Watson Needs Some Intellectual Help
March 13, 2015
IBM touts its Watson supercomputer as an end all solution for natural language processing, information dissemination, cooking, research, and whatever they else they can program into the machine. Reuters, however, found out that IBM made a recent purchase, “IBM Buys AlchemyAPI To Boost Watson Computing Unit.”
IBM wants Watson to be more human like as it sifts through mounds of data to help users. AlchemyAPI offers IBM ready access to 40,000 developers that have built tools using the former’s technology. The extra developers would offer IBM new developmental insight into how to improve Watson for mainstream use.
How will it be used?
“The software, which learns as it goes, enables users to group together disparate information on a certain topic or event, find related articles or information sources, and helps advertisers target online ads better. With the addition of AlchemyAPI’s technology, Gold said IBM sees opportunities for Watson in many fields such as healthcare, law and insurance, or wherever there are large volumes of unstructured data to be analyzed.”
It seems Watson cannot do everything on its own and needs a little help from other technology. It is hard to imagine that Watson needs the extra boost, consider IBM hypes the supercomputer up as able to handle information by the truckload.
Whitney Grace, March 13, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Attensity Understands Emoticons
March 13, 2015
Part of big data is being able to make sense of unstructured data, including the pieces that natural language processing software cannot understand like emoticons. Emoticons are an Internet phenomenal where people use grammatical symbols, numbers, and letters to represent feelings and ideas.
They cannot be spoken, so if an organization wants to analysis all of its data they need to be able to interpret emoticons. PC World tells us that Attensity has already created a way to understand emoticons without turning to a teenage girl to translate: “For Attensity’s BI Parsing Tool, Emoticons Are No Problem.”
Attensity’s Semantic Annotation natural-language processing tool was designed to handle large data loads. It can monitor and extract insights from unstructured data, including data from social media platforms and internal information like customer surveys and calls.
“Rather than relying on traditional keyword-based approaches to assessing sentiment and deriving meaning, Attensity’s Java-based product takes a more flexible natural-language approach. By combining and analyzing the linguistic structure of words and the relationship between a sentence’s subject, action and object, it’s designed to decipher and surface the sentiment and themes underlying many kinds of common language—even when there are variations in grammatical or linguistic expression, emoticons, synonyms and polysemies.”
This means Attensity can generate data straight from sentences rendered entirely in emoticons and acronyms.
Another practical use for Attensity’s Semantic Annotation would be to create a translation app for parents trying to decipher their teenager’s text messages.
Whitney Grace, March 13, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Google: Similarity Function Drifts from Relevance
March 12, 2015
I ran a test query for “Concept Searching,” an indexing outfit. I noticed that Google generated a list of companies with the label “People Also Search For.”
What I find interesting is that the list of companies is a bit of a grab bag. Here is the list presented to me:
- X1 Technologies, now in the eDiscovery business
- GenieKnows, an SEO outfit
- Funnelback, Squizz’s search solution which has gone quiet since David Hawking shifted roles
- dtSearch, a Microsoft centric desktop and CD-ROM search system for Windows
- Northern Light Group, now a research firm
- Coveo, the ageing startup once focused exclusively on Microsoft centric solutions
- ZyLAB Technologies, a legal document management and search solution
- Metalogix, a SharePoint migration specialist
- Convera, one of the spectacular business implosions which I documented in the Xenky profile available at www.xenky.com/vendor-profiles
- Dieselpoint, a search outfit that went quiet a couple of years ago
- Axceler, now a unit of Metalogix
- Fast Search & Transfer, the search company that has the distinction of a financial misstep and a founder with a painful brush with Norwegian law enforcement
- Exalead, now a unit of Dassault Systèmes, a company which has largely faded from the North American market
- Expert System, a quite good semantic vendor based in Modena, Italy
- Vivisimo, a metasearch outfit acquired by IBM and now part of the IBM Big Data machine.
Quite an assortment. I assume that these suggestions are helpful to the LinkedIn experts, the failed webmasters now rebranded as search wizards, and wanna-be academics looking for consulting revenue.
For me, the list is an illustration of what Google wants to do, provide on point suggestions. However, the list makes vivid the limitations of the Google methods. Hey, the company is focusing attention on balloons.
Stephen E Arnold, March 12, 2015
Looker Tops $47 Million in Funding
March 12, 2015
Business intelligence, a close cousin to cyber intelligence, continues to capture venture funding attention. “BI Startup Looker Notches Up $30M Injection for Expansion” reports that Looker has more than 250 customers up from 40 in 2013. According to the write up:
The web-based Looker platform, mainly deployed in the cloud, uses proprietary SQL-based modeling language LookML and allows data analysts to give business users the ability to explore large data stores themselves instead of depending on standard reports.
The article includes this article:
“Most business intelligence is about, ‘Hey, data guy give me this set of data so that I can get an answer’. What Looker is doing is giving those data people tools they want to use – code-based tools, GitHub-integrated, all that kind of stuff – so that they can curate experiences for the business users, much like the early web developers and web masters were doing,” he [Frank Bien, CEO] said.
The service includes collaboration functions, data fusion, and an easy-to-use interface. More information about Looker is available at www.looker.com.
Stephen E Arnold, March 12, 2015
Open Source ElasticSearch Added to Google Cloud Platform
March 12, 2015
ElasticSearch is a popular open source search engine that has been downloaded over 10 million times since it deployed in 2010. Amazon recently announced they are planning on adding an ElasticSearch management service to EC2 to relieve workloads for developers. Rival Google announced on the Google Cloud Platform Blog that they will be adding ElasticSearch compatibility to its own cloud computing platform: “Deploy ElasticSearch On Google Compute Engine.”
The Google Compute Engine is ecstatic that ElasticSearch will be deployed on the platform and are actively encouraging end users to download it. They even made a list about why people need to start using ElasticSearch:
1 “Based on Lucene: Elasticsearch is an open source document-oriented search server based on Lucene. Lucene is a time tested open source library that is capable of reading everything from HTML to PDFs.
2 Designed for cloud: Elasticsearch was designed first for the cloud with its capabilities around simple cluster configuration and discovery and high-availability by default. This means you can expand your Elasticsearch deployment simply by adding new nodes. This expansion of your cluster — or in the case of a hardware failure, reduction — results in automatic reconfiguration of your document indices across the cluster.
3 Native use of JSON over HTTP: Extending the platform is simple for developers. The schema doesn’t need to be defined up front and your cluster can be extended with a variety of libraries in your languages of choice, even using the command line.”
ElasticSearch can be deployed with a few easy clicks ad once it is working you can immediately use it for log processes and analysis with Logstash, keyword text search, and data visualization with Kibana.
Deployment on the Google Compute Engine means ElasticSearch will reach an entirely new customer line. Other open source search engines will be pressured to up their ante with new features and services that ElasticSearch does not have. LucidWorks and other open source based search companies are feeling the pressure.
Whitney Grace, March 12, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
AWS Wants to Make Using ElasticSearch Easier
March 12, 2015
Amazon Web Services is one of the biggest purveyors of cloud and remote computing, but it still faces stiff competition from its rivals. AWS continues to add features and new technology to attract more users. TechTarget alerted us to how AWS is making developments with its search offerings: “Amazon Preps AWS ElasticSearch To Ease EC2 Integration.” AWS wants to make running ElasticSearch, an open source search engine, easier on its Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) with a new service option.
Another open source search engine based of Apache Solr is already available on AWS called CloudSearch, but ElasticSearch has become more popular in recent years. Solr is still considered by many an open source project rather than a competitive application. ElasticSearch has remained on top of valuable open source products since created in 2010.
Response to an ElasticSearch service for EC2 has been positive and end-users are eager to see it deployed. Integrating ElasticSearch into EC2 is tricky, leading to memory shortages and leaks. If AWS manages the backend for ElasticSearch integrations, it would be a relief for users who have head to deal with the issue. They would be able to focus on other projects rather than keeping the backend running.
“’ I wouldn’t be surprised to see this kind of offering,’ said Dan Sullivan, a consultant with DS Applied Technologies, located in Portland, Ore, who did not have any direct knowledge of the upcoming service, but said it would make sense. ‘ElasticSearch is growing in popularity … and [an AWS service] would be something a lot of people would be interested in.’”
What does this spell for Apache Solr-based companies like LucidWorks? It puts more pressure on them to be a more viable rival.
Whitney Grace, March 12, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
SharePoint Often Comes Up Short
March 12, 2015
Although SharePoint has an unwavering hold on the enterprise market, recent studies show that it comes up short when it comes to meeting expectations. A surprising number of organizations report that the solution does not meet their needs or expectations. Read all the details in the Network World article, “Microsoft SharePoint Coming up Short for Most Enterprises, Study Finds.”
The article reports the study’s findings:
“The AIIM (Association for Information and Image Management) Web-based survey of 409 member organizations found that nearly two-thirds described their SharePoint projects as either stalled (26%) or not meeting original expectations (37%). The associated Yammer social business tool has also been slow to catch on, with only about 1 in 5 organizations using it, and only 10% of them using it regularly and on a widespread basis.”
Stephen E. Arnold has also found similar levels of dissatisfaction in his reporting. His Web service, ArnoldIT.com, is devoted to all things search. His dedicated SharePoint feed is a great resource for all the latest tips, tricks, and news related to the enterprise installation. Additionally, users may find some helpful workarounds for fixing installations that are not meeting their organization’s needs.
Emily Rae Aldridge, March 12, 2015
Geofeedia Secures Cash Infusion of $3 Million
March 11, 2015
Cyber OSINT vendor Geofeedia landed an additional $3 million in venture funding, according to the Chicago Tribune. The new capital brings the firm’s total funding to $6.8 million. Goofeedia specializes in location-based social media intelligence. According to the firm’s Web site:
Businesses, media companies, and government agencies use Geofeedia to understand social media happening at locations important to them. Geofeedia’s patented technologies allow you to search and monitor areas as large as a city or as small as a single building. Geofeedia currently searches Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Picasa, Flickr and Viddy. Geofeedia searches by location first rather than by a specific series of words (such as keywords or hashtags). The net result: Geofeedia’s data set contains the hidden 70%+ of data coming from locations compared to traditional tools that rely on certain words to be included in their data sets.
For more information, navigate to www.geofeedia.com.
Stephen E Arnold, March 11, 2015
Centripetal and Cyveillance Form Threat Detection Partnership
March 11, 2015
Two companies with cyber OSINT capabilities have formed a partnership to deliver “actionable threat intelligence.” I learned in a news release that:
Centripetal Networks Inc., the leading provider of Real-Time Active Network Defense solutions, announces their partnership today with Cyveillance, a QinetiQ company and a world leader in cyber intelligence. This partnership will deliver actionable cyber threat intelligence to organizations across all industries by enabling Centripetal’s high-performance RuleGate® platform to leverage Cyveillance’s advanced threat intelligence streams.
Both companies delivered well-received presentations at the recent Cyber OSINT conference held in Washington, DC, in February 2015.
For more information about Centripetal navigate to www.centripetalnetworks.com and Cyveillance at www.cyveillance.com.
Stephen E Arnold, March 11, 2015
Altegrity Is Bankrupt
March 11, 2015
Altegrity, Inc. has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. JD Supra Business Advisor reports on the development in “Altegrity, Inc.,. Global Provider Of Risk Solutions, Files Chapter 11.” Altegrity is a global brand in ediscovery, risk solutions, security, employment screening, and data recovery. The entire company and its thirty-seven affiliates are under the Delaware bankruptcy case no. 15-1-226.
The company was making money in the last fiscal year with $1.4 billion in revenue. Altegrity’s debtors did own $1.7 billion in assets and had $2.1 billion in liabilities. It did not seem that the company was headed towards financial disaster, but President and CFO Jeffrey Campbell that the company filed for chapter 11 due to a disruption in its USIS business. This meant Altegrity provided information management and background investigations to the federal government.
“The interruption stemmed from a “state-sponsored cyber-attack” and the subsequent notice received from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) that temporarily suspended all work performed by USIS on a substantial OPM contract. These actions ‘caused a substantial erosion in the USIS business, which caused the overall Company’s liquidity position and projected financial performance to deteriorate dramatically.’ ”
Altegrity is looking to restructure its financials to keep its remaining businesses running steadily. They are also entering a Restructuring Support Agreement to reduce debt by forty percent and ad $90 million in new capital.
Altegrity lost its business to a cyber attack. Have insurance companies created protection plans that cover digital attacks or in this case cover loses related to them?
Whitney Grace, March 11, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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