There are several new features; the write up specifies:
“*More efficiently add multiple Riak nodes to your cluster
*Stage and review, then commit or abort cluster changes for easier operations; plus smoother handling of rolling upgrades
*Better visibility into active handoffs
*Repair Riak KV and Search partitions by attaching to the Riak Console and using a one-line command to recover from data corruption/loss
*More performant stats for Riak; the addition of stats to Riak Search
*2i and Search usage thru the Protocol Buffers API
*Official Support for Riak on FreeBSD
*In Riak Enterprise: SSL encryption, better balancing and more granular control of replication across multiple data centers, NAT support”
The write up details Riak’s latest innovations in areas like cluster management, partition rebuilding, and LevelDB performance improvements. I highly recommend checking out the article for more information.
Basho ends their post with a thank-you to their open source community, and, naturally, a petition for feedback on the newest version of Riak. The company was founded in 2008, and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Customers, from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, use Riak to implement global session stores and to manage large amounts of structured and unstructured data.
Cynthia Murrell, August 08, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Elsevier Ethics?
August 8, 2012
Ah, pay to play. That’s the way to stimulate objective information, all right. A blog out of the Unilever Cambridge Centre for Molecular Information rails against such a move in the long-windedly titled post: "Elsevier Replies About Hybrid #openacess; I Am Appalled About their Practices. Breaking Licences and Having to Pay to Read ‘Open Access’."
As many of our readers know, scientific authors pay traditional publishers hefty "processing charges" to have their work made available to readers for free ("open access"). An outdated and, some say, unfair system, this way of doing business is at least transparent and well understood. Now, Elsevier’s Division of Universal Access has come up with the "hybrid open access."
Blogger Peter Murray-Rust, wondering exactly what sort of creature this hybrid could be, asked the Division’s director for clarification. Among his discoveries: obfuscation is alive and well. Also, Elsevier is clearly refusing commercial re-use and distribution of these works, violating, according to Murray-Rust, the authors’ Creative Commons CC-BY license. (There is some debate in the blog’s comments section about whether this is indeed a legal violation; clearly it is a moral one.)
Murray-Rust reproduces the director’s answers and comments on each—well worth checking out. He concludes with this analysis:
"Elsevier’s appalling practice speaks for itself. There are only the following explanations:
- Elsevier break licences knowingly and deliberately charge for ‘open access’. (Readers will remember that Elsevier also created fake journals).
- Elsevier are incompetent or uninterested in running Open Access properly.
"I predict that Universal Access will plead ‘this was an isolated mistake; forgive us and we’ll correct it’. Rubbish. It is not acceptable to charge people for things they have no right to charge for. It is unacceptable to break licences. Whatever the motives it shows that at best they don’t care. It’s morally the same as ‘sorry I knocked you down because my brakes didn’t work.’"
Elsevier certainly got this blogger’s hackles up, and for good reason. Creative Commons licenses exist to benefit society, and it is more than a little irritating for a publisher to play fast and loose with the rules.
Cynthia Murrell, August 9, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Will New CEOs Knock Out Search Revenue Pains?
August 8, 2012
Two search vendors have recently announced shuffling in their top management positions. The first vendor – Perfect Search. The enterprise search technology vendor replaced its President and CEO of five years last May 2012. George Watanabe, co-founder and VP of Business Development and Investor Relations filled in the empty seat.
The second vendor – MarkLogic. Also in May 2012, “Gary Bloom Joins MarkLogic as Chief Executive Officer”:
“MarkLogic Corporation, the company powering mission-critical Big Data Applications around the world, today announced that Gary Bloom… has been named president and chief executive officer.
Gary brings an exceptional background that includes more than two decades of successful leadership in enterprise software. He was the CEO and president at eMeter, which provides smart grid management software for electric, gas, and water utilities… Prior to that, Gary was a consultant of TPG, a leading global private investment firm.”
Both Watanabe and Bloom have the potential to further pave the way for success of their respective companies, given their impressive technical background in enterprise applications. But both companies have joined the bandwagon and just lately added Big Data to their focus. We’re waiting to see if the move to change executives will tip the enterprise search and Big Data scales in their favor.
Lauren Llamanzares, August XX, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Maximizing Web Site Search with Fabasoft Mindbreeze InSite
August 8, 2012
Fabasoft Mindbreeze is now offering an intuitive Web site search to compliment their industry leading enterprise search technology, Fabasoft Mindbreeze InSite. Now meaningful search can extend outside of your organizational walls and benefit those who you are most eager to impress, your customers.
Read the sound advice of Michael Biebl, Fabasoft Mindbreeze developer, in, “Secure Website Search in the Cloud.”
Fabasoft Mindbreeze InSite is our product to empower websites with professional high-end search cababilities. We offer InSite as a Cloud service and for on premise installation. Today, I would like to show how you can adapt the search-experience by defining views. Views allow you to group search results by search queries. It’s a really great and simple concept and you can adapt your search results without any need for server configuration. The following 5 scenarios should get you started on the topic, but we are open for your views as well.
Whether you are eager to use the benefits of a cloud installation, or you prefer the stability of an on-site installation, Fabasoft Mindbreeze InSite is a hassle-free way to increase the efficiency of your Web presence without increasing your workload. A commitment-free 28 day trial is currently available. In a world of bad public-facing Web site search, pleasantly surprise your customers with a helpful and intuitive search function.
Emily Rae Aldridge, August 8, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
Vertical Approach to PLM Driving Innovation
August 8, 2012
Over the course of the last decade product lifecycle management (PLM) has undergone a transformation turning a once out-of-the-box approach to a customized one. A recent Design News article, “Dassault Steers PLM toward Automotive Design Challenges”, explains how Dassault , one of the leaders in PLM solutions, has created a new PLM solution aimed at the automotive industry.
The article explains,
“It looks as if Dassault Systèmes is taking the vertical approach a bit more seriously. As part of its evolving focus on 3D experience, not just 3D data, Dassault has just released the first of many new industry solutions, this one specifically to address key challenges in the automotive segment. 3D Experience, as Dassault officials explain it, is the idea of leveraging the company’s 3D capabilities like simulation and high-end visualization functionality to communicate product data, not just as information, but in a more interactive and engaging way.”
Kudos to Dassault for their latest PLM solution but for those not in the automotive industry a similar product is much needed. We recommend Inforbix because vertical approaches to PLM is at the very core of all their PLM solutions. Oleg Shilovitsky, co-founder and CEO, wrote in a recent blog post, “Inforbix deploys technology that helps link islands of data together in manufacturing companies. Our approach is to offer a simple and affordable means of data access regardless of source or location.” This approach combined with a dedication to customer support makes Inforbix a clear winner for manufactures needing new data management solutions.
Catherine Lamsfuss, August 8, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
The Future of Libraries
August 8, 2012
The Republic perceives the inevitable winds and encourages us to adjust our sails in “The Bookless Library.” No matter how much some of us would like to believe otherwise, the traditional library with its stacks upon stacks of wood pulp tomes is on its way out. In a lengthy article that is worth a read, journalist David A. Bell suggests we proactively manage the shift in a way that will best benefit society.
This paragraph was particularly poignant to me:
“Specialized scholars will always have reasons to consult the original paper copies of books. Marginalia, watermarks, paper quality, binding, and many other features of the physical book that digitization cannot always capture offer valuable clues about how the books were produced, circulated, and read, how they created meaning. But this sort of research . . . involves a small number of readers. Far more readers, of course, appreciate physical books for their aesthetic qualities: the feel of the paper, the crisp look of print on the page, the elegant binding, the pleasant heft of the volume in the hand, the sense of history embedded in a venerable edition that has gone through many owners. But this sort of pleasure, real and meaningful as it is, is harder to justify financially, as resources grow increasingly scarce.”
Sigh. Yes, it will only get harder for libraries to justify buying and housing physical books when the electronic versions are widely available. But, as Bell notes, libraries are more than shelves of books. They are, as he puts it, “grand temples of learning,” and without them, much study, communication, and inspiration will fall by the wayside. What, then, should we do?
Bell’s advice hinges on revisiting the original purposes of the library: public outreach and public instruction, both of which were, at the time, best met by providing access to the printed word. Libraries, he says, should adjust by expanding on efforts many are already making, like hosting seminars, book clubs, art and film exhibits, and study centers. That way, even as their stacks dwindle, libraries can remain relevant and continue to serve their communities.
Cynthia Murrell, August 8, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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