SharePoint Benefits from Apps
August 14, 2014
SharePoint is an extremely popular, but extremely complicated piece of software. Many organizations build their entire information architecture around it, so it is important to have an understanding about how all employees can benefit from different aspects of the system. Visual Studio Magazine turns their attention to SharePoint’s emerging focus on apps in their article, “SharePoint: All About the Apps.”
The article begins:
“SharePoint is one of the more prominent collaboration platforms . . . Implementing such a complex collaboration platform can be a challenge. If your organization is using SharePoint or planning to, you can learn more about developing and deploying custom SharePoint apps at SharePoint Live, as part of Live 360, happening this November 18-22 in Orlando, FL.”
Stephen E. Arnold has made a lifelong career out of following all things search on ArnoldIT.com, and reports frequently on the popular topic of SharePoint, on his customized SharePoint feed. He understands the complexity of SharePoint and the necessity of almost constant training and professional development. It is encouraging to see an older software like SharePoint adapting to a new format through apps and other features, but it does take commitment on the part of the user to learn new skills.
Emily Rae Aldridge, August 14, 2014
Silobreaker Highlighted in SC Magazine
August 13, 2014
I have been a fan of Silobreaker’s online system and services for almost a decade. Unlike free online services, Silobreaker provides access to third party content as well as online information. An organization can work with Silobreaker in a variety of ways. The firm provides specialized services to process content for organizations as well as offering licensing deals to meet the needs of business information professionals and government entities.
The SC Magazine article “Soft Intelligence Is Important Too: Silobreaker.” I noted several passages in the story by Peter Stephenson as important to me in my work. The first snippet that I created observes:
With intelligence, especially cyber intelligence, the name of the game is situational awareness. That comes from reading lots of news items, blogs, social media, etc. In fact, Silobreaker does that well – to the tune of around 50,000 sources, more than 300 specific major malwares, thousands of vulnerabilities (from the CVE), and tracking 200-plus hacker groups. Then it applies proprietary algorithms to figure out what it has and to make that content available for a variety of queries, some automated and some manual. Specific target groups – such as various industry sectors – can be followed in conjunction with this raw data, which allows the setting of watch lists.
I am not too keen on the phrase “soft intelligence.” When data contribute to action, the service that provided information delivers something I would not characterize as soft. However, the comment is a good one. I would note that when Silobreaker includes a consultant’s report, what I call mid tier content marketing or saucisson by experts from outfits that emulate IDC-like “reports”, the Silobreaker display provides a context of other information.
I also noted:
Silobreaker can be employed as a SaaS service (Silobreaker Premium) or as a server in one’s enterprise – behind a firewall – as Silobreaker Enterprise Software. In either deployment, the key to the company’s success is in its suite of proprietary algorithms and its deep Internet search capability. We have tested the SaaS version with excellent results and have been able to correlate Silobreaker open source intelligence (OSINT) with bits and bytes from such sources as IP Viking and the SANS Internet Storm Center. That, added to monitored data at our Advanced Computing Center has provided an excellent picture of cyber activity and cyber activity trends. There are multiple ways to collect and analyze Silobreaker data. For example, you can easily create your own dashboard and include only those things that are important to you. You might watch trends within your own industry, trending malware, trending attacks, etc. You can relate those back to your particular business environment. So, we can watch trending attacks, hacker ops and malware that relates particularly to the banking industry, for example.
This is a helpful description of Silobreaker. I would point out that Silobreaker incorporates a number of features that other systems available to organizations struggle to implement in a context sensitive way; for example, a map that pinpoints an entity in a specific geographic area.
I too find Silobreaker’s trending functions quite useful. SC Magazine says:
Trending is the key analysis tool. Things happen. They don’t usually happen in isolation, but sometimes they do. What is important, though, are the trends that we can use predicatively to help erect proactive defenses. Silobreaker generates trend information using heat and time series. These show, graphically, the trends over whatever time period you want. Heat shows within one day or one week at time series set by you. The system uses a 360-degree analysis approach that looks at the interactions between trending items, rather than looking at them in isolation.
Again I would point out that the “last known location function” and the “at a glance” reports that can be used in a meeting are also outstanding. Silobreaker includes a robust searching system too. Very important. Recommended.
For more information, visit www.silobreaker.com.
Stephen E Arnold, August 13, 2014
A Case Study for Search from Opentext
August 13, 2014
The Customer Story about Distell on OpenText tells of the successful South African beverage company. The “article” might provide a search case study. Opentext is an information management software that offers guidance in content management, archiving, web content management, and a myriad of other pursuits within the umbrella of “unleashing the power of information.” The article provides a list of bullet points about the company and an About section that states,
“Distell is Africa’s leading producer and marketer of spirits, fine wines, ciders, and ready-to-drinks (RTDs). It employs nearly 5,000 people and has an annual turnover in excess of R12,3 billion. When Distell was formed in 2000 it had 1,700 information workers but due to mainly organic growth and the acquisitions of Bisquit, a French cognac company, and Burn Stewart Distillers, a Scottish whisky producer, that has now grown to 3,000 users spread across over 80 offices, mainly in Southern Africa, but also in eight international locations.”
Otherwise it has a movie and lots of dot points. Substantive cost overrun info? Nope. Of course there is also a link to the full story, a three page PDF that provides detailed information about the company and its prospects. But the dot points are a lot more appealing.
Chelsea Kerwin, August 13, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Guide to Hiding Java Source in Oracle Database
August 13, 2014
The explanatory article on MacLochlainns Weblog titled Hiding a Java Source offers information for those interested in concealing a Java source in an Oracle database. It is a relatively brief article that consists of straightforward instructions. The article begins,
“The ability to deploy Java inside the Oracle database led somebody to conclude that the source isn’t visible in the data catalog. Then, that person found that they were wrong because the Java source is visible when you use a DDL command to CREATE, REPLACE, and COMPILE the Java source. This post discloses how to find the Java source and how to prevent it from being stored in the data catalog.”
The article concludes with instructions on how to ascertain that the Java source is compiled outside the database. Obviously, this article is only intended for white hate reasons, right? Michael McLaughlin, the author of the blog, has a long history with Oracle, going back to Oracle 6. He has written several handbooks on Oracle and teaches database technology at BYU-Idaho. The blog used to be focused solely on Oracle as well, but now offers posts on a range of topics from Java to Mac OS to Microsoft Excel and more.
Chelsea Kerwin, August 13, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Search Engine and Content Processing Vendors, Check Out the Failure Rate
August 12, 2014
I find the number of search and content processing start ups surprising. Both fields are difficult to make work in terms of technology and money. The squabble between Hewlett Packard and Autonomy make it clear that established vendors and big companies can be a potent concoction too.
I read a write up from the stats cats at FiveThirtyEight. The article is “Corporate America Hasn’t Been Disrupted.” No kidding. After “real” number crunching FiveThirtyEight wrote:
the advantages of incumbency in corporate America have never been greater. “The business sector of the United States,” economists Ian Hathaway and Robert Litan [an expert, of course] wrote in a recent Brookings Institution paper, “appears to be getting ‘old and fat.’
According to FiveThirtyEight:
recent research suggests that established businesses have less and less to fear from would-be disruptors.
The most interesting item in the article is this statement:
the advantage enjoyed by incumbents, always substantial, has been growing in recent years.
FiveThirtyEight crunched US Census data and generated this diagram:
As a non mathematician, I interpreted the chart to say, “Failure up. Start ups down.”
What about search? My observations are:
- Venture firms pumping millions into search and content processing are likely to lose their money unless a sell out or sell off is possible
- Buying a successful search or content processing business may provide an expensive management challenge; for example, the criminal investigation of Fast Search & Transfer
- Getting objective information about a search and content processing company may be tough due to the saucisson issue or the difficulty of explaining certain technical concepts.
My hunch is that making lots of money from search and content processing as a venture backed start up is similar to buying a Yugo and expecting to win a dirt track race. That type of race can be quite exciting and risky.
Stephen E Arnold, August 12, 2014
Flurry in Stock Market Listings Coincides with SLI Systems Downward Spiral
August 12, 2014
The article titled SLI Systems Plunges to Lowest Since Listing on TVNZ discusses the recent burst of listings. SLI Systems is a company that provides site search, navigation and “user-generated SEO.” SLI’s share price shows the pressure findability vendors are facing in today’s marketplace. The stock fell over seven percent and remains just above its initial public offer price of $1.15. The article states,
“The local stock market is experiencing a flurry of listings which is spoiling investors for choice after it got a shot in the arm from the government’s partial privatisation last year, and the recent listings of software developers Gentrack Group and Serko have only added to tech investments available. Next week, IkeGPS Group, which sells a range of portable measuring devices, plans to list while Vista Entertainment, the cinema software and data analytics company, is due in August…”
Paul Harrison of Salt Funds Management, believes that the flood of listings is not the only culprit for falling prices. Instead, he suggests that certain stocks were simply priced too highly and the current downward trend is a “hangover” following the initial “frenzy.” Other affected companies mentioned include Xero, the accounting software firm, the biotech company Pacific Edge which was unchanged, and Diligent, which also fell in price.
Chelsea Kerwin, August 12, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
OnlyBoth Launches “Niche Finding” Data Search
August 12, 2014
An article on the Library Journal Infodocket is titled Co-Founder of Vivisimo Launches “OnlyBoth” and It’s Super Cool! The article continues in this entirely unbiased vein. OnlyBoth, it explains, was created by Raul Valdes- Perez and Andre Lessa. It offers an automated process of finding data and delivering it to the user in perfect English. The article states,
“What does OnlyBoth do? Actions speak louder than words so go take a look but in a nutshell, OnlyBoth can mine a dataset, discover insights, and then write what it finds in grammatically correct sentences. The entire process is automated. At launch, OnlyBoth offers an application providing insights o 3,122 U.S. colleges and universities described by 190 attributes. Entries also include a list of similar and neighboring institutions. More applications are forthcoming.”
The article suggests that this technology will easily lend itself to more applications, for now it is limited to presenting the facts about colleges and baseball in perfect English. The idea is called “niche finding” which Valedes-Perez developed in the early 2000s and never finished. The technology focuses on factual data that requires some reasoning. For example, the Onlyboth website suggests that the insight “If California were a country, it would be the tenth biggest in the world” is a more complicated piece of information than just a simple fact like the population of California. OnlyBoth promises that more applications are forthcoming.
Chelsea Kerwin, August 12, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
The Last Mile of SharePoint Connectivity
August 12, 2014
SharePoint is such a large infrastructure that it is easy for organizations to get bogged down in the big picture and forget about the final details. However, experts say that the “last mile” or last bit of software that connections to the actual user, is perhaps the most important. CMS Wire fleshes out this idea and how it relates to SharePoint in their article, “Focus on the Last Mile of SharePoint Automation.”
The article says:
“Within the telecommunications space, the ‘last mile’ is a metaphorical phrase used to describe the final leg of the telecom network where the customer physically connects to the network. How much of your SharePoint environment has been designed for that last mile? In other words, how much has been designed for the end user experience rather than just to meet your functional requirements?”
Stephen E. Arnold is a longtime expert in search and gives a good bit of attention to SharePoint on his Web site, ArnoldIT.com. He also concentrates a lot of his energy on the user experience, because a search solution is only effective if employees are willing to use it. If your organization is in need of more effective search, keep an eye on Arnold’s SharePoint feed for the latest tips, tricks, and add-ons.
Emily Rae Aldridge, August 12, 2014
A Google Savior for US Government Web Sites
August 11, 2014
I know that Googlers and Xooglers are absolutely the best. I read “Ex-Google Engineer to Lead Fix-It Team for Government Websites.” I am confident that the Xoogler will bring high magic to the problematic Web sites from numerous Federal entities and quasi-government entities. In year 2000, there were 36,000 of these puppies. I don’t recall how many were not working the way the developers intended.
I don’t know how many US government Web sites there are today because the nifty free tools I used in 2000 and 2001 the way they did a decade ago.
How long will it take to address the backend issues of HealthCare.gov or get the other sites with glitches working “just like Google”? I think USA.gov might warrant a quick look too. I suppose one could check out the performance metrics for America Online or Yahoo, two outfits run by Xooglers. There may be some data that help in predicting the fix time.
Stephen E Arnold, August 11, 2014
Gartner Magic Quadrant in the News: Netscout Matter
August 11, 2014
I read “Gartner MQ under Fire—Netscout Alleges Unfair Practices in Pay to Play Lawsuit.”
The write up reports that “Netscout is suing research firm Gartner, accusing it of unfair practices in its construction of a Magic Quadrant, citing pay to play.” The magic quadrant lingo is important because it is different language than that used by Bruce D. Henderson in the early 1970s.
This is likely to be a contentious matter. You can find the court filing in the Diginomica story. The document is about 60 pages long and probably not suited for consumption on an iPhone whilst driving.
Who are the folks involved in the squabble?
Netscout offers what it calls “unified service delivery management solutions.” The company is publicly traded and reported revenue of about $400 million in revenue. You can get more information via Google Finance at http://bit.ly/1mCtlJI and information about Netscout at www.netscout.com.
Gartner is a consulting and services firm generating about $1.8 billion per year in revenue. You can get more information via Google finance at http://bit.ly/1kWiX4x. Details about Gartner’s products and services are available at www.gartner.com.
I don’t have any experience or dealings with either firm. Will the interaction end in a race track accident like that at Canandaigua Motorsports Park?
The Gartner Magic Quadrant, in my opinion, is a variation of the Boston Consulting Group’s diagram containing a star, cow, dog, and question mark. The BCG method, if I recall my Booz, Allen charm school lesson, is that a ton of expensive analytic work was presented to often sluggish corporate types in one simple chart.
Here’s an example of the BCG approach recreated by Marketing Health Online:
I remember that a “dog” was not good. Dogs should be sold, killed, or kicked to the side of the road. It was definitely good to the a “star.” Stars generate revenue and illuminate the new BMW or yacht the manager of the star could buy with a bonus. The “cow” gave recurring revenues. When the cow stopped pumping out milk, then it morphed into a dog. A question mark required more analysis and, hence, more consulting work for our competitor.
The x axis reports the market share from high to low and the y axis represents market growth. High is good and BCG generated data and analysis to prove what was good. Low is bad and BCG displayed data that explained why something was a dog and should be treated with extreme prejudice.
The key to the BCG grid was its utter simplicity parked on top of hundreds of thousands or dollars invested in BCG time, analysis, and data crunching by fairly bright individuals from pretty good schools. My employer, Booz, Allen & Hamilton, was never able to create such a compelling graphic to drive business, but we did “invent” program evaluation and review techniques or PERT charts. You know our work as PERT charts. But that BCG method was a burr under the Booz, Allen saddles. We couldn’t rip off the approach. That was against the rules when I worked at the blue chip outfit. I have no idea what the rules are today.
Gartner’s chart is different, using words, lots of words when compared to the BCG chart looks similar. Here’s the graphic from Diginomica’s write up:
My hunch is that the legal eagles would take flight if an actual, 100 percent pure magic quadrant were reproduced in the article. (Note: you can download a representative magic quadrant from one of the companies included in the report. You will have to do some Googling to find a “real” MQ report. Have fun!)
If the information in the Diginomica write up is accurate, it seems that BCG’s legendary rigor may not be exactly duplicated by Gartner’s “experts.” I am skeptical of the saucisson generated by any consulting firm, but some saucisson is judged by gourmands as better than others.
Diginomica notes:
Vendors regard analyst services as part of their marketing, which in turn supports sales. The lawsuit makes this very clear. Buyers view the Gartner MQ as a validation point. Gartner plays on this, selling it to the the vendors on the basis that no-one buys technology without making a decision based upon a Gartner MQ. It’s a subtle form of implied blackmail that discriminates against the smaller vendors. When a mega vendor cuts a $1 million check to Gartner, no-one notices. But when an early stage business find itself having to stump $50-100,000 then that’s an altogether different matter that gets sucked out of limited marketing resource.
The Diginomica analysis points out that another company tried to sue Gartner in 2009 and “lost their fight with Gartner.”
Is this legal dust up different? Who knows.
Several observations:
- Analysis and consulting opinions are often pretty wild and crazy. I remember the analysis that preceded our implementation of the Marketing Analysis and Reporting System (MARS) for Bellcore in 1985 as quite the cat’s pajamas. Well, we know how the IBM MVS TSO environment worked out for end users who were not into green screens, or fans of keyboards with lots of extra keys.
- The BCG matrix is now part of the intellectual woodwork for anyone with an MBA. It just makes it so easy to explain why some products and companies are losers. It is an SU 35 for selling more consulting work for companies other than BCG, a firm which still adheres to the old fashioned analysis, analysis, and more analysis method of consulting.l .
- Who cares what today’s mid tier third party advisors say?For the hourly worker at Wendy’s, a graphic with lots of words is probably less compelling than a snapshot of a Kardashian. Content marketing is the name of the game today. Clicks, sales leads, and revenue—the Red Bull for success.
Take a look at the Diginomica article. This interaction will be fun to watch. I wonder if it will be possible to plot the matter using a BCG matrix?
Stephen E Arnold, August 11, 2014
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