Politicians and Business: AT&T Should Give Away a Service
August 6, 2012
Over the years, I have worked for different telcos. There was AT&T in my early days. Then Bell Communications Research, Bell Labs, and USWest. (Anyone remember USDEX? Goose tracks on that one, gentle reader.)
I am not too bright, a fact which I document in this blog with each post I write or cause to appear.However, I did figure one thing out, and it was not that the Young Pioneers sold T Shirts and candy. AT&T and other telcos infected with the monopolistic DNA of Ma Bell try to charge for everything. The fact that the companies don’t do this particularly well is not the issue. One way or another, telcos find a way to bill. It’s genetics passed from Bell Head to Bell Head.
I read “Al Franken says AT&T shouldn’t charge for FaceTime” and wondered, “Hmm. Does the Honorable Mr. Franken know about some weird mutation in the telco DNA?” Shifting carriers is not an option for many people in my opinion. It costs money and once people form a habit, it is tough to break that habit. Banks know that most customers will tolerate getting the proverbial ingot of gold dropped on their toes three, maybe four times before a new banking relationship will be sought.
With government yapping about business and the GSA paying unreported bonuses and “lost” referrals about financial tap dancing, I wonder if the government might invest a little time in their own back yard?
Stephen E Arnold, August 6, 2012
Sponsored by Augmentext
IntelTrax: Top Stories July 27 to August 2
August 6, 2012
Data analytics solutions and other Business Intelligence tools were the primary focus of many of this week’s IntelTrax stories.
Big Data is a continued source of controversy within the analytics community, particularly regarding its existence and whether or not it is something old or new. “Big Data is Analytics for Dummies” argues that big data is simply the rebranding of an old concept.
The referenced article explains the reasoning behind the rebranding argument:
“Cloud computing, for instance, offers much the same thing “ASPs” offered ten years before, with the difference that this time round it is going to work. Similarly, analytics has been available for many years, as a high-cost service using high value supercomputers, and operated by white-coated high priests who have come into the field from linguistics, philosophy and computer science. If you have a big data set, and the money to have it explored, analytics has been there to reveal the secret trends within you information, which might give your business an edge.”
Another notable post from last week is “Data Miners and the Need for Certificates Debunked.” According to the article, due to the fact that every field has been infiltrated by data mining, the need for experts and certifications in the field has come about as a result.
When discussing whether or not certifications have value, the article states:
“The “data mining” definition has been created by marketing industries just to summarize in a buzz word techniques of applied statistics and applied mathematics to the data stored in your hard disk. I don’t want say that tools are useless, but it should be clear that tools are only a mean to solve a problem, not the solution. In the real world the problems are never standard and really seldom you can take an algorithm as is to solve them! …maybe I’m unlucky but I never solved a real problem through a standard method.”
A story that explains the importance of data analytics technology within the insurance industry is “Insurance Doubles Down on Analytics.” According to the article, insurance companies looking to detect fraud are strongly impacted by data and statistics which is one of the reasons why they are embracing the big data revolution.
The story cited:
“The report, which covers the spectrum of tools from business intelligence tools to advanced analytics tools, finds that the average insurer invests 9 percent of the IT budget on data and analytics. This amounts to almost $10 billion per year, and while the insurance industry has long used analytics for traditional risk-centric analysis, there is a shift in the ‘how, where, and when’ the industry leverages data and analytics, according to the report.”
As you can see, text analytics and big data analysis are becoming increasingly important for companies looking to manage their content in a way that makes the most out of a multitude of different types and structures of data. Digital Reasoning is an analytics company with experience providing affordable solutions for both the government and private sector.
Jasmine Ashton, August 6, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Lexmark Touts Brainware as a Global Player
August 6, 2012
In their News Blog, Lexmark praises Brainware’s latest global associations in “Brainware Update: Capturing Relationships Globally.” The piece explains that data capture outfit Brainware is “expanding more than ever before,” with several new partnerships in new regions formed over the last six weeks alone. These new allies include Mexico’s STN Latam, whose specialty is finance resource planning; Outsourcing and IT consultants Novosit in the Dominica Republic; and IT services firm Content Concepts, operating in the Asia Pacific market. Nice work. See the write up for more details on each enterprise.
The Lexmark second quarter earnings call also mentioned Brainware, stating:
“Perceptive announced that the University of Kansas plans to expand the use of Perceptive Software solutions to a university-wide contract. This will also include the use of Brainware’s award-winning Distiller software to streamline invoice processing. . . .
“And we are leveraging our MPS enterprise presence along with our new Brainware intelligent capture expertise to help our customers extend their smart MFPs to now scan, classify and extract key content from documents all automatically and deposit the content directly into a core system or process, reducing time and manual labor costs in the process.”
It sounds like Brainware is bringing a lot to Lexmark’s projects. The company was formed in 2006 with the buyout of technology from SER Solutions. They emphasize that their auto-learning data capture and search solutions are scalable and user-friendly.
Veteran enterprise search technology vendor ISYS Search Software, another Lexmark acquisition, also received a (brief) mention in the earnings call.
Cynthia Murrell, August 6, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Perfecting Web Site Semantics
August 6, 2012
Web site search is most often frustrating, and at its worst, a detriment to customers and commerce. Fabasoft Mindbreeze, a company heralded for its advances in enterprise search, is bringing its semantic specialization to the world of Web site search with Fabasoft Mindbreeze InSite. Daniel Fallmann, Fabasoft Mindbreeze CEO, highlights the features of the new product in his blog entry, “4 Points for Perfect Website Semantics.”
Fallmann lays out the problem:
The problem: Standard search machines, in particular the one provided by CMS, are unproductive and don’t consider the website’s sophisticated structure. The best example: enter the search term ‘product’ and the search delivers no results, even though product is its own category on the site. Even if the search produces a result for another term, there’s nothing more than a ‘relatively un-motivating list of links,’ not really much help to a website visitor.
Using semantics in the search means that the Web site is being understood, not just keyword searched. Automatic indexing preserves the existing site structure, while providing hassle-free search for the customer. In addition, InSite benefits the Web site developer, in that he/she can see how users are navigating the site and which elements are most often searched.
The attractive “behind-the-scenes” functioning of Fabasoft Mindbreeze InSite means that customers benefit from the intuitive, semantic search without the distraction of a clunky search layer. Satisfy your customers and your developers by exploring InSite today.
Emily Rae Aldridge, August 6, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
Google Fails to Delete Data as Ordered by ICO
August 6, 2012
An article on The Telegraph, “Google: We Failed to Delete All Streetview Data,” reveals another big privacy “whoops” from Google.
In 2010, Google collected data over open WiFi networks during its Streetview mapping in Britain and a number of other countries around the world. Britain recently reopened the investigation as Google has revealed that “human error” prevented the company from deleting all the data it was ordered to destroy by the Information Commissioner.
The article includes a statement from the ICO:
“This data was supposed to have been deleted in December 2010. The fact that some of this information still exists appears to breach the undertaking to the ICO signed by Google in November 2010. […] Google indicated that they wanted to delete the remaining data and asked for the ICO’s instructions on how to proceed. Our response, which has already been issued, makes clear that Google must supply the data to the ICO immediately, so that we can subject it to forensic analysis before deciding on the necessary course of action.”
Google maintains that the collection was unintentional, and apologizes to the ICO and the public. Apparently it is easier to apologize than ask for permission. Cool. If the investigators in this case were of Google caliber, perhaps they would understand “human error” as Google defines it.
Andrea Hayden, August 6, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
The Debate between PLM and PDM Continues
August 6, 2012
Differentiating between Product Data Management (PDM) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is difficult at times and usually starts a very heated debate. One such debate is documented on Engineering Matters in the article, “PLM is Just Data Management… Whatever Dude?”. The author, Chad Jackson, writes in response to a blog post by Adam O’Hearn in which O’Hearn claims PLM and PDM are one in the same.
Jackson summarizes his thoughts on the matter:
“…it’s probably obvious that I disagree Adam’s statement that PLM is nothing more than PDM, ‘whatever dude’ objection withstanding. But I understand where he is coming from. I think his perspective represents the more recent view of PLM that has its foundation in PDM, design release and change management. Additionally, I’d advise Adam not to hold his breath for a PLM Software Provider to step forward to address the shortcomings of PDM.”
One PLM provider has addressed this exact issue – Inforbix. The young company tackles the issue head-on in a blog post on their website:
“Instantly having access to the data you need is the ultimate goal of any data management system. Inforbix takes an approach that involves the application of web, semantic, and cloud technologies to provide users an alternative yet easy means of aggregating and exposing data where ever it’s located. Inforbix embraces the notion that when it comes to data management, less is more.”
Both O’Hearn and Jackson are correct in identifying the problem of the fuzziness surrounding PLM and PDM and their distinguishing characteristics. Hopefully, more PLM providers will address this problem leading to a clearer understanding of the problem and a solution.
Catherine Lamsfuss, August 6, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
Attivio Manager on Marketing
August 6, 2012
Attivio is pushing into marketing and personalized content. BtoB hosts a piece by Alex Withers, Attivio’s general manager of e-business, “Providing Rich Optimized and Personalized Content.” The article states:
“Marketers struggle with the challenge of creating content that drives meaningful engagement with their prospects and customers. Established approaches often fall short because they do not recognize the individual preferences, contextual clues and inferences that their customers leave in the digital domain.
“In this world, content is still king, but relevance is fast becoming queen. “
Touting the advantages of unified information, the write up presents a list of platform recommendations for today’s digital marketer. For example, the platform should, of course, seamlessly integrate content from various data sources and content management systems. Also, Withers suggests looking for a “content spotlighting” feature, which can override organic search results to present special features, remove external documents, suggest best-bet links, support a range of languages, and display ads related to user queries. See the write up for more recommendations.
Attivio is headquartered in Newton, MA, and has offices in the UK and Germany. The company has made it its mission to solve the unstructured data puzzle. With this latest advance into marketing and personalized content, is Attivio the next Autonomy? And will other search vendors follow? Stay tuned.
Cynthia Murrell, August 6, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
How I Know Facebook Faces Challenges
August 6, 2012
The big tip off is the story in USA Today, “4 Reasons Investors Don’t Like Facebook.” The story appeared in the dead tree edition on August 2, 2012. Another clue is the clumsy handling of Facebook developers. This fumble was given that “real” journalism twist in “Schadenfreude, Anyone? In Wake of Facebook Bullying Claims, Google+ Chief Vic Gundotra Woos Developers.” In case you don’t remember, schadenfreude suggests enjoying another’s discomfort. But for me, the bright yellow flashing light is the Barron’s story “UBS Hit by Facebook Loss; Vows Legal Action Against Nasdaq.” Definitely not a good thing when cousins shoot at one another with real bullets.
Can Facebook get its act together? My hunch is that social media push back is likely to take a toll on Facebook and probably some other social media companies. When one is sitting in the dorm without much desire to study coefficients of friction, fiddling with Facebook is a nifty distraction. Working as an intern allows some time to connect with friends. However, once one realizes that time is a scarce resource, Facebook and other social media lovers may start looking for a new hook up.
What I find fascinating is that Google and Microsoft Bing don’t want to accept that social media may not be the innovation to ignite these firms’ online revenues. Google has suggested that Google Plus is the new Google. Microsoft is a me-too outfit, so social content is getting attention in Redmond. What happens when social drops to a utility function?
The search giants are going to have to focus on relevance and finding high value content. Facebook’s challenges, therefore, are going to be on deck to cause headaches for the search services in my opinion.
Stephen E Arnold, August 6, 2012
Sponsored by Augmentext
Designing for the One Percent. Thinking for the 99 Percent.
August 5, 2012
I remember when my family moved back to America from Brazil, where we lived for a while. My teacher in the local Campinas school recommended a tutor. I was a “cabeça óssea” or stupid. No kidding. After three days in Brazil, I was unable to read or speak Portuguese. At age 11 or 12, I was a 99 percenter.
I went to special Portuguese lessons, picked up trash talk from the kids in the neighborhood, and supplemented the Estado de São Paulo schools with something called the Calvert Course. My Calvert Course “teacher” was a missionary of a fervent ilk.
As luck would have it, he stepped on a spider, became delirious, wandered into the scrub which in the 1950s surrounded Campinas, which is now a suburb of the city of São Paulo. “A selvla comeu” or something along those lines. So I missed those Calvert Course lessons. I think I missed a couple or three “traditional” US educational hurdles. When I returned to the US, I popped into the American school without having “taken” the classes my peers enjoyed. No problem. I was plonked into what was called then the “advanced class.” Instant one percenter. Magic.
I zoomed through college and graduate school. I was dragooned by Halliburton Nuclear and three years later, I was recruited by the blue chip consulting firm of Booz, Allen & Hamilton. The “old” BAH was different from the azure-chip outfits sporting the name today. I don’t recall brushing shoulders with the “real” 99 percent, but in Brazil I was not just one of the 99 percent. I was one of the stupider 99 percenters.
I learned one thing about being stupid: A log depends on context and point of view.
What’s happening in the digital world is that the one percent are making the world which they want. The problem is that the 99 percenters don’t have a clue about that world. There are some interesting examples of what I call “one percent think.”
ITEM: “Reversing the Decline in Big Ideas” explains that the Silicon Valley “thing” has eroded innovation. Here’s the passage I noted:
But now much of the transformational potential of the “pure information technology” possibility space has been exhausted to the point of terminal differentiation…Now I look around and see lost opportunities for collaboration everywhere.
ITEM: “The Naked and the TED” is a clever and coruscating (if the New York Times writing covering automobiles can use the word obdormition although I would prefer paresthesia, I can employ a form of coruscate). The write up by a one percenter tackles baloney from two other one percenters, Parag Khanna and Ayesha Khanna. The précis for the review of the Khanna monograph “Hybrid Reality: Thriving in the Emerging Human Technology Civilization”, only $2.99 is, “Baloney.” One percenters criticizing one percenters is probably not going to have much of an impact on those in the 99 percent.
ITEM: “The Linguistic Interface” explains why a command line interface is not such a bad thing. After all, the article says, “We live in a Kingdom of Nouns.” Here’s the ace quote:
There does come a time when all you want to do is pick up a pencil and draw a cat. But we must remember that we aren’t using an application in which one draws cats, we’re simply acknowledging that paper is a thing we can draw on. There is still no application harness set up to isolate us from the rest of the world, and the pencil is not inextricably bound to the paper. The terminal — a record of the conversation we’ve been having with the shell — happens to be one thing to look at, but even as we scribble over the page we can still talk to the shell, and it can do things to the drawing just as it can anything else. “Now add to this all the pictures I drew of kittens. All of them.”
I can see the folks at the bar in Harrod’s Creek arguing over this insight and not the University of Kentucky football scrimmage.
eBook Royalty Tangle
August 5, 2012
It all hinges on the calculation of net receipts. We learn that the ebook phenomenon seems to have prompted some creative accounting in techdirt’s “Harlequin Authors Sue Publisher Over Creative Royalty Calculations.” The class-action lawsuit against Harlequin alleges that the publisher created a legal entity in Switzerland specifically to manipulate the math, reducing the amount the company paid ebook authors from the negotiated 50 percent of the cover price to three or four percent. Writer Zachary Knight observes:
“There was once a time where such a tactic would not have reached the point of a lawsuit. There was a time when publishers actually had a strangle hold on publishing and could force any terms they could conceivably get away with. However, with the introduction and proliferation of self publishing, that stranglehold is weakening. As authors are looking at the deals they are getting from publishers vs. the deals self published authors are getting from the likes of Amazon and even Apple, they are beginning to lash out.”
Yes, many changes have followed the transition of all sorts of media to the Internet. Companies that can responsibly navigate the change and, I submit, act rather than react will stand the best chance of success. There’s no turning back now.
Cynthia Murrell, August 5, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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