Powerful Partnerships Persevere in Big Data
July 23, 2013
Powerful partnerships in the analytic world are quickly becoming a daily happening. However, it’s rare that two major names in the industry link arms to build something for customers. However, that is just what happened recently, according to an InetSoft article, “InetSoft Adds SaaS BI for Quickbooks Users, Advanced Reporting and Analytics Through InetSoft’s Style Intelligence.”
According to the story:
“The Bison System is a specialized, hosted business intelligence tool with the best data connector available for millions of QuickBooks customers. The Bison System extracts customer QuickBooks data, securely transfers it to the Bison Servers, and then immediately processes it into the customer’s database. Within moments, the data is available for dashboards and customized reporting for QuickBooks business stakeholders.”
This blockbuster pairing of InetSoft and Quickbooks felt familiar. It reminded us of a recent Forbes article about Oracle’s similar pairings, which said: “three strategic partnership announcements this week, some of which have surprised even seasoned enterprise software industry observers and analysts.” That’s why companies like these two examples are on top. They are finding bold ways to partner and give clients analytic tools that are going well beyond standard big data.
Patrick Roland, July 23, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Big Names Ramping up the Analytics Field
July 23, 2013
The world of analytics is getting much more competitive. We’ve been seeing some impressive names belly up to the bar or revamp their already available platforms. One such case we discovered in a recent Daily Finance article, “Actuate’s Newest Release of BIRT Analytics Add Key Advanced Predictive Analytics for Business Analysis.”
According to the story:
“Adding to its already rich set of capabilities for business analyst-driven predictive analytics, BIRT Analytics 4.2 sports three new advanced features: Association Rules for detecting purchase patterns over time (for instance in grocery receipts by and across customer segments); Decision Tree, which allows prediction of outcomes based on decision paths; and Campaign Workflow to enable you to effectively execute campaigns based on the analysis, and set up a process to improve them based on analyzing the results.”
While we have extremely high hopes for this new edition of BIRT, we are aware that it’s a long, hard climb to the top of the analytics mountain. Personally, we think organizations like Oracle and Sinequa do a better job. We are patiently waiting to watch BIRT burst to the top of the charts, but know that it might never happen. Such is the world of analytics, be warned.
Patrick Roland, July 23, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
MiniGuide to Knowledge Dicovery Resources on LLRX.com
July 23, 2013
Titled Knowledge Discovery Resources 2013- An Internet Annotated Link Dataset Compilation, the article on LLRX.com offers a “MiniGuide” to the latest knowledge discovery resources online. LLRX.com is a one-woman operation founded by Sabrina Pacifici and is a journal dedicated to assisting all sorts of professionals and students in their search for up to date information on Internet Research. This particular collection is a surprisingly interesting, if eclectic round up of knowledge discovery links, built by a software program, not a human. The article explains,
“With the constant addition of new and pertinent information coming online every second it is very easy to go into information overload. The key is to be able to find the important knowledge discovery resources and sites both in the visible and invisible World Wide Web. The following selected knowledge discovery resources and sites offer excellent knowledge and information discovery sources to help you accomplish your research goals. Also visit the very latest resources on Knowledge Discovery at the following Subject Tracer™ Information Blog.
Some of the more fascinating juxtapositions include CIO Magazine with Austria’s Know Center. There are also links to the Bibliomining Informatio Center, (data mining for libraries) Center for Automated Learning and Discovery, ( through Carnegie Mellon) and of course the Google Directory of Knowledge Discovery.
Chelsea Kerwin, July 23, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
The Market for Language Packs
July 23, 2013
SearchHub.org, an online community for open source enterprise developers hosted by LucidWorks, publishes a number of interviews with experts, among other things. Their latest interview is with Andrew Paulsen of Basis Technology and delves into his expertise regarding commercial language packs. Read more in, “Commercial vs. Open Source Language Packs: An Interview with Andrew Paulsen, Regional Director at Basis Technology.”
The introduction to the interview begins:
“Today we’re talking with Andrew Paulsen of Basis Technology about their commercial language packs. Since Basis first came to market, open source has made huge strides forward in supporting multiple languages. Not only does Solr support many European languages, but it also has multiple options for Japanese and Chinese, including morphological tokenization. But despite all this progress, Basis is still around selling their wares. Why would anybody pay for software when open source alternatives exist, especially when using an open source search engine?”
The interview continues with a series of questions and answers, building a strong case for Basis Technology. So it seems that good options exist for those who need commercial languages packs. However, open source solutions can now also boast the same reliability and longevity on the market. As Mark Bennett, the interviewer, noted, Solr supports most major languages. LucidWorks is one of the biggest open source competitors and builds its infrastructure upon Solr, meaning the language capabilities are built right in.
Emily Rae Aldridge, July 23, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Social Media Decay Signals
July 22, 2013
In the Overflight system were two news items which struck the same chord for me.
The first story is “LinkedIn’s Most Glaring Deficiencies and How to Get around Them.” On the surface, the write up provides some tricks and trips for the job hunter or competitive intelligence professional who uses the LinkedIn service. Some are obvious such as replying to a message in an invitation. Others require a bit of tinkering. The underlying message for me was that LinkedIn is making some users do extra work to perform routine tasks. The most interesting point in the article for me was:
I got this head’s up from my friend Erik Bernskiold on Twitter. I HATE when companies require a credit card for a free trial. Nothing says desperado spammer quite like that requirement. And then apparently, if you do it, good luck canceling your trial, according to these woebegone victims. In all fairness, I didn’t test this, although I did try to find a free month upgrade option to try. But it does align with their other desperate tactics.
I noticed the word “desperate.” Interesting.
The second article concerns the would-be giant in social media, Google Plus. The service as you may recall was positioned as “Google.” In the wake of the recent earnings report and Glass, I am not sure Google Plus is as important as shoring up online advertising performance. This story is “Google+ Spamming People Every 2 Weeks to Put Up a Profile Photo.” Interesting angle: The author associates Google with spam. Probably sour grapes?
My take away is that, like other online services, the social media arena is starting to show what I call “online decay.” After a run up, a level of usage is reached and then getting more buy in takes a lot of work.
In these two instances, the “work” may be alienating some users. The decay can be a difficult problem to remediate.
Stephen E Arnold, July 22, 2013
Sponsored by Xenky
Law Firms and For Fee Legal Information
July 22, 2013
I know a couple of attorneys. In most cases, I recall the line from Henry VI, Part 2, Act 4, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” I think Dick the butcher may have been over-reacting. Those with legal training may wish to consider the flip side of over-reacting.
I read “The Last Days of Big Law: You Can’t Imagine the Terror When the Money Dries Up.” Maybe the story, like some azure chip consultants, are making bologna? Maybe the story has a grain of truth?
The main point is that the good old days of lawyering seem to be drifting into the hazy past. Quaint notions like a nuclear family and near-universal literacy for a high school graduate, the legal profession is undergoing some dramatic changes. The write up asserts:
“Stable” is not the way anyone would describe a legal career today. In the past decade, twelve major firms with more than 1,000 partners between them have collapsed entirely. The surviving lawyers live in fear of suffering a similar fate, driving them to ever-more humiliating lengths to edge out rivals for business. “They were cold-calling,” says the lawyer whose firm once turned down no-name clients. And the competition isn’t just external. Partners routinely make pitches behind the backs of colleagues with ties to a client. They hoard work for themselves even when it requires the expertise of a fellow partner. They seize credit for business that younger colleagues bring in.
The paragraph could be applied to MBAs at some consulting firms or to managers at a search or content processing company.
I am not concerned about lawyers. I will leave their fate to Shakespeare’s Dick the Butcher.
The real impact of this story on me was that it underscores the financial challenges ahead for firms dependent on lawyers for online revenue. There are only a handful of commercial online services which deliver the information lawyers need to help their clients prevail. The free information is usually spotty and somewhat inconsistent. When I was a callow youth, I assumed that the various governmental entities would make certain types of legal information available to the public. So far the best bet to track down certain types of information is to use a for fee online service from a company like Thomson Reuters (WestLaw), Reed Elsevier (Lexis), Wolters Kluwer (many information services), and some generalist for fee services like ProQuest or Ebsco.
If the New Republic story is accurate, the market for often costly, commercial databases containing legal information is getting smaller. The firms which are left may be shrinking as well. There will be exceptions such as the US and other governments’ appetite for one-click access to laws, regulations, and more mundane information like procurement data. But when the market seems to be shrinking, what are the options available to the commercial publishers, value-adders, and aggregators of legal information? I thought of three:
First, the firms will just sell out. If this scenario plays out, there will be a Google or Amazon of for-fee legal information. Depending on what MBA course you completed, this is [a] great, [b] inevitable, or [c] two of the above.
Second, prices will rise. The cost of creating commercial databases is high. Despite the chatter about smart software, crafting a commercial database which is accurate, current, and reasonably easy to use takes a lot of money. The database publishers have, in many cases, already chopped costs to the bone. The result will be rising prices and probably some drop off in quality. I don’t see the excellence funded by the glory days of “get everything” profligacy returning.
Third, some of the commercial outfits will go out of business. I have watched a number of commercial databases spiral into debt. One trajectory is that the database back file gets snagged by a bottom feeder (a term of endearment for companies which buy failing proprietary databases but do not maintain them at their former level of quality). In some cases, a service goes away.
I can envision some other options, but I think that the New Republic article makes a good case for watching what happens in the legal sector of the professional publishing information business. Will reality influence the news releases and marketing of the for fee legal products and services? Not too much. I find the disconnect between the marketing and the reality of an eroding market quite interesting.
Stephen E Arnold, July 22, 2013
Sponsored by Xenky
Information Manager Enterprise User Edition Improves on SharePoint Usability
July 22, 2013
An article on MarketWatch titled MetaVis Makes It Easier to Organize Content in SharePoint 2013 refers to the announcement by MetaVis that its product Information Manager Enterprise User Edition supports SharePoint. Working to simplify SharePoint for users, this edition allows for bulk copy, upload, download and classify content features. The article states,
“Organizing information in SharePoint does not need to be hard,” said Peter Senescu, President and Co-founder of MetaVis Technologies. “MetaVis Information Manager Enterprise Edition provides users with more control to manage content directly from the SharePoint 2013 user interface minimizing the learning curve and increasing the use of metadata. For a SharePoint deployment to be successful, content needs to be properly tagged and easily searched. “
A free trial version is available, touting such features as Remap Content, which enables the user to move content easily into new fields, Security Trimmed, which limits access to locations or items as permitted by the user and Hide/Show Features, which works with the permission levels to only reveal features to users with permission. In spite of some concern that SharePoint is at the end of its usefulness, Metavis has continued to stick with it. Whether or not this is the right choice remains to be seen.
Chelsea Kerwin, July 22, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Little Big Data Analyzed to Glean DOMA Ruling Response on Twitter
July 22, 2013
The article titled What Twitter Had to Say About Doma and Prop 8 on Lexalytics attempts to break down the social media sites statistical response to the Supreme Court rulings handed down on Wednesday, June 26. According to the blog, about 180,000 tweets were posted on Twitter in response to the rulings, and of those tweets twice as many were positive (about 43%) as negative (about 19%). The article explains why this may be slightly misleading,
“As we can see more clearly here in our top themes, some of it is just the wording. Tweets including words such as “Good riddance” are scored by the software as negative, although they obviously aren’t feeling negative about the DOMA and Prop 8 rulings.
The themes “equal liberty”, “same-sex marriage”, and “marriage ruling” are swayed by more technical discussions of the Supreme Court’s actual rulings. “
Even stranger to those interested is the idea that only 180,000 tweets can count as Big Data. Isn’t Big Data supposed to be about terabytes? This seems like a junior sized portion. The article does take care to note that the sample can in no way be called representative of the general population, taking into account that only a small percentage of the general population even uses Twitter.
Chelsea Kerwin, July 22, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
IBM Makes Hadoop Quick and Easy with BigInsight
July 22, 2013
The article titled InfoSphere BigInsights on IBM promotes the use of Apache Hadoop, an open source software framework, with IBM’s BigInsight. Not only is the product free to download, but IBM offers BigInsight to simplify Hadoop for users. To begin, visit the Quick Start Edition page, with video tutorials that walk you through each step toward collecting insights from Big Data. The article explains,
“InfoSphere BigInsights can help you increase operational efficiency by augmenting your data warehouse environment. It can be used as a query-able archive, allowing you to store and analyze large volumes of multi-structured data without straining the data warehouse. It can be used as a pre-processing hub, helping you to explore your data, determine what is the most valuable, and extract that data cost-effectively. It can also allow for ad hoc analysis, giving you the ability to perform analysis on all of your data.”
IBM has managed to turn Hadoop into something resembling user-friendly. The complexity of Big Data scares many people, but IBM hopes to change that bias by allowing users a hands-on learning experience without any data capacity or time limits. The ability to explore large data sets and how to extract information from them is enabled through features including Text analytics, BigSheets, Development Tools and Management Capabilities.
Chelsea Kerwin, July 22, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Erik Hatcher to Present at OSCON
July 22, 2013
The Open Source Convention, OSCON, is being held in Portland, Oregon this week. The program reads like a who’s-who of open source developers and programmers. End users and enterprise managers would do well to pay attention to the news and announcements that come out of this year’s conference. Among the recently announced headliners is Erik Hatcher of LucidWorks. MarketWatch covers the release in their story, “LucidWorks’ Erik Hatcher to Present at OSCON 2013.”
The release begins:
“LucidWorks, the company transforming the way people access information, today announced that Erik Hatcher, senior solutions architect and co-founder of LucidWorks, will present on stage at OSCON 2013. Held in Portland, Ore., OSCON is where developers, innovators, businesspeople and investors come together to further strengthen the relationship between business and the open source community. During his tutorial, Solr Quick Start, Hatcher will explain the fundamentals of Apache Solr.”
LucidWorks is known for attending and supporting various open source trainings and conferences. They have had quite a busy 2013 already. In addition, they support a quarter of the core committers on the Apache Lucene Solr project. LucidWorks product suite is built upon the open source power of Lucene Solr, so not only do they fully support their products, but they also continuously invest in the health of the open source community.
Emily Rae Aldridge, July 22, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
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