A Bezos Style World Domination Video
December 4, 2015
Oh, 1999, what a year that was! It was full of people afraid of Y2K, TV was still analog, email was still a novelty, and AOL still reigned as the supreme Web browser. Nobody really knew what Amazon was as many people did their online shopping on individual Web sites or on eBay. Recode takes a look at a video blast from the past in “Watch Jeff Bezos Lay Out His Grand Vision For Amazon’s Future Dominance In This 1999 Video.”
In 1999, Amazon was a four-year-old company with $1 billion in annual sales. It started out primarily selling books, CDs, and movies. The Jeff Bezos video is of a talk he gave at the Association of American Publishers annual meeting, it played on Book TV and nobody watches that, which it is why it probably has gone unnoticed for so long. While it is a good retrospect about how the company has grown, it also offers some useful information for business entrepreneurs. The entire video is fifty-five minutes long, but the article contains some of Bezos’s best quotes. Our favorite is this one about favoring growth versus profits:
“Amazon.com is a famously unprofitable company. And the question is: Are we concerned about it? The answer is, in the short term, no; and in the long term, of course. Every company needs to be profitable at some point in time … Our strategy and we’ve consistently articulated this, is that we believe that this opportunity is so large that it would be a mistake for any management team not to invest in it very aggressively at this kind of critical category formation stage. We don’t claim it’s the right strategy. We just claim it’s ours. But we do think it’s right. And that it would be a mistake to try to optimize for short-term profitability.”
Jeff Bezos’s advice about favoring growth versus short-term profit definitely worked for him. Amazon is one of the world’s retailers and it is still growing. It is set to dominate TV, software-as-a-surface, and air delivery.
Whitney Grace, December 4, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Big Data Myths Debunked
December 4, 2015
An abundance of data is not particularly valuable without the ability to draw conclusions from it. Forbes recognizes the value of data analysis in, “Text Analytics Gurus Debunk Four Big Data Myths.” Contributor Barbara Thau observes:
“And while retailers have hailed big data as the key to everything from delivering shoppers personalized merchandise offers to real-time metrics on product performance, the industry is mostly scratching its head on how to monetize all the data that’s being generated in the digital era. One point of departure: Over 80% of all information comes in text format, Tom H.C. Anderson, CEO of, which markets its text analytics software to clients such as Coca-Cola KO +0.00% told Forbes. So if retailers, for one, ‘aren’t using text analytics in their customer listening, whether they know it or not, they’re not doing too much listening at all,’ he said.”
Anderson and his CTO Chris Lehew went on to outline four data myths they’ve identified; mistakes, really: a misplaced trust in survey scores; putting more weight on social media data than direct contact from customers; valuing data from new sources over the customer-service department’s records, and refusing to keep an eye on what the competition is doing. See the article for the reasons these pros disagree with each of these myths.
Text analytics firm OdinText promises to draw a more accurate understanding from their clients’ data collections, whatever industry they are in. The company received their OdenText patent in 2013, and was incorporated earlier this year.
Cynthia Murrell, December 4, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Nuzzel Up to Your Content
December 3, 2015
A service called Nuzzel should aggregate content from Web sites like Dogshaming,com, Cuteoverload.com, and Reddit.com/aww. These Web sites are all overloaded with so much cute content that it would make your gums bleed. Nuzzel, however, is not meant to aggregate cute content, Gigaom tells us in “Nuzzel Update Improves New Discovery For Those Who Don’t Use Twitter” what Nuzzel’s true purpose is. Nuzzel is a content discovery service that collects and organized links from Twitter and Facebook. It will now contain an updated feature allowing users to find stories based off their interests without connect to social networks, think Feedly, Zine, and other content feeders.
There will be other changes to Nuzzel as well. Users will not be required to log into one social network, a better search function, and a swipe-based navigation system. Nuzzel is also adding a newsletter for users who do not want to download an application or a social media account. The updates are paired with a new round of funding totaling $5.1 million from the Wall Street Journal, the Guardian, Mozilla, Google, and other companies.
“Connecting with Twitter remains the best way to use Nuzzel, and still provides a great personalized news experience,” Abrams said. “But a lot of people don’t use Twitter, and Nuzzel 2.0 provides a new experience for those people, that also allows non-Twitter users to enjoy the power of social curation.” So it can still help quiet the cacophony of links shared to social networks, but now it could also appeal to people who have somehow managed to avoid the din of social media.”
Nuzzel can be programmed to send users cute content from around the Internet, but it is useful for so much more and a great way to organize content and links.
Whitney Grace, December 3, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
EHR Promises Yet to Be Realized
December 1, 2015
Electronic health records (EHRs) were to bring us reductions in cost and, just as importantly, seamless record-sharing between health-care providers. “Epic Fail” at Mother Jones explains why that has yet to happen. The short answer: despite government’s intentions, federation is simply not part of the Epic plan; vendor lock-in is too profitable to relinquish so easily.
Reporter Patrick Caldwell spends a lot of pixels discussing Epic Systems, the leading EHR vendor whose CEO sat on the Obama administration’s 2009 Health IT Policy Committee, where many EHR-related decisions were made. Epic, along with other EHR vendors, has received billions from the federal government to expand EHR systems. Caldwell writes:
“But instead of ushering in a new age of secure and easily accessible medical files, Epic has helped create a fragmented system that leaves doctors unable to trade information across practices or hospitals. That hurts patients who can’t be assured that their records—drug allergies, test results, X-rays—will be available to the doctors who need to see them. This is especially important for patients with lengthy and complicated health histories. But it also means we’re all missing out on the kind of system-wide savings that President Barack Obama predicted nearly seven years ago, when the federal government poured billions of dollars into digitizing the country’s medical records. ‘Within five years, all of America’s medical records are computerized,’ he announced in January 2009, when visiting Virginia’s George Mason University to unveil his stimulus plan. ‘This will cut waste, eliminate red tape, and reduce the need to repeat expensive medical tests.’ Unfortunately, in some ways, our medical records aren’t in any better shape today than they were before.”
Caldwell taps into his own medical saga to effectively illustrate how important interoperability is to patients with complicated medical histories. Epic seems to be experiencing push-back, both from the government and from the EHR industry. Though the company was widely expected to score the massive contract to modernize the Department of Defense’s health records, that contract went instead to competitor Cerner. Meanwhile, some of Epic’s competitors have formed the nonprofit CommonWell Health Alliance Partnership, tasked with setting standards for records exchange. Epic has not joined that partnership, choosing instead to facilitate interoperability between hospitals that use its own software. For a hefty fee, of course.
Perhaps this will all be straightened out down the line, and we will finally receive both our savings and our medical peace of mind. In the meantime, many patients and providers struggle with changes that appear to have only complicated the issue.
Cynthia Murrell, December 1, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Linguamatics Clears Copyright
December 1, 2015
What is a researcher’s dream? A researcher’s dream is to be able to easily locate and access viable, full-text resources without having to deal with any copyright issues. One might think that all information is accessible via the Internet and a Google search, but if this is how you think professional research happens then you are sadly mistaken. Most professional articles and journals are locked behind corporate academic walls with barbed wire made from copyright laws.
PR Newswire says in “Linguamatics Expands Cloud Text Mining Platform To Include Full-Text Articles” as way for life science researchers to legally bypass copyright. Linguamatics is a natural language processing text-mining platform and it will now incorporate the Copyright Clearance Center’s new text mining solution RightFind XML. This will allow researchers to have access to over 4,000 peer-reviewed journals from over twenty-five of scientific, technical, and medical publishers.
“The solution enables researchers to make discoveries and connections that can only be found in full-text articles. All of the content is stored securely by CCC and is pre-authorized by publishers for commercial text mining. Users access the content using Linguamatics’ unique federated text mining architecture which allows researchers to find the key information to support business-critical decisions. The integrated solution is available now, and enables users to save time, reduce costs and help mitigate an organization’s copyright infringement risk.”
I can only hope that other academic databases and publishers will adopt a similar and (hopefully) more affordable way to access full-text, viable resources. One of the biggest drawbacks to Internet research is having to rely on questionable source information, because it is free and readily available. Easier access to more accurate information form viable resources will not only improve information, but also start a trend to increase its access.
Whitney Grace, December 1, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Yandex Takes on Google with Anticompetitive Business Practices
November 30, 2015
Google is the dominate search engine in North America, South America, and Europe. When it comes to Asia, however, Google faces stiff competition with Yahoo in Japan and Yandex in Russia. Yandex has been able to hold a firm market share and remains stuff competition for Google. Reuters says that “Russia’s Yandex Says Complained To EU Over Google’s Android” pointing to how Yandex might be able to one up its competition.
According to the article, Russia has petitioned the European Commission to investigate Google’s practices related to the Android mobile OS. Yandex has been trying for a long time to dislodge Google’s attempts to gain a stronger market share in Europe and Asia.
“The new complaint could strengthen the case against Google, possibly giving enough ammunition to EU antitrust regulators to eventually charge the company with anti-competitive business practices, on top of accusations related to its Google Shopping service. The formal request was filed in April 2015 and largely mirrors the Russian company’s claims against the U.S. company in a Russian anti-monopoly case that Yandex won.”
The Russian competition watchdog discovered that Google is trying to gain an unfair advantage in the European and Asian search markets. Yandex is one of the few companies who voices its dislike of Google along with Disconnect, Aptoide, and the FairSearch lobbying group. Yandex wants the European Commission to restore balance to the market, so that fair competition can return. Yandex is especially in favor of having mobile device users be able to select their search engine of choice, rather than having one preprogrammed into the OS.
It is interesting to view how competitive business practices take place over seas. Usually in the United States whoever has the deepest pockets achieves market dominance, but the European Union is proving to uphold a fairer race for search dominance. Even more interesting is that Google is complaining Yandex is trying to maintain its domiance with these complaints.
Whitney Grace, November 30, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
How Semantic Technology Will Revolutionize Education
November 27, 2015
Will advanced semantic technology return us to an age of Socratic education? In a guest post at Forbes, Declara’s Nelson González suggests that’s exactly where we’re heading; the headline declares, “The Revolution Will Be Semantic: Web3.0 and the Emergence of Collaborative Intelligence.” In today’s world, stuffing a lot of facts into each of our heads is much less important than the ability to find and share information effectively. González writes:
“Most importantly, Web3.0 is opening paths to collaborative intelligence. Isolated individual learning is increasingly irrelevant to organizational health, which is measured largely through group metrics. Today, public and private institutions live or die based on the efficiency, innovation, and impact of corporate efforts.”
The post points to content curators like Flipboard and Pinterest as examples of such collective adaptive capacity, then looks at effects this shift is already beginning to have on education. González gives a couple of examples he’s seen around the world, and discusses ways collaboration software like his company’s can facilitate new ways of learning. See the article for details. He writes:
“Web 3.0 is unleashing a kind of ‘back to the future’ innovation, the digital democratization of what élites have always practiced: deep learning through imitative apprenticeship, humanistic personalization via real-time observation, and mastery through crowdsourced validation. Silicon Valley is thus enabling us all to become the sons and daughters of Socrates.”
Launched in 2012, Declara set out to build better bridges between online sources of knowledge. The company is based in Palo Alto, California.
Cynthia Murrell, November 27, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Interview with Informatica CEO
November 26, 2015
Blogger and Datameer CEO Stefan Groschupf interviews Anil Chakravarthy, acting CEO of Informatica, in a series of posts on his blog, Big Data & Brews. The two executives discuss security in the cloud, data infrastructure, schemas, and the future of data. There are four installments as of this writing, but it was an exchange in the second iteration, “Big Data Brews: Part II on Data Security with Informatica,” that captured our attention. Here’s Chakravarthy’s summary of the challenge now facing his company:
Stefan: From your perspective, where’s the biggest growth opportunity for your company?
Anil: We look at it as the intersection of what’s happening with the cloud and big data. Not only the movement of data between our premise and cloud and within cloud to cloud but also just the sheer growth of data in the cloud. This is a big opportunity. And if you look at the big data world, I think a lot of what happens in the big data world from our perspective, the value, especially for enterprise customers, the value of big data comes from when they can derive insights by combining data that they have from their own systems, etc., with either third-party data, customer-generated data, machine data that they can put together. So, that intersection is good for, and we are a data infrastructure provider, so those are the two big areas where we see opportunity.
It looks like Informatica is poised to make the most of the changes prompted by cloud technology. To check out the interview from the beginning, navigate to the first installment, “Big Data & Brews: Informatica Talks Security.”
Informatica offers a range of data-management and integration tools. Though the company has offices around the world, they maintain their headquarters in Redwood City, California. They are also hiring as of this writing.
Cynthia Murrell, November 26, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Do Not Go Gently into That Dark Web
November 26, 2015
The article titled Don’t Toy With The Dark Web, Harness It on Infoworld’s DarkReading delves into some of the misconceptions about the Dark Web. The first point the article makes is that a great deal of threats to security occur on the surface web on such well-known sites as Reddit and social media platforms like Instagram. Not only are these areas of the web easier to search without Tor or I2P, but they are often more relevant, particularly for certain industries and organizations. The article also points out the harm in even “poking around” the Dark Web,
“It can take considerable time, expertise and manual effort to glean useful information. More importantly, impromptu Dark Web reconnaissance can inadvertently expose an organization to greater security risks because of unknown malicious files that can infiltrate the corporate network. Additionally, several criminal forums on the Dark Web utilize a “vouching” system, similar to a private members club, that might require an investigator to commit a crime or at least stray into significantly unethical territory to gain access to the content.”
A novice could easily get into more trouble than they bargained for, especially when taking receipt of stolen goods is considered a felony. Leave the security work to professionals, and make sure the professionals you employ have checked out this Dark Web reading series.
Chelsea Kerwin, November 26, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
MarkLogic Does Ecommerce
November 25, 2015
On their blog, MarkLogic announces they are “Eliminating Shopper Fatigue: Making Online Commerce Faster, More Accurate.” Anyone who has tried to shop online for a very particular item understands the frustration. Despite all the incentives to quickly serve up exactly what a customer is looking for, ecommerce sites still struggle with searches that get too specific. Writer (and MarkLogic chief marketing officer) Michaline Todd gives this example: A site that sells 652 different versions of a “screwdriver” returns zero results to the phrase “one-quarter-inch slotted magnetic screwdriver.” You know it must be there somewhere, but you have to comb through the 652 screwdriver entries to find it. That or give up and drive to the local hardware store, where a human will hook you up with exactly what you need. Good for local business, but bad for that ecommerce site.
Todd says the problem lies in traditional relational databases, upon which any eCommerce sites are built. These databases were not meant to handle unstructured data, like supplier-created product descriptions. She describes her company’s solution to the problem, which naturally includes MarkLogic’s NoSQL technology:
“The beauty of NoSQL is that it’s a schema-agnostic data model that ingests data in whatever its current form. Codifyd uses MarkLogic to quickly and reliably merge millions of data points from thousands of suppliers into a product catalogue for each of its clients. By gathering such fine-tuned information instantaneously, Codifyd recommends products matched to specific attributes in real time, increasing customer trust, loyalty and retention. This more precise information also allows retailers to bundle relevant product offers in a set, improving upselling and increasing the average order size. For example, a retailer can serve up the ‘one-quarter-inch slotted magnetic screwdriver’ the customers searched for as well as a toolkit that contains that particular screwdriver.”
Todd notes that Codifyd also dramatically speeds up the process of posting entries for new products, since unstructured data can be reproduced as-is. Launched in 2001, MarkLogic proudly declares that theirs is the only enterprise-level NoSQL platform in existence. The company is headquartered in San Carlos, California, and maintains offices around the world.
Cynthia Murrell, November 25, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
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