Accenture Makes a Big Purchase to Chase Government Clients
March 20, 2015
Accenture Federal Services (AFS) is one of the leading companies that provide technology and digital solutions for the US federal government. The parent company Accenture LLP has sought to increase its amount of federal contracts as well a products and services, so the company decided to purchase Agilex Technologies, Inc says Big News Network in “Accenture Unit To Agilex Technologies.”
” ‘Acquiring Agilex will help AFS further solidify our position as an innovative leader in the federal market. Combining our digital capabilities and agile methods will accelerate our ability to help clients harness the power of emerging digital technologies and rapid, predictable systems deployment for the federal government’s most complex challenges,’ said David Moskovitz, Accenture Federal Services chief executive.”
AFS plans to use Agilex’s technology to improve its own analytics, cloud, and mobile technology for federal organizations. Agilex, like its new owner, has worked with every cabinet-level department and federal agencies in defense, intelligence, public safety, civilian and military health organizations.
AFS will have more to offer its federal clients, but it does beg the question if it will lead to a monopoly on government contracts or increase the competition?
Whitney Grace, March 20, 2015
Stephen E Arnold, Publisher of CyberOSINT at www.xenky.com
Adobe: A Document Cloud Looms
March 19, 2015
Adobe is moving from PDF creation to document management. I avoid Adobe Acrobat because it bedeviled me years ago with a PDF dongle. The dongle had a counter. After we created the number of documents authorized by the dongle, the opportunity to purchase another dongle arose. Exciting. That warned me off the outfit.
I brushed against Adobe when I researched the original Enterprise Search Report in 2003. That was a mere 12 years ago, yet the memory is still fresh. I was trying to figure out what vendor provided the search system for Adobe products. After reading publicly accessible information and making fruitless attempts to speak to a person who knew about search at Adobe, I learned by accident the name of the provider.
Do you recognize the name Lextek. I sure did not. I offer a no cost summary of this company and its search system at this link. I was fascinated with Lextek because I had difficulty locating information using the Adobe products which incorporated this system. I had a short list of other search systems Adobe has used over the years to the same result. I invite you to fire up an Adobe product and try to locate the information needed to solve a problem or learn a procedure or figure out what state an Adobe software product is in. Let me know how that works out for you.
I read “Adobe Unveils Cloud Electronic Document Service.” I learned that “Adobe Systems will launch a cloud-based document management service within the month.” That’s soon. The article continued:
The company said the core of the new service is Adobe Acrobat, the world’s most sought-after document management software. The upgraded Adobe Acrobat Document Cloud enables document managers to produce, check and confirm official documents on both personal computers and mobile devices. They also can put an electronic signature to the Portable Document Format (PDF) file to give it a legal force, the company said.
Yikes, another silo of data for an organization to “federate.”
Several questions crossed my mind:
- What is the search system for the system? (Lextek’s owners operate a confectionary store if I understood the research my team assembled.)
- What is the programmatic access Adobe will provide to an organization placing its PDF documents in the Adobe Document Cloud?
- What is the security provided for these customers?
Adobe’s play is an interesting one. I wonder if the company will allow its customers to mark documents “public” and then provide an online access service? Worth watching.
Stephen E Arnold, March 19, 2015
Worrying about Losing Obsolete Information
March 9, 2015
Ready to hear another side to the endangered library argument that has been tossed around since the 1990s? Hopes and Fears revives people’s worries about losing data from obsolete mediums and how libraries are evolving rather than disappearing in “The Near And Far Future Of Libraries.” The article points out the same old fears that some obsolete mediums have not been transitioned to a digital archive yet and they might be forgotten. It also mentions that libraries are transforming their spaces into gathering places for people to study, read, and meet (like that is new).
Mixed in with the fear of disappearing libraries, new ways that artificial intelligence is helping to preserve knowledge and help people learn how to harness their information is discussed. Some new insights about how libraries are changing are made, but the bulk of the article is very disorganized and is hard to tie together.
Some valid ideas made include that centralizing too much information on Web sites like Wikipedia, social media networks, and even the Internet Archive are dangerous, because one Web site is easier to block than hundreds. Another important advantage is that more interactive technology tools are actually helping people better use their information. Robots like Vincent and Nancy from Westport Library are an example of how people can better physically interact with information and use it to their advantage.
What is the most interesting archival idea presented is the Rosetta Disk, a thin nickel disk three inches in diameter that holds over 14,000 pages of information. While it is meant to preserve knowledge for ready access in the future it is also is good backup:
“We aren’t creating the Rosetta Disk specifically with an apocalypse in mind, or for a society that’s undergoing major upheaval, but over the span of millennia, I think you have to expect that to happen occasionally. In that case, the Rosetta Disk is a good long-term backup. You might think of it as a “secret decoder ring” for information we leave for the future in human language form.”
Libraries and information are changing. We do have to preserve obsolete knowledge before it degrades and we have to upgrade libraries for them to remain relevant. It is very similar to old historical sites with low visitor attendance. They are changing the way they interact with people and presenting their historical information to draw people to them. Do not be fearful, embrace the change.
Whitney Grace, March 09, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
How to Sustain a Book Habit without Going Broke
January 22, 2015
The article on Lifehacker titled The Best Places to Find Books at a Bargain (or For Free) offers tips for bookworms to get their hands on hard copy and ebooks alike. The first stop, perhaps surprisingly, is the library! Are there young people out in the world unaware that the library is free? Probably yes. The article also suggests shopping at thrift stores, particularly in upscale neighborhoods, to find good books on the cheap. For e-book readers, the article offers these websites,
“There are a ton of free ebooks available on Project Gutenberg. You could also use UPenn’s search engine for classics in ebook format. If you have an ebook reader (like a Kindle, or a rooted Nook), we’d previously looked at some ways you can get ebooks for free. Even if you don’t have a Kindle, you can download the Kindle reading software for your device and use some of the tips in that post.”
Beware though, e-book readers! Retention may not be as good as with a hard copy of a book. There are swapping sites like BookMooch if you are willing to part with a book when you finish it. The article also mentions what is calls “the Netflix of books and audiobooks” Booksfree.com which costs $8.99/month. Depending how fast a reader you are, that might be a golden ticket.
Chelsea Kerwin, January 22, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Visit the Digital Vatican
November 5, 2014
The Vatican possesses one of the most extensive historical and religious archives in the world. Researchers are eager to visit the archive and read the documents. The Vatican, however, is selective about visitors due to the documents’ fragility and age. Message To Eagle, a paranormal and historical news blog, reports in the post “Vatican Library Puts 4,000 Manuscripts Available Online For Free” about how the Vatican is going digital.
The Vatican Apostolic Library will digitize 3000 records and people will be able to view them for free via the Web. The records will be stored in the DigitaVaticana program, which is based on a format designed by NASA to store images and astronomical data. Prior to the new digitization efforts, there were only 1100 records available online of the over 80000 items in the library. The current digital library is outdated and requires users to manually click through each file in order to view an item image. The new system will include a new search tool and be more graphics heavy.
To complete this task, the Vatican will draw on its own funds as well as crowdfunding to complete the project. They estimate it will take 50 million euros, over fifteen years, and 150 experts to digitize the entire library.
“The Vatican writes on the DigitaVaticana website, ‘Thanks to technology we can preserve the past and bequeath it to the future. The manuscripts will be freely available to everyone on the Vatican Library website and the world’s knowledge will truly become humanity’s heritage.’ “
Whitney Grace, November 05, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Stanford Partnership with Revs Institute Yields Automobile Website
October 22, 2014
The article on Theneeds titled Revs Digital Library Now Available Online should have automobile enthusiasts excited. Stanford’s partnership with the Revs Institute for Automotive Research, Inc. began in 2011 and has recently launched a website that includes some 200,000 images of cars- providing an exhaustive resource of the history of the automobile and more. The article states,
“The overall collection at Revs currently includes nearly one million images and is constantly growing. New image collections will be added as they are received, digitized and processed, said Gabrielle Karampelas, the director of communications and development for Stanford University Libraries…
Launched in 2011, the Revs Program is a multidisciplinary center dedicated to the study of cars. Collier said that when his organization looked for a partner to develop a digital library site, they soon discovered that Stanford Libraries was the best choice.”
Stanford has done significant work in documenting, and this project shows they are not slouches when it came to organizing a snappy and yet classy website suitable to the automobile. Featured Galleries include Mercedes Silver Arrows, Racing Through Italy, and Ferrari Racing Cars of the 1950’s. You don’t have to be a mechanic to enjoy looking through these images that convey so much about the aesthetics and evolution of the car over time. Findability may be an issue, but hopefully Stanford will work out the kinks soon and everyone can enjoy the fruit of their partnership with Revs.
Chelsea Kerwin, October 22, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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