Mining Visual Content
February 23, 2014
Data-mining of social media is moving beyond natural-language processing of Tweets and Posts and into a whole new realm of visual content interfacing to analyze the data available on the heavily-visual social network Tumblr.
Cierra Buck posted “Introducing Tumblr Firehose data on the Pulsar Platform and a whole new interface for mining visual content” on the Pulsar Platform Blog. In the post, Buck notes that Pulsar integrated Tumblr not just as a blogging site, but as a social networking site. But because over 80% of Tumblr content is visual, integration required an entirely new way of presenting data to Pulsar platform users:
“This allows Pulsar to display the actual image and video content rather than a preview end enabling endless scrolling rather than organising the content in pages. This allows for easy browsing of rich media social content which, coupled with advanced filtering using all the metadata we generate, is going to give you a powerful mining tool to uncover visual patterns and trends in your dataset.”
Buck’s post gives a good visual tutorial of how the interface will work and the kinds of data it will analyze from Tumblr. Do the kids on Tumblr realize that everything they post is being mined?
Laura Abrahamsen, February 23, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Merger Targets Game Developers
February 22, 2014
Game developers hoping to strike it rich with whatever becomes the next Candy Crush have a new company offering them tools in their quest. Rebecca Grant reported “Mobile analytics firm Kontagent raises $5M, gears up for merger with PlayHaven” for VentureBeat.
The merger brings together Kontagent’s game analytics, which gathers player data for developers so that they can tweak their apps for a better player experience; and PlayHaven’s mobile monetization tools, so that those apps result in profits for the developers:
“The merger was in response to the increasingly crowded and fragmented mobile market — when it comes to both analytics and monetization. The consolidation of the two companies means they can offer customers a more complete, integrated set of tools.”
There are some seriously big numbers involved in this deal: the combined company will field a market of 22,000 apps to 400 million users monthly across 1 billion devices; the capital raised by both companies is now $26 million.
And remember, this is not a merger of the companies making the games; this is a merger of companies making the apps that help the developers make the games.
Laura Abrahamsen, February 22, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Innovation: Bring Cash
February 21, 2014
Last week, two of the senior ArnoldIT professionals delivered a one hour lecture to a select group of executives. The topic was related to our work in locating high-value information using open source content sources.
Shortly after our presentation I read “Google Was Willing to Beat Facebook’s $19B Offer for WhatsApp.” Quite a windfall for WhatsApp.
The thought that struck me was the way the deal illuminated a comment made by an investment banker attending out lecture last week. The former consultant told me:
We focus on innovation. We are looking in high tech sectors.
The statement is a bit of misdirection. The investment firm wants to find companies, inject cash, and then do a deal like the WhatsApp anomaly. The user of the word “innovation” is an audible pause. Like the person who uses “so” or “um” in conversation, the individual talking about innovation is not interested in innovation.
From my perspective, brokering a big deal is not innovation. The company WhatsApp may be described as an innovator. The question is, “Did Facebook buy innovation?”
If WhatsApp was an innovation, why did Google step away from the deal?
The current economic environment is looking for blockbusters, home runs, and slam dunk content winners.
Innovation is related to cash. Without funding, most start ups struggle. Without cash, start ups are the raw material for the near-monopolies that the US tech landscape is husbanding.
In my series of search vendor profiles, a surprising trend is evident. In the search and content processing sector, innovation has stalled. Instead of breakthroughs, there are optimizing and bundling plays. Instead of light bulbs, I see recycled plastic.
Paying $19 billion is an indication that a blend of desperation and arrogance is filling the coffee shops in some locales.
Stephen E Arnold, February 21, 2014
Forecasting the Growth of Global Big Data
February 21, 2014
If you’re in the position to make decisions about how your company is going to handle Business Intelligence and Enterprise Search needs, you may want to have a look at Global Big Data Market 2014-2018, a new market research report offered by ReportLinker. PRNewswire reported on the publication.
The full report presents primary and secondary research conducted by TechNavio’s analysts, who
“forecast the Global Big Data market to grow at a CAGR of 34.17 percent over the period 2013-2018. One of the key factors contributing to this market growth is the need to upgrade business processes and improve productivity. The Global Big Data market has also been witnessing the increase in market consolidation. However, the lack of awareness about the potential of big data could pose a challenge to the growth of this market.”
The report covers the Americas, the EMEA and APAC regions and goes into in-depth analysis of the four key vendors in Big Data: Hewlett-Packard Co.,IBM Corp., Oracle Corp., and Teradata Corp.
A host of other vendors is also covered in the full report, which addresses the key challenges of the global Big Data market and the forces driving developments. My guess is that the emerging market adoption of Hadoop is one of those forces.
Laura Abrahamsen, February 21, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Incorporating Twitter Sentiment Analysis into Trading Software
February 21, 2014
Thomson Reuters has added Twitter sentiment analysis to its Eikon subscription trading platform. Sorting tweets into positive and negative messages based on proprietary language-processing technology, the feature meets the demands of a growing number of traders.
According to Matthew Finnegan’s story “Thomson Reuters Adds Twitter Sentiment Analysis to Eikon Trading Terminal” for Computerworld UK, the analytics tool will show users the volume of both positive and negative messaging relating to specific companies on an hourly basis. Thomson Reuters’ Chief Technology Officer Philip Brittan stressed that the information will be used primarily for research, not a basis for trading decisions.
Since there have been instances of fake Tweets influencing markets, the caution is probably justified. But the power of social media’s unstructured data cannot be denied, and Eikon is attempting to harness it for subscribers:
“…the Eikon sentiment analysis aims to also make it easier for humans to quickly make sense of masses of social media information currently available, with tens of thousands of tweets about major companies each day.”
It’s one more way we see social media emerging as the dominant media force of the 21st century.
Laura Abrahamsen, February 21, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Putting a Value on Unstructured Data
February 21, 2014
The conventional wisdom is that the data derived from social media has great value. It is fast overtaking traditional media, with 70% of adults in the US using Facebook, and 63% of all Facebook users visiting the site at least once a day. That doesn’t even begin to address Twitter, LinkedIn or niche social networks like Ravelry.
What users share on social networks is unstructured data, and IT’s challenge is to extract business value from that unstructured data. But what is that data worth? Loraine Lawson considered the question in her recent blog post “Do Businesses Really Value Social Media Data?” for IT BusinessEdge.
Lawson notes that Dun and Bradstreet has entered into a partnership with business analytics vendor FirstRain that will allow D&B to integrate unstructured social data into its existing enterprise data products at no additional cost. Forbes’ Ben Kepes reported this development, and his column sparked Lawson to wonder,
“Social media data that has been integrated and given to clients…for free? As Kepes notes, that could be interpreted as ‘an admission that enterprises aren’t buying into the idea of unstructured data’s value proposition on its own.’”
On the other hand, Oracle will be happy to sell you a solution to leverage social media data. It’s clear the marketplace hasn’t quite reached consensus on the value of unstructured data.
Laura Abrahamsen, February 21, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
SharePoint 2013 E-Discovery
February 21, 2014
Many organizations are looking for SharePoint to perform outside of its regular boundaries. So for those that are specifically looking for e-discovery capabilities, Search Content Management has good news in their article, “SharePoint 2013 E-discovery Makes Strides in Mining Exchange Server Data.”
The article says:
“SharePoint 2013 offers new integration with Exchange Server, which can ease the burden of e-discovery. E-discovery enables finding, preserving, analyzing and producing content in electronic formats as required by legal proceedings or investigation. SharePoint’s new e-discovery capabilities with Exchange Server are a major boon for records managers tasked with retrieving information in Exchange mailboxes.”
Stephen E. Arnold is a longtime search expert and the man behind ArnoldIT.com. He frequently covers the ups and down of SharePoint, and a common theme is users’ desire to get the most mileage out of their SharePoint implementation. For these organizations, the bells and whistles of SharePoint 2013 are going a long way.
Emily Rae Aldridge, February 21, 2014
Quote to Note: WhatsApp and Change
February 20, 2014
I read “Facebook” in the WhatsApp Blog. I find the idea that Google and Facebook engaged in a multi billion dollar bidding war amusing. Tucked into the blog post was this quote to note:
Here’s what will change for you, our users: nothing. WhatsApp will remain autonomous and operate independently. You can continue to enjoy the service for a nominal fee. You can continue to use WhatsApp no matter where in the world you are, or what smartphone you’re using. And you can still count on absolutely no ads interrupting your communication. There would have been no partnership between our two companies if we had to compromise on the core principles that will always define our company, our vision and our product.
My hunch is that the assurance is important for personal mental health and for customers who have some first hand experience with change.
I thought of this quote as I pondered the the categorical “nothing”:
To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often. – Winston Churchill
Lucretius and Winnie: Obviously incorrect. WhatsApp has it nailed down permanently and eternally. Update your thinking, gentle WhatsApp user. I won’t ask you to edit the “nothing” to read “nothing for a short time.”
Stephen E Arnold, February 20, 2014
Inetsoft Incorporates Data Source Connector for Hadoop
February 20, 2014
Style Intelligence, the Business Intelligence platform from Inetsoft, released v. 11.5 late in 2013. According to the Passionned Group post “New Release of Inetsoft Includes Hadoop Connector,” the new data source connector will
“enable users to add data from the Apache Hive data warehouse to their dashboards and analysis in the same easy way they connect any other data source.”
The update also features a complete restyle of their user interface, which is based on a self-service dashboard for data reporting. Style Intelligence is built on an open standard SOA architecture and delivers data reports from both structured and unstructured sources.
In other words, Inetsoft has seen that Hadoop is the way Big Data is going, and they want to make sure their own product can work with what is fast becoming the industry standard.
Laura Abrahamsen, February 20, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
A Researcher Makes Social Media More Scientific
February 20, 2014
The article titled Can Social Technologies Increase Our Dunbar Limit? on Lithosphere is a continuation of a scientific approach to social media behavior. The earlier articles by Michael Wu, the author and Chief Scientist at Lithium Technologies, are The Relativity and Economics of Relationship and Where is the New Dunbar Limit? (Wu begins this article with the cautious suggestions of skimming the others prior to diving in.) Dunbar’s number, for those unfamiliar, is the number of people with whom one can form and maintain a social relationship (and the suggested number is about 150.) In the article, Wu grapples with the possibility that social media may enable this number to increase (largely due to technologies making our ability to socialize more “efficient”. The article states,
“Although the internet has made communication more efficient in many ways, it is also limiting in other ways. The internet cannot transmit many nonverbal signals (e.g. touch, scents, physical proximics, body languages, etc) that are often very important for relationship building… Since social technologies are not able to help us build relationships more efficiently, I must come to consensus with Prof. Dunbar that modern social technologies probably cannot increase our Dunbar limit any further.”
The article delves into a comparison of socializing and communicating, pointing out that these are very different concepts. It also provides a brief history of human socializing behaviors. Ultimately Wu concludes that socializing includes many non-verbal cues which technology cuts out. Hence the Dunbar number remaining static. The article is fascinating as a more scientific approach to social media.
Chelsea Kerwin, February 20, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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