Our Future of Perpetual Disruption
July 18, 2013
Ruminating upon disruptive technologies, Big Think posts “The Birth of the Metaspace Economy.”
Writer Edie Weiner begins with a quick rundown of human economic history:
“We were in the agricultural era for tens of thousands of years. We were in the industrial for two hundred. We were in the post-industrial for forty-five. In 1992, we moved into yet another phase, which we called the emotile. And we are now moving into another economy, which we call the metaspace economy. The real story here is that each time these fundamental transformations took place they were resolved in disruptive technologies that, not by themselves but in combination with other disruptive technologies, combined to change the way work was getting done, to create efficiencies, throw people out of work, but then went on to create whole other businesses.”
Given the acceleration pattern here, it would be wise for people in every industry to keep track of what’s on the horizon. Perpetually. From her perch as a futurist, Weiner gives a rundown of the technologies she sees flinging change into our paths. Brain imaging, nanotechnology, and 3D printing are just a few examples; see the article for more of her astute observations.
We wonder how such developments will affect sectors which are already struggling for revenue. Have search and content processing been left in the basement of metaspace?
Cynthia Murrell, July 18, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Vertical Search Apps as Champions Against Google Dominance
July 18, 2013
With a reminder that many tech predictions fail to come true, Traffick posits, “Remember Good Old ‘Vertical Search Engines Will eat Google’s Lunch’?” The article recalls a time years ago when some said specialized search portals were poised to give dominant, broader platforms some hefty competition. Google weathered that storm just fine.
Now, Google critics are again saying the search platform is too generalized, and that it is in danger from more specialized solutions (mobile apps this time.) While for many of these tools going public has supplied a financial edge, that advantage pales in comparison to Google’s stranglehold in the mobile environment. Still, writer Andrew Goodman observes:
“But with direct pipelines to their user bases, wisely built through timely and large cash infusions, this new generation of ‘vertical portals’ seems better positioned to stand firm than the flimsy attempts we saw a decade ago. . . .
“Some of the results could be surprising, heavily dependent on the type of ‘lens’ users prefer to see the world through. . . . Does everyone want to be subject to an opinionated ‘master lens,’ a giant Google Glass, if you will? An AOL, Facebook, or Apple style walled garden? Or will folks find ways of enabling more neutral platforms (or somehow using the above technology in a neutral way) that will help them do a better job of enabling many ‘starting points,’ a postmodern collection of ‘lenses,’ in the manner of their choosing?”
Good questions that only time can answer. Goodman suggests that Yahoo can help in the anti-monolith effort by shaking up their business model and snapping up some of these Google-free apps. He suspects a lot of users want to see vertical search engines take Google down a few notches. Hmm. . . we’ll see.
Cynthia Murrell, July 18, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Google Confused About UK Tax Row
July 18, 2013
Google is puzzled, they say. BBC News reports, “Google’s Eric Schmidt ‘perplexed’ Over U.K. Tax Debate.” It seems British officials feel the company is not pulling its weight. The article notes CEO Eric Schmidt’s response on the issue:
“Mr. Schmidt said it was up to the government to change its tax system if it wanted companies to pay more taxes. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Start the Week, he said: ‘What we are doing is legal. I’m rather perplexed by this debate, which has been going in the U.K. for some time, because I view taxes as not optional. I view that you should pay the taxes that are legally required. It’s not a debate. You pay the taxes.
“‘If the British system changes the tax laws, then we will comply. If the taxes go up, we will pay more, if they go down, we will pay less. That is a political decision for the democracy that is the United Kingdom.”
That seems a reasonable stance, as we have noted before. U.K. officials have a different perspective, though. The article tells us that Margaret Hodge, head of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee, is pressing to create a committee that would oversee tax arrangements for major companies. There you go—if you don’t like the rules, don’t complain about those who find the loopholes; change the rules. Simple enough.
Cynthia Murrell, July 18, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Lucene Revolution EU Edition Call for Papers
July 18, 2013
On the heels of a very successful stateside Lucene Revolution in San Diego, Lucene Revolution EU will be held in Dublin in November. Registration is coming soon, but the call for papers is open now.
Read more:
“The Call for Papers for Lucene/Solr Revolution EU 2013 is now open. Lucene/Solr Revolution is the biggest open source conference dedicated to Apache Lucene/Solr. The great content delivered by speakers like you is the heart of the conference. If you are a practitioner, business leader, architect, data scientist or developer and have something important to share, we welcome your submission.”
Fill out this simple form to submit your proposal.
The call for papers closes on August 2, 2013, so do not miss you opportunity to contribute to the conference. LucidWorks continues their dedication to open source search development and implementation with their sponsorship of the Lucene Revolution events. In addition to hosting, sponsoring, and attending a variety of conferences and events devoted to open source, LucidWorks also employs over a quarter of the core committers on the Apache Lucene Solr project. Do not miss the opportunity to participate in this exciting international event in a beautiful location, Lucene Revolution EU 2013.
Emily Rae Aldridge, July 18, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Thomson Reuters and NASDAQ: Shedding Weight
July 17, 2013
A year or so ago, a client asked the ArnoldIT team to take a look at Thomson Reuters. The results were not particularly surprising. The company continued to undergo management shake ups, product proliferation via XML-powered slicing and dicing of content, and various MBA maneuvers to make the numbers look as good as possible. In short, nothing surprising.
What emerged from our analysis was a series of observations about the future of Thomson Reuters. One of the points was, “Thomson Reuters will either have to sell part of itself or some of its crown jewels.”
“Nasdaq Closes Thomson Reuters Deal” suggests that our observation was mostly correct. According to Zacks:
Announced in Dec 2012, the deal was inked for $390 million, whereby the company had agreed to obtain the Public Relations, Investor Relations and Multimedia Solutions businesses of Thomson Reuters. These three businesses will now be amalgamated with Nasdaq’s Global Technology Solutions operations.
Thomson Reuters still has some work to do to get back on the fast-growth track. However, the job is not likely to be quick or easy. The company has markets which are shrinking. The demand for some of the firm’s reference products continues to soften. Competitors face essentially the same problems so traditional professional publishing companies are growing more vulnerable to what MBAs once called “discontinuities.”
What we will be looking for includes:
- More divestitures. Thomson has been a fan of acquisitions, but what the company sheds is often far more important to Thomson Reuters’ watchers
- More cost cutting. Thomson Reuters has made all of the easy cost cuts. The ones which may come in the future will draw blood and may harm the company’s long-term prospects
- More competition. With traditional professional publishing products and services holding the line on pricing, some upstarts will be angling for a share of the once-endlessly lucrative markets companies like Thomson Reuters once called their back yard.
Exciting times ahead for professional publishing companies.
Stephen E Arnold, July 17, 2013
Sponsored by Xenky
The Silicon Valley Bubble
July 17, 2013
As observers of all things search, we are quite aware of the concentration of tech talent that has amassed just to the south of San Francisco, California. Now, the Guardian decries the Silicon Valley bubble in, “How Wealth of Silicon Valley’s Tech Elite Created a World Apart.”
Writer Rory Carroll paints a picture of out-of-touch tech elites luxuriating through San Francisco’s rush hour on exclusive white buses and enjoying famous on-campus perks like gourmet meals and massage therapists. Meanwhile, he says, these companies use their clout to keep community resources flowing their direction while minimizing the taxes they pay back. He asserts:
“[San Francisco] knows better than anyone that technology companies like having things their way, whether it be taxes, transport or lifestyle. This dominance, critics say, has produced a cossetted caste which lords it over everyone else, a pattern established during the dotcom explosion a decade ago and now repeated amid a roaring boom. . . .
“Techies, in other words, price locals out of the housing market, twist rules and regulations to suit themselves, and spend outrageously.”
Carroll notes that these tech titans have responses to the charges against them, though he seems ready to dismiss them out of hand. One defender sensibly points out that the Valley’s comfy shuttles benefit the community by keeping all those individual cars off the road at rush hour. Others say that convenient, on-campus services help keep them focused on their work.
Carroll seems to have a chip on his shoulder with this issue, but apparently he is not the only one. Are Silicon Valley companies charting a way forward for a happy, productive workplace that could spread to other industries? Or are they callously snagging resources for themselves at the expense of their communities? Some of each, perhaps?
Cynthia Murrell, July 17, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Google Code Halts Open Source Downloads
July 17, 2013
Citing a spike in abuse, Google Code has disabled downloads of open source code from its repository, we learn from “Is Google Code in Trouble? No More Open Source Downloads for You” at Internet News. The site began in 2006 as a place for collaborative development and a host for open source code. Writer Sean Michael Kerner sees this announcement as the “last laugh” for rival SourceForge. He writes:
“Google is now recommending that developers use Google Drive to host files instead. Yeah good luck with that Google, remember Sourceforge?
“Sourceforge is now offering Google Code devs the ability to host download code on Sourceforge.
“Personally, I think developers want to have code development and hosting download in the same spot — it’s just easier. Though of course, open source software has a long history of mirror download sites and such, so perhaps this isn’t a big deal after all?”
Perhaps. Launched in 1999, SourceForge helps over 3.4 million open source developers with its free tools and code storage, and serves over 4 million downloads daily. Last year, the site released Allura, its underlying software, under Apache, where it is now in incubation.
Cynthia Murrell, July 17, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Text Analytics Pros Daily
July 17, 2013
We have found a new resource: an aggregation tailored to data analysts, The Text Analytics Pros Daily, is now available at the content curation site Paper.li. The page pulls in analytics-related news arranged under topics like Business, Technology, Education, and the Environment. Our question: what are their criteria for “pros”?
For those unfamiliar with Paper.li, it is a platform that allows users to create their own aggregations by choosing their sources and customizing their page. Their description specifies:
“The key to a great newspaper is a great newsroom. The Paper.li platform gives you access to an ever-expanding universe of articles, blog posts, and rich media content. Paper.li automatically processes more than 250 million social media posts per day, extracting & analyzing over 25 million articles. Only Paper.li lets you tap into this powerful media flow to find exactly what you need, and publish it easily on your own online newspaper.”
As I peruse the page, I see many articles from a wide variety of sources; Marketwired, the Conference Board, Marketing Cloud, and assorted tech bloggers. There is a lot of information here— it is worth checking out for any content analytics pros (or hobbyists.)
Cynthia Murrell, July 17, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Cloudera Releases Search Application
July 17, 2013
Cloudera is joining the ranks of those who offer open source enterprise search solutions. They are powering the new offering, Cloudera Search, with Apache Solr and combining with the storage of Hadoop. Read more in “Introducing Cloudera Search.”
The introduction begins:
“Powered by Apache Solr™, the enterprise standard for open source search, Cloudera Search integrates with the 100% open source Big Data platform, CDH, to bring scale and reliability for a new generation of search – Big Data search.
Speed to Resolution: Get to answers quickly with user-friendly search and drill-down navigation and find relevant data across large, disparate data stores of mixed format and structure.
Accelerated Exploration: Discover the “shape of data” quickly and easily during modeling and data exploration with faceted search interfaces and free-text query APIs.”
There are many more features that are covered in the remaining write-up. Readers can find more information by registering for a free webinar or viewing an introductory video. It is not surprising that Cloudera wants to expand their market share by moving into enterprise search. LucidWorks has had much success in this area, building their products on Apache Solr as well, combining it with emerging technologies like Hadoop. So while Cloudera’s news is exciting, and shows great momentum in the market, industry-vetted solutions like LucidWorks might be the tried and true option.
Emily Rae Aldridge, July 17, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
is There a Red Bull in Search and Content Processing
July 16, 2013
After a series of meetings on the Left Coast, I sought respite in my newsreader. What caught my eye was an article about Red Bull. This snippet caught my eye:
Red Bull as a lifestyle, a kind of belief system, a religion in which that can of liquid was necessary and functional. From the beginning, Red Bull, the belief system, and Red Bull, the product, were inextricably intertwined.
You can read more in “Red Bull Gives You a Business Strategy.”
This article sparked this question, “Which search and content processing vendor is implementing the Red Bull business strategy?” My knee jerk reaction was to say, “Google.”
Google embodies a life style at least for those who want quick and easy access to relevant information as determined by the Google system. But what about less high profile companies and, narrowing still further, companies not built on advertising and free services?
Here’s another snippet:
Thirty years later, Red Bull has become a company that is hard to describe in conventional terms and perhaps the premier global example of a business that combines story and action — something I call a storydoing company. Instead of “telling” its story using advertising, Red Bull conveys its story through the creation of compelling experiences, all carefully crafted to “give you wings.” Because of this, Red Bull has become a packaged-goods company that is also a content creation company that is also an events company that is also an adventure sports lifestyle company.
Measured against “storydoing”, most search and content processing vendors fail. One example is a company which landed two big accounts and managed to miscommunicate the nature of the problem solved and the fact of the deals themselves. I receive PR missives each days which recycle the same limited vocabulary of buzzwords. When I inform the earnest spammers that I don’t care, I get PRatronization back.
The fact is that I could not think of a single current search and content processing vendor which is implementing a Red Bull strategy. Based on the information available to me, search and content processing boils down to:
- Recycled assertions
- Overused buzzwords
- Frantic jumping from market to market in hopes of making a sale
- Executive churn
- Angry investors, customers, and users.
I do know about some exceptions, but in the large scheme of things, search and content processing executives cannot implement “storydoing.”
Well, there are some options. These include webinars, Google Adwords, and one shot marketing efforts. I tune out of most webinars. I have webinar fatigue which seems to be communicable. I ignore online advertising, including the annoying pop ups which are reappearing. And I try to dodge one shot marketing efforts.
Are there other reasons why search and content processing, which is maybe 50 years young, has no Red Bull. (At lunch, a colleague pointed out, “Search does produce a lot of bull. I am not sure of the color.”
Good observation.
Stephen E Arnold, July 16, 2013
Sponsored by Xenky
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