Infographics Take on New Analytic Importance
August 21, 2013
We are increasingly living in a big data and analytic society. But when discussing all this information, it’s hard to put a visual with it. Humans are, after all, very sight-oriented. However, that problem is quickly looking like a thing of the past after discovering a recent Make Use Of article, “Create Your Own Infographic about Your Facebook, Twitter and Youtube Use.”
According to the story:
What About Me is a free to use web service that lets you easily analyze how you have been using your Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube accounts. You start by granting the site access to your accounts. Your usage is analyzed and the infographic is generated while you play with some distractingly interactive circles that are displayed.
The infographic that is finally generated shows your interests in terms of percentages, how you react with friends, plus a number of other interesting things about your social networking usage.
This really is the next logical step in infographics. We’ve been lured, as Wired astutely pointed out, by infographics as “link bait” for a long time. It’s time we turned that gaze inward to see what our social habits say about us. This will take off, we predict.
Patrick Roland, August 21, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Search Keeps Getting Smarter
August 21, 2013
The Special Interest Group on Information Retrieval is a part of the Association for Computing Machinery. They host a yearly conference where a “state of the union” of search is presented. And while some may argue that search is an old technology, it is definitely not stagnant. Read more in the CMS Wire article, “Search is Getting Smarter All the Time.”
The author begins:
“There is a tendency to be critical of the fact that the core technology dates back to the work of Gerard Salton in the mid-1960s, and that therefore search is broken and is going nowhere. The same could be said of the internal combustion engine so long as you ignore the level of sophistication in Formula 1 and Indy cars. The reality is that search has never been in a better place in terms of development and there is a lot of exciting stuff sitting well below the horizon because of the disconnect between academic research and enterprise search development.”
Grant Ingersoll has posted some good reviews of this year’s conference. Ingersoll is the CTO and co-founder at LucidWorks. LucidWorks is part of the dynamic open source movement to which the article gives a great deal of attention. If search continues to get better, open source plays a large role in that, and the industry is noticing.
Emily Rae Aldridge, August 21, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Webinar to Show How Cogito Intelligence API Delivers Strategic Insights
August 20, 2013
Calling all software developers, analysts and systems integrators. The leading semantic intelligence developer, Expert System is hosting a webinar entitled, “What’s Hiding In Your Data? Test Drive Our Semantic API.” The webinar is scheduled for August 28 at 12 pm ET/9 am PT and registration is now open.
We recommend that professionals who are interested in transforming content and data streams into actionable and strategic information should sign up. A unique offering of this webinar is the live product test drive so that those interested can see how their flagship Cogito Intelligence API works.
The webinar description summarizes Cogito Intelligence API:
Cogito Intelligence API is a unique API that uses the power of semantic processing—Text Mining, Categorization, Tagging—and deep domain vertical knowledge for Intelligence to help analysts access and exploit some of their most strategic sources of information. As the only semantics based system, Cogito Intelligence API provides complete understanding of meaning and context in the processing of data and resolves ambiguities in data more effectively than solutions based on keywords or statistics.
Another unique offering from the Cogito API revolves around corporate security. Their solution is already embedded with corporate security measures, which enables businesses to operate all applications with the same confidence that Cogito offers.
Megan Feil, August 20, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Inkling to Underpin Prominent Academic Publishers in the Digital Realm
August 20, 2013
Well, this is an interesting move. PaidContent reports, “iPad Publisher Inkling Nabs $16M and Partners with Pearson and Elsevier.” The series C funding places Inkling’s Habitat platform at the heart of Pearson‘s and Elsevier‘s digital operations. The article informs us:
“Pearson — along with McGraw Hill — has already invested in Inkling a couple times, but now Inkling’s cloud-based publishing platform, Habitat, will serve as both Pearson and Elsevier’s primary digital content development platform, with all of their new digital content being constructed through it. Elsevier will also bring 650 existing medical textbooks to the platform. Right now, Inkling has around 550 titles available for iPhone, iPad and web.
“The $16 million funding round was led by Sequoia Capital. Inkling raised $17 million in August 2011 and an unspecified amount from McGraw-Hill and Pearson earlier that year. CEO Matt MacInnis told me the funding will be used to help large publishers integrate Habitat into their product workflows, as well as to ‘address the next tier of large publishers who will be using Habitat’ by hiring more people.”
Hiring is good, and a few new VPs have already been put in place. Founded in 2009, Inkling strives to reimagine learning materials by breaking down the assumptions that remain from our history with paper-based books. We are reminded of another Elsevier smart-content business, the engineering-focused Knovel, and are happy to see that site is still going strong. We hope Inkling fares as well with this new deal.
Cynthia Murrell, August 20, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Vine Already Has Best of Web Sites
August 20, 2013
Vine did not depute that long ago, but quick and momentary media has its appeal. Makeuseof.com has compiled a list of the “4 Places To Find The Best And Hottest Vine Videos.” Vine is the Twitter equivalent of YouTube. Users post six second videos and, as one would guess, most are not worth watching:
“What can you do in six seconds? You’d be surprised. Here at MakeUseOf, we’ve covered Vine already and showed you some of the best Vine videos to date, but not all Vine videos are worth watching. In this post, I’d like to show you how to get a constant stream of quality Vines to enjoy in a number of different ways. Bookmark or subscribe to the following sites and stay updated with only the best Vine content.”
Vpeeker is almost Chatroulette. Viewers can view the newest videos in a live stream seconds after they are uploaded and save favorites for later. VineScope is more associated with Facebook and shows user submitted videos. Viewers can like a video and even have the option to watch random videos in no particular order. There is a Vine Community on Reddit. Users have mostly posted vines or a few article about the app. As with anything on Reddit, it will grow. There is a Best Vines account is a Twitter and Facebook account that lists the best of the best videos. As established social media platforms this makes it easy to keep up with popular vines.
This list makes us think about how people are trying to develop a rich media search application, but people’s search habits are regressing. They are relying on an old school approach to find information. Microvideos how you ruin good habits.
Whitney Grace, August 20, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Mobile Users Do Not Click on Ads
August 20, 2013
Woe be to Internet companies for they are not making money off mobile ads. Here is something that looking back makes it predictable to see: “Study: Users Don’t Click On Online Ads” from the Telegraph. According to the article, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, and Intel are losing money in small screen advertising. Social media giants such as Twitter and Instagram are more successful, but they do not rely on advertising on a money generating. Apple and Samsung are turning a profit as well, but it is hard to compare hardware to digital Web sites.
Branding is difficult on small screens, because the advertising algorithms put ads on people’s screens that are irrelevant or downright offensive to the user. Microsoft is having trouble, because they focused their energies on tablets and an OS built specifically for it. Windows 8 is hardly synonymous with tablets and poor user response does not help.
Google will make a come back:
“The search giant’s results this week demonstrated two key things: it continues to be a dominant force on the web, and it has no serious rivals. But even it has been taken by surprise on mobile phones: it built the operating system that now accounts for the majority of all devices, and claimed that doing so would drive traffic to Google. So far so good, but on mobile Google is struggling to find a way to make the adverts that pay its wages attractive enough for users to click on.”
Google relies on a simplistic approach to its products—free of advertising. As their product line begins to include driverless cars and more the money will come. Yet another turning point for companies dependent online advertising-time to focus on something else.
Whitney Grace, August 20, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Minneapolis Lucene Solr Meetup
August 20, 2013
Today LucidWorks is hosting a Lucene Solr Meetup. Don’t miss out. Catch all the details on the LucidWorks news site, “Minneapolis Area Lucene/Solr Meetup.”
The invitation states:
“Join us for refreshments, and socializing followed by presentations on What’s New in Lucene/Solr from Grant Ingersoll and presentations from Entegen and BestBuy on how they are using Solr to help their businesses. The event is hosted by Entagen and LucidWorks at 514 Studios, convienently located in the heart of the warehouse district, near the new Target Field, The Northstar Commuter Rail, and the Hiawatha Light Rail Line.”
LucidWorks has built a strong reputation on customer support and training, as well as their incomparable expertise in Apache Lucene Solr. Grant Ingersoll has been instrumental in building that reputation. Whether you are interested in maximizing the power of Apache Lucene Solr, or you want to see whether LucidWorks is the right fit for your organization, the meetup is worth the time if you are in the area. LucidWorks Big Data and LucidWorks Search form an all-star lineup that will meet any organization’s information needs.
Emily Rae Aldridge, August 20, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Next Generation Content Processing: Tail Fins and Big Data
August 19, 2013
Note: I wrote this for Homeland Security Today. It will appear when the site works out its production problems. As background, check out “The Defense Department Thinks Troves of Personal Data Pose a National Security Threat.” If the Big Data systems worked as marketers said, the next generation systems would these success stories provide ample evidence of the value of these Big Data systems?]
Next-generation content processing seems, like wine, to improve with age. Over the last four years, smart software has been enhanced by design. What is your impression of the eye-popping interfaces from high-profile vendors like Algilex, Cybertap, Digital Reasoning, IBM i2, Palantir, Recorded Future, and similar firms? ((A useful list is available from Carahsoft at http://goo.gl/v853TK.)
For me, I am reminded of the design trends for tail fins and chrome for US automobiles in the 1950s and 1960s. Technology advances in these two decades moved forward, but soaring fins and chrome bright work advanced more quickly. The basics of the automobile remained unchanged. Even today’s most advanced models perform the same functions as the Kings of Chrome of an earlier era. Eye candy has been enhanced with creature comforts. But the basics of today’s automobile would be recognized and easily used by a driver from Chubby Checker’s era. The refrain “Let’s twist again like we did last summer” applies to most of the advanced software used by law enforcement and the intelligence community.
[Image file: tailfin.png]
The tailfin of a 1959 Cadillac. Although bold, the tailfins of the 1959 Plymouth Fury and the limited production Superbird and Dodge Daytona dwarfed GM’s excesses. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cadillac1001.jpg
Try this simple test. Here are screenshots from five next-generation content processing systems. Can you match the graphics with the vendor?
Here are the companies whose visual outputs appear below. Easy enough, just like one of those primary school exercises, simply match the interface with the company
The vendors represented are:
A Digital Reasoning (founded in 2000 funded in part by SilverLake. The company positions itself as providing automated understanding as did Autonomy, founded in 1996)
B IBM i2 (industry leader since the mid 1990s)
C Palantir (founded a decade ago with $300 million in funding by Founders fund, Glynn Capital Management, and others)
D Quid (a start up funded in part by Atomico, SV Angel, and others)
E Recorded Future (funded in part by In-Q-Tel and Google, founded by the developer of Spotfire)
Mobile Users do not Click on Ads
August 19, 2013
Woe be to Internet companies for they are not making money off mobile ads. Here is something that looking back makes it predictable to see: “Study: Users Don’t Click On Online Ads” from the Telegraph. According to the article, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, and Intel are losing money in small screen advertising. Social media giants such as Twitter and Instagram are more successful, but they do not rely on advertising on a money generating. Apple and Samsung are turning a profit as well, but it is hard to compare hardware to digital Web sites.
Branding is difficult on small screens, because the advertising algorithms put ads on people’s screens that are irrelevant or downright offensive to the user. Microsoft is having trouble, because they focused their energies on tablets and an OS built specifically for it. Windows 8 is hardly synonymous with tablets and poor user response does not help.
Google will make a come back:
“The search giant’s results this week demonstrated two key things: it continues to be a dominant force on the web, and it has no serious rivals. But even it has been taken by surprise on mobile phones: it built the operating system that now accounts for the majority of all devices, and claimed that doing so would drive traffic to Google. So far so good, but on mobile Google is struggling to find a way to make the adverts that pay its wages attractive enough for users to click on.”
Google relies on a simplistic approach to its products—free of advertising. As their product line begins to include driverless cars and more the money will come. Yet another turning point for companies dependent online advertising-time to focus on something else.
Whitney Grace, August 19, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Dead Trees Still Have Fans
August 19, 2013
Print is dead, right? Nope. According to a recent survey conducted by Rasmussen Reports three out every four adults prefer to read a traditional paper book when asked the question: Would you rather read a book in a traditional printed format or on an electronic book-reading device like a Kindle? The results are discussed in the article, “75% Prefer Traditional Book To Electronic Reading Device.” In a phone survey, 1,000 adults were polled about their book reading habits on July 11-12, 2013. The respondents were asked the following questions:
“1. When was the last time you bought a book of any kind – within the last month, within the last three months, within the last six months, within the last year or more than one year ago?
2.When you buy a book, are you most likely to go to an actual bookstore, go to some other retail store, order it over the Internet or download it to your e-reader?
3. Would you rather read a book in a traditional printed format or on an electronic book-reading device like a Kindle?
4. Regardless of what you prefer, do you usually read a book in the traditional printed format or on an electronic book-reading device like a Kindle?
5. Have you ever seen a book title in a traditional bookstore and then, instead of buying it in the store, downloaded it to your computer or electronic reader?
6. How important is the price of books in your decision whether to get an electronic book-reading device?”
Fifteen percent enjoy using electronic devices, while ten percent are left undecided. A 95% confidence level and a 3% margin of error make this an accurate survey, except for a few factors. What was the age group of the respondents? Baby Boomers and older are most likely traditional book fans, because it what they have been conditioned too. Generation X is probably divided in favor and against, while the Millennials are more of a digital generation. The results may be accurate, but the demographics are skewed. Traditional books will be around for a while longer; a niche group will always prefer them like music on vinyl.
Whitney Grace, August 19, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
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