Ontotext Rank
December 5, 2018
Ontotext, a text processing vendor, has posted a demonstration of its ranking technology. You can find the demos at this link. The graphic below was generated by the system on December 3, 2018, at 0900 am US Eastern time. I specified the industry as information technology and the sub industry as search. Here’s what the system displayed:
A few observations:
- I specified 25 companies. The system displayed 10. I assume someone from the company will send me an email that the filters I applied did not have sufficient data to generate the desired result. Perhaps those data should be displayed?
- No Google Search nor Microsoft Bing search appeared. Google, a search vendor, has been in the news in the countries I have visited recently.
- RightNow appeared. The company is (I thought) a unit of Oracle.
- Publishers Clearing House sells magazine subscriptions. PCH does not offer information retrieval in the sense that I understand the bound phrase.
Net net: I am not sure about the size of the data set or what the categories mean.
You need to decide for yourself whether to use this service or Google Trends or a similar “popularity” or “sentiment” analysis system.
Stephen E Arnold, December 5, 2018
Academic Semantic Search Needs To Go Beyond Text Results
December 4, 2018
A little over a decade ago, search engines only returned Web sites in their results. That has since stopped and search engines now offer a variety of results, images, videos, news, services, products for sale, and (of course) the traditional links. Users expect accurate, relevant, and updated search results. When you step into the academic database world, however, search goes back to the basic text results. Semantic search offers so much more than Web links and citations. GeekWire shares that academia might finally be catching up with its commercial counterparts in the article, “AI2’s Semantic Scholar Spices Up Academic Search Engine With Blogs, Videos And More.”
The Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2) developed the Semantic Scholar AI-based search engine to search through academic research for the best and most relevant results. AI2 has indexed more than forty-million research papers and now their algorithms will index slide presentations, blogs, news articles, videos, social media, and more, adding them to Semantic Scholar.
Semantic Scholar hopes to bridge the gap between old-fashioned academic databases and the new information and media types not available in the traditional database.
“If a particular paper happens to spark a lot of news articles and blog posts, that doesn’t affect Semantic Scholar’s ranking of the paper’s scientific quality. But those extra resources could help researchers using Semantic Scholar get a better understanding of the paper’s scientific point. For example, a recently published study traced the impact that sugar and artificial sweeteners could have on strokes or dementia. The study hasn’t been out long enough to spark follow-up research, but Semantic Scholar serves up dozens of reports specifically about the findings. ‘We are crossing the chasm between academic papers and more popular media to facilitate a new and smarter way to do science,’ Oren Etzioni, AI2’s CEO, explained in a news release.”
Can Semantic Scholar make headway in the search market as incumbents like Ebsco and LexisNexis, among other, battle to keep newcomers at bay?
Whitney Grace, December 3, 2018
Microsoft and Credibility: Updates and Amazon
December 4, 2018
Perhaps you are like the millions of others who are unhappy with Windows and its updates lately. And if you are like many of those folks, you have recently discovered Microsoft is trying to fix its problems in a strange new way, as we discovered in a recent OnMSFT story, “Microsoft is Now Inviting Select Windows Insiders to Share Their Feedback Via Skype Interviews.”
According to the story:
“Following the botched release of the Windows 10 October 2018 Update, Microsoft promised that it would pay more attention to user feedback going forward. Last month, the company added new impact and severity indicators for new Feedback Hub items, hoping to better surface critical bugs like the deleted files issue that initially shipped with the October 2018 Update.”
Their solution: listen to customers more…via Skype. Sorry, Microsoft, but that’s a case of too little too late. Perhaps, you could have avoided this catastrophe by, we don’t know, talking to users before the launch of these disastrous updates?
Plus as Amazon was rolling out enhancement after enhancement to its cloud services, Microsoft announced new icons. That’s the way to demonstrate technical excellence and strategic thinking to give Amazon pause.
Patrick Roland, December 4, 2018
DarkCyber for December 4, 2018, Now Available
December 4, 2018
The December 4, 2018, DarkCyber, a weekly video news program about the Dark Web, is now available. The program can be viewed without advertisements at www.arnoldit.com/wordpress or on Vimeo at https:www.vimeo.com/303990213 .
This week’s program includes four stories. These are:
First, the CIA has made available without charge its training monograph about thinking. The book provides a run down of the habits of mind a CIA analyst or spy needs to cultivate. The book includes basic definitions, general information, and specific examples of common pitfalls. For example, the CIA publication makes clear that a vivid example with colorful details may distort one’s thinking about the event described. The DarkCyber video includes a download link for interested viewers.
The second story provides an update on the country-wide surveillance system Venezuela is deploying. The core system has been developed by ZTE, a Chinese company which enjoys close relationships with the Chinese government. One feature of the system is an identification card which allows data about a citizen’s online and offline behavior to be tracked. The new system also includes social network analysis, facial recognition, and data analytics. The installation of the ZTE system may be a response to sanctions imposed on Venezuela by the US government.
The third story reports that an Italian court has dismissed allegations that employees of the Hacking Team stole the company’s intellectual property. The count found that the crime was the work of a hacker who uses the handle Phineas Fisher. This individual is believed to have hacked the German security vendor FinFisher. The Hacking Team’s source code was posted online and is available for those interested in the Hacking Team’s methods.
The final story reports that about two thirds of the Dark Web went offline in mid November 2018. Unknown cyber criminals penetrated and deleted data from Daniel’s Hosting. After the take down of Freedom Hosting, Daniel’s Hosting became one of the larger ISPs catering to Dark Web site operators. News reports about the event suggest that the owner of Daniel’s Hosting was apprehensive about a cyber attack. However, he failed to implement appropriate security protocols. The site is now offline.
Kenny Toth, December 4, 2018
MBA Think: A Well Calibrated Ethical Compass
December 3, 2018
I read “Goldman Sachs Asks in Biotech Research Report: ‘Is Curing Patients a Sustainable Business Model?’” For a moment I thought I was on the debate team in college preparing for one of those inevitable tournaments. As part of the prep, my partner — an engaging fellow and slick talked named Nick – would meet with those also involved in the competition from my one mule college in the middle of a corn field. Great ideas were exchanged, and some of them were definitely worthy of 18 year old minds fueled with pizza, ego, confidence, and arrogance. Delightful, right?
The article triggering this moment of nostalgia reveals how the somewhat callow mind navigates possibilities in our modern world. The write up states:
“Is curing patients a sustainable business model?” analysts ask in an April 10 report entitled “The Genome Revolution.”
Like many fuzzy questions, one can make a case that there is a lot of money to be made letting a person live from drug treatment to drug treatment. Thus, prolonging life enriches the pharmaceutical firms making the life extending drug, the insurance companies (fine outfits all!), the conglomeratized health care institutions, and assorted health care hangers on and fellow travelers.
On the other hand, letting people die cuts costs. Not good unless one is betting against an individual’s survival. Las Vegas, are you listening? Perhaps Facebook will enter the health care sector. Google continues to innovate despite its failure in the eye wear and glucose monitoring sectors. But Google has not made much progress solving death. Bummer.
I suppose one could ask IBM Watson, which also has a core competence in curing cancer.
How is your ethical compass calibrated? One hopes in a way congruent with exemplars of the American way.
Stephen E Arnold, December 3, 2018
Amazonia: December 3, 2018
December 3, 2018
The ecommerce giant has been busy. Selected items which caught our attention in Harrod’s Creek include:
Amazon and Germany: The Waltz Begins
We learned from the ever reliable source Bloomberg that Germany is looking at Amazon as a swinging bar door. The idea is that Amazon is a “gatekeeper.” We think the idea is that Amazon is in control, gets paid when customers buy something from the online catalog and gets paid when other vendors use Amazon to sell. Amazon may also get paid when some vendors pay Amazon to host their own Web sites. Amazon, of course, will cooperate, but it is unlikely that it will change its business model too significantly. Members of the Bundeskartellamt use Amazon too.
The Contrast: Amazon and Microsoft
At the same time Amazon was announcing that it has decided to release some of the technical goodies the company has provided to a certain US government agency for four years, Microsoft demonstrated its technical excellence too. Among Amazon’s more interesting revelations was that it is making its own chips. Microsoft, to respond to this challenge, said that it would release redesigned icons for its Office suite. Also, to counter the technical innovations in Amazon’s Big Data crunching ability, Microsoft also pulled a chess master move when it released a roadmap for its fur covered computer. Not the computer, a road map. Amazon is probably struggling to cope with these strategic body blows from Microsoft.
DeepLens under the Microscope
Not many online shoppers pay much attention to Amazon DeepLens. In my lectures for LE and intel professionals, most of those in the audience don’t either. But eight members of the US Congress want Amazon to explain its facial recognition technology. The issue is accuracy. At some point members of Congress will get the picture for Amazon’s policeware capabilities and come to appreciate the value of DeepLens like systems whether they operate at the levels of accuracy depicted on TV programs and in Netflix videos. Note to Congress: The train has left the station.
Amazon Is Edging into Health Care
Imagine. You need some sort of medical treatment. Do you want to go to an emergency room or let Amazon help you out. Amazon is in the prescription game. Now Amazon has a deal with Xealth, a spin out of Providence St Joseph Health. Ecommerce is coming to the doc’s office. Maybe health care delivery will come with a Prime membership and arrive on one’s door step like a new Amazon Basics T shirt?
Stephen E Arnold, December 3, 2018
HP Autonomy: Back in the News
December 2, 2018
I read “Ex-Autonomy boss Mike Lynch, finance VP Stephen Chamberlain charged with fraud in US.” The main point is that Mike Lynch (founder of Autonomy) and an officer of Autonomy have been charged with fraud in the US. The allegations of fraud are a consequence of Hewlett Packard’s purchase of Autonomy in 2011 for $11 billion. Autonomy was a company engaged in licensing its information processing technology. The $11 billion price tag was, I believe, the most paid for an information retrieval company. HP subsequently decided that it had to write down $8 billion of the purchase price because Autonomy was not generating the type of revenue HP anticipated. The story provides a run down of some of the highlights of this remarkable purchase and the subsequent legal disputes and allegations about the deal. Beyond Search does not have a horse in this race.
Several observations can be offered from rural Kentucky:
- HP paid a significant amount of money, and it appears it did not understand the business of information retrieval, its revenue potential, or the mechanism for maintaining the accounts
- HP subsequently split into two companies and wound down its software businesses apparently realizing that the company had to reinvent itself
- Management change at HP has been once characteristic of the company. This in itself may have resulted in HP not doing its homework and checking the match before handing over the check for the deal.
interesting case study with a number of key business issues in play; for example, What did the accountants and auditors do? and What management consulting firms worked on the market analysis for the Autonomy suite of tools?
Interesting with more to come. And don’t forget: My team did some small research projects for Autonomy because it was in the search business, and I was once informed about that business sector. But $11 billion? Quite a valuation.
Stephen E Arnold, December 2, 2018
SciTech Journals Resist Smart Software
December 1, 2018
The scientific community is in the throes of a battle that might sound familiar even to folks who have nothing to do with science. They are trying to overcome a glut of fake news, and are turning those weapons on themselves to do so. We discovered more in a recent Analytics India article, “How AI is Tackling Fake Academic Research That is Plaguing Scientific Community.”
According to the story:
“A decade ago, researchers Jeremy Stribling, Dan Aguayo and Max Krohna of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) built a computer science paper generator that could stitch together nonsense papers with impressive graphs and such. The papers drummed up by SCIgen software were accepted at major conferences and even by reputed journals.”
The article purports that that AI technology used to make fake articles is not being utilized in debunking them as well. According to Nature, these tools are running the gamut for academic journals, from choosing which peer reviewers to work with, to verifying statistics, and even summarizing complex articles. This is a neat tool that proves the only way to fight fire is with fire. We can only hope that we are able to keep ahead of the frauds.
Patrick Roland, December 1, 2018
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