Temis and MarkLogic: Timid? Not on the Semantic Highway
April 12, 2013
My in box overfloweth. Temis has rolled out a number of announcements in the last 10 days. The company is one of the many firms offering “semantic” technology. Due to the vagaries of language, Temis is in the “content enrichment” business. The idea is that technology indexes key words and concepts even though a concept may not be expressed in a text document. I call this indexing, but “enrichment” is certainly okay.
The first announcement which caught my attention was a news release I saw on the Marketwatch for fee distribution service. The title of the article was “TEMIS Completes Successful Wide Scale Semantic Content Enrichment Test in Windows Azure.” A news release about a test struck me as unusual. The key point for me was that Temis is positioning itself to go after the SharePoint add in market.
The second announcement was a news story distributed by Eureka Alert called “Wiley Selects Temis for Semantic Big Data Initiative The key point is that a traditional publishing company has licensed software to do what humans used to do in a venerable publishing company which, until recently, was sticking with traditional methods and products. Will Temis propel John Wiley to the top of the leader board of professional publishers? Hopefully some information will become available quickly.
The third announcement which I noted was “Temis and MarkLogic Strengthen Strategic Alliance.” The write up hits the concepts of semantics and big data. Here’s the passage which intrigued me:
MarkLogic® Server is the only enterprise NoSQL database designed for building reliable, scalable and secure search, analytics and information applications quickly and easily. The platform includes tools for fast application development, powerful analytics and visualization widgets for greater insight, and the ability to create user-defined functions for fast and flexible analysis of huge volumes of data.
I am uncomfortable with the notion of “only”. MarkLogic is an XML centric data management system. Software wrappers can use the XML back end for a range of applications. These include something as exotic as a Web site for the US Army to more sophisticated applications for publishing technical documents for an aircraft manufacturing firm. However, there are a number of ways to accomplish these tasks and some of the options make use of somewhat similar technology; for example, eXist-db. While not perfect, the fact that an alternative exists only increases my discomfort with an “only”.
So what’s up? My hunch is that both MarkLogic and Temis are in flat out marketing mode. Clusters of announcements are, in my experience, an indication that the pipeline needs to be filled. Equally surprising is that MarkLogic into a big data player and an enterprise search system, not a publishing system. Most vendors are morphing. The tie up with Temis suggests that Temis’ back end needs some beefing up. The MarkLogic positioning is that it is now a player in semantics and big data. I think that partnering is a quick way to fill gaps.
Will MarkLogic blast through the $100 million in revenue ceiling? Will Temis emerge as a giant slayer in semantic big data? The company recently raised $25 million to become a player in big data. (See “Big Data Boon: MarkLogic Pulls In $25 Million In VC Funding”.) Converting $25 million into high margin revenue could tax the likes of Jack Welch in his prime.
My hunch is that both firms’ management teams have this as a 2013 goal. With the patience of investors wearing thin for many search and content processing vendors, closed deals are a must. The economy may be improving for analysts on CNBC, but for search vendors, making Autonomy-scale or Endeca-scale revenues may be difficult, if not impossible.
In my opinion, the labels “big data” and semantics do not by themselves deliver revenue the way Google delivers Adwords. As more search firms chase additional funding, has the world of search switched from finding information for customers to getting money to stay in business?
No timidity visible as these two firms race down the semantic interstate.
Stephen E Arnold, April 12, 2013
MuleSoft Readies for IPO for Enterprise SAAS
April 12, 2013
MuleSoft is making headlines for its ability to connect applications on-site and in the Cloud. As it launches into an IPO, big funding is rolling in. Read all of the details in the TechCrunch article, “Readying For An IPO, Enterprise SaaS Integration Platform MuleSoft Raises $37M From NEA, Salesforce And Others.”
The article begins:
“MuleSoft, an integration platform for connecting SaaS and enterprise applications in the cloud and on-premise, has raised $37 million led by NEA . . . This bring the company’s total funding to $81 million. MuleSoft lets organizations integrate their cloud and on-premise applications. The company’s newly launched platform allows for a complete integration platform to enable connectivity to any application, data service or API, across the entire cloud and on-premise continuum.”
For organizations that already have a large infrastructure and need to connect their scattered components, MuleSoft may be a good solution. But, for organizations that are just launching a content management and enterprise search infrastructure, you want to do it right the first time. In this case, LucidWorks would be a great solution. LucidWorks can turn every bit of multi-structured data into a business advantage and is available in the Cloud. Scalable and cost-effective, LucidWorks can help prevent constant restructuring and reassessment of outdated infrastructures.
Emily Rae Aldridge, April 12, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
RightNow Cloud Update Released
April 12, 2013
DestinationCRM.com informs us, “Oracle Releases RightNow Cloud Service Update.” The latest version seeks to increase community engagement and improve message relevancy. It also includes new ROI reporting tools. Writer Leonard Klie tells us:
“The company said the new release will help businesses increase efficiency, improve transparency of decisions to customers, and reduce follow-ups with automatically generated audit reports that document each step of the decision process, enhance customer satisfaction by only asking contextually relevant questions and providing timely, accurate answers that apply to the customer’s circumstance, and faster response to business changes in policies, legislation, and pricing through updates that can now be managed by business users through a single source document, which gets automatically deployed to the Web.”
The article lists some of the new functionalities: a dynamic message template designer; the iPad-specific mobile agent app; customer portal framework extensions (with an improved extension wizard); a customer-engagement engine; chat ROI reporting; policy automation; social community management (to both highlight and bury specific content); new survey expiration options; and a set of public APIs with which to build rich cloud services. See the write-up for details on each of these.
Oracle hopes the new features will allow its customers to respond more rapidly to an ever-changing business landscape, while making things simpler for their clients’ IT departments. We hope so, too.
Cynthia Murrell, April 12, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Free Oracle XSQL Book Available for Download
April 12, 2013
We want to let you in on the chance to download a free book from the entity ebookquotessui at Taiwanese media site Pixnet. This Oracle XSQL book is older, published in 2003, but full of information that has not expired. Hey, the price is right! The description reads:
“Discover how to combine the power of SQL, XML, and XSLT to publish dynamic Web content using XSQL. XSQL isn’t just some razzle-dazzle technology. It allows you to easily leverage the most robust, mature, and usable technologies in the industry: SQL, HTML, HTTP, XML, Java, and the Oracle RDBMS. With an exciting first look at XSQL, this innovative book shows you how to bring all of these powerful technologies together in order to publish dynamic Web content. You’ll first find a comprehensive discussion of how XSQL relates to each of these technologies. Then you’ll learn how you can use XSQL to present your database data on the Web instantly. The numerous code examples will show you how to develop a complete application with just XSQL and XSLT.”
It goes on to promise a solid approach to building Web applications and services from Oracle database data. Tips on building custom action handlers are included, as is a section on using serializers to produce images and PDF files. A companion website provides all of the code examples used by the author.
Cynthia Murrell, April 12, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Pegleg Points the Way to Full Length Films on YouTube
April 12, 2013
I can’t imagine motion picture executives are thrilled with this service. TechCrunch declares, “Pegleg Wants to Help You Find All Those Free, Full-Length Movies on YouTube.” The article introduces Pegleg, an app created by Torontonian Mina Mikhail that makes it easy to locate the full-length movies lurking on YouTube. The app began as an exercise for Mikhail, who was practicing development in Meteor.
Users can browse or search links to movies that Pegleg already knows about. If the film a user is looking for is not yet in the list, the app will suggest possibilities. Many of the links to which Pegleg points have disappeared, and it is quite possible their listing in the app hastened their demise. The article tells us:
“As far as Mikhail is concerned though, that’s just the nature of the beast. Takedowns can and will happen, but he finds it unlikely that these sorts of film uploads will ever completely disappear from YouTube. As some films are unceremoniously yanked from YouTube, others will certainly be uploaded in their place, and the ceaseless dance between copyright holders and YouTube-savvy film buffs continues on. Mikhail doesn’t intend for Pegleg to go dark anytime soon unless something truly dramatic happens, but let’s face it — people are going to upload and share these movies on YouTube no matter what ultimately happens to Pegleg.”
The developer elaborates on this response in this blog post at the Pegleg site. Will studios try to stop the service, or keep using it to find targets for DMCA takedown requests?
Cynthia Murrell, April 12, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
RIP Mobile Computing?
April 11, 2013
I have been shocked by the number of experts and poobahs who have pronounced, “The PC is dead.” I am not sure, despite the numbers, graphs, charts, and pompous lingo “proving” that a decades old business sector is a goner. Oscar Wilde, as I recall, observed:
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.
I haven’t seen anyone die from a shift in the desktop computer sector.
I tackle the death of the PC in my April Information Today column, which will run in May 2013. But I want to highlight what seems to be a subordinate assertion tagged on to the “death of the PC” mini-trend.
Mobile computing is also dead. Ah, you did not know that? I admit that I did not know it and I just don’t believe it. Navigate to “Mobile” Computing No Longer Exists.” Now this is probably not dead as meant when someone says “My career is dead” or “My parakeet is dead.” But the notion of “not existing” is an attention grabber in my physical book, which has not yet been killed by bits and bytes.
The point of the write up is, in my view, is that Google is synonymous with the future of online work, play, joy, sorrow, and various “existential” aspects of modern life. I am okay with this type of assertion. What causes amusement is:
The reason our phones, tablets and PCs are increasingly interchangeable is that the services we depend on aren’t running on them at all. They’re running on the cloud. More and more, our devices don’t store our data, handle our security or share—directly at least—with our friends and colleagues. As time goes on, the highest aspiration of most of our devices—be they phone, notebook, smart watch or face-based computer—will be as fast and responsive local caches—copies, that is—of our cloud-based existence. In this cloud-based world, the question becomes, what is “mobile” computing? If it’s just a name we give to screens that are small enough to carry around, it’s not a terribly useful distinction.
The author seems to be leap frogging the grim reality of life in the real world. For example, it will be a few years before the magic of cloud computing will work as forecast in Patagonia, on the bridge at Victoria Falls, or in my work room. I have to go upstairs and sit in the south east corner of my home to get a T Mobile connection.
The real world of government contract requirements, work on certain legal matters, almost any activity related to pharmaceutical research and mergers and acquisitions require desktop computers, often deployed in small, tightly controlled workgroups or locked in a room with no Internet connection, and access passwords provided to specific individuals. There are many other examples of desktop computing remaining relevant. In some of these real world situations, mobile computing is not supported. For example, at one meeting at a Los Angeles law enforcement agency, weapons and anything which connected to the outside world were locked in an anteroom.
I know that for many folks the world of Googley connectivity is just super wonderful. However, even at companies like Google, the real world of traditional computing is very much evident.
Net net: Mobile computing is not dead. Pervasive connectivity is not yet the norm in certain work situations. Desktop computing, as I suggest in my for fee column, is very much alive. Traditional computing does not discard the methods of the past for some very good reasons. Prognostications are fascinating. Some are offered without much in the way of check ins with the real world of today and the world which will arrive tomorrow. Mainframes are still in operation and I was told those were dead decades ago.
Stephen E Arnold, April 11, 2013
Sponsored by Augmentext
Sinequa Lands Eurocopter
April 11, 2013
Sinequa announced that is was selected by Eurocopter, an EADS subsidiary, to improve access to enterprise data and thus increase performance and satisfaction of its employees.
Sinequa is one of the leaders in enterprise search and unified information access, including the emerging big data market. The firm, based in Paris, provides large enterprises and administrations with the means to tame the complexity of their structured and unstructured data and to extract value from large volumes of very heterogeneous data.
Eurocopter was looking for a solution that could meet all its different professional needs in the context of accessing relevant information, rather than creating a specific solution for each profession.
After a proof of concept, Sinequa won the contract competing against a number of big players in the search market. The Sinequa replaced Eurocopter’s existing solution provided by a vendor recently acquired by a large conglomerate.
Eurocopter embraced Sinequa’s “grid architecture” because the approach provides effective scaling. Eurocopter has implemented a five-node Sinequa Grid distributed across the sites at Marignane (Grance), Donauwörth (Germany), and La Courneuve (France). This architecture can easily be extended to subsidiaries in America and Asia.
At this time, two business solutions are in operation. The first is access to technical data for a group of about 800 technical experts. The second provides access to the information on the Eurocopter Intranet. The system supports approximately 15.000 employees of the group working from locations throughout the world.
The Eurocopter professionals working in technical support require relevant information not only in technical data and documentation contained in such systems as Filenet and in operating systems’ file systems and emails. The unified information access offered by the Sinequa platform these Eurocopter professionals assemble the relevant information pertaining to a client case in one structured space. The content in the Sinequa “space” is easily navigated and accessed. In addition, the system provides access to the image bank of helicopters covers four languages: French, German, Spanish, and English. The unified access to data on the Intranet is simpler and offers a new navigation based on search.
Sinequa’s linguistic capabilities help analyze users’ requests as well as the contents of documents. Sinequa’s linguistic methods optimize the relevance of information delivered and, thus, reduce search time to a minimum. Filters and a taxonomy specific to Eurocopter’s activity are used to facilitate the extraction of technical terms from content processed by the Sinequa system.
Due to a high performance generalized search, each and every employee can now find, in real time, the specific information they need for their work images, rules and regulations, agreements, procedures, reports, and forms).
In coming months, Eurocopter plans to extending the usage of Sinequa’s unified information access to other business applications, including
the indexation of further applications, such as product lifecycle management and customer relationship management.
Stephen E Arnold, April 11, 2013
Sponsored by HighGain
Google Dominance May Be Waning
April 11, 2013
Google is the reigning king of search, but some say that may be changing. After all-time highs in March, Google stock has slipped in early April. Chris Crum, in his article, “Will Google Ever Stop Dominating Search?” addresses some of the reasons for the subtle decline.
He says:
“Forbes, for example, has a piece out today called ‘Four Reasons Google’s Stock Is Slowing Down.’ The first two reasons listed in this article are directly related to this issue: 1. Losing search market share and 2. Shift to mobile search. The author references a New York Times article making the rounds today, in which the case is made that people, particularly on mobile, are choosing other services first, based on the type of information they’re looking for.”
Some predict that a combination of smaller specialized services will eventually take Google’s place, particularly on mobile. And while Google is not going anywhere anytime soon, it is a sign that the landscape of search is changing. One of the areas where a specialized service makes sense is enterprise search. A solution like LucidWorks is much better suited to the subtleties of the enterprise than a generic mega-solution like Google Analytics or SharePoint.
Emily Rae Aldridge, April 11, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Laundry Service and Middleberg Hired by Connotate for Marketing and PR
April 11, 2013
Reported on PRWeek, in the article Connotate to Work with Middleberg, Laundry Service, Connotate has hired a marketing and public relations company. A company that can boast such customers as Associated Press, McGraw Hill, Dow Jones, Janus Capital Group and Thomas Reuters, Connotate calls itself “the only Web data monitoring and collection vendor with a broad, uncontested patent portfolio”. The article on PRWeek in its entirety states,
“Connotate, a provider of web data extraction and monitoring services, has picked Middleberg Communications and sister social media agency Laundry Service as agencies of record. The two firms, agencies under 247 Group, are responsible for all aspects of earned, owned, and paid media for the company, including media and analyst relations, social media community management, content marketing, and the development of influencer marketing programs.”
Middleberg Communications has worked with such clientele as Disney, IBM and United Airlines in the past. But perhaps most interesting aspect of Connotate’s choice is the brand, Laundry Service. Laundry Service is a social media agency based in New York that promises to be “timely, fresh and crisp” while managing their clients digital presence. Their name implies cleaning up, which is often the work of PR agencies, although usually less blatantly. No one wants to see a company’s dirty laundry.
Chelsea Kerwin, April 11, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Kirsten Bay Replaces Ian Bonner as Attensity President
April 11, 2013
On January 30, a release titled Attensity Appoints Kirsten Bay As New President and CEO, appeared on Attensity. The social media and online communication data analysis and outreach technology provider was founded in 2000 and Cisco, Travelocity and Verizon are just a few of their clients. Kirsten Bay replaces Ian Bonner, who stays on at Attensity as chairman of the board. Bay’s work in the field is outlined in the release,
“Bay brings to Attensity nearly 20 years of strategic process and organizational policy experience derived from the information management, finance and consumer product industries. She is an expert in advising both the public and private sector on the development of econometric policy models. Most recently, as vice president of commercial business with iSIGHT Partners, Bay provided strategic counsel to Fortune 500 companies on managing intelligence requirements and implementing customer and development programs to integrate intelligence into decision programs.”
Ian Bonner stated that Bay is “ideal” for the job, he replaces David Hartford as chairman and Hartford remains on the board. In the same release, Attensity touted its prize products including Attensity Pipeline, the social media data stream made to collect data in real-time, Attensity Analyze, Attensity Command Center and Attensity Respond.
Chelsea Kerwin, April 11, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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