Silos Are a Natural Consequence of Information: Learn to Love Them
July 30, 2018
How To Eradicate Unnecessary Data Silos
A piece at the SmartDataCollective explains “How to Eliminate Silos in Company-Wide Data Analytics.” Writer Larry Alton explains:
“Silos emerge when a cluster of individuals in your company (usually within a specific department) have trouble communicating with, or collaborating with another cluster of individuals in your company (usually within another department). In some ways, this is a natural result of building a company; if you want your sales team to focus on sales and your marketing team to focus on marketing, eventually, it will be difficult for your sales and marketing staff to collaborate on a mutual problem. But if you want your company’s data to be streamlined, accessible, and impactful to your organization’s bottom line, you’ll need to eliminate these silos, or at least mitigate their development.”
The piece lists the reasons silos are to be avoided and we agree, in general, with Alton’s points. However, we observe that data isolation by department is required in some sectors—intelligence, law enforcement, and pharmaceuticals, for example. Alton offers specific advice in his list, “How to Break Silos Down,” so see the piece for that info.
The problem, however, is that data silos are a fact of life in many organizations. Examples range from the 23andMe data now shared with a major pharmaceutical company to information in the possession of an attorney allegedly bound by confidentiality obligations. The idea that federating a wide range of data is a natural condition goes against individual and corporate behavior.
Talk about data silos is one thing. Delivering a giant data lake with open access to those with permission to view the data is another. When a new project gets off the ground, how are the data handled? The answer, “In a silo.” Toss in a government requirement for secrecy or a corporate rule about secret drug research, and you have silos.
Who doesn’t want silos?
Cynthia Murrell, July 30, 2018
IBM and a University Tie Up or Tie Down
July 26, 2018
I wanted to comment about the resuscitation of IBM’s cancer initiative at the Veterans Administration. But that’s pure Watson, and I think Watson has become old news.
A more interesting “galactico” initiative at IBM is blockchain.
What’s bigger than Watson?
Blockchain. Well, that’s the the hope.
IBM is grasping tightly to blockchain technology, this time through an academic partnership, we learn in CoinDesk’s piece, “IBM Teams with Columbia to Launch Blockchain Research Center.” Located on the Manhattan campus of Columbia University, the center hopes to speed the development of blockchain apps and cultivate education initiatives. Writer Wolfie Zhao elaborates:
“A dedicated committee comprised of both Columbia faculty members and IBM research scientists will start reviewing proposals for blockchain ‘curriculum development, business initiatives and research programs’ later this year. In addition, the center will advise on regulatory issues for startups in the blockchain space and provide internship opportunities to improve technical skills for students and professionals with an interest in the tech.”
Zhao also notes this move fits into a larger trend:
“The announcement marks the latest effort by the blockchain industry to invest in a top-tier university in the U.S. to accelerate blockchain understanding and adoption. As reported by CoinDesk in June, San Francisco-based distributed ledger startup Ripple said it will invest $2 million in blockchain research initiatives in the University of Texas at Austin in the next five years, as part of its pledge to invest $50 million in worldwide institutions.”
For those who are interested in the University of Texas at Austin’s Blockchain Initiative, there is more information here, via the university’s McCombs School of Business. Ripple, by the way, was founded in 2012 specifically to capitalize on blockchain technology. Though it is indeed based in San Francisco, the company also maintains offices in New York City and Atlanta.
Perhaps IBM will just buy university research departments before Amazon, Facebook, and Google consume the blockchain academic oxygen?
Cynthia Murrell, July 26, 2018
Geo Map Pricing
July 20, 2018
In the market for maps for your application? If so, you may find the pricing data in “Farewell, Google Maps” useful. Current information about the costs of real time, cloud based data services can be difficult to get for a specific use case. Here’s the segment which I found helpful:
- Google Maps – $7 for each 1000 map loads irrespective of map size or zooming/panning by the user ($5.60 with discount for high volume)
- Mapbox – $0.50 for each “map view”, which despite the name is not a map view, but request of 4 or 15 map tiles (depending on map type), rounded up
- Azure Maps – $0.50 for 1000 “transactions”, where transaction is equal to 15 map tiles
- TomTom – $0.50 for 1000 “transactions” ($0.40 with highest volume discounts), each transaction is equal to 15 map tiles
- HERE – pricing is by bundles, Standard bundle amounts to $0.50 for 1000 “transactions” (15 tiles)
- MapTiler – $0.05 for each map tile
- Apple Maps – so far is in beta and offers a generous free usage allowance, no commercial pricing available.
The write provides other helpful information; for example, data density. I would point out that the illustrations used make another point; specifically, low contrast maps are very difficult to read.
Stephen E Arnold, July 20, 2018
Oracle: A Leader in a Blockchain Service Which Is Fast, Efficient, and Cost Effective
July 18, 2018
Neither Amazon’s nor Oracle’s blockchain capabilities have captured the imagination of die hard Facebookers or Tweet drones. I read “Global Businesses Turn to Oracle Blockchain Service to Speed Transactions Securely.” The write up struck me as a content marketing type document, but I am skeptical of much of the information I sift each day.
The main point of the write up struck me as an argument for Oracle as the blockchain tool chest and service provider for an organization wanting to avail themselves of the distributed database technology. Oracle suggests in the write up that its approach can transform, provide efficiency, and cost effectiveness.
I noted this statement:
Oracle Blockchain Cloud Service provides customers with a development platform to build their own networks, and to quickly integrate with Oracle SaaS and third-party applications they already use, as well as other blockchain networks and Oracle PaaS services. It also enables users to provision blockchain networks, join other organizations, and deploy and run smart contracts to update and query the ledger. Oracle’s blockchain platform leverages the company’s decades of experience across industries and its extensive partner ecosystem to reliably share and conduct trusted transactions with suppliers, banks, and other trade partners through blockchain.
There is a nod to Linux and the uptime of the Oracle cloud. That would be welcome news to any Oracle customer who tried to take advantage of Amazon discount day deals. My understanding is that Amazon Prime was a different cut of beef yesterday, but I could be mistaken. Cloud services do have their issues, and even the vaunted Google stumbled with streaming video, a technology which I thought was nailed down.
Back to Oracle.
As interesting was the use of Oracle’s blockchain service to verify the virginity of olive oil, I noted this factoid:
“As a company dedicated to making business-to-business payments and supply chain finance secure, frictionless and ubiquitous using blockchain, we are able to significantly accelerate the time to onboard corporations, their suppliers and banks by using Oracle’s blockchain platform,” said Amit Baid, CEO, TradeFin. “It provides a REST API-driven platform with rich integration options in Oracle Cloud Platform, allowing us to quickly onboard existing customers. Additionally, Oracle Scaleup Ecosystem provides access to the platform itself, cloud credits, mentoring, and a number of Oracle resources that can help start-ups like ours grow quickly.”
After reading the write up, it struck me that there were some parallels between Oracle’s service and Amazon’s Ethereum and Hyper Ledger capabilities. The API angle is interesting because Oracle, like Amazon, can knit together other functions and services to create quite specific implementations of the technology.
I did not three things:
First, there was no mention of the number of Amazon professionals who now work at Oracle. Our research suggests that like IBM, Oracle has been able to lure some of Amazon’s own experts with relevant work experience and perhaps some patent highway miles under his or her belt.
Second, Oracle emphasizes cost effectiveness. I assume that quite a few Oracle customers will be delighted with that news. Oracle’s products, services, and engineering support can be expensive when compared to some competitors’ offerings. Microsoft Azure has allegedly been aggressive with some pricing deals, but that may be idle chatter. After all, the high end Surface notebook is supposed to run fast and cool.
Third, the evidence for the value of the speedy Oracle blockchain implementation is none other than IDC. That’s quite an outfit. I wonder if the firm has realigned its compass after selling my reports on Amazon without obtaining permission in writing or paying me for helping make IDC so darned smart. Great and credible source for something as important as blockchain is IDC. But that’s just my normal skepticism.
Stephen E Arnold, July 18, 2018
Goggle Missing the Blockchain Boat? Really?
July 10, 2018
I have zero idea if this story is accurate. It is, however, intriguing to think about its key point. I highlighted this statement in “Sergey Brin Claims Google Should Have Been The “Bleeding Edge” Of Blockchain”; to wit:
Google co-founder Sergey Brin said regretfully that his company missed out at being at the forefront of the nascent technology, claiming “we probably already failed to be on the bleeding edge, I’ll be honest.”
I have underlined a couple of words which I found interesting.
I heard a comment from one of my colleagues to the effect that Mr. Brin mines Ethereum with his son. Obviously the notion of digital currency seems to be child’s play.
How has Amazon responded to the digital currency trend? I believe the company supports Ethereum and HyperLedger. The implementation is anything but child’s play.
A few days ago I mentioned that Google invested in baby Segways. Amazon, at about the same time, bought a convenience prescription drug company.
Is this a good question?
Has Google lost its ability to think outside of the online advertising box?
Oh, that’s a bad question. Google is inside the online advertising box, and it appears that Amazon wants to become more aggressive with regards to its online advertising business.
Questions are tricky, just like statements about failure and honesty I suppose. My hunch is that the Googler moon shot wizards are working away on distributed databases which Google has thought about before.
Stephen E Arnold, July 10, 2018
Applying Blockchain Technology to AI Systems
June 25, 2018
The founder of Ocean Protocol and BigchainDB, Trent McConaghy, has written a detailed piece for the BigchainDB’s Blog titled, “Blockchains for Artificial Intelligence: from Decentralized Model Exchanges to Model Audit Trails.” In it, the engineer explains what blockchain technology offers the AI field. See the article for his philosophy, an interesting history lesson on AI and data, and his assertion that the performance issues inherent in blockchain tech are no big deal. Not yet, anyway.
After this thorough introduction, the piece spells out six opportunities McConaghy foresees for this blessed union: Data sharing for better models; Data sharing for qualitatively new models, including “new planet-level data for new planet-level insights” (more on that in a moment); Audit trails on data and models for more trustworthy predictions; a Shared global registry of training data and models; Data and models as IP assets for data and model exchange; and AI DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations), or “code that owns itself.” See the piece for details on each of these ideas.
Back to the planet-level data concept, which I found interesting. McConaghy references the Interplanetary Database, or IPDB, in his explanation. We’re told:
“IPDB is structured data on a global scale, rather than piecemeal. Think of the World Wide Web as a file system on top of the internet; IPDB is its database counterpart. (I think the reason we didn’t see more work on this sooner is that semantic web work tried to go there, from the angle of upgrading a file system. But it’s pretty hard to build a database by ‘upgrading’ a file system! It’s more effective to say from the start that you’re building a database, and designing as such.) ‘Global variable’ gets interpreted a bit more literally. …
I also noted this statement:
“Overall, we get a whole new scale for diversity of datasets and data feeds. Therefore, we have qualitatively new data. Planetary level structured data. From that, we can build qualitatively new models, that make relations which among inputs & outputs which weren’t connected before. With the models and from the models, we will get qualitatively new insights. I wish I could be more specific here, but at this point it’s so new that I can’t think of any examples. But, they will emerge!”
We are curious to see what does emerge, and to what purposes the technology is applied. Stay tuned.
Cynthia Murrell, June 25, 2018
Listening and Voice Search: A Happy Tech Couple
April 26, 2018
Voice search is the next big thing in the search industry. This is a pretty universally accepted trend among tech thinkers. With that in mind, it’s a good time to look at your own personal use and your business uses for search and inquire whether or not you are ready. Chances are, you aren’t. We learned more from a recent article in The Next Web, “By 2020 30% of Search Will Be Voice Conducted. Here’s What That Means for Your Business.”
According to the story:
“I would also invest in trying to get clients to review my restaurant on Yelp and Tripadvisor so that when people click through, they will see relevant and recent information on my restaurant. If I were providing services, I would make an effort to get listed in Yelp and Google My Business to increase my chances of showing up.”
Another big way to prepare that experts are recommending is to think about SEO in a totally different way. The way we search through our fingertips and through our voiceboxes are totally different. In short, we tend to say less than we type when searching so SEO will have to be even more precise than before.
However, “Amazon’s Alexa Had a Flaw “That Let Eavesdroppers Listen In” reminds Beyond Search that in order to answer a question, the devices have to listen. Amazon’s Alexa had a “flaw” which allowed third parties to use the device like an old school “bug.” According to the write up, Amazon fixed this problem.
How many other always on listening devices are just listening, analyzing, and sending data into a federated database?
Toss in online search and cross correlation, and one has an intriguing way to gather intelligence.
Stephen E Arnold, April 26, 2018
Terror Database Enriched with Social Media Pix
April 24, 2018
A question is surging through the tech and espionage communities after a recent article that makes some big implications in both worlds. That’s because a company formed by ex-spies is using facial recognition software to create a database of images from social networks like Facebook. This raises a ton of questions, but they all start with the recent Daily Mail piece, “Surveillance Company Run by Ex-Spies is Harvesting Facebook Photos.”
According to the story, the program is called Face-Int and they have a specific goal in mind:
“Its creators say the software could lead to the identification of terror suspects, captured in promotional and other material posted online… “Experts are concerned that the company’s efforts extend beyond this remit, however, and into the political realm…’It raises the stakes of face recognition – it intensifies the potential negative consequences,’ Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union, told Forbes.”
While it is admirable that a company is aiming to help capture terrorists through social media, it leaves one to worry about several things. For starters, it’s pretty safe to assume many terrorists will not appear on social media or, at the least, not without something covering their face. Thus, accuracy becomes a concern. However, the larger concern is that This, however, does not touch upon the greater concern that private, law abiding citizens are also getting funneled into this database. The opportunities for invading one’s privacy is alarmingly high. Time will tell how this shakes out, but we have a hunch the general public will never be told.
Patrick Roland, April 24, 2018
Blockchain: A Database Tooth Fairy?
April 19, 2018
Writer Kai Stinchcombe at Medium understands why so many people want to believe blockchain technology will cure the ills of society, he really does. However, he is compelled to burst that bubble in the piece, “Blockchain Is Not Only Crappy Technology but a Bad Vision for the Future.” Most advocates of Bitcoin and other blockchain products proclaim the value of “a tamper-proof repository not owned by anyone” (his words). That would be great, he acknowledges… but that is not what we have here. He explains:
“You actually see it over and over again. Blockchain systems are supposed to be more trustworthy, but in fact they are the least trustworthy systems in the world. Today, in less than a decade, three successive top bitcoin exchanges have been hacked, another is accused of insider trading, the demonstration-project DAO smart contract got drained, crypto price swings are ten times those of the world’s most mismanaged currencies, and bitcoin, the ‘killer app’ of crypto transparency, is almost certainly artificially propped up by fake transactions involving billions of literally imaginary dollars. Blockchain systems do not magically make the data in them accurate or the people entering the data trustworthy, they merely enable you to audit whether it has been tampered with. A person who sprayed pesticides on a mango can still enter onto a blockchain system that the mangoes were organic. A corrupt government can create a blockchain system to count the votes and just allocate an extra million addresses to their cronies. An investment fund whose charter is written in software can still misallocate funds. How, then, is trust created?”
See the post for more about the technical limits of blockchain technology, as well as Stinchcombe’s philosophy on the role of trust in a connected society. In a nutshell, he thinks we should stop trying to avoid it and start working to build it. Sounds ideal to me.
Cynthia Murrell, April 19, 2018
Blockchain as a CP Delivery System
April 18, 2018
With the rise of Bitcoin’s profile the encryption platform, Blockchain, used to keep things so secret has also seen a rise in its profile. But just like Bitcoin’s scrutiny under the spotlight, Blockchain’s less savory side is being exposed. We learned more from a recent CoinCenter story, defending the encryption, called “Addressing The Concerns of Illicit Images on Public Blockchains.”
According to the well thought out editorial,
“Bitcoin transactions allow one to add to them a short text memo. What some have done is to include encoded text in transaction memo fields and these are recorded in the Blockchain. Some of these encoded surprises on the blockchain include wedding vows, Bible verses, the Bitcoin logo and white paper, and quotes from Nelson Mandela. Unfortunately, some sick individuals have also added encoded images of child abuse.”
This is, however, not a new problem for the dark web. In fact, three years ago Forbes pointed out that Blockchain was a potential safe haven for malware and child abuse. That doesn’t erase the problems, though. The CoinCenter piece points out that a majority of interactions through Blockchain are on the up-and-up and that many legitimate businesses are investigating its uses. So, it’s safe to say this encryption tool is not going anywhere. We just wonder how it can ethically be policed.
Patrick Roland, April 18, 2018
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