Fetch Gets the Tails Wagging
July 26, 2012
Fetch just learned how to chase and retrieve that data even faster and no treat was necessary. How To Win The Lotto’s article “Fetch Technologies Unveils Breakthrough Web Data Extraction Capabilities and Reports Record Results” tells us how Fetch’s latest upgrade has got tails wagging.
The new version of Fetch, Live Access 4.1 both enhances and expands the web data extraction and:
“Enables clients to easily collect augment and transform data through all available APIs. In addition, Fetch clients can now extract data from Websites that use AJAX and other dynamic content technologies. The release also offers access to completely new sources of data, including PDFs, Microsoft Office documents and images.”
“Every business today needs data from the Web to survive, and by offering the most comprehensive platform available for Web data extraction, Fetch is generating unprecedented results.”
Ironically, Fetch is now part of Connotate. They were acquired in March of this year with the prospect of combining Fetch’s information extraction, integration, and data analytics solution with Connotate’s monitoring, collection and analysis solution technology.
A data Titan was created when combining Connotate’s web data monitoring and data collection with Fetch’s ability to access and transform Web data into actionable information. Both ends of the data spectrum are pretty much covered between the two companies. It looks like Connotate played a good game with Fetch and tails may be wagging for the next decade.
Jennifer Shockley, July 26, 2012
Free and Open Data Makes Waves and Maybe Money in UK Once Again
July 25, 2012
While some people sit and talk if free and open data is beneficial, the United Kingdom has reiterated their commitment to the open data project originally launched in 2010. O’Reilly Radar explains that the British government believes open data will spur more transparency and economic prosperity in “UK Cabinet Office Relaunches Data.gov.uk, Releases Open Data White Paper.”
The first step for publicity involved the Cabinet Office hosting an event in London to promote the release of a white paper on “unleashing the potential of open data.” The relaunch of the UK’s open data platform available at Data.gov.uk invariably ensued. The site currently boasts over 9,000 data sets.
Author Dr. Ben Goldacre made the following comments in regards to the UK government’s stance:
‘[Data is] the 21st century’s raw material, that it has economic and social benefits, that privacy issues need caution, and so on. That in itself is reassuring, as governments can sometimes be completely clueless about this kind of stuff. They also get the nerdy details: that standards matter, and so on. Also, all the stuff about building reciprocal relationships with developers, building coder capacity, two way relationships to improve datasets etc is all great.’
While an informed and aware constituency feels at ease with ideals like transparency in place, open data has its pitfalls. Let us remember that free and open can go too far.
Megan Feil, July 25, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
How to use Oracle Full Text Search in an Entity Framework
July 25, 2012
Oracle has the solutions, but how do you use Oracle full text search in an entity framework? We are not sure what this means, but the info you need can be found in Devart’s article, “Using Oracle Full-Text Search in Entity Framework.”
Devart began with:
“We decided to meet the needs of our users willing to take advantage of the full-text search in Entity Framework and implemented the basic Oracle Text functionality in our Devart dotConnect for Oracle ADO.NET Entity Framework provider. For working with Oracle Text specific functions in LINQ to Entities queries, the new OracleTextFunctions class is used, which is located in the Devart.Data.Oracle.Entity.dll assembly.”
It enables working with such Oracle Text functions as:
- CONTAINS
- CATSEARCH
- MATCHES
- SCORE
- MATCH_SCORE
Devart presents a very detailed sales pitch for OraDirect, or dotConnect as their calling it now. Whatever name you choose, the gist is the software offers native connectivity to the Oracle database, tools and technology. They also offer a customized set of their own tools to increase Dataset productivity such as Dataset Wizard and Dataset Manager.
If you can decipher their article, than the wisdom of the Oracle is yours. For the most part this article reads like a coder handbook, and I am not a coder. If you happen to speak that very enlightened language, you will probably grasp Devart’s meaning a lot quicker than this gosling. If not, maybe the Oracle will see you some other day.
Jennifer Shockley, July 25, 2012
New Data Mapping Platform Customizes Journalistic Reality
July 24, 2012
CartoDB created a new data mapping platform that will add versatility to the way the media displays acquired data. Data Driven Journalism’s article “Meet Data Mapping Platform CartoDB” provides some insight into the technology that has journalists as excited as a cartographer who discovered a new island.
CartoDB has added flexibility and a few more creative options, as:
“In Fusion Tables you are very limited to how you want the marker to look like; it is just a circle in different colours. In CartoDB we support a full styling language like Carto CSS; you can do many more things, like changing the opacity, using a symbol, or changing how it looks at different zoom levels. More importantly, CartoDB is open source and does not impose data size limits.”
Data plays a big part in any field of journalism and efficient data mapping platforms are a necessity. Today’s mix of media personnel needs real-time applications that allow them to engage the audience over complex issues. Platforms like CartoDB add a unique visual display so the latest news can be seen in a more meaningful, informative and entertaining way.
Journalism is propelled by news and views, with the viewer’s ultimately determining the popularity of the site. Hunter Thompson once referenced the media by saying, “We love them for the extra dimension they provide, the illusion of near-infinite possibility to erase the narrow confines of most men’s reality.” CartoDB just gave journalists the freedom to further customize the way we see their reality.
Jennifer Shockley, July 24, 2012
Attivio Casts Light on SQL Shadow
July 23, 2012
It is no longer structured versus unstructured data. It is now SQL versus NoSQL, and some are advising companies to stick with SQL. The good news is… you do not have to. There is a company that says we can do it all.
That company is Attivio, and they cover the basics in their article, “SQL versus NoSQL – Why Not Have the Best of Both Worlds?” Attivio can work with SQL, NoSQL, prototypes, and they have a patented JOIN operator. They can search and utilize relationships between records of any type, and can do so spontaneously.
The piece le resistance is their AIE. This is where Attivio says they really look good, and:
“Underneath Attivio’s support for SQL is an index structure that supports massive, linear scalability. We recently helped a customer index 300 million documents; its 1.7 TB of data, sharded across three servers. The entire set is replicated to three additional machines to provide fault tolerance and additional query capacity. Our support for non-collocated JOINs means that you can STILL query the entire data set. You don’t have to manage the content on each shard, either. AIE takes care of all of that for you.”
NoSQL users were lost in the shadows of multi-media doubt, but Attivio cast some light in their direction. There you go. Attivio offers a definitive solution.
Jennifer Shockley, July 23, 2012
New Oracle Solution Could Be Online Retail Game Changer
July 23, 2012
CMS Wire recently reported on a new solution called Oracle Commerce in the article, “Oracle Combines ATG, Endeca Products Into Oracle Commerce.”
According to the article, this new solution is a combination of two of Oracle’s products, Oracle ATG Commerce and Oracle Endeca. This single solution, known as Commerce, uses a data integration model to centrally manage customer engagement strategies by providing a personalized user experience.
The article states:
“Oracle Commerce provides pre-built components for quick launches of websites via a site creation wizard, which allows for integration of channels. A cross-channel strategy can be centrally managed, and granular control is offered over guided navigation, search, merchandising, content-targeting and personalization. The company said that Commerce can utilize existing customer experience technology that a business might have, integrating such tools as analytics, CRM or a recommendations engine.”
Commerce brings the best of ATG and Endeca, including Oracle’s Web Commerce Customer Service, Live Help On Demand, and Recommendation on Demand. With all of these added features Commerce could very well be a game changer for online retail. Endeca has tried a number of business segments over the last decade. Perhaps this one will allow the firm to boost its revenues in a significant manner?
Jasmine Ashton, July 23, 2012
Sponsored by IKANOW
On the Prioritization of Electronic Health Records
July 22, 2012
It looks like the medical information revolution is proceeding a little slower than some of us would like, we can see from eWeek’s “U.S. News Tracks ‘Meaningful Use’ in ‘Most Connected Hospital’ Rankings.” The article starts out with good news, quoting U.S. News’ editor Steve Sternberg as stating, “The hospitals on the ‘Most Connected’ list this year lead all others in making the transition to fully integrated EHR’s [electronic health records].” Great!
There were a couple of criteria for facilities to be considered for the “Most Connected” list: First, they had to meet the federal government’s guidelines on “meaningful use” of electronic health records (EHRs) by July 10. So far so good. They also had to appear in either the U.S. News “Best Hospitals” and/or “Best Children’s Hospitals” list or be considered “high-performing” in at least one medical specialty. We have no problem with including that criteria for appearance on the “Most Connected” list.
However, consider the creation of that “Best Hospitals” list itself. Weren’t electronic health records supposed to be a key part of modernizing and improving care? We thought so, but that criteria didn’t even make it into the ranking factors for that particular list. Writer Brian T. Horowitz notes:
“‘Hospitals’ adoptions of EHR’s isn’t a factor in the Best Hospitals 2012-13 rankings,’ U.S. News reported. ‘That’s because EHR usage, while booming, hasn’t been proven to consistently advance patient care.’
“Although they haven’t ‘consistently’ advanced care, EHR’s could make patients safer and care more efficient, U.S. News added.”
Why yes, yes they could. Every hospital should be using them, and we feel it should be a basic qualification for a facility to be named one of the finest on any list. Oh, well, maybe next year.
Cynthia Murrell, July 22, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
One Vision of the Future of Enterprise Architecture
July 22, 2012
SYS-Con Media recently published an article detailing the impact of Cloud, big data analytics and mobility on enterprise architecture in the article “The New Enterprise Reference Architecture.”
For those who do not already know, the term Enterprise Architecture refers to the process of moving business vision and strategy into effective enterprise change by creating, communicating and improving the key requirements, principles and models that describe the enterprise’s future state and enable its evolution.
This article is based on the assumption that a lot has changed over the past couple of years regarding the ways that enterprises chart their enterprise architecture. It provides readers with a diagram of “the new enterprise reference architecture” along with accompanying text providing a detailed explanation of the role of each layer.
When discussing the enterprise search layer, the article states:
“While the data virtualization layer provides a common layer to access all the disparate data sources, we still needed robust searching capabilities on top of it and hence this layer is important. Some of the attributes of this layer are :
- Keyword based search
- Auto Correction
- Thesaurus expansion
- Relevance Ranking
This layer works closely with the context aware content layer. Products like Microsoft FAST Search Engine, Google Search Engine will fall under this category.”
While the new enterprise architecture is more complex than the old one, it also is filled with more possibilities. Our only question is what happened to enterprise search as a platform?
Jasmine Ashton, July 22, 2012
Sponsored by IKANOW
EntropySoft Offers Resellers Reward Without Risk
July 20, 2012
EntropySoft just added another reseller, and why not, they are easy to sell. If you are unfamiliar, EntropySoft provides connectors that act as standalone libraries, transforming any native content application APIs into a normalized interface for easy interoperability. CMS Wire’s article “Integro to Sell EntropySoft Connectors, Hub as Part of Email Management Offering” explains why so many are drawn towards the convenience of EntropySoft.
Wherever data travels, it cannot hide. These connectors act almost like a universal remote and move data bi-directionally between content repositories. They provide an ease of access system utilizing search capabilities that can locate content wherever it has been stored.
According to the press:
“EntropySoft has been pushing its Content Hub and Content Connector technology so much so that, at this point, it has most of the major content repositories covered. Today, though, it adds another one with a partnership that will see Integro selling both technologies as part of its Email Manager. The combination provides a product that will be able to connect the content of those email messages with the one or more enterprise CMSes that any given company might be using.”
This data duet will have better content organization and be able to offer reduced costs around email management. There will also be limited exposure to legal and compliance issues from unmanaged email messages. EntropySoft rebuked the statement “the higher the risk the greater the reward” by providing rewards without risk. It is no surprise Integro signed on as a reseller.
Jennifer Shockley, July 20, 2012
Companies Still Trying to Slay the Big Data Dragon
July 16, 2012
Rapid explosions of large volumes of data in near real-time have been posing challenges for companies worldwide. These same datasets have been creating fodder for global news outlets. A recent article from CIO UK discusses everyone’s favorite topic: big data. The article is entitled, “Business Intelligence and Analytics: Conquering Big Data.”
A research report from Aberdeen Group called Business Analytics in the UK: Transforming Data into Business Insight is discussed in the referenced article. One interesting tidbit we learned is that 93 percent of organizations surveyed reported that structured data is integral to their big data initiative. It is curious that the amount of structured data pales in comparison to unstructured, yet structured is what companies are utilizing.
The article states:
“The strategies and tools being used paint a picture of the current data management requirements and emerging solutions in the market. Interestingly, the most popular data source used in the Big Data initiatives has the smallest data footprint. Structured data in relational database, such as transactional information, while growing at over 36 percent year-over-year, shows nowhere near the growth of other, internet-based data sources.”
Companies are now employing business intelligence solutions to slay the big data dragon. In our perspective, it seems as if this should have been conquered already. Perhaps this is just another case of the media chasing a hobby horse.
Megan Feil, July 16, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
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