Attensity and Capgemini Team Up on Social Media Service
August 28, 2011
We see that Attensity is moving beyond its roots. Research reports, “Capgemini and Attensity Partner in Social Media Management.”
Capgemini Group provides a wide range of consulting, technology, and outsourcing services to industries that range from defense to financial services to entertainment.
Attensity has traditionally provided semantic solutions to the intelligence community and now serves Global 2000 companies and government agencies. They pride themselves on the accuracy of their analytic engines and their intuitive reports.
Now, in this partnership with Capgemini, Attensity is branching into the social media game. The write up explains:
The service offers real-time web listening and analysis by feeding results through to the firm’s offshore and onshore centers in Dallas, Guatemala City and Bangalore. Attensity’s text analytics platform is then used to examine content created by social media users. “Feedback gathered and analyzed at the these centers can then be used to modify marketing campaigns or improve overall customer experience, the firm said.”
Paul Cole, Capgemini’s VP for BPO Customer Operations, sees a unique opportunity. While most companies know social media can be valuable, few know exactly how to tap that power. Capgemini and Attensity intend to address that need and, of course, profit handsomely.
Now, is Capgemini ahead of its consulting competitors or lagging? A band wagon is going by. I will consider the question later.
Stephen E Arnold, August 28, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
Booz Allen Downplays Hack
August 14, 2011
Booz Allen Hamilton, a self-proclaimed leader in management and technology consulting services to the US government in defense, intelligence, and civil markets, is evading discussion of the severity of their recent hacking. ComputerWorld gives details in, “Booz Allen CEO Downplays Effect of Anonymous Hack.”
A July cyberattack on Booz Allen Hamilton will not materially harm the company’s bottom line, its CEO said Tuesday. The Anonymous hacking collective stole source code, e-mail addresses and other data from Booz Allen and published it online on July 11. Still, the company does not expect ‘the cost of remediation and other activities directly associated with the attack’ to ‘have a material affect on our financial results,’ said Ralph Shrader, Booz Allen’s Chairman and CEO on a conference call with analysts.
Although Anonymous is posing an increasing threat to corporate and government online records, this attack should not have happened. This company bids out quite a lot of national security work, and the information released was military email addresses and accompanying personal information. Is it a case of the shoemaker’s children not having their own shoes? It’s hard to sell security to the world at large, and not have a tight rein on your own.
Emily Rae Aldridge, August 14, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
Is Microsoft Implementing a Haphazard Search Strategy?
August 10, 2011
Nothing fires up Microsoft centric service firms like criticism of Microsoft Fast technology. We’re pleasantly surprised by this enthusiasm, which is generally lacking when we mention other vendors’ “search challenges.”
We think choice is a good thing, until it gets overwhelming. Redmondmag.com works on “Sorting Out Microsoft’s Mixed-Up Enterprise Search Strategy.” Writer Paul Korzeniowski posits that Microsoft’s array of six search alternatives is just too disjointed:
The various search alternatives vary in capabilities, sophistication and price, so there should be something for just about every enterprise. However, the Microsoft strategy can leave customers bewildered. The various products are largely autonomous, so it may not be easy to move from one to another. In addition, there are conflicting reports about which of the search engines Microsoft considers strategic, so there’s a possibility that companies may standardize on solutions that will eventually lose their luster and maybe even be phased out.
Korzeniowski emphasizes that Microsoft is not the only purveyor of enterprise search solutions to suffer from an incoherent strategy. The article analyses the problem in depth, including words on security, pricing, and the fate of Fast Search. We suggest reading it through.
We agree that the “experts” are a bit out of touch with the challenges Fast Search presents. We recommend you buttress your reading of the Redmondmag article with the corresponding chapter in the Landscape report, published by Pandia.com, in which Stephen Arnold digs into parts of Fast that most so-called experts ignore, don’t know, or simply find too darned confusing to figure out. One thing is certain. Our leader, Stephen E Arnold, will be delighted to have his views of azure chip consultants confirmed.
Cynthia Murrell August 10, 2011
Of course, this write up is sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
Web 3.0: What about Search?
August 3, 2011
Consulting firm Booz & Company has published a new whitepaper, “Designing the Transcendent Web: The Power of Web 3.0.” A treatise on where we are headed online, the paper maps the contours of the road ahead.
Booze describes this new landscape:
“Imagine a world in which a movie search on your smartphone turns up only the kind of movies you like, and only those playing in your neighborhood. In which your behavior, inputs, and interactions on social networks automatically produce lists of recommendations, potential friends, even job offers. In which searching and browsing the Web becomes vastly more interesting and efficient, with results and link suggestions tailored specifically to your interests, and in which your ‘virtual representative,’ a kind of online personal assistant, keeps working to find you the best information even when you’re offline.”
Promising that this “transcendent Web” will drastically change the way we live and work, the paper is full of details. First, it examines the developments that led to this place. Next, it describes its key elements, how Web 3.0 is becoming a reality, and the impact they expect it will have. Finally, the work tells us how businesses can prepare to take advantage of the technology.
As with any piece produced by a consulting firm, our caveat is that these companies do create stuff to generate business. That being said, we recommend you check out this informative whitepaper.
However, keep in mind:
- Search is given little attention
- Consulting firms generate “output” in order to make sales, so the information may be appropriate to a consulting firm objective, not the reader’s
- The current Web seems to be shaping up to be a landscape filled with walled gardens, not the wide open information prairie of the Internet’s frontier days.
As we work through these white papers and position papers, we are starting to accept that search is little more than a utility. Search is not the main focus of consultants and, we think, of those with information problems.
Cynthia Murrell, August 3, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
Make Metadata Useful. But What If the Tags Are Lousy?
July 28, 2011
I must be too old and too dense to understand why the noise about metadata gives me a headache. I came across a post or story on the CNBC.com Web site that was half way between a commercial and a rough draft of a automated indexing vendor’s temp file stuffed with drafts created by a clever intern. The post hauled around this weighty title: “EMA and ASG Webinar: 7 Best Practices For Making Metadata Useful”. The first thing I did was look up EMA and ASG because I was unfamiliar with the acronyms.
I learned that EMA represents a firm called Enterprise Management Associates. The company does information technology and data management research, industry analysis, and consulting. Fair enough. I have done some of the fuzzy wuzzy work for a couple of reasonably competent outfits, including the once stellar Booz, Allen & Hamilton and a handful of large, allegedly successful companies.
ASG is an acronym for ASG Software Solutions. The parent company grows via acquisitions just like Progress Software and, more recently, Google. The focus of the company seems to be “the cloud in your hand.” I am okay with a metaphorical description.
I am confused about metadata. Source: http://www.thebusyfool.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Decisions_clipart.jpg
What caught my attention is the focus on metadata, which in my little world, is the domain of people with degrees in library and information science, years of experience in building ANSI standard controlled term lists, and hands on time with automated and human centric indexing, content processing, and related systems. An ANSI standard controlled term list is not management research, industry analysis, consulting, or the “cloud in your hand.” Controlled term lists which make life bearable for a person seeking information are quite difficult work, combining the vision of an architect and the nitty gritty stamina of a Roman legionnaire building a road through Gaul.
Here’s the passage that caught my attention and earned a place in my “quotes to note” folder:
As data grows horizontally across the enterprise, businesses are faced with the urgent need to better define data and create an accurate, transparent and accessible view of their metadata. Metadata management and business glossary are foundational technologies that can help companies achieve this goal. EMA developed seven best practices that guide companies to get the most of their data management. All attendees receive the complimentary White Paper Managing Metadata for Accessibility, Transparency and Accountability authored by Shawn Rogers.
I am not sure what some of these words and phrases mean. For example, “better define data”. My question, “What data?” Next I struggled with “create an accurate, transparent, and accessible view of their metadata.” Now there are commercial systems which allow “views” of controlled term lists. One such vendor is Access Innovations, an outfit which visited me in rural Kentucky to talk about new approaches to indexing certain types of problematic content which is proliferating in organizations. Think in terms of social content without much context other than a “handle”, date, and time even within a buttoned up company.
What do users know? Image source: http://www.computersunplugged.com.au/images/angry-man.gif
Another phrase that caught my limited attention was “metadata management and business glossary are foundational”. Okay, but before one manages, one must do a modest amount of work. Even automated systems benefit from smart algorithms helped with a friendly human crafted training document set or direct intervention by a professional information scientist. Some organizations use commercial controlled term lists to seed the automatic content tagging system. I am all for management, but I don’t think I want to jump from the hard work to “management” without going to the controlled vocabulary gym and doing some push ups. “Business glossary” baffled me and I was not annoyed by what seems to be a high school grammar misstep. Nope. The “business glossary” is a good thing, but it must be constructed to match the language of the users, the corpus, and the accepted terminology. Indexing a document with the term “terminal” is not too helpful unless there is a “field code” that pegs the terminal as one where I find airplanes, trains, death, or computer stuff. A “business glossary” does not appear from thin air,although a “cloud” outfit may have that notion. I know better.
I did a quick Google search for “Shawn Rogers,” author of the white paper. Note: I don’t know what a white paper is. The first hit is to a document which is on what I think is a pay-to-play information service called “b-eye”. The second hit points to a LinkedIn profile. I don’t know if this is “the” Shawn Rogers whom I seek. I learned that he is:
[a professional who] has more than 19 years of hands-on IT experience with a focus on Internet-enabled technology. In 2004 he cofounded the BeyeNETWORK and held the position of Executive Vice President and Editorial Director. Shawn guided the company’s international growth strategy and helped the BeyeNETWORK grow to 18 web sites around the world making it the largest and most read community covering the business intelligence, data warehousing, performance management and data integration space. The BeyeNETWORK was sold to TechTarget in April 2010.
I concluded this was “the” Mr. Rogers I sought and that he or his organization is darned good at search engine optimization type work.
What clicked in my mind was a triple tap of hypotheses:
- A couple of services firms have teamed up to cash in on the taxonomy and metadata craze. I thought metadata had come and gone, but obviously these firms are, to use Google’s metaphor, putting more wood behind the metadata thing. So, this is a marketing in order to sell services. As I said, I am okay with that.
- These firms have found a way to address the core problem of indexing by people who do not have the faintest idea of what’s involved in metatagging that helps users. One hopes.
- The two companies are not sure what the outcome of the webinar and the white paper distribution will be. In short, this is a fishing trip or an exploration of the paths on an island owned by a cruise company. There’s not much at risk.
Okay, enough.
Here’s my view on metadata.
First, most organizations have zero editorial policy and zero willingness to do the hard work required to dedupe, normalize, and tag content in a way that allows a user to find a particular item without sticky notes, making phone calls, or clicking and scanning stuff for the needed items. I think vendors promise the sun and moon and deliver gravel. Don’t agree? Use the comments section, please. Don’t call me.
Second, most of the vendors who offer industrial strength indexing and content processing systems know what needs to be done to make content findable. But the licensees often want a silver bullet. So the vendors remain silent on certain key points such as the Roman legionnaire working in the snow part. The cost part is often pushed to the margin as well.
Third, the information technology professionals “know” best. Not surprisingly most content access in organizations is a pretty lukewarm activity. I received an email last week chastising me for pointing out that more than half of an organization’s search system users were dissatisfied with whatever system the company made available. Hey, I just report the facts. I know how to find information in my organization.
Fourth, no one pays real attention to the user of a system. The top brass, the IT experts, and the vendors talk about the users. The users don’t know anything and whatever input those folks provide is not germane to the smarties. Little wonder that in some organizations systems are just worked around. Tells range from a Google search appliance in marketing to sticky notes on monitors.
Will I attend the webinar? Nah. I don’t do webinars. Do I want to change the world and make every organization have a super duper controlled term list and findable content? Nah. Don’t care. Do I want outfits like CNBC to do a tiny bit of content curation before posting unusual write ups with possible grammatical errors? You bet. What if those metadata and other tags are uncontrolled, improperly applied, and mismatched to the lingo? Status quo, I assert.
Enjoy the webinar. Good luck with your metadata and the “cloud in your hands” approach. Back to the goose pond. Honk.
Stephen E Arnold, July 29, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search, which is not a white paper and it is not free. But at $20, such a deal.
Booz, Allen: Alleged Security Misstep
July 13, 2011
“Anonymous Leaks 90,000 Military Email Accounts in Latest #AntiSec Attack” caught my eye. The story points out that Booz, Allen seems to have been caught with its security Brooks Brothers suit pants down. The story said:
The leak, dubbed ‘Military Meltdown Monday,’ includes 90,000 logins of military personnel—including personnel from US CENTCOM, SOCOM, the Marine Corps, various Air Force facilities, Homeland Security, State Department staff, and what looks like private sector contractors. Their correspondences could include exchanges with Booz Allen’s highly brassy staff of retired defense folk: current execs include three former Directors of National Intelligence and one former head of the CIA. Anon was also kind enough to gut 4 GB of source code from Booz Allen’s servers. Anon cites the firm’s alleged complicity in the SWIFT financial monitoring program as at least partial motive for the attack.
I used to work at Booz, Allen & Hamilton. Happier times. One of my goslings quipped, “Is this the same Bozo, Allen where you worked?” Happily I pointed out that my tenure took place when there was one highly regarded firm, no debt, and no allegations of broken toes with regard to security. I hope the story is incorrect.
Stephen E Arnold, July 13, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of the monograph, “The New Landscape of Enterprise Search.”
Smoothing SharePoint Upgrades
June 7, 2011
After a whirl of conferences, I was catching up on my reading. I was interested in J. Peter Bruzzese’s article “Don’t Upgrade to SharePoint 2010 Until You Read This” suggests, this is not an update for the faint of heart. Our experience at Search Technologies was that SharePoint upgrades have been reasonably straight forward.
His warning suggests:
You may like to be hands-on with your own environment, installing all your own servers and such, but the upgrade to SharePoint 2010 should either be treated with the utmost care or turned over to an expert who’s done it a bunch of times and has it down to a science.
He continues by saying it took him “a week to research and test in-place upgrade process and the database-attach migrate process before throwing down the ‘hire somebody else’ gauntlet.”
So there it is.
His caution comes complete with neon blinking lights. His article cited some well known experts; for example, Spencer Harbar, Microsoft Enterprise Architect and Don Holmes, Intellium consultant and trainer. The article suggest that any “headaches” that you encounter “depends more on your current environment than on SP2010 itself.”
We agree.
They claim that this upgrade “is far less of an issue than upgrading from SPs2003 to Moss2007.”
We have some suggestions. First, check with specialists. Please, consider Search Technologies as a potential resource. Second, work through Microsoft’s documentation paying particular attention to customization notes. Microsoft’s installers are thoroughly tested, but it is impossible for any vendor to upgrade every possible configuration of SharePoint. Third, make certain you have a back up, installation discs and their keys, and any other information that Microsoft provides licensees, certified engineers, or certified SharePoint developers. Often a hiccup can be addressed easily when these essentials are at hand.
For more information, contact us via our Web site at www.searchtechnologies.com.
Iain Fletcher, June 7, 2011
Search Technologies
Entrepreneurship Revealed
May 29, 2011
No more of that start up stuff for the goose. We had a couple of lucky breaks, and I learned one big thing from my Internet start up antics. Not surprisingly, my single learning is not the focus of Discover the Patterns of “Successful Internet Startup in the Startup Genome Report.” The write up is chock full of juicy factoids, and I urge you to read the article and before you write a check or ask mom, a vulture, or your local, very friendly banker to write checks, get the full study. Consulting services? Give the outfit a jingle.
Here are some factoids:
- “Focus on what matters most and their complete dedication to improving their craft.” My interpretation: be good at stuff like knowing what to do and how to get the important stuff done.
- “Find a repeatable and scalable business model.” My interpretation: generate revenue and keep generating revenue.
- “Startups that pivot once or twice times raise 2.5x more money, have 3.6x better user growth, and are 52% less likely to scale prematurely than startups that pivot more than 2 times or not at all.” My interpretation: I have absolutely no idea what this means.
You can download the report for free, examine an “infographic”, and interact with the study professionals.
Oh, what was my learning from the Point (Top 5% of the Internet) and several other startups. Luck is important. And luck is right up there at knowing how to master technology, not allowing technology to master me.
Would I do another startup? Nope. Too old, fat, lazy, and stupid. Just last week I had to fire a 30 something who wanted me to stand by. At age 66, I don’t stand by. That’s a concept for the same folks who create start ups, think those who write checks are really former Peace Corp. volunteers, and that knowing how to do the right thing at the precise moment are silly ideas.
Download the report at http://startupgenome.cc/pages/startup-genome-report-1. Study methodology is at http://www.systemmalfunction.com/2011/05/deciphering-genome-of-startups.html
Stephen E Arnold, May 29, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
More Cloud Cheerleading
May 27, 2011
“Gartner Identifies Five Ways to Migrate Applications to the Cloud” identifies the options for the IT department when the CIO calmly announces to ‘move some applications to the cloud’. As if it was only a matter of transferring a file from one shelf to the next.
Gartner insists there are many factors to consider when initiating the migration process, including a company’s requirements and architectural principles. Five options plainly identified for relocating to the cloud are as follows: “Rehost on infrastructure as a service (IaaS), refactor for platform as a service (PaaS), revise for IaaS or PaaS, rebuild on PaaS, or replace with software as a service (SaaS)”.
Granted, this article was written from the perspective of application architects. These are, we assume, individuals whose job is not to evaluate if an existing structure should be migrated to the cloud, only how to do so. In light of this, we would like to toss some other factors on the table.
What about the risks? Lady Gaga problems at Amazon. Dead Blogger.com. Sony network problems. Microsoft BPOS Exchange issues. Need I go on?
Cost should be considered. The difference felt in the coffers can be great between top-end and entry level servers, and without a simulation prior to the switch you may not realize what magnitude of power you require.
Security and reliability are also points of interest. Both the ability to extract personal data from the cloud as well as bring the service to a screeching halt has been demonstrated recently with the Sony network breach and AWS breakdown.
There are obviously some great benefits to joining the cloud, but just like any other decision, it is best to view all angles prior to jumping in. It is tough to search for documents or basic information when the cloud takes a couple of days off to recover from sun burn.
Sarah Rogers, May 27, 2011
Freebie
Azure Chip Outfit Snags Apple Jargon
May 25, 2011
We were amused when we read “The “Post-PC” Era: It’s Real, But It Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Does.” We echo leaders and authors with relentless undergraduate enthusiasm. However, when there is a catch phrase from Fortune Magazine’s poster boy for the successful company leader, we toss in more than a casual reference. We wallow, grovel, and whine. Hey, we want the work that flows from our sycophancy.
An azure chip consulting firm (there may be no blue chips any longer) inked a write up describing a post-personal computer era that has desk tops in the horse-and-buggy section of my local horse farm.
We learned that Apple now claims they get a “majority of their revenue from “post-PC devices,” including the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. This is a milestone for a company that was originally named “Apple Computer.”
What does this mean?
The consultant explains that PC’s aren’t dead, computer technology is simply shifting from:
stationary to ubiquitous” (computing at your desk vs. done anywhere, anytime); “formal to casual” (on/ off contrasted to always on); “arms-length to intimate” (from your desk to anywhere you go); “abstracted to physical” (mouse/ keyboard vs. voice sensors, camera recognition, etc). These technological innovations fuel social change, and vice versa. As people conduct more of their lives online—shopping, banking, entertainment—we require more computing in more places. The rise of social networking requires real-time connectivity to manage our relationships. And eroding work-life boundaries means that consumers demand devices that can do double-duty in their work and personal lives.”
We live in Blade Runner or 2001, folks. We can’t run and we can’t hide. We await the post pc wave report. Here in Harrod’s Creek we need professional guidance about the life raft, a snorkel, and—most important—our check book?
And search? Nary a word. Irrelevant.
Stephen E Arnold, May 25, 2011
Freebie unlike reports from most consultancies
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