Elsevier Gingerly Opens Papers to Text Mining
February 25, 2014
Even organizations not known for their adaptability can change, but don’t expect it to be rapid when it happens. Nature announces, “Elsevier Opens Its Papers to Text-Mining.” Researchers have been feeling stymied for years by the sluggish, case-by-case process through which academic publishers considered requests to computationally pull information from published papers. Now that the technical barriers to processing such requests are being remedied (at Elsevier now and expected at other publishers soon), some say the legal restrictions being placed on text mining are too severe. Reporter Richard Van Noorden writes:
“Under the arrangements, announced on 26 January at the American Library Association conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, researchers at academic institutions can use Elsevier’s online interface (API) to batch-download documents in computer-readable XML format. Elsevier has chosen to provisionally limit researchers to 10,000 articles per week. These can be freely mined — so long as the researchers, or their institutions, sign a legal agreement. The deal includes conditions: for instance, that researchers may publish the products of their text-mining work only under a licence that restricts use to non-commercial purposes, can include only snippets (of up to 200 characters) of the original text, and must include links to original content.”
Others are concerned not that the terms are too restrictive, but that there are any terms at all. The article goes on:
“But some researchers feel that a dangerous precedent is being set. They argue that publishers wrongly characterize text-mining as an activity that requires extra rights to be granted by licence from a copyright holder, and they feel that computational reading should require no more permission than human reading. ‘The right to read is the right to mine,’ says Ross Mounce of the University of Bath, UK, who is using content-mining to construct maps of species’ evolutionary relationships.”
Not to be left out of the discussion, governments are making their own policies. The U.K. will soon make text mining for non-commercial use exempt from copyright, so any content a Brit has paid for they will have the right to mine. Amid concerns about stifled research, the European Commission is also looking into the issue.
Meanwhile, some have already made the most of Elsevier’s new terms. For example, the European consortium the Human Brain Project is using it to work through technical issues in their project: the pursuit of a supercomputer that recreates everything we know about the human brain.
Cynthia Murrell, February 25, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Graphic Illustrates the Evolution of Google
February 25, 2014
Here’s a chart any Google historians should take a look at. MakeUseOf presents “The Story of Google: Algorithm + Functionality Updates,” in which they share a graphic plotting Google’s changes and milestones since its launch in 1998. Jackson Chung writes:
“It’s been fifteen years since Google made its debut in 1998, and it has gone on to be the most prominent search engine in history. Google released its very first algorithm update sixteen months after it went live, which was mostly undocumented. Most webmasters will tell you that Google algorithm updates are a big deal, so let’s take at how many the search engine behemoth has released over the years.”
I notice that the “First Known Update” doesn’t come for a couple of years, in 2000. That is also when the site reached the 1 Billion Pages Indexed mark. It is no surprise that the closer we get to today, the more changes per year we see. Navigate to the post for more Googley curiosities.
The graphic was created by digital branding firm, Tamar, as the first graphic in their #digitalhistory series (the second is The Story of Facebook). Not a bad approach; we can appreciate the share-something-for-free marketing model.
Cynthia Murrell, February 25, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
SharePoint Features to Boost Worker Productivity
February 25, 2014
SharePoint is ultimately all about productivity. All the bells and whistles in the world don’t mean anything unless they contribute to improve performance and productivity. The latest Search Content Management free download addresses the issue in their E-Guide, “Complimentary Download: SharePoint 2013: New Features that Could Boost Worker Productivity.”
The synopsis says:
“Microsoft may have been a little slow in enabling SharePoint for mobile. But SharePoint 2013 sports new mobility features that could boost worker productivity, and your bottom line. This complimentary resource is available to you as a member benefit from SearchContentManagement.com.”
So if you are a regular follower of SharePoint, a free membership to SearchContentManagement.com might not be a bad idea. Steven E. Arnold is also a regular follower of SharePoint, and keeps reader informed on his Web site, ArnoldIT.com. His resource is another to bookmark to help you and your organization stay on top of all things SharePoint.
Emily Rae Aldridge, February 25, 2014
PathAR Update
February 24, 2014
One of the goslings dug up additional information on the PathAR company. The firm caught my attention with its assertion that it could identify one specific meaning content object in a large corpus.
The company’s Web site is http://www.pathar.net.
According to an SEC Form D, the executives of the company are:
- Patrick D. Butler
- Andrew Woglom, chief financial officer
- Anthony (Tony) Marshall
- Mark Jacobson.
The address for the company is listed on Form D as:
110 S. Sierra Madre Street
Colorado Springs, CO 80903.
The company is seeking a software development manager and a senior architect/developer.
The CrunchBase profile states that the company provides “leading edge analysis capabilities.”
The firm has received $500,000 in funding.
The company appears to be throwing its hat in the ring with IBM, Palantir, and Recorded Future. With Palantir still pursuing a $9 billion valuation, the smart analytics sector continues to attract innovators and entrepreneurs. The question is, “Are there enough customers to make the dozens of analytics firms profitable?”
Stephen E Arnold, February 24, 2014
Yahoo and Search
February 24, 2014
Yahoo may not be able to wriggle out of the Microsoft Bing search deal. Microsoft may not be m making much progress in catching Google, and Yahoo may want to swizzle a different spin on Web search. Microsoft’s voice enabled technology seems to be disappointing Ford. The US auto maker may be embracing BlackBerry’s QNX system. Yep, BlackBerry, a stellar outfit in my experience. Microsoft has some issues to resolve particularly if it loses a major account to the shareholder-pleasing Waterloo, Ontario company.
I read “Yahoo Launches $10 Million Research Effort to Invent a Smarter Siri.” I find the notion that a large company can invent voice search that is “better” than another voice search system interesting. Google has a voice search system, and there are a number of companies eager to make their voice search technology available to Yahoo. But Yahoo apparently has confidence in Carnegie Mellon University, the outfit that delivered Lycos, Vivisimo, and Claritech to information seekers in the past.
According to the Technology Review article:
Ron Brachman, head of Yahoo Labs, says that he expects the InMind project to experiment with apps that are capable of rudimentary conversation—for example, asking a person follow-up questions and making suggestions based on new information. “This is missing from Siri,” he says, adding that although Apple’s personal assistant is impressive, it doesn’t attempt to understand the context in which it is being asked a question: it doesn’t understand what the user is doing or might need at the moment.
With Web search shifting to mobile like iron filings following a magnet, users find typing less facile on a mobile device. Will Yahoo crack the code in five years with the help of the CMU professors and students?
Five years is a long time. Like Facebook and Google, Yahoo may find it more expedient to start buying voice recognition companies and licensing available technology. WhatsApp, a company that Facebook bought in February, promptly said, it would not change. I learned today that Facebook will be adding voice calls to WhatsApp. How long did that “will not change” statement endure? WhatsApp did not have five days.
Yahoo may not have five years.
Stephen E Arnold, February 24, 2014
Free MIT Textbooks
February 24, 2014
More free books! On its blog, Open Matters, MIT OpenCourseWare shares a long list of materials on its OCW Bookshelf. This would be one to both explore now and note for future reference. The page’s introduction tells us:
“MIT OpenCourseWare shares the course materials from classes taught on the MIT campus. In most cases, this takes the form of course documents such as syllabi, lecture notes, assignments and exams. Occasionally, however, we come across textbooks we can share openly. This page provides an index of textbooks (and textbook-like course notes) that can be found throughout the OCW site. (Note that in most cases, resources are listed below by the course they are associated with.)”
The resources touch on a wide range of subjects taught at MIT. A few interesting associated course titles include “Design of Electromechanical Robotic Systems”, “Transcribing Prosodic Structures of Spoken Utterances with ToBI”, “Electromagnetic Field Theory: a Problem Solving Approach”, and “Evolution of Physical Oceanography.” Also listed are courses in Chinese and Japanese. See the eclectic list for yourself; a subject you’ve been wanting to learn more about may just available here.
Cynthia Murrell, February 24, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Simplified Patent Search
February 24, 2014
Finally, there are easier ways to find out whether your great idea has already been patented by an earlier-rising birdie. GCN reveals two new tools in, “Patent Search Engines Aim to Open Innovations to the World.”
The Lens is an open search engine created specifically for hunting down patent information, created by Richard Jefferson of the Queensland University of Technology. The Lens crawls through about 100 million documents in 90 countries, and its creator hopes it will help level the innovation playing field. Interestingly, Jefferson traces his lineage directly to Thomas Jefferson, who started the U.S. patent system in the first place. Perhaps that is why Richard Jefferson seeks to rectify the “dire straits” he feels that system is now in: being gamed by companies “incredibly skilled in hiding the ball in intentionally opaque patents.” The article tells us:
“The Lens already hosts several tools for analysis and exploration of the patent literature, including graphical representations of search results to advanced bioinformatics tools. In 2014 developers will be working to create forms of the Lens that can allow all annotations, commentary and sharing to be behind firewalls for those who need it, without forsaking the open and inclusive cyberinfrastructure, the organization said on its website.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) itself seeks to address the need for streamlined patent search with its Global Patent Search Network. The article doesn’t say how many countries this engine reaches, but does mention that the PTO has worked with China’s government to make their patent documentation searchable; that cooperation is nothing to sneeze at. The article reveals:
“Users can search documents, including published documents and granted patents, recorded from 2008 to 2011. The records are available in in English machine translations, which PTO acknowledged could sometimes generate awkward wording, but ‘provided an excellent way to determine the gist of the information in a foreign patent.'”
So, next time you want to know whether your invention has already been invented, turn to these tailor-made search engines.
Cynthia Murrell, February 24, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Free Knowledgebase Builder for Mind Mapping
February 24, 2014
Mind maps can be a valuable tool for the visual among us, and you can easily build your own virtual version with Knowledgebase Builder 2.6 from InfoRapid, based in Waiblingen, Germany. The best part—it’s free for personal use. As with most such business models, the company hopes you’ll try the freeware version and decide you can’t live without the tool in your workplace. The Professional Edition, which lets multiple users work together on the same knowledge base, goes for 99 euros (about $135 as of this writing). The price for the version with all the bells and whistles, the Enterprise Version, varies by company size, but starts at 1,000 euros (about $1,360 as I type) for a small business.
The description tells us:
“InfoRapid KnowledgeBase Builder allows you to easily create complex Mind Maps with millions of interconnected items. One single Mind Map can hold your entire knowledge, all your thoughts and ideas in a clear way. The data is stored securely in a local database file. While traditional Mind Maps don’t offer cross connections, InfoRapid KnowledgeBase Builder can connect any item with each other and label the connection lines. The program contains an archive for documents, images and web pages that may be imported and attached to any chart item or connection line.”
The six-minute video on the website demonstrates the Builder’s functionality, using as its example text about the software itself. The connection lines they mention above, which shift to adjust to new input, are reason enough to switch from pen-and-paper or MSPaint mapping techniques. Another key feature: You can link to documents or web pages from within the map, simplifying follow-through (a weak point for many of us.) The Highlighter Analysis is pretty nifty, too. Anyone curious about this tool should check out the site—the (personal use) price can’t be beat.
Cynthia Murrell, February 24, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
New Copy and Paste Feature for SharePoint
February 24, 2014
For many SharePoint users, it is the small stuff that makes a big difference in user experience. PortalFront True Apps tries to address one of the small details that makes a big difference in their newest release, Tru Copy & Paste. Read more in the PR Web article, “Copy & Paste Feature Fills SharePoint Gap, Finally.”
The article says:
“Tru Copy & Paste is a SharePoint App that works with SharePoint Online (Office 365) and on premise SharePoint 2013 installations. It enhances the usability of SharePoint by providing the users the ability to move files between folders, document libraries and sites directly within the browser similar to the traditional copy and paste feature found in Windows. It’s that simple. Prior to this, users had to use the ‘Open in Explorer View’ option to complete this which is not always supported.”
Stephen E. Arnold is a longtime leader in search. He follows the happenings of SharePoint on his Web service ArnoldIT.com. He often finds that even when SharePoint makes major upgrades, it is the small contributions to user experience that matter most. For that reason, many users are turning to third-party add-ons, such as the True Copy & Paste.
Emily Rae Aldridge, February 24, 2014
PathAR: Bold Claims
February 23, 2014
I came across a quite remarkable marketing assertion. The company using the wording is PathAR LLC, based in the midwest. Here’s what the company says:
Today 1 of the 3.8 Billion users of social media WILL impact your organization! Do you know who that 1 user is? How do we do it?
We built the world’s most advanced commercially available end-to-end solution for creating actionable intelligence from big data! Our proprietary intelligence engine powers Dunami, our web-based software platform. Dunami combines breakthrough advances in network analysis with advanced analytical techniques derived from long standing intelligence practices. Dunami’s broad capabilities are being used to Find, Understand, and Predict the behaviors of thought leaders and organizers on any topic, including identifying extremists, criminals, and others who are inciting potential violence around the globe!
When I read the statements, I wonder how predictive methods can pinpoint a single datum as the pivotal item of information.
Dunami, as a product/service name, poses some findability challenges. The name is in use for an exercise studio, a religious connotation, and a visual novel.
The company has filed for a trademark. See http://bit.ly/1hlK9mk. The company has a modest LinkedIn presence. See http://goo.gl/5a2JiK.
Is this another outfit chasing after IBM i2, Recorded Future, and the dozens of vendors listed on the Carasoft Web site?
Stephen E Arnold, February 23, 2014
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