Partnership with SAP, SharePoint, and Open Text
March 24, 2014
SharePoint is improved by customization. Third-party add-ons are often the backbone of this customization, since SharePoint has become such a complex infrastructure. In the latest news, SharePoint is partnering with other vendors to increase efficiency. Read more in the Fierce Content Management article, “OpenText Brings Governance to SharePoint, SAP.”
The article begins:
“In one of the more odd product announcements in some time, three giants of enterprise software–OpenText, SharePoint and SAP–have come together around a governance, content management and an ERP solution. This three-headed monster is called SAP Content Management for Microsoft SharePoint by OpenText. You can view SAP data inside SharePoint or SharePoint content inside SAP, and OpenText takes care of the governance bits to make sure everything is done within the rules of the organization.”
Stephen E. Arnold has made a career out of reporting and analyzing all things search. His SharePoint coverage also points to the importance of customization, especially through add-ons. Read more on his Web site ArnoldIT.com.
Emily Rae Aldridge, March 24, 2014
Yandex Offers a Developer Kit for Android
March 19, 2014
Russian search leader Yandex describes its suite for Android developers in a company blog post, “Android Device Manufacturers Get Kitted Out with Yandex.Kit.” The post compares the Android operating system to a “car without the key” for mobile developers—the OS is free, but most of the mobile-device functionality we have come to expect is tangled up in a web of case-by-case agreements. Now, Yandex says their Kit represents that missing key. The write-up explains:
“Yandex.Kit is a customisable suite of mobile components available for most versions of Android OS. It has all the basics indispensable for the up-to-date mobile experience. Vendors selling their original Android devices in Russia can enjoy the full Yandex.Kit package, which currently includes an app store, launcher and dialer, browser, maps, a cloud app – 15 apps overall. OEMs targeting other markets can enjoy Yandex.Kit as a trio of Yandex products – Yandex.Shell UI, Yandex.Browser and Yandex.Store.
“And the best part is there are no fees. Yandex.Kit is distributed on a fee-free basis and performs well on virtually any hardware, including the not-so-powerful devices popular in Russia and the CIS. In addition, smartphones carrying Yandex.Kit can be easily branded under the manufacturer’s name.”
The post goes on to list a number of features developers should be excited about, complete with screenshots. For example, their smart dialer pulls data from Yandex’s Business Directory to identify commercial callers not already in a user’s contacts. They also extol the virtues of their mobile browser, calling it “smart, secure and easy-to-use.” Then there are the cloud service, the geolocation-compatible mapping API, and the Store populated with over 100,000 apps. See the article for details.
One of Europe’s largest internet companies, Yandex is the search engine Russians turn to the most. Folks in the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Turkey also use the service. Yandex says it’s primary goal is to “make people happy” (a tad more specific than “don’t be evil,” but not by much). Launched in 2011, the company is headquartered in Moscow.
Cynthia Murrell, March 19, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Stanford Offers Free Machine Learning Tool
March 5, 2014
A team from Stanford is bringing machine learning to the masses, for free. Is this bad news for the for-a-fee text analytics vendors? Stanford Engineering announces, “Stanford Scientists Put Free Text-Analysis Tool on the Web.” Writers Andrew Meyers and Tom Abate explain:
“The etcML website is based on machine-learning techniques that were developed to analyze the meaning embodied in text, then gauge its overall positive or negative sentiment. To access this computational engine, users drag and drop text files into a dialog box. ‘We wanted to make standard machine learning techniques available to people and researchers who may not be able to program,’ said Richard Socher, a doctoral candidate in computer science at Stanford and lead developer of etcML. Socher said the new site gives researchers and citizen activists in fields ranging from political science to linguistics an easy way to analyze news articles, social media posts, closed-caption transcripts of television newscasts and other texts of possible interest.’All users have to do is copy and paste, or drop their text datasets into their browser and click,’ Socher said.”
Several Stanford-affiliated folks have already leveraged the beta version of etcML. Rebecca Weiss, who studies political polarization and media coverage in her doctoral work, uses the tool to classify words and phrases and to tease patterns from millions of articles and transcripts. Meanwhile, computational linguistics researcher Rob Voight has employed etcML to determine what factors make a Kickstarter pitch most successful. Computer science doctoral student Chinmay Kulkarni has also put the solution to good use; it helps him make short(er) work of test-grading for a free online course with about 2,000 students.
So, what will the general public make of this “free and powerful” drag-and-drop tool? I played around with it a bit, and the results are interesting. I think the team may still have some tweaking to do— I made a Twitter-sentiment-query on Elizabeth Warren (I know, my politics are showing), and it counted a tweet that read “Education is really important! More money for colleges! #Vote4Warren” as “negative.” Perhaps the for-profit machine learning vendors are safe for now. Check etcML out for yourself here and see what you think.
Cynthia Murrell, March 05, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
OpenText Innovates In File Sync And Share
March 1, 2014
OpenText announces its new product: OpenText Tempo. The new file sharing collaboration platform is highlighted in the press release, “Social Collaboration Combined With Secure Files Sync and Share: Introducing OpenText Tempo.” OpenText describes Tempo as a project that required teamwork from all over the world.
OpenText Tempo will be able to:
“…provides an engaging user experience that combines the convenience of secure file sync and share with social collaboration and seamless integration to Content Server. It connects people with each other and with their content in a secure, compliant environment that enables open dialogues to take place, extending the value of content through the process of collaboration.”
It is the company’s first EIM application with integration for other products, including Tempo Note, Tempo Social, and Tempo Box. OpenText also says it improves Web site management, web experience management, and portal applications.
It is a commercially secure file sharing and social platform. Will Dropbox and other free services be able to something similar on at an appealing price point?
Whitney Grace, March 01, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Discover the Open Source Alternative to the Autonomy Crawler
February 7, 2014
Whether Autonomy’s product success is true or false, as proprietary software it comes with a large price tag. The average small business or user cannot afford to purchase HP Autonomy’s IDOL Crawler. Open source is the best alternative, but for the longest time you could not get software comparable to IDOL Crawler. Norconex says that has changed in the article, “An Open Source Crawler For Autonomy IDOL.” Norconex released an HP Autonomy IDOL Committer for its open source Web crawler Norconex HTTP Collector.
The HTTP Collector is available for Github. The developer encourages people to download it and contribute to the project. Its features are mostly the same as those from HP Autonomy HTTP Connector.
The article states:
“Most key features of HP Autonomy HTTP Connector are available in Norconex HTTP Collector, including document changes detection on incremental crawls and purging documents from IDOL for deleted web pages. New ones are introduced, such as having different hit interval at different time of the day and the ability to overwrite pretty much every part of the web crawling flow with your own implementation logic. The IDOL Committer has been tested on diverse public and internal web sites with great performance.”
We can learn from the open source community that if there is not a piece of software you want, all you have to do is wait until a developer makes it or you can take the initiative to do it yourself.
Whitney Grace, February 07, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Metalogix Offers SharePoint Migration Tool
February 4, 2014
SharePoint migration is a consistent problem among SharePoint users. Large updates occur on the Microsoft schedule of every three years and are disruptive at best, devastating at worst. Metalogix is hoping to help tackle this problem with their new product. Read more in the GCN article, “Metalogix Tool Reduces Risk and Cost of SharePoint Upgrades.”
The article begins:
“Preparing for and conducting a platform or software upgrade can be expensive, time-consuming and disruptive for government agencies. Administrators need a clear picture of the current potential risks before they begin a migration of important content. To help agencies better prepare for inevitable upgrades, Metalogix added a new tool to its suite of SharePoint applications that can help administrators reduce the risk and cost associated with migrations in SharePoint.”
Stephen E. Arnold is a longtime leader in search and often writes on ArnoldIT.com about the latest SharePoint trends and troubles. It is clear from the media coverage that SharePoint isn’t going away, and yet users are clear about their frustration on a number of levels. Metalogix hopes to seize upon both angles and help existing SharePoint customers migrate stress-free.
Emily Rae Aldridge, February 4, 2014
Free Thesauri Online
January 23, 2014
Thesauri go hand-in-hand with dictionaries. Unlike dictionaries, however, that are readily available everywhere on the Internet, a good thesaurus is hard to come by. If you search in the deep Web long enough, then you find a rare resource that makes all the time spent searching worthwhile. MultiTes has collected several “Online Thesauri Available To The Public” from around the world. The countries that offer free thesauri are Brazil, Australia, the Philippines, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Costa Rica, Belgium, and the Unite States. Due to the variety of countries with readily available thesauri, not all of them are in English. Some of the topics covered include health, education and skills, Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island studies, statistics, agriculture, and culture heritage.
Some of the subjects are really random compared against each other, but it demonstrates how limited free thesauri are available. MultiTes specializes in software that help users author and publish thesauri. They offer web-based services, cloud services, and consulting.
Many of their clients have expressed their appreciation for MultiTes’ products:
” ‘I have been searching for a thesaurus management tool that would aid me in the development of multiple taxonomies within a single structure and export in XML. When I researched the market, I saw MultiTes recommended more than any other package. After reviewing its price structure and available tutorial, I was sold.’ –Lydia Bauer Content Librarian H&R Block United States.”
Hopefully MultiTes will add more thesauri in the future.
Whitney Grace, January 23, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Open Source and a New Look for Ontopia
January 22, 2014
If you are thinking about building applications based on topic maps and do not feel like shelling out money for proprietary software, then do not look any further than Ontopia! Ontopia is an open source tools suite with features such as an ontology designer, a full-featured query language; web services points, database storage, and an instance data editor. There are many more powerful tools available with Ontopia outlined here.
Ontopia has been an on-going project in the open source community for over a decade and has an interesting history:
“The product suite is highly mature. Ontopia 1.0 was released in June 2001, and we are now nearing the release of Ontopia 5.1. Ontopia has been in production use in a number of commercial projects on three continents for many years now, and the core engine has been very stable over most of that period. Ontopia is open source and released under the Apache License 2.0. The entire product is released as open source. There are no proprietary add-ons, which are necessary to run it, or to make it suitable for an enterprise setting. Commercial support, however, is available.”
A developer community that has been attached to the project for years keeps up Ontopia and there are new participants from Europe. If you are curious about recent activity with Ontopia, they keep a page with Google Code and they also recently updated the Web site’s design.
Whitney Grace, January 22, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
LinguistNow a Viable Alternative to Google Translate for Oracle Applications
January 17, 2014
The article promoting LinguistNow on Language I/O website is titled Fast, Human Translation of CRM Content. If you are in need of an alternative to Google Translate for Oracle Applications this is the article for you. LinguistNow is offered as a product suite by Language I/O that is capable of plugging directly into Oracle-RightNow and Salesforce CRM platforms.
The article explains:
“Our CRM-agnostic GoLinguist server can integrate with any CRM that exposes the right set of APIs. We also provide ready-to-deploy LinguistNow add-ins specifically for RightNow CX/CRM. Within Oracle RightNow and Salesforce, LinguistNow allows you to request translations of answer and incident content with the click of a mouse.”
LinguistNow also automates machine and human translation processes for Help Desk and FAQ email content. This method of quickly and automatically exporting and importing translatable content will not only reduce response times for clients but also the risk of human error that increases with every step that a user must perform manually. The article also includes a user testimonial from the VP of SurveyMonkey who claims that the aid of LinguistNow is responsible for saving the company tens of thousands and made the company more efficient. Demos and pricing are available through the contact page.
Chelsea Kerwin, January 17, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Streamline SharePoint Extensions
January 16, 2014
SharePoint has become the dominant collaboration tool on the enterprise. Problems are always going to arise with such a large piece of software, but there are tools and approaches that make solutions quicker in coming. IT Business Edge explores this idea in their article, “Streamline SharePoint Extensions for Business Users.”
The article says:
“To maximize the organization’s return on its investment in SharePoint, IT administrators should use the Extend SharePoint Prioritization Tool, available in our IT Downloads. This spreadsheet helps the organization determine which functions within SharePoint provide the most benefit to the business, and which will allow IT to prioritize its time in fixing problems and creating a more streamlined usage for business users.”
Stephen E. Arnold is a longtime leader in search and the man behind ArnoldIT.com. He focuses on all aspects of search but gives a good bit of attention to the enterprise, particularly SharePoint. He advocates smart add-ons and creative solutions that work in conjunction with SharePoint. Without them, SharePoint can be a greater hindrance than it is an asset.
Emily Rae Aldridge, January 16, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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