Inteltrax: Top Stories, May 14 to May 18
May 21, 2012
Inteltrax, the data fusion and business intelligence information service, captured three key stories germane to search this week, specifically, how unstructured data is shaping the way vendors operate.
In “A Mountain of Unstructured Data” the problem of collecting tweets, posts, pictures, videos and more and making analytic sense is laid out.
“Unstructured Data Investment on the Horizon” shows how many companies are investing in solving their own unstructured data crises.
Finally, “Another Analytics Partnership is Born” showed companies joining forces to tackle this massive problem.
We’ve talked about unstructured data before, but we keep returning to the well because it’s such a massive concern for companies. Thankfully, those problems are being solved and we’re monitoring it every step of the way.
Follow the Inteltrax news stream by visiting www.inteltrax.com
Patrick Roland, Editor, Inteltrax.
May 21, 2012
The Heat in SharePoint Semantics: May 4 to May 10
May 15, 2012
This week SharePoint Semantics shared some informative articles that pointed readers towards presentations and tips on how use SharePoint to make the best out of your business.
“Tips for Maximizing SharePoint For Corporate Communications Success” provides readers with an recap of a recent presentation along with several other resources to supplement the topic including: a PowerPoint presentation, a case study, an article, and a training.
Blogger Ken Toth informs:
“The free resources may be worth checking out if you’re looking to boost communications success in your organization. Maximizing SharePoint to manage your content and communications is no doubt a priority for success.”
Another informative post was “Presentation Recaps from Connect With the Experts SharePoint Day Now Available.” The article recaps a recent SharePoint presentation by Ant Clay where he spoke on SharePoint Performance and Business Intelligence.
After sharing Clay’s highlights from the day, Toth states:
“Stimulating conversation with fellows in the SharePoint community is a great way to participate in continuing education, get new ideas, and to develop a network of colleagues to call on throughout your SharePoint deployment and maintenance process. Slides from the presentations on why SharePoint works and how to govern it are also included if you missed the day’s talk.”
Another helpful article that offers solutions and applications on all versions of SharePoint is “Best Practices and Tips for Using Corasworks and SharePoint to Improve Work Processes.”
Suggested tools that better service the customer include: an app request system, task management and an app catalog.
Toth thinks:
“The best practices may be worth reviewing, especially to get tips for weekly programmatic reviews. We also know that it is best practice to use a powerful search feature to connect your users with the valuable information they need. Look to Smartlogic to enrich your metadata and provide an enhanced search and navigation experience with the Semaphore Content Intelligence Platform.”
Toth is absolutely right. Using a third party solution to solve your SharePoint needs is always an excellent idea for those who are not interested in taking the time and energy necessary to do the research on your own.
Jasmine Ashton, May 15, 2012
Inteltrax: Top Stories, May 7 to May 11
May 14, 2012
Inteltrax, the data fusion and business intelligence information service, captured three key stories germane to search this week, specifically, hot trends among the industry.
The hottest trend in most businesses is change and “How an Analytic Firm Handles Challenges” highlights the rapidly evolving Petri dish of data analytics.
The law has been a major topic of talk and “Google Indiscretions Prove Need for Secure Data Mining” looks at how the search giant’s analytics arm might be violating laws and trust.
Partnerships have been the biggest trend in big data this year and “Clients Win When Big Data Partners” examines Cloudera’s recent teamwork.
These are just a sampling of the big time changes moving this industry forward at a frantic pace. It’s exciting and you can catch the thrill every day as we cull analytic news from around the globe.
Follow the Inteltrax news stream by visiting www.inteltrax.com
Patrick Roland, Editor, Inteltrax.
May 14, 2012
Inteltrax: Top Stories, April 16 to April 20
April 23, 2012
Inteltrax, the data fusion and business intelligence information service, captured three key stories germane to search this week, specifically, how three of the biggest supporters of analytics are fairing.
Surprisingly, transportation has taken a shine to analytics, as we discovered in “Transportation Analytics Grows Crucial to Success”.
Not so surprisingly, government spending is leaning heavy on analytics. “Intelligence Community Leads Public Sector Analytics” showed how spy agencies love analytics.
Unfortunately, the one-time titan of analytic love, the medical field, is falling behind, as we learned in “Healthcare Analytics Needs a Boost”.
While there are thousands of industries that utilize big data analytics, these three are probably the most visible. Their successes and failures are important elements of the analytic story and ones we’ll be monitoring daily.
Follow the Inteltrax news stream by visiting www.inteltrax.com
Patrick Roland, Editor, Inteltrax.
April 23, 2012
Datameer Explains Its Services
April 20, 2012
SmartData Collective’s Bob Gourley gives his take on a fairly young company in “Datameer Provides End-User Focused BI Solutions for Big Data Analytics.” The company, founded in 2009, supplies a business intelligence platform that runs on top of the open source Hadoop engine from Apache. Gourley writes:
“Datameer provides a big data solution that focuses on perhaps the most important niche in this growing domain, the end-user. . . . I’ve met with the CEO (Stefan Groschupf) and other Datameer executives. I’ve also interacted with them in events like our Government Big Data Forum. Through these events plus demonstrations by some of their greatest engineers has led me to a few conclusions about Datameer. In general, I believe enterprise technologists should take note of this firm for several reasons.”
Those reasons include: familiar and easy-to-use interfaces; the availability of free trials; scalability; software wizards that guide non-techies through accessing and integrating data; the ability to deploy either on premises or in the cloud; and the ease with which capabilities can be expanded through plug-ins and open APIs.
These are all good features, it is true. But we still have one important question: what differentiates this outfit from such fast movers as Ikanow, Quid, and Digital Reasoning?
Cynthia Murrell, April 20, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Algorithms Can Deliver Skewed Results
April 18, 2012
After two days of lectures about the power of social media analytics, Stephen E Arnold raised doubts about the reliability of certain analytics outputs. He opined: “Faith in analytics may be misplaced.”
Arnold’s lecture focused on four gaps in social media analytics. He pointed out that many users were unaware of the trade offs in algorithm selection made by vendors’ programmers. Speaking at the Social Media Analytics Summit, he said:
Many companies purchase social media analytics reports without understanding that the questions answered by algorithms may not answer the customer’s actual question.
He continued:
The talk about big data leaves the impression that every item is analyzed and processed. The reality is that sampling methods, like the selection of numerical recipes can have a significant impact on what results become available.
The third gap, he added, “is that smart algorithms display persistence. With smart software, some methods predict a behavior and then look for that behavior because the brute force approach is computationally expensive and adds latency to a system.” He said:
Users assume results are near real time and comprehensive. The reality is that results are unlikely to be real time and built around mathematical methods which value efficiency and cleverness at the expense of more robust analytic methods. The characteristic is more pronounced in user friendly, click here type of systems than those which require to specify a method using SAS or SPSS syntax.”
The final gap is the distortion that affects outputs from “near term, throw forward biases.” Arnold said:
Modern systems are overly sensitive to certain short term content events. This bias is most pronounced when looking for emerging trend data. In these types of outputs the “now” data respond to spikes and users act on identified trends often without appropriate context.
The implication of these gaps is that outputs from some quite sophisticated systems can be misleading or present information as fact when that information has been shaped to a marketer’s purpose.
The Social Media Analytics conference was held in San Francisco, April 17 and 18, 2012. More information about the implications of these gaps may be found at the Augmentext.com Web site.
Donald C Anderson, April 18, 2012,
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Big Data: The Next Bubble
April 18, 2012
A colleague in Europe sent me information about a new study sponsored by SAS. To tow the line, I have done work for SAS in the past and we use SAS technology for certain types of analytic work. Nevertheless, the SAS report surprised me with its robust estimate of the uptake of big data, which is now the buzzword and trend poster child for 2012. The report was generated by CEBR, which is an azure chip outfit performing various analyses for government entities and enterprisers.
First, you will need to snag a copy of the report “Data Equity: Unlocking the Value of Big Data.” SAS did not “know” me, so I had to register again and you may have to jump through hoops as well. I don’t know if SAS will call to sell me something, but you may get a ringy dingy. Don’t blame me.
The main point of the study is that every industrial sector will be forced to deal with big data. Okay, as news flashes go, this is not one which lit up the Beyond Search editorial team. We did notice a number of interesting charts. The one reproduced below shows how much uptake in big data occurs by industrial sector today and in 2017. The key point is that the numbers and bars show big data becoming a “big” deal.
Source © 2012 Centre for Economics and business Research Ltd.
My view is that the study is interesting. Omitted is obvious weightings which consider:
- Economic downturns in the broad economy
- Facts which suggest even laggard sectors like manufacturing will embrace the big data shift
- Exogenous factors such as war in the Middle East or in the volatile areas bordering on China.
So big estimates go with big data. Big dreams are useful. Reality? Well, that is often different.
Stephen E Arnold, April 17, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
The Heat in SharePoint Semantics April 6 to April 12
April 17, 2012
This week SharePoint Semantics shared many insightful articles and webinars that are bound to help Sharepoint end users and search enthusiasts navigate the often harrowing SharePoint experience. Below are a few that I thought were particularly thought provoking.
In the post “Yes By All Means Call the Intranet SharePoint Says Pienaar” writer Ken Toth references several similar articles when pondering the question “is SharePoint taboo?”
Francois H. Pienaar makes the argument in his white paper that by avoiding using the term SharePoint when promoting an intranet solution, we are hindering users by leaving them out of the loop.
Toth states:
“Pienaar asserts that without awareness of the term SharePoint customers do not know what they are buying and may not be aware of the many advantages that the platform has to offer. He also reminds us that features that may seem simple and obvious to a SharePoint professional may be wondrous to a new SharePoint user, and so we should not forget to communicate about these.”
In the realm of SharePoint development and customization advice, “Think Carefully About the Alternatives Before Beginning SharePoint 2010 Development” we learn that starting from the ground up can be very costly and time consuming so make sure that you do your research. while SharePoint does not offer a lot out of the box, there are some things that it does offer that will make your experience easier.
The article states:
“There are thousands of web parts available for purchase on the Internet today ranging from $50 to thousands of dollars, still cheaper than start the full blown development lifecycle, testing, etc. Worth investing 30 minutes searching on good search engine of some 3rd party tools that maybe already exist?”
In “Extension Options for Out of the Box SharePoint Social Capabilities” shares some third party solutions that have been developed to help close some of the gaps of SharePoint’s social capabilities.
After discussing a few ways that third party solutions have taken on this challenge, Toth suggests:
“One way to increase collaboration in the workplace is by providing a powerful search feature so that users can find, share, and reuse valuable business knowledge. Consider a third party solution that is tightly integrated with SharePoint, rather than replacing existing farm features.”
For proven search and navigation success, look into a third party solution like Smartlogic’s Semaphore Content Intelligence Platform.
Jasmine Ashton, April 17, 2012
Inteltrax: Top Stories, April 9 to April 13
April 16, 2012
Inteltrax, the data fusion and business intelligence information service, captured three key stories germane to search this week, specifically, the ways in which money is dealt with in analytic terms.
Saving money is the focus of “Knowing Needs and Wants Save Tons with Big Data” which aims to help buyers decide what they want in an analytic package before buying.
Making the right investment for you is covered in “Speed is the Analytic Key” which says, above all other factors, spend extra money on speed because that’s the quickest to get outdated.
Finally, “Series-B Investments Expand Analytic Growth” shows how smaller firms and startups depend on private investors to compete with the big names in a big data.
Money makes the world go around and the big data planet is no different. But the ways in which it is saved and spent and acquired could fill a book. We are writing a new chapter every day and hope you’ll join us.
Follow the Inteltrax news stream by visiting www.inteltrax.com
Patrick Roland, Editor, Inteltrax.
April 16, 2012
Exclusive Interview: Paul Doscher, President of Lucid Imagination
April 16, 2012
The Search Wizards Speak features Paul Doscher, the new president of Lucid Imagination. Mr. Doscher joined Lucid Imagination in December 2011. He had been president of Dassault Exalead USA prior to assuming the top spot at fast-growing, customer- and community-centric Lucid Imagination.
I spoke with Mr. Doscher when he was working for the Dassault Exalead organization. When he shifted to Lucid Imagination, I spoke with him about his views of open source search. After that brief initial conversation, I met again with Mr. Doscher and probed into his views about the impact open source search is having on traditional for-fee, proprietary search systems.
When I asked about the shift from proprietary search systems to open source search, he told me:
Today organizations need the flexibility to adapt and make changes. A proprietary solution may not permit the licensee to make enhancements. If a change is made, the proprietary search vendor may “own” the fix and will add that innovation to its core product. The licensee who created the fix gets nothing and may have had to pay for the right to innovate. As corporate information technology struggles to keep up with escalating business information demands and an ever increasing mountain of growing content of all types, open source search provides a cost effective and efficient way to develop applications to address the challenges and opportunities in today’s enterprise.
Mr. Doscher has strong views about how licensees of enterprise search systems have learned about costs, the time required to deploy a system, and the effort needed to keep a search system up and running. I asked him about Lucid Imagination’s approach to a search engagement. He said:
Our approach to an engagement is to listen to what our customers need, prepare an action plan, and then deliver. In a sense, our approach is the type of involvement that many software companies have stepped away from. We have an enthusiastic group of engineers and professionals who work with clients to meet their needs.
The full text of the interview appears on the ArnoldIT.com Web site. For more information about Lucid Imagination’s open source search system, you will want to explore the company’s Web site and its blog. In addition, an interview with one of the founders of Lucid Imagination, Marc Krellenstein, and with Eric Gries, a former executive at Lucid Imagination, is available in the Beyond Search archives.
Stephen E Arnold, April 16, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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