The Heat in Text Radar: May 10 to May 16
May 21, 2013
This week the Text Radar big data and content intelligence news service covered an assortment of stories concerning the impact of big data intelligence solutions on the modern workforce.
The article “Does Value Decrease When Volume of Raw Data Increases?” poses an interesting question and explains the reasoning behind this assumption.
The article states:
“This narrative from qz.com offers reasons to be cognizant of the claims made for this field, and that, actually, the more data processed, the greater the chance is of losing integrity and business value, which could sabotage your main idea. The author points out that even Facebook and Yahoo are using clusters of servers and, in fact, most of their data is in the “megabyte to gigabyte” range, and could be handled on a single computer.”
Another article, “Overcoming Privacy Challenges to Turn Big Data into Healthcare Improvement” covers the datafication of our lives and the pros and cons that go along with it.
The author states this benefit:
“The good news is that not only profiteers are benefiting from the big data revolution. It’s changing how doctors define and treat diseases, breaking down the walls between medical disciplines to improve patient care. Where most doctors still diagnose and treat brain disorders such as depression or autism based on often highly subjective symptoms, scientists are increasingly building huge data sets that render such narrow diagnoses obsolete.”
In the vein of improved patient care, “Using Big Data Analytics to Treat Brain Trauma” discusses how to minimize the debilitating effects of brain injury through data analysis. The author explains how big data analytics technology is transforming the healthcare industry at large:
“But now, UCLA is teaming up with IBM to figure out how to predict potential problems before they occur. Together, we’re applying big data analytics to give doctors and nurses the advance warning they need to predict changes in a patient’s condition so they can take preventive measures.”
Regardless of whether you work in healthcare or marketing or some other industry all together, it is important that you utilize the proper tools. Smartlogic’s Semaphore Content Intelligence Platform turns unstructured data into actionable intelligence and can be an excellent resource for any business.
Jasmine Ashton, May 21, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
The Heat in Text Radar: Mya 03 to May 09
May 14, 2013
This week the Text Radar big data and content intelligence blog covered a set of interesting topics this week that are pertinent to anyone interested in harnessing the power of big data insights.
“Data Analytical Decisions are More Definitive at Adding Insightful and Valuable Content” explains how important raw data is to business success. The use of this data, however, can be difficult to manage without experts to advise.
The article explains:
“This view is held even more firmly in the manufacturing, energy and government sectors, and 65 percent assert that more and more management decisions are based on ‘hard analytic’ information.
The research shows that organizations are increasingly moving towards evidence-based decision making, but at the same time, face significant challenges in managing and leveraging the ever-increasing volumes of data not only from a technology perspective but also as an organization.”
Another article, “Big Data Analysis Not a Simple Data Collection Technique,” dispels some of the rumors surrounding big data. It explains that big data mining is far more than simple data collection.
The article provides this example:
“Taking an influential paper on economics and intelligence efforts around the Boston bombing suspects as background, wherein a few missing rows in Excel and a misspelling of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s name, Wise points out that ‘data management tools (i.e., the FBI’s systems and Excel) were undone by fairly simple errors,’ with terrible results. In other words, as much as we may believe Big Data is as simple as ‘Input data into Hadoop, outcome insights!’ the reality depends heavily on the people querying that data.”
Managing data without the appropriate skill set can lead to the failure of any company. One way that big data can be most helpful when used appropriately is when “Mining Data for Finding Talent for Hire”. Gild, helps companies find “diamond in the rough” or individuals that have slipped through the cracks of traditional recruiting methods by mining social media sites.
The article provides the thoughts of Gild’s chief scientist, Vivian Ming:
“Dr. Ming doesn’t suggest eliminating human judgment, but she does think that the computer should lead the way, acting as an automated vacuum and filter for talent. The company has amassed a database of seven million programmers, ranking them based on what it calls a Gild score — a measure, the company says, of what a person can do. Ultimately, Dr. Ming wants to expand the algorithm so it can search for and assess other kinds of workers, like Web site designers, financial analysts and even sales people at, say, retail outlets.”
As you can see, data can be used to find the answer’s you’ve been searching for as long as you have the right tools. A company leading the way with text analytical tools is Smartlogic. Their suite of tools has the ability to join data with content and applying content analytics to that information for the purpose of content intelligence giving integrity and reliable methods to making decisions in any environment.
Jasmine Ashton, May 14, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
The Heat in Text Radar: April 26 to May 02
May 7, 2013
This week, the Text Radar news service covered some interesting stories that are pertinent to the world of big data analytics.
According to “Big Data Will Improve Decision Making and The Bottom Line” four in five IT managers in India are making big data a priority in 2013.
The article states:
“Network traffic is doubling and tripling, driven by mobile devices, business applications, video, and Big Data – Almost half of IT managers surveyed in India (46 per cent) estimated networks loads to double over the next two years; while one in four (26 per cent) felt that this would triple in the next two years. However, only two out five surveyed (41 per cent) report they are ready for the surge in network traffic.”
In addition to helping IT professionals, big data is also helping solve crime. According to “Tax Information Made Public Thanks to Big Data,” big data has helped zero in on tax evaders.
Big data has particularly helped with self employed people that have been less upfront with their earnings:
“The NSO says there are over three million of them and the SSS has over 600,000 voluntary registrants who declare themselves as self-employed. We want to increase the average annual tax payment from P33,000 to P200,000 minimum which is reasonable as this means a monthly income of just around P50,000. If we’re able to increase the 400,000 tax filers to 1.5 million and the average payment to P200,000, that’s P300 billion pesos. At our current GDP, that’s three percent of GDP.”
Another sector that has been greatly improved by big data technology is sports. “Big Data Technology in Sports Not Just About Performance But Also Improves Safety Factors” baseball and other sports have are using big data to maximize athletes’ potential success and to generate ongoing game statistics.
The article states:
“Professional Sport teams are taking action with Big Data and the information that can be attained is most impressive, and it is not just about performance. During the 2012 Olympic Games in London, real-time situational awareness was made available from sensors that improved safety factors. Also, Big Data was key to managing information during this year’s Super Bowl.”
As you can see, big data is impacting nearly every industry. Not just us techies. But don’t worry, there are plenty of tools available to help you tap into your unstructured data. One tool that we highly recommend is Smartlogic’s Semaphore Content Intelligence Platform. It using semantic software to make information easily accessible to its users.
Jasmine Ashton, May 02, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
The Heat in Text Radar: April 19 to April 25
April 30, 2013
This week, the Text Radar content intelligence, compliance, and big data news service covered quite a few interesting stories.
The first that I would like to highlight is, “Smartphone Data Used to Better Serve Customers.” According to the article, thanks to smartphones, app stores can tap into a wide range of data sources about user preferences and activity.
The article states:
“This ‘big data’ available within an app store can significantly help to tailor the user experience and offerings. For example, a user who lives in NYC and just landed in London might be interested in the ‘TimeOut: London’ app or ‘Booking.com’ app for booking a hotel. A user who posted a video on Facebook of the latest Knicks game may be interested in the ‘New York Knicks Official App,’ and a user who listens to Coldplay a lot, might want to download some Coldplay wallpapers.”
Another story, explains how big data has brought the IT and marketing community together. “Creating a Customer Centric Culture with Big Data Analytics” advocates the use of big data to create a customer centric corporate culture.
A study found:
“* 40% of marketers and 51% of IT executives said it’s critical for improved decision making.
* 36% of marketers and 23% of IT execs said data drives the ability to personalize customer experiences.”
The final story that I would like to highlight for this week’s issue involves big data’s impact on the health care industry. “Turning Unstructured Data into Healthcare Improvements” explains how doctors can find value using data from your mobile phone and other devices.
The author provides this example:
“For example, she said, an app could process data from a mobile carrier to determine whether new supplements for early-stage arthritis are actually helping a patient. If the patient is checking her phone earlier in the morning and moving around more frequently, that could indicate that the medicine it’s doing its job.
Service providers may balk at the prospect of releasing their troves of user activity data – and Estrin acknowledged that they would likely worry about PR headaches and privacy issues.”
It is important to understand the various outlets that you can use big data to be beneficial to your company’s success. Smartlogic’s Semaphore Content Intelligence Platform runs on semantic technology giving your organization’s information rich value and a better experience for your users.
Jasmine Ashton, April 30, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Connotate: Private Company Toot Toot
April 29, 2013
I read “Connotate Announces Record Quarter, Driven by Market Demand for More Rapid Delivery of Web Content-Based Products and Services.” The main point is that Connotate is growing revenues and that growth is a result of “market demand.”
Market demand means, according to wise Geek means:
the total amount of purchases of a product or family of products within a specified demographic. The demographic may be based on factors such as age or gender, or involve the total amount of sales that are generated in a particular geographic location.
I learned:
The market for the Connotate solution is broadening as the cost of deployment continues to decrease. “We’ve mastered the entire workflow stack from manual processes all the way to high-end automation,” said Mulholland. “This has resulted in significant growth for us in the SMB market, while we continue to increase the value that our large enterprise customers are receiving. For example, a major UK-based job board publisher was tasked with achieving a 40 percent increase in the number of listings in a very short period of time. Connotate’s automated solution is helping them meet this aggressive goal.”
Does this mean that other companies in Connotate’s competitive sphere will experience similar upsides? The anecdotal information available to me suggests that some of the companies competing directly with Connotate are having trouble closing commercial deals which generate a profit for the vendor. Examples range from specialists in pure analytics, providers of business information visualization systems, and metatagging outfits.
My hunch is that if Connotate is experiencing the financial gains attributed to this privately held company, other factors must be in play. What are those factors? Why are so many of Connotate’s competitors struggling to hit their numbers? Why are some investors slowing down their commitment to back some of Connotate’s rivals?
Perhaps market demand does not float the boats in this particular body of water? Worth monitoring the actions of big name investors with a fondness for this sector like Silver Lake, some of the companies which continue to receive injections of cash in the hops of hitting the big time, and the peregrinations of executives who jump from one content processing outfit to another.
I am assuming that the financial data referenced in the write up are accurate.
Stephen E Arnold, April 29, 2013
Sponsored by Augmentext
Attensity: Evolving and Repositioning Again
April 29, 2013
I met David Bean years ago. He was explaining “deep extraction” to me at a now defunct search engine conference. I recall that he had a number of US government clients. I noted in my analysis of the company which appeared in my analysis of the company that the firm wanted to break into non government markets.
I made sure that one of my team captured news releases about Attensity. When I checked the my files to update my Attensity profile, I noted that the company had done a merger with a couple of German outfits, was pushing into sentiment analysis, and beating the text analytics drum.
In one sense, Attensity was following the same path of Stratify, which as you probably know was Purple Yogi. Hewlett Packard now owns Stratify and I don’t hear too much about how its journey from government work to the wide world of non government work has worked out. Purple Yogi, now Hewlett Packard Autonomy, Stratify is doing legal stuff … I think. If I understand the write up by a high intellect consultant expert, Attensity is speedboating into customer support.
Can market niches like customer support, eDiscovery, and business intelligence keep some vendors afloat?
Two different markets but one common goal: Diversify in order to generate big revenues.
I read “Attensity Uses Social Media Technology for Smarter Customer Engagement.” On the surface, the story is a good one and it is earnestly told:
Its product Respond uses natural language-based analysis to derive insights from any form of text-based data and among other results can produce analyses of customer sentiment, hot issues, trends and key metrics. The product supports what Attensity calls LARA – listen, analyze, relate, act – which is a form of closed-loop performance management. It begins by extracting data from multiple sources of text-based data, (listening), analyzing the content of the data (analyze), linking this data with other sources of customer data, and producing alerts, workflows and reports to encourage action to be taken based on the insights (act).
Familiar stuff. Text processing, outputs, and payoffs for the licensees.
Attensity, founded in 2000, that’s 13 years ago, is no spring chicken. I learned from the write up:
Attensity has also made some technical improvements to the product. The architecture now supports multitenancy and automatic load balancing, which are especially useful in handling very large volumes of tweets. Reporting has been enhanced to include more visualization options, trend analysis, emerging hot issues, and process and performance analysis.
My thought is that many firms which flourished with the once generous assistance of the US government now have to find a way to generate top line revenue, sustainable growth, and profits.
In the present financial environment, text processing companies are flocking to specific problem areas in organizations. Customer support (a bit of an oxymoron in my opinion), eDiscovery, and business intelligence (not as amusing as military intelligence in my opinion) now are well served sectors.
The companies looking for software and systems to make sense of data, cut costs, gain a competitive advantage, or some other benefit much favored by MBAs have not found a magic carpet ride.
The noise from vendors is increasing. The time required to find and close a deal is increasing. Some customers are looking high and low for a solution which is “good enough”. Management turnover, frequent repositionings, and familiar marketing lingo by themselves may not be enough to keep the many firms competing in these “hot niches” afloat.
Stephen E Arnold, April 29, 2013
The Heat in Text Radar: April 12 to April 18
April 23, 2013
This week the Text Radar advanced intelligence blog covered a myriad of articles related to the big data deluge and its impact on a variety of different sectors.
One example of the unique ways that big data is being used is seen in “Using Big Data to Geotag the History of Human Events.” The article discusses a database that aims to contain a list of every event in human history.
Why is database journalism important? The author explains:
“It matters because historians have long feared that we live in a digital dark ages - where our history will have vanished when future generations try to look back on these electronic decades.
That is the purpose of GDELT: Global Data on Events, Location and Tone. Primarily set up by Kalev Leetaru at the University of Illinois it is literally a giant list: over 250m events in over 300 categories from riots and protests to diplomatic exchanges and peace appeals.
Crucially, it contains latitude and longitude for every event – all of them are now geotagged to city level.”
There are other ways that big data is having a big impact. “Kenneth Cukier on Big Data and How it is Changing Our World” explains the impact that big data is having on journalism and patient care and treatment in healthcare.
The article characterizes big data as:
“There is no concrete definition and that is probably a good thing since to define is also to limit. But it’s not woolly either. We can understand big data by its features, and the central one is this: we can do things with a huge corpus of data that we are unable to do with smaller amounts, to extract new insights and create new sources of value. This encompasses things like machine learning, in which we have self-driving cars and decent language translation.”
While big data is certainly taking off in the United States and around the world, there remain more than a few skeptics. “Daniel Rasmus on Skepticism with Big Data Implementation” explains that healthy skepticism is important when discussing such a large topic.
The article states:
“Rasmus explains that asking data for an answer involves serious programming needs, such as selecting relevant data, normalizing it, and producing results that a human or machine can act upon. It is tricky business. The article provides an in-depth review of the topic and what seem to be valid issues worth considering.”
Lucky for those that find big data research daunting, there are plenty of experts out there to help. We highly recommend Smartlogic’s Semaphore Content Intelligence Platform to add meaning to your data and deliver actionable insights.
Jasmine Ashton, April 23, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.com
The Heat in Text Radar: April 5 to April 11
April 16, 2013
This week the Text Radar big data, content intelligence, and compliance blog covered some interesting articles covering the impact that big data has on our industry.
“Putting Big Data in the Human Context” explores the lack of objectivity in some analytics initiatives. The author explains how massive data sets are closely linked to physical place and human culture:
“Data and data sets are not objective; they are creations of human design. We give numbers their voice, draw inferences from them, and define their meaning through our interpretations. Hidden biases in both the collection and analysis stages present considerable risks, and are as important to the big-data equation as the numbers themselves.”
This is a unique way of looking at big data. Another post that focuses on the human experience of big data is, “Big Data Needs Human Input and the Right Technology.” The article explains that it is problematic to completely rely on big data systems.
The article states:
“However, the author points out that a complete reliance on systems over human strategy would be a mistake for businesses. The human element adds ingenuity and analytic prowess to number-crunching. Schwartz adds that relying simply on data leads many people to mistake correlation for causation.”
The third article that I would like to highlight explains how small businesses are beginning to get on board the big data bandwagon. “Small Businesses are Tapping Into Big Data” explains how big data offers big opportunities for small business marketing.
The article explains:
“Many small companies want to improve their marketing by pinpointing the best sales prospects through social media. Peter Bordes, founder and chief executive officer of 10-employee, New York City-based Internet Media Labs, says small businesses can analyze what their customers are saying online ‘to engage in much more meaningful conversations with potential or existing customers, because that big data allows them to understand [those customers] better.’”
For those small and large businesses that are a little late to the big data game, using a third party solution to can help remove some of the subjectivity in business decision making. In order to turn your big data into smart content, consider Smartlogic’s Semaphore Content Intelligence Platform.
Jasmine Ashton, April 16, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
The Heat in Text Radar: March 29 to April 04
April 9, 2013
The Text Radar big data analytics and content intelligence blog continually provides readers with informative resources on how big data is impacting modern workplaces. This week, I will highlight several articles that were particularly informative.
We all know the impact that big data has on marketers. But what about other industries? According to, “Big Data Analytics Reveals Vision Giving Major Disaster Responders Advance Notice” provides an example of how big data is helping the development of American bridges.
The article lays out a frightening scenario:
“The American Society of Civil Engineers says that one quarter of all American bridges is ‘deficient’. 17,000 bridges didn’t meet inspection criteria, including 3% of all freeway bridges.
Want a scary statistic? The average age of America’s bridges is 43 years. The average lifespan of America’s bridges: 50 years. This means, unless something changes, we should all avoid pretty much all river crossings after the year 2020.”
Another story, “Growing Big Data and Information Access Bring New IT Challenges” explains how big data is transforming the new world of computing.
When explaining some new challenges, the article states:
“The big change now is not that everyone is an I.T. manager – there are still plenty of ways companies will control devices, access to computers, and data – but that everyone is a consumer of a lot of data. Making that easy on them will most likely be a winning strategy.
‘There has been a revolution in design theory,’ says Phil Libin, chief executive of Evernote, a storage site for consumers and businesses. ‘We’ve all had to learn how to have taste.’ He credits the change toward a design focus, in both consumer electronics and enterprise software, to Apple.”
Another innovative way that big data is being utilized is in major league baseball. According to “MLB Uses Big Data for Uncovering Player Insight”, this data allows the performance of players to be predicted.
The article explains:
“‘We’re trying to predict the future performance of human beings, oftentimes in situations that those people themselves haven’t even encountered,’ he said. ‘One of the things we really need to do is the skill from the luck.’
DePodesta cited ‘The Success Equation: Untangling Skill and Luck in Business, Sports, and Investing,’ a book by Michael Mauboussin of Credit Suisse in the idea that ‘skill is more repeatable than the luck.”
This is just a small sampling of the creative ways that big data can be utilized to make the biggest industry impact. Smartlogic offers a suite of solutions that will help any organization transition into analytics.
Jasmine Ashton, April 09, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
The Heat in Text Radar March 22 to March 28
April 2, 2013
This week, the Text Radar big data and advanced intelligence blog covered a variety of stories that were pertinent to the realm of big data and advanced intelligence systems.
One of the advantages of big data analytics technology is that it allows marketers to take a more targeted advertising approach to their customers. “Advertising Gets More Personalized and Customized with Big Data” explains how technology and analytics are providing more personalized and customized ads.
The article states:
“Checking out one’s Facebook page provides lots of information about a person in such ways as their likes and where they travel, etc. And, by customers registering with a company site, codes can be placed in a customer’s computer to follow other sites that person visits, and when. In addition, companies are targeting prospective customers with ads that are meaningful and more targeted and will pay-off in the end. The internet and metrics on search engines have changed the way ad agencies are doing business. Companies can now learn from ‘clicks’ how to advertise and valuable details that lead to more targeted successful ads.”
Microtargeting can have a similar impact, according to “Microtargeting the Way of the Future of Business.” The article explains the impact of the technical and political masterminds behind the 2012 Obama/Biden presidential campaign.
Text Radar writer Alice Wilson comments:
“Team Obama changed the way political campaigns will compete in the future. And, you can be sure microtargeting tools with accompanying skills will be in the mix. This same method will be incorporated in all levels of business plans as well.”
The final article that I would like to highlight explains the impact that big data is having on health care. “Crunching Medical Big Data Helps to Find Correct Therapy” provides a story about a baby that was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes but did not respond well to the typical regimen of treatment.
The takeaway is this:
“We’ll discover a lot about ourselves and our diseases from big data — assessing the outcomes of different therapies and finding out in retrospect what works best for who. We will then match that against our gene sequences, which may be stored confidentially at birth. If Cameron Lundfelt had been born a few years later, his parents and doctors would perhaps have known before his symptoms had even appeared that he had monogenic diabetes type KCNJ11. And they would have known immediately what to do.”
It does not matter what industry your company falls into. Big data analytics solutions are going to benefit you not matter what. Smartlogic’s Semaphore Content Intelligence Platform has been recognized as an industry leader and it is useful when helping companies make smarter business decisions.
Jasmine Ashton, April 2, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
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