The Heat in Text Radar: Mya 03 to May 09
May 14, 2013
This week the Text Radar big data and content intelligence blog covered a set of interesting topics this week that are pertinent to anyone interested in harnessing the power of big data insights.
“Data Analytical Decisions are More Definitive at Adding Insightful and Valuable Content” explains how important raw data is to business success. The use of this data, however, can be difficult to manage without experts to advise.
The article explains:
“This view is held even more firmly in the manufacturing, energy and government sectors, and 65 percent assert that more and more management decisions are based on ‘hard analytic’ information.
The research shows that organizations are increasingly moving towards evidence-based decision making, but at the same time, face significant challenges in managing and leveraging the ever-increasing volumes of data not only from a technology perspective but also as an organization.”
Another article, “Big Data Analysis Not a Simple Data Collection Technique,” dispels some of the rumors surrounding big data. It explains that big data mining is far more than simple data collection.
The article provides this example:
“Taking an influential paper on economics and intelligence efforts around the Boston bombing suspects as background, wherein a few missing rows in Excel and a misspelling of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s name, Wise points out that ‘data management tools (i.e., the FBI’s systems and Excel) were undone by fairly simple errors,’ with terrible results. In other words, as much as we may believe Big Data is as simple as ‘Input data into Hadoop, outcome insights!’ the reality depends heavily on the people querying that data.”
Managing data without the appropriate skill set can lead to the failure of any company. One way that big data can be most helpful when used appropriately is when “Mining Data for Finding Talent for Hire”. Gild, helps companies find “diamond in the rough” or individuals that have slipped through the cracks of traditional recruiting methods by mining social media sites.
The article provides the thoughts of Gild’s chief scientist, Vivian Ming:
“Dr. Ming doesn’t suggest eliminating human judgment, but she does think that the computer should lead the way, acting as an automated vacuum and filter for talent. The company has amassed a database of seven million programmers, ranking them based on what it calls a Gild score — a measure, the company says, of what a person can do. Ultimately, Dr. Ming wants to expand the algorithm so it can search for and assess other kinds of workers, like Web site designers, financial analysts and even sales people at, say, retail outlets.”
As you can see, data can be used to find the answer’s you’ve been searching for as long as you have the right tools. A company leading the way with text analytical tools is Smartlogic. Their suite of tools has the ability to join data with content and applying content analytics to that information for the purpose of content intelligence giving integrity and reliable methods to making decisions in any environment.
Jasmine Ashton, May 14, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
The Heat in Text Radar: April 19 to April 25
April 30, 2013
This week, the Text Radar content intelligence, compliance, and big data news service covered quite a few interesting stories.
The first that I would like to highlight is, “Smartphone Data Used to Better Serve Customers.” According to the article, thanks to smartphones, app stores can tap into a wide range of data sources about user preferences and activity.
The article states:
“This ‘big data’ available within an app store can significantly help to tailor the user experience and offerings. For example, a user who lives in NYC and just landed in London might be interested in the ‘TimeOut: London’ app or ‘Booking.com’ app for booking a hotel. A user who posted a video on Facebook of the latest Knicks game may be interested in the ‘New York Knicks Official App,’ and a user who listens to Coldplay a lot, might want to download some Coldplay wallpapers.”
Another story, explains how big data has brought the IT and marketing community together. “Creating a Customer Centric Culture with Big Data Analytics” advocates the use of big data to create a customer centric corporate culture.
A study found:
“* 40% of marketers and 51% of IT executives said it’s critical for improved decision making.
* 36% of marketers and 23% of IT execs said data drives the ability to personalize customer experiences.”
The final story that I would like to highlight for this week’s issue involves big data’s impact on the health care industry. “Turning Unstructured Data into Healthcare Improvements” explains how doctors can find value using data from your mobile phone and other devices.
The author provides this example:
“For example, she said, an app could process data from a mobile carrier to determine whether new supplements for early-stage arthritis are actually helping a patient. If the patient is checking her phone earlier in the morning and moving around more frequently, that could indicate that the medicine it’s doing its job.
Service providers may balk at the prospect of releasing their troves of user activity data – and Estrin acknowledged that they would likely worry about PR headaches and privacy issues.”
It is important to understand the various outlets that you can use big data to be beneficial to your company’s success. Smartlogic’s Semaphore Content Intelligence Platform runs on semantic technology giving your organization’s information rich value and a better experience for your users.
Jasmine Ashton, April 30, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
The Heat in Text Radar: April 12 to April 18
April 23, 2013
This week the Text Radar advanced intelligence blog covered a myriad of articles related to the big data deluge and its impact on a variety of different sectors.
One example of the unique ways that big data is being used is seen in “Using Big Data to Geotag the History of Human Events.” The article discusses a database that aims to contain a list of every event in human history.
Why is database journalism important? The author explains:
“It matters because historians have long feared that we live in a digital dark ages - where our history will have vanished when future generations try to look back on these electronic decades.
That is the purpose of GDELT: Global Data on Events, Location and Tone. Primarily set up by Kalev Leetaru at the University of Illinois it is literally a giant list: over 250m events in over 300 categories from riots and protests to diplomatic exchanges and peace appeals.
Crucially, it contains latitude and longitude for every event – all of them are now geotagged to city level.”
There are other ways that big data is having a big impact. “Kenneth Cukier on Big Data and How it is Changing Our World” explains the impact that big data is having on journalism and patient care and treatment in healthcare.
The article characterizes big data as:
“There is no concrete definition and that is probably a good thing since to define is also to limit. But it’s not woolly either. We can understand big data by its features, and the central one is this: we can do things with a huge corpus of data that we are unable to do with smaller amounts, to extract new insights and create new sources of value. This encompasses things like machine learning, in which we have self-driving cars and decent language translation.”
While big data is certainly taking off in the United States and around the world, there remain more than a few skeptics. “Daniel Rasmus on Skepticism with Big Data Implementation” explains that healthy skepticism is important when discussing such a large topic.
The article states:
“Rasmus explains that asking data for an answer involves serious programming needs, such as selecting relevant data, normalizing it, and producing results that a human or machine can act upon. It is tricky business. The article provides an in-depth review of the topic and what seem to be valid issues worth considering.”
Lucky for those that find big data research daunting, there are plenty of experts out there to help. We highly recommend Smartlogic’s Semaphore Content Intelligence Platform to add meaning to your data and deliver actionable insights.
Jasmine Ashton, April 23, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.com
Janya Goes Dark
April 22, 2013
The business intelligence world is growing at a rapid pace. There are a variety of business intelligence vendors that all offer worthwhile products. Each vendor continues to come up with new ways to stay competitive and ahead of the competition and the sometimes the battle can get fierce. Janya was a business intelligence company known for providing customers with semantic analysis tools and solutions that allows users to extract important information from both structured and semi-structured data. In addition they also had a variety of customizable solutions which included automated metadata, social media mining and CRM enhancement. Users basically counted on Janya solutions to help them speed up the discovery as well as sharing of hidden information within their existing data. In previous years the company seemed to be doing well and had built a respectable reputation. However, it now seems that the company’s website seems to have gone dark. A trip to the Janya website brings up a Go Daddy page and asks visitors
“Do you want to buy this domain?”
They didn’t leave any information or even a forwarding address for customers to find. Should we assume that they are gone for good? It makes one wonder exactly what happened to the once bustling company and their product base. In such a competitive field did they meet their match and were able to uncover or do they simply run out of financial resources. One thing is for sure Janya has gone dark and only time will tell if they will ever see the light of day again.
April Holmes, April 22, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
The Heat in Text Radar: April 5 to April 11
April 16, 2013
This week the Text Radar big data, content intelligence, and compliance blog covered some interesting articles covering the impact that big data has on our industry.
“Putting Big Data in the Human Context” explores the lack of objectivity in some analytics initiatives. The author explains how massive data sets are closely linked to physical place and human culture:
“Data and data sets are not objective; they are creations of human design. We give numbers their voice, draw inferences from them, and define their meaning through our interpretations. Hidden biases in both the collection and analysis stages present considerable risks, and are as important to the big-data equation as the numbers themselves.”
This is a unique way of looking at big data. Another post that focuses on the human experience of big data is, “Big Data Needs Human Input and the Right Technology.” The article explains that it is problematic to completely rely on big data systems.
The article states:
“However, the author points out that a complete reliance on systems over human strategy would be a mistake for businesses. The human element adds ingenuity and analytic prowess to number-crunching. Schwartz adds that relying simply on data leads many people to mistake correlation for causation.”
The third article that I would like to highlight explains how small businesses are beginning to get on board the big data bandwagon. “Small Businesses are Tapping Into Big Data” explains how big data offers big opportunities for small business marketing.
The article explains:
“Many small companies want to improve their marketing by pinpointing the best sales prospects through social media. Peter Bordes, founder and chief executive officer of 10-employee, New York City-based Internet Media Labs, says small businesses can analyze what their customers are saying online ‘to engage in much more meaningful conversations with potential or existing customers, because that big data allows them to understand [those customers] better.’”
For those small and large businesses that are a little late to the big data game, using a third party solution to can help remove some of the subjectivity in business decision making. In order to turn your big data into smart content, consider Smartlogic’s Semaphore Content Intelligence Platform.
Jasmine Ashton, April 16, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Oracle Upgrades Discovery and BI Tools
April 14, 2013
Oracle has released upgrades aimed at improving business outcomes and simplifying IT requirements, we learn from a press release posted at MarketWatch, “Oracle Extends Business Analytics Portfolio Empowering Organizations to Transform Data Into Insights.” Both Endeca Information Discovery and Oracle Business Intelligence Foundation Suite have been enhanced. The company points out that both solutions perform best on their tailor-made Exalytics In-Memory Machine. The write-up informs us:
“Oracle Endeca Information Discovery 3.0 delivers a completely redesigned user interface that offers new drag and drop visualizations to provide users with a superior discovery experience, new personal data load for business users to add their own Excel data files to IT provided data, and new Oracle BI Server connectivity, to leverage trusted data from existing analytic applications, along with other features.
“Oracle Business Intelligence Foundation Suite Release 11.1.1.7 delivers significant enhancements to usability, mobility, user experience and Big Data integration, enabling organizations to analyze critical information and get the intelligence they need to optimize their business.
“Endeca Information Discovery and Oracle BI Foundation Suite run better on Oracle Exalytics In-Memory Machine, the industry’s first engineered system for Business Analytics. Oracle Exalytics takes best-in class analytics and in-memory software engineered on high-performance hardware to reduce the cost and complexity of IT infrastructures while increasing productivity and performance for data discovery, business intelligence, modeling and planning applications.”
This Exalytics machine has the potential to make the entire BI undertaking much, much simpler. Endeca, acquired by Oracle in 2011, has long been a strong player in the enterprise discovery field. Oracle’s BI suite integrates several key features in one platform: enterprise reporting, dashboards, ad-hoc analysis, scenario analysis, scorecards, and predictive analytics. The company’s commitment to supplying cutting-edge technology while maintaining easy-to-use interfaces is apparent in these latest improvements.
Cynthia Murrell, April 13, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
The Heat in Text Radar: March 29 to April 04
April 9, 2013
The Text Radar big data analytics and content intelligence blog continually provides readers with informative resources on how big data is impacting modern workplaces. This week, I will highlight several articles that were particularly informative.
We all know the impact that big data has on marketers. But what about other industries? According to, “Big Data Analytics Reveals Vision Giving Major Disaster Responders Advance Notice” provides an example of how big data is helping the development of American bridges.
The article lays out a frightening scenario:
“The American Society of Civil Engineers says that one quarter of all American bridges is ‘deficient’. 17,000 bridges didn’t meet inspection criteria, including 3% of all freeway bridges.
Want a scary statistic? The average age of America’s bridges is 43 years. The average lifespan of America’s bridges: 50 years. This means, unless something changes, we should all avoid pretty much all river crossings after the year 2020.”
Another story, “Growing Big Data and Information Access Bring New IT Challenges” explains how big data is transforming the new world of computing.
When explaining some new challenges, the article states:
“The big change now is not that everyone is an I.T. manager – there are still plenty of ways companies will control devices, access to computers, and data – but that everyone is a consumer of a lot of data. Making that easy on them will most likely be a winning strategy.
‘There has been a revolution in design theory,’ says Phil Libin, chief executive of Evernote, a storage site for consumers and businesses. ‘We’ve all had to learn how to have taste.’ He credits the change toward a design focus, in both consumer electronics and enterprise software, to Apple.”
Another innovative way that big data is being utilized is in major league baseball. According to “MLB Uses Big Data for Uncovering Player Insight”, this data allows the performance of players to be predicted.
The article explains:
“‘We’re trying to predict the future performance of human beings, oftentimes in situations that those people themselves haven’t even encountered,’ he said. ‘One of the things we really need to do is the skill from the luck.’
DePodesta cited ‘The Success Equation: Untangling Skill and Luck in Business, Sports, and Investing,’ a book by Michael Mauboussin of Credit Suisse in the idea that ‘skill is more repeatable than the luck.”
This is just a small sampling of the creative ways that big data can be utilized to make the biggest industry impact. Smartlogic offers a suite of solutions that will help any organization transition into analytics.
Jasmine Ashton, April 09, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Recorded Future Sheds Light on Sony
April 2, 2013
One of the best ways to find the correlation between data from various sources it by comparison. Recorded Future is an online business intelligence analysis tool designed for open web sources. Recorded future scans thousands of different type such as blogs and online news and analyzes the text to identify certain references entities or events. The GamaGanda article “Analyzing Sony with Recorded Future #2” is a great example of how the intelligence tool works. The author does an analysis on Sony’s position in the video gaming market. Recently, Sony had been discussing innovation and was due to make a big announcement. The author used Recorded Future to see if Sony was really making any innovative strides and more specifically how they shaped up when compared to Microsoft and Apple.
“Patent filling is something you can track and it gives you a pretty good idea on a company’s disposition to invest in R&D and hence design innovative products and services.”
As shown on the online screen shots Sony is definitely not keeping up with the innovative minds of Microsoft and Apple and the number of patents clearly demonstrate that. Also more alarming is that Sony has seen an increasing number of layoffs over the past several years. Though patent filing seems to be increasing they are still behind the other big two and have lost a lot of ground in the race. Only time will tell if the upcoming announcement and future projects will help Sony to bounce back. With just a few screenshots Recorded Future broke the bad news to Sony shareholders and now all they can do is watch, wait and hope for the best.
April Holmes, April 02, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
The Heat in Text Radar March 22 to March 28
April 2, 2013
This week, the Text Radar big data and advanced intelligence blog covered a variety of stories that were pertinent to the realm of big data and advanced intelligence systems.
One of the advantages of big data analytics technology is that it allows marketers to take a more targeted advertising approach to their customers. “Advertising Gets More Personalized and Customized with Big Data” explains how technology and analytics are providing more personalized and customized ads.
The article states:
“Checking out one’s Facebook page provides lots of information about a person in such ways as their likes and where they travel, etc. And, by customers registering with a company site, codes can be placed in a customer’s computer to follow other sites that person visits, and when. In addition, companies are targeting prospective customers with ads that are meaningful and more targeted and will pay-off in the end. The internet and metrics on search engines have changed the way ad agencies are doing business. Companies can now learn from ‘clicks’ how to advertise and valuable details that lead to more targeted successful ads.”
Microtargeting can have a similar impact, according to “Microtargeting the Way of the Future of Business.” The article explains the impact of the technical and political masterminds behind the 2012 Obama/Biden presidential campaign.
Text Radar writer Alice Wilson comments:
“Team Obama changed the way political campaigns will compete in the future. And, you can be sure microtargeting tools with accompanying skills will be in the mix. This same method will be incorporated in all levels of business plans as well.”
The final article that I would like to highlight explains the impact that big data is having on health care. “Crunching Medical Big Data Helps to Find Correct Therapy” provides a story about a baby that was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes but did not respond well to the typical regimen of treatment.
The takeaway is this:
“We’ll discover a lot about ourselves and our diseases from big data — assessing the outcomes of different therapies and finding out in retrospect what works best for who. We will then match that against our gene sequences, which may be stored confidentially at birth. If Cameron Lundfelt had been born a few years later, his parents and doctors would perhaps have known before his symptoms had even appeared that he had monogenic diabetes type KCNJ11. And they would have known immediately what to do.”
It does not matter what industry your company falls into. Big data analytics solutions are going to benefit you not matter what. Smartlogic’s Semaphore Content Intelligence Platform has been recognized as an industry leader and it is useful when helping companies make smarter business decisions.
Jasmine Ashton, April 2, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
The Heat in Text Radar: March 15 to March 21
March 26, 2013
This week, the Text Radar news service covered a variety of topics that are pertinent to big data’s takeover of our advanced intelligence systems.
One article, “Company Challenges with Maximizing Big Data Usage,” explores some common reasons why companies are not making the most of their big data analytics tools.
The article states:
“When asked to report the percentage of projects in which their companies use marketing analytics that are available and/or requested, CMOs report a dismal 30% usage rate. This number has decreased from 37% a year ago. So while companies are spending more on Big Data, less of it is being used.”
Another interesting story, “True Potential Reached With Data Analytics and Help from Industry Experts,” explains how a large number of companies are gaining a competitive edge through data analytics. A survey of 2500 business executive found that data is believed to be a fundamental asset to their marketing efforts.
The article states:
“This is a significant finding, in that power shifts can be disruptive. They often call into question experience and intuition that managers and employees have built up over years. Now, those who know how to marshal the data and put analytics behind their decision making are in a position of advantage.”
The third story that I would like to highlight is “Big Bucks Involved with Big Data Lobbying Efforts in Washington,” It discusses the amount of money that goes into social media lobbying. The article states:
“According to Ad Age’s analysis of U.S. lobbying disclosure reports, Facebook, whose efforts are heavily focused on data privacy and security, multiplied its spending 2.5 times in 2012 on outside lobbying firms and on in-house efforts. The company dropped nearly $4.6 million on lobbying last year — $4 million of which went toward its in-house staff’s lobbying — up from $1.8 million in 2011, the reports show. In 2012, the company tacked on an additional three outside firms to its data-related lobbying roster, using a total of seven in 2012 that dealt with data issues.”
All of these articles examine the impact that big data, and the technology used to harness it, has on our society. While there are many solutions to choose from, businesses should engage with tools that are built by industry experts like Smartlogic.
Jasmine Ashton, March 26, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
