Sole Source: Good for the Digital Mapping Soul
July 10, 2016
Short honk: Navigate to “DigitalGlobe Awarded Sole-Source Contract to Provide Advanced Analytic Services to the DIA.” Learn that DigitalGlobe has won a direct contract with the Defense Intelligence Agency. I highlighted:
This sole-source, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract was awarded to DigitalGlobe’s GeoEye Analytics Inc., a wholly owned legal entity of DigitalGlobe, with a ceiling value of $55 million and an estimated completion date of June 2021.
And Alphabet Google? Good question. Competition is tough.
Stephen E Arnold, July 10, 2016
Publishers and Facebook: Any Bets on Which Will Win?
July 9, 2016
I read another of those digitally informed grousing write ups from the London Guardian newspaper. This essay, which is not what I would call news from my vantage point in Harrod’s Creek, is titled “Few News Providers Will Now Be Liking Facebook.” I thought the title I thought up was more accurate; to wit: Few print centric news providers will be liking Facebook. But, hey, I live in rural Kentucky where print means the replacement for cursive. I noted this passage:
In her recent Humanitas lecture at Cambridge, for example, Columbia University’s Emily Bell pointed out that, for the first time in history, major news organizations had lost control of how their content was distributed. And George Brock, of City University, spotted that in becoming a major distributor of journalistic content, Facebook was implicitly acquiring editorial responsibilities, responsibilities that it neither acknowledged nor welcomed. But to desperate editors, faced with declining circulations and ad revenues, these seemed like theoretical considerations: however much they might dislike or fear Facebook, they had to deal with it because it was where their audiences were increasingly to be found.
Okay, Facebook with its billion plus users is more powerful than real “journalism” outfits. I would wager that Facebook is not likely to toss out its publishing system and embrace MarkLogic type technology either. How is that slicing and dicing working out?
I highlight in red ink red these sentences as well:
Social media are powerful engines for creating digital echo chambers, which is one reason why our politics is becoming so partisan. Brexiters speak only unto Brexiters. And Remainers ditto… We all inhabit echo chambers now and all Facebook has done is to increase the level of insulation on those inhabited by its users.
I think the Guardian missed the TED talk about “filter bubbles” and discovered the notion of an echo chamber itself.
My thought is that the flow of online data has washed away the foundations of the traditional approach to print on paper publishing. The white shoes are wet and muddy. The arbiters of taste and thought now have to recognize Facebook as the big dog.
Since the digital revolution is decades old now, I am delighted that real journalists are realizing that the clay tablets of ore are losing favor among some folks. You know. The young folks who do the mobile phone thing for affection, acceptance, and news.
Stephen E Arnold, July 9, 2016
Google Search: Another Tale of Precision and Recall
July 8, 2016
I read “Google Search Shows US Election Results Instead of Australian Election.” Smart software indeed. According to the write up:
Australian internet users searching for “Election 2016” are instead being shown results for the US presidential primaries. So instead of names like Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten popping up, users are seeing names like Hilary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. Google trends on Saturday night showed “Election 2016” was the most popular search term relating to the federal election, but Google continues to prioritize US election updates in the top search results.
Yep, there’s an easy fix but Google no longer uses humans. Thus, the fix must be magical.
I mention this issue because the perception is that smart Google searches may not deliver what the users expect. I know that Google has wizards in Australia. I know that Google’s personalization functions are the cat’s pajamas.
I assume that the type of error which killed a Tesla passenger will not occur at the Alphabet Google thing.
Despite my optimism and hope, it appears that Google knows better than the Australians what they want when searching for “election results.” The fix? Just as Google once expected China to change, Google anticipates that Australians seeking information about its national election results to craft better queries. Get on with it, mates. I love the way smart systems converge to the most likely; that’s a grade C I believe.
Stephen E Arnold, July 8, 2016
Bad Actor Investments in Research
July 8, 2016
Want to chop your overhead? One easy way is to eliminate research and development. Most US companies are thinking long and hard about buying start ups to get innovative opportunities. Bad actors like hackers and online thieves are taking a slightly different approach. Navigate to “Hackers Investing 40% of Crime Proceeds in New Criminal Technologies.” Now this 40 percent number may be fluff, but the idea is an interesting one. Instead of recycling old exploits which smart networking monitoring services are able to thwart, the bad actors are doing the Thomas Edison thing: Some innovative, some borrowing, and some rethinking old methods (hybridization).
The write up highlights the innovation angle, stating:
Nikolay Nikiforov, an official spokesperson at Russia’s Ministry of Communications, told SC that investment of crime proceeds in new attack methods is mainly due to a change of priorities by hackers seen in recent years whereby they are no longer solely interested in attacks on the private bank accounts of individuals, but mainly targeting the breach of correspondent accounts of banks.
I find the moving upstream angle an intriguing one. What happens when US companies chop off spending for research and development? Do these outfits become more vulnerable? One of my former clients commented that his firm would worry about hacking when something happened. Yep, that’s enlightened thinking.
Stephen E Arnold, July 8, 2016
VirtualWorks Purchases Natural Language Processing Firm
July 8, 2016
Another day, another merger. PR Newswire released a story, VirtualWorks and Language Tools Announce Merger, which covers Virtual Works’ purchase of Language Tools. In Language Tools, they will inherit computational linguistics and natural language processing technologies. Virtual Works is an enterprise search firm. Erik Baklid, Chief Executive Officer of VirtualWorks is quoted in the article,
“We are incredibly excited about what this combined merger means to the future of our business. The potential to analyze and make sense of the vast unstructured data that exists for enterprises, both internally and externally, cannot be understated. Our underlying technology offers a sophisticated solution to extract meaning from text in a systematic way without the shortcomings of machine learning. We are well positioned to bring to market applications that provide insight, never before possible, into the vast majority of data that is out there.”
This is another case of a company positioning themselves as a leader in enterprise search. Are they anything special? Well, the news release mentions several core technologies will be bolstered due to the merger: text analytics, data management, and discovery techniques. We will have to wait and see what their future holds in regards to the enterprise search and business intelligence sector they seek to be a leader in.
Megan Feil, July 8, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Rare Sighting in Silicon Valley: A Unicorn
July 8, 2016
Unicorns are mythical creatures with a whole slew of folklore surrounding them, but in modern language the horned beast has been used as a metaphor for a rare occurrence. North Korea once said that Kim Jong Un spotted a unicorn from their despotic controlled media service, but Fortune tells us that a unicorn was spotted in California’s Silicon Valley: “The SEC Wants Unicorns To Stop Bragging About Their Valuations”.
Unicorns in the tech world are Silicon Valley companies valued at more than one billion. In some folklore, unicorns are vain creatures and love to be admired, the same can be said about Silicon Valley companies and startups as they brag about their honesty with their investors. Mary Jo White of the SEC said she wanted them to stop blowing the hot air.
“ ‘The concern is whether the prestige associated with reaching a sky-high valuation fast drives companies to try to appear more valuable than they actually are,’ she said.”
Unlike publicly traded companies, the SEC cannot regulate private unicorns, but they still value protecting investors and facilitating capital formation. Silicon Valley unicorns have secondary markets forming around their pre-IPO status. The status they retain before they are traded on the public market. The secondary market uses derivative contracts, which can contribute to misconceptions about their value. White wants the unicorns to realize they need to protect their investors once they go public with better structures and controls for their daily operations.
Another fact from unicorn folklore is that unicorns are recognized as symbols of truth. So while the braggart metaphor is accurate, the truthful aspect is not.
Whitney Grace, July 8 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
DuckDuckGo Yodels Yahooooo!
July 7, 2016
I read “Information about DuckDuckGo’s Partnership with Yahoo.” Yahoo is into search DuckDuckGo style. According to the write up:
our latest partnership with Yahoo enables DuckDuckGo to get access to features you’ve been requesting for years:
Date filters let you filter results from the last day, week and month.
Site links help you quickly get to subsections of sites.
Farewell, Inktomi, AllTheWeb, Google, Microsoft. Yahoo, and home brew craziness. has a new findability future. Now about the size of the index? Will Yahoo’s new owner have a fresh idea? Worth watching.
Stephen E Arnold, July 7, 2016
Big Data Diagram Reveals Database Crazy Quilt
July 7, 2016
I was cruising through the outputs of my Overflight system and spotted a write up with the fetching title “Big Data Services | @CloudExpo #BigData #IoT #M2M #ML #InternetOfThings.” Unreadable? Nah. Just a somewhat interesting attempt to get a marketing write up indexed by a Web search engine. Unfortunately humans have to get involved at some point. Thus, in my quest to learn what the heck Big Data is, I explored the content of the write up. What the article presents is mini summaries of slide decks developed by assorted mavens, wizards, and experts. I dutifully viewed most of the information but tired quickly as I moved through a truly unusual article about a conference held in early June. I assume that the “news” is that the post conference publicity is going to provide me with high value information in exchange for the time I invested in trying to figure out what the heck the title means.
I viewed a slide deck from an outfit called Cazena. You can view “Tech Primer: Big Data in the Cloud.” I want to highlight this deck because it contains one of the most amazing diagrams I have seen in months. Here’s the image:
Not only is the diagram enhanced by the colors and lines, the world it depicts is a listing of data management products. The image was produced in June 2015 by a consulting firm and recycled in “Tech Primer” a year later.
I assume the folks in the audience benefited from the presentation of information from mid tier consulting firms. I concluded that the title of the article is actually pretty clear.
I wonder, Is a T shirt is available with the database graphic? If so, I want one. Perhaps I can search for the strings “#M2M #ML.”
Stephen E Arnold, July 7, 2016
Publicly Available Information Is Considered Leaked When on Dark Web
July 7, 2016
What happens when publicly available informed is leaked to the Dark Web? This happened recently with staff contact information from the University of Liverpool according to an article, Five secrets about the Dark Web you didn’t know from CloudPro. This piece speaks to perception that the Dark Web is a risky place for even already publicly available information. The author reports on how the information was compromised,
“A spokeswoman said: “We detected an automated cyber-attack on one of our departmental online booking systems, which resulted in publically available data – surname, email, and business telephone numbers – being released on the internet. We take the security of all university-related data very seriously and routinely test our systems to ensure that all data is protected effectively. We supported the Regional Organised Crime Unit (TITAN) in their investigations into this issue and reported the case to the Information Commissioner’s Office.”
Data security only continues to grow in importance and as a concern for large enterprises and organizations. This incident is an interesting case to be reported, and it was the only story we had not seen published again and again, as it illustrates the public perception of the Dark Web being a playing ground for illicit activity. It brings up the question about what online landscapes are considered public versus private.
Megan Feil, July 7, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
What Makes Artificial Intelligence Relevant to Me
July 7, 2016
Artificial intelligence makes headlines every once in awhile when a new super computer beats a pro player at chess, go, or even Jeopardy. It is amazing how these machines replicate human thought processes, but it is more of a novelty than a practical application. The IT Proportal discusses the actual real world benefits of artificial intelligence in, “How Semantic Technology Is Making Sense Of Our Big Data.”
The answer, of course, revolves around big data and how industries are not capable of keeping up with the amount of unstructured data generated by the data surges with more advanced technology. Artificial intelligence processes the data and interprets it into recognizable patterns.
Then the article inserts information about the benefits of natural language processing, how it scours the information, and can extrapolate context based on natural speech patterns. It also goes into how semantic technology picks up the slack when natural language processing does not work. The entire goal is to make unstructured data more structured:
“It is also reasonable to note that the challenge also relates to the structure and output of your data management. The application of semantic technologies within an unstructured data environment can only draw real business value if the output is delivered in a meaningful way for the human tasked with looking at the relationships. It is here that graphical representations add user interface value and presents a cohesive approach to improving the search and understanding of enterprise data.”
The article is an informative fluff piece that sells big data technology and explains the importance of taking charge of data. It has been discussed before.
Whitney Grace, July 7, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
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