MarkLogic Aims to Take on Oracle in Enterprise Class Data Hub Frameworks
October 10, 2017
MarkLogic is trying to give Oracle a run for its money in the world of enterprise-class data hubs. According to a recent press release on ITWire, “MarkLogic Releases New Enterprise Class Data Hub Framework to Enhance Agility and Speed Digital Transformations.”
How does this Australian legend plan on doing this? According to the release:
Traditionally, integrating data from silos has been very costly and time consuming for large organizations looking to make faster and better decisions based on their data assets. The Data Hub Framework simplifies and speeds the process of building a MarkLogic solution by providing a framework around how to data model, load data, harmonize data, and iterate with new data and compliance requirements.
But is that enough to unseat Oracle, who has long had a seat at the head of the table? Especially, since they have their own new framework hitting the market. That is still up for debate, but MarkLogic is confident in their ability to compete. According to the piece:
Unlike other databases, NoSQL was specifically designed to ingest and integrate all types of disparate data to find relationships among data, and drive searches and analytics—within seconds.
This battle is just beginning and we have no indication of who has the edge, but you can bet it will be an interesting fight in the marketplace between these two titans.
Patrick Roland, October 10, 2017
Attia Boy: Interesting Allegation about Google Innovation
October 9, 2017
I read “Google Rccused of Racketeering in Lawsuit Claiming Pattern of Trade Secrets Theft.”
The main idea, in my opinion, is that Google is accused by Attia of sucking in good ideas, systems, and methods. Then Google uses these to benefit Google.
Eli Attia is a person who is an architect who allegedly developed “engineered architecture.” Globes, an Israel based news service, reported several years ago:
Google estimates Engineered Architecture has $120 billion potential annual revenue. Attia and Max Sound are suing for compensation.
The article I read in today’s San Jose Morning News is pegged to an expansion of the original complaint. Google not only allegedly uses others’ intellectual property, the practice is identified as “racketeering.”
The San Jose Morning News story is a recounting of Attia’s allegations by an attorney representing Attia. I highighted the allegations and selected three which I found interesting:
Statement 1 by Attia source:
Google would solicit a party to share with it highly confidential trade secrets under a non-disclosure agreement, conduct negotiations with the party, then terminate negotiations with the party professing a lack of interest in the party’s technology, followed by the unlawful use of the party’s trade secrets in its business.
Statement 2 by Attia source:
It’s cheaper to steal than to develop your own technology.
Statement 3 by Attia source:
Google would solicit a party to share with it highly confidential trade secrets under a non-disclosure agreement, conduct negotiations with the party, then terminate negotiations with the party professing a lack of interest in the party’s technology, followed by the unlawful use of the party’s trade secrets in its business.
Why are people hassling the Google?
Perhaps the court proceedings will provide something like facts, not allegations?
Stephen E Arnold, October 9, 2017
Google Sitelinks Adopts Carousel Presentation
October 9, 2017
For its mobile search, Google is shifting its Sitelinks presentation to a carousel design, we learn in Search Engine Land’s brief write-up, “Google Officially Changes Sitelinks Design to Carousel Format.” (Think of a slide-projector carousel, not the kind with wooden horses.) Writer Barry Schwartz reveals:
Google has confirmed with Search Engine Land that they are now rolling out a new design for Sitelinks. Sitelinks are additional links within the snippets of the search results where searchers can quickly jump to important and relevant pages on that site, as opposed to the main listing in the search result snippet. Google has been testing a carousel format for these Sitelinks for over a year and today has confirmed they are now rolling out the new carousel-based design for mobile search results.
Schwartz provides a screenshot of the feature in action and notes it shifts left or right at the user’s swipe. Perhaps the revised design will encourage more people to use the under-appreciated Sitelinks feature.
Cynthia Murrell, October 9, 2017
Elsevier Makes a Brave Play to Steal Wikipedias Users
October 9, 2017
Is Wikipedia about to be unseated in the world of academic publishing? Elsevier thinks they can give the crowdsourced, yet flawed, info hub a serious run for its money. Money, being the key word, according to a recent TechDirt article, “Elsevier Launching Rival to Wikipedia by Extracting Scientific Definitions Automatically from Author’s Texts.”
According to the piece:
Elsevier is hoping to keep researchers on its platform with the launch of a free layer of content called ScienceDirect Topics, offering an initial 80,000 pages of material relating to the life sciences, biomedical sciences and neuroscience. Each offers a quick definition of a key term or topic, details of related terms and relevant excerpts from Elsevier books.
Seems like it makes sense, right? Elsevier has all this academic information at their fingertips, so why send users elsewhere on the web for other information. This extraction system, frankly, sounds pretty amazing. However, TechDirt has a beef with it.
It’s typical of Elsevier’s unbridled ambition that instead of supporting a digital commons like Wikipedia, it wants to compete with it by creating its own redundant versions of the same information, which are proprietary. Even worse, it is drawing that information from books written by academics who have given Elsevier a license.
It’s a valid argument, whether or not Elsevier is taking advantage of its academic sources by edging into Wikipedia’s territory. However, we have a hunch their lawyers will make sure everything is on the up and up. A bigger question is whether Elsevier will make this a free site or have a paywall. They are in business to make money, so we’d guess paywall. And if that’s the case, they’d better have a spectacular setup to draw customers from Wikipedia.
Patrick Roland, October 9, 2017
Addicted Teens! Facebook Help Them!
October 6, 2017
I read “Teens Rebelling Against Social Media’, Say Headteachers.” Poor social media giants, one might say. Yeah, right. Real news, real facts, real phase change.
Decide for yourself.
The main point of the write up is that teens need “detox” and are embracing a cold turkey to help with withdrawl symptoms.
I noted this passage:
Chris King, chair of the HMC and Headmaster of Leicester Grammar School, said the findings were among “the first indications of a rebellion against social media”. He said they remind us that teenagers “may need help to take breaks from [social media’s] constant demands”. Some 56% of those surveyed said they were on the edge of addiction.
Hmm. Edge of addiction.
I circled this statement which was obviously based on “facts”:
Almost two-thirds of schoolchildren would not mind if social media had never been invented, research suggests.
I wonder if BBC professionals have ripped mobile devices from the addicted clutches of their own children?
Doubtful. Who wants a teen sulking and amping up the annoyance in a modern household?
Not me. Log on. Be happy. See I am not asking questions about methodology, analysis, and statistical validity. Gotta run. I have to check my social media feeds.
Stephen E Arnold, October 6, 2017
Medieval Thoughts in a Mobile Smart Bubble
October 6, 2017
I read two articles this morning when the recalcitrant Vodaphone network finally decided that resolving links from Siena, Italy, was okay today. Yesterday the zippy technology did not work as Sillycon Valley wizards and “real” journalists expect.
The first write up is one of those “newspapers should be run by “real” journalists operating from a rock-solid, independent position as gatekeepers of the “truth.” You can draw your own conclusion about this “real” journalistic cartwheel by reading “If Journalists Take Sides, Who Will Speak Truth to Power?”
I noted this passage:
The essential argument was recently laid out by an outlet called 888.hu: “The international media, with a few exceptions, generally write bad things about the government because a small minority with great media influence does everything to tarnish the reputation of Hungary in front of the world – prestige that has been built over hundreds of years by patriots.”
The “real” Guardian newspaper presents opinion and news by blending observations, mixed sources, and “news.” Technology, zeros and ones, facts experts accept in order to win a grant, get tenure, or prove merit.
Navigate to “The Seven Deadly Sins of AI Predictions.”
Your are correct: medievalism meets “real” journalism. The argument in this “real” hard technology write up is that baloney, hoohah, and sci-fi has made “articiiial intelligence” into today’s boogeyman.
Chill out because those touting smart software and those who are afraid that a “real” Terminator will jump out of a police flying patrol car with Robocop are are coming to your city, village, or mud hut.
As readers of Beyond Search will be able to verify, I have poked fun at Technology Review for recycling the Watson confection with little or no critical analysis. I have also had a merry time commenting about the disconnect between the monopolistic systems which define “facts” and the old school journalists who flop between infatuation and odd ball criticism of the services which have captured their attention.
The reality is that artificial intelligence has been taking baby steps for decades. Computing power, data, and well-known numerical recipes can be combined to permit marketers to do what they have been doing for many years: Identify what’s hot and deliver more of that hotness in order to generate money via ads or provide services for which companies and governments will pay.
The notion that technology generates hyperbole is the stuff of entrepreneurs’ dreams. Today’s smart software is little more than making available some of the less crazy ideas from Star Trek.
Let me cite an example from “Seven Deadly”:
machine learning is very brittle, and it requires lots of preparation by human researchers or engineers, special-purpose coding, special-purpose sets of training data, and a custom learning structure for each new problem domain.
I am interested in watcching people struggle to make an app for adding ringtons to an Android mobile phone work. I am interested in watching people struggle with laptops which combine a keyboard and a touchscreen. I am interested in the conflation of news, opinion, facts, “weaponized” information, shaped data to sell ads, and online services providing a user what the user “really wants.”
AI raises some interesting challenges. First, for those “real” newspapers and magazines, I hope that more criticcal thinking is applied to the “real” story. I hope that regulators do more than flop around like a fish dumped on the dock. I hope that smart software can remediate some of the problems humans seem to be manufacturing with more efficiency than Kia implements on its assembly lines.
What’s the “truth” in the Guardian “real” news story, opinion, blog quoting write up. What’s the path forward for a champion of IBM Watson and the richly funded MTI IBM AI lab?
These are big issues. Digital Svanarola’s? Maybe not.
Stephen E Arnold, October 6, 2017
Google Search Data Utilized for Financial Analysis
October 6, 2017
Here is a short honk to point out an interesting new use for search data. A financial analyst is relying on it to make a key prediction, CNBC reports in, “Analyst Predicts Great Amazon Sales Results Because of What He Sees in Google Search Data.” Reporter Tae Kim writes:
Piper Jaffray’s Michael Olson reaffirmed his overweight rating for Amazon, citing the company’s web search analysis which pointed to robust June quarter sales growth for the e-commerce giant. …
Olson said the firm’s web analysis revealed search interest for Amazon-related words grew 24 percent year over year in the June quarter versus 23 percent growth in the March quarter. He cited how Piper’s search analysis had a 95 percent correlation with Amazon’s retail sales unit growth in the previous 37 quarters.
Such interest may be spurred by Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods, and by the company’s strong growth in this year’s second quarter. The innovative analyst’s company, Piper Jaffray, has been in business since 1895. It is nice to see a venerable firm embrace a fresh idea, but will Olson’s prediction prove correct?
Cynthia Murrell, October 6, 2017
AI Is Key to Unstructured Data
October 5, 2017
Companies are now inclined to keep every scrap of data they create or collect, but what use is information that remains inaccessible? An article at CIO shares “Three Ways to Make Sense Out of Dark Data.” Contributor Sanjay Srivastava writes:
Most organizations sit on a mountain of ‘dark’ data – information in emails and texts, in contracts and invoices, and in PDFs and Word documents – which is hard to automatically access and use for descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, or prescriptive automations. It is estimated that some 80 percent of enterprise data is dark. There are three ways companies can address this challenge: use artificial intelligence (AI) to unlock unstructured data, deploy modular and interoperable digital technologies, and build traceability into core design principles.
Naturally, the piece elaborates on each of these suggestions. For example, we’re reminded AI uses natural language processing, ontology detection, and other techniques to plumb unstructured data. Interoperability is important because new processes must be integrated into existing systems. Finally, Srivastava notes that AI challenges the notion of workforce governance, and calls for an “integrated command and control center” for traceability. The article concludes:
Digital technologies such as computer vision, computational linguistics, feature engineering, text classification, machine learning, and predictive modeling can help automate this process. Working together, these digital technologies enable pharmaceutical and life sciences companies to move from simply tracking issues to predicting and solving potential problems with less human error. Interoperable digital technologies with a reliable built-in governance model drive higher drug quality, better patient outcomes, and easier regulatory compliance.
Cynthia Murrell, October 5, 2017
Google Got It and Feels Too: Ambiguity Management
October 5, 2017
Here’s a quote to note from “Sundar Pincha Says the Future of Google Is AI. But Can He Fix the Algorithm?” Bold are alleged words spoken by the chief Googler and the bracketed text are two of my questions:
I view it [Google’s role?] as a big responsibility to get it right. I think we‘ll [Google employees or senior management?] be able to do these things better over time. But I think the answer to your question, the short answer and the only answer, is we feel huge responsibility. Today, we overwhelmingly get it right. But I think every single time we stumble. I feel the pain, and I think we should be held accountable.
I am not sure what the its, the things, the stumbles, and the pains mean. I noted the “feel”word and the royal “we.”
Is this leadership via ambiguity? It sure seems like a stumble from a ratty hotel in Siena, Italy. Overwhelmingly, yes.
Stephen E Arnold, October 5, 2017
Quantum Computing: MSFT Versus Tokyo U
October 4, 2017
Quantum computing is not quite as thrilling to marketers as smart software. I noted two articles, each reporting advances in quantum computing. The first is from the folks who brought us the Windows Nokia phone. In “With New Microsoft Breakthroughs, General Purpose Quantum Computing Moves Closer to Reality,” I learned:
[Microsoft] showcased the progress it has made toward developing both a topological qubit and the ecosystem of hardware and software that will eventually allow a wide range of developers to take advantage of quantum computing’s power. That progress includes a new programming language, which is deeply integrated with Visual Studio and designed to work on both a quantum simulator and a quantum computer.
The method involves a topological method which I think means qubits are organized in a lattice. The idea is to make qubits more stable. Decoherence does not compute.
In Japan, Tokyo University professors asserted that a combination of light pulses and loop circuits would allow task switching and manipulation of the pulses. The article “University of Tokyo Pair Invent Loop-based Quantum Computing Technique” states:
Furusawa’s new approach will allow a single circuit to process more than 1 million qubits theoretically, his team said in a press release, calling it an “ultimate” quantum computing method.
Has Microsoft solved the problem? Has the Tokyo U pair prevailed? I want to wait for more tech rah rah from the Google and the myriad of other research teams trying to find a better way than Von Neumann’s.
Stephen E Arnold, October 4, 2017
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