Spam Attack from Info360 and Real Story
January 30, 2012
I am fascinated with the machinations of conference organizers adapting to the iPad era.
I was invited to Info360? The name did not resonate, so I browsed the spam message, a portion of which is included in this blog post.
So what’s an Info360? On the surface, it seems to be mostly about an azure chip (maybe a very pale azure?) consulting firm and a gaggle of jargon. Here’s an example of what’s on tap in June, which the spam assures me is amazing:
- Big data and analytics
- Cloud infrastructure.
- Content management basics, records management, and Web content management (presumably different from “basic” content management and not a subset of content management)
- Data capture
- Enterprise collaboration
- Mobile business
- SharePoint
- Social business
In short, this is an umbrella conferences covering a multitude of topics. The Info360 program is, I believe, the Association of Image and Information Management’s event.
These “one size fit all” conferences contrast with more focused start up showcase events or focused technical events such as the Lucid Imagination Lucene Revolution program.
More and more umbrella conferences are “pay to play” talks. Programs are often little more than product and marketing pitches.
What should a person do who is seeking information about a specific topic in the laundry list in the spam message sent to me? My suggestion is to look for a specialty conference close to home.
Email marketing, at least for me, spam is a turn off. When the spam uses words like “amazing” and “real”, I tune out. I may be taking steps toward a certain blindness by ignoring spam about conferences, so your mileage may differ. Search is not on the program. That’s probably a plus because search is certainly no buzzword like “big data” or “mobile business”, whatever that means.
Stephen E Arnold, January 30, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Synaptica Independent Taxonomy Resource
January 27, 2012
Synaptica started out as Synapse Corporation under founders Trish Yancey and Dave Clarke. The company offered taxonomies, software solutions, and professional lexicography and indexing services for businesses and organizations based on its Synaptica product, a knowledge management and indexing software application, which enables enterprises in managing taxonomies, thesauri, classification schemes, authority control files, and indexes. In 2005, the company, renamed Synaptica, was acquired by Dow Jones and placed in its Factiva unit. Clarke has subsequently regained control of Synaptica.
The company has also has revamped its informational website, Taxonomy Warehouse – a free online resource that has answers enquiries about taxonomies. Named as one of KM World magazine’s “Trend-Setting Products of 2011,” Synaptica is an editorial tool designed for use by professional taxonomists. In 2011, the company added a complementary suite of front-end publication tools that make it easy for any taxonomy or ontology to be presented to end-users. The Ontology Publishing Suite gives administrators better control over which parts of a master ontology are exposed to end-users, as well as how they are laid out on-screen. Other parts of the Synaptica product suite include Synaptica Enterprise, the behind-the-firewall solution for larger organizations; Synaptica Express, a cloud-computing solution for individuals or small-business users; Synaptica IMS, a complementary suite of tools designed to support the human indexing of content using taxonomies stored in Synaptica; and Synaptica SharePoint Integration, an add-on module enabling taxonomies being managed within Synaptica to be applied as meta-tags to content being stored in SharePoint document libraries, as well as allowing for those same taxonomies to be used for search.
The technology has found a home in corporate, pharmaceutical, government, and e-commerce markets. Clients include Verizon, ProQuest, the BBC, and Harvard Business Publishing. Competitors LexisNexis, Dun & Bradstreet, and InsideView. (I would not include Concept Searching or Ontoprise in this short list due to exogenous complexity factors.)
Stephen E Arnold, January 27, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
JackBe: Data Fusion
January 17, 2012
Founded in 2002 by brothers Luis and Jacob Derechin, JackBe was originally an AJAX widget company. At the demand of its customers, the company centered its product offering around an enterprise mashup server that supports the user-driven ad-hoc integration of data. The company was cited as a “Next-Gen BI” technology by Forrester Research, Inc. in its March 2011 “Trends 2011 And Beyond: Business Intelligence” report.
JackBe’s real-time business intelligence platform, Presto, allows users to combine data from any enterprise application, as well as data from the cloud to compose apps and dashboards that are publishable to portals, the web, spreadsheets, and mobile devices. The platform is organized around Presto Hub, which provides a single point of sign-on for JackBe’s mashup development editors, governance tools for administrators, and application storefront.
The company’s Presto Enterprise Mashup Server provides service virtualization that solves business problems and allows users and developers secure and consolidated access to disparate data from internal services, external services, and application databases. Presto Mashup Composers and Presto Mashup Connectors feature tools that enable business and technical users to create mashups. JackBe also offers Transparency 2.0, a solution for data feeds and data widgets for state and local government’s citizen-facing websites, and Mashup Sites for SharePoint, an intelligence solution that provides SharePoint 2007/2010 business users with real-time visual web-part-based apps and interactive dashboards.
To help users store, organize, and share mashups and apps, JackBe developed an app store framework in the third iteration of Presto. The apps are portable and can feed data into Excel and run standalone, on dashboards, on mobile devices, or in SharePoint.
Customers include the US Air Force, the US Army, NASA, Elsevier, Random House, Qualcom, GE Energy, and Accenture and illustrate the broad appeal of the platform. Competitors include Zapatec, IBM, and mashup tools provided by online service providers such as Google and Yahoo.
One observation: Our efforts to contact the company have been routinely ignored or pushed to a telemarketer. Your mileage may vary.
Rita Safranek, January 17, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Resources for Your ALM and CI Questions
December 26, 2011
Recently, a SharePoint 2010 Developer instructor, Andrew Connell, posted some suggested sources to turn to for answering your frequently asked questions on Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) and continuous integration (CI) in “SharePoint 2010, ALM and Continuous Integration Resources.” Andrew Connell is a Microsoft developer specializing in the .NET Framework and content management, specifically Microsoft Content Management Server 2002 and SharePoint. He is also a multiple time recipient of the Most Valuable Professional for SharePoint Server Award. He explains:
When teaching SharePoint 2010 developer classes I typically get at least one question every other class as it relates to ALM. On occasion there is at least one student who is used to doing continuous integration (CI) in their non-SharePoint projects and want to know how to it in SharePoint 2010 projects. For me, the best person you can look to is Chris O’Brien.
ALM, the coordination of all aspects of software engineering, can be of benefit to your work processes. While Connell’s suggested resources are a little older, they have worthy advice on the topic and are a good place to start.
If after reading you find you still need assistance, consider a full-service firm like Fabasoft Mindbreeze. As a third party solution for your SharePoint system, their technology combines your on-premise information with Cloud information, connecting the right people to the right information. Here you can read more about how Mindbreeze adds more efficiency for SharePoint, “It enables all information that is connected to Mindbreeze to be displayed in Microsoft SharePoint. This takes place smoothly via Web Parts. In this way not only information contained within Microsoft SharePoint, but also all other information that is available within the respective company, can be consolidated within one “platform.”
Check out Fabasoft Mindbreeze’s full suite of solutions.
Philip West, December 26, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Search-Driven Web Content
December 14, 2011
Web content management deserves attention and planning when evaluating your company’s online business model. William Saville at CMS Wire discusses all the angles that need to be evaluated in, “SharePoint 2010 As a Web Delivery Platform.” Search-based experiences are becoming more valuable in the overall online experience. Users want to quickly find the content that is relevant to them, without wading through irrelevant hits.
Everyone is talking about search-driven experiences that enable easier discovery of content and make content personal and relevant to the end user. The business case is quite simple. The quicker people can find what they are looking for on a website, the more likely they are to engage and take an interest one step further. Using the search technology that is baked into SharePoint, as well as FAST search (which can be implemented on top of SharePoint), it is possible to provide end users with powerful search-based experiences.
We think this is one area in particular where a third-party alternative to SharePoint excels, specifically Fabasoft Mindbreeze. The Austrian-based company offers a suite of solutions that serve as alternatives to SharePoint or work alongside a SharePoint installation, improving its performance. Its InSite product adds meaning to website search.
Fabasoft Mindbreeze InSite is our product to empower websites with professional high-end search cababilities. We offer InSite as a Cloud service and for on premise installation. Today, I would like to show how you can adapt the search-experience by defining views. Views allow you to group search results by search queries. It’s a really great and simple concept and you can adapt your search results without any need for server configuration. The following 5 scenarios should get you started on the topic . . .
The Mindbreeze InSite solution offers metadata, filters, grouping by product, and content-based views to name a few options. The search is intuitive and results are relevant and fast. See if InSite might be a beneficial addition to your online business model.
Emily Rae Aldridge, December 14, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Adaptation Mandatory for Enterprise Teams in 2012
December 13, 2011
The list of Gartner predictions is out for 2012. The theme? Adapt or be replaced. CMS Wire provides all the details in, “Gartner: 10 Predictions for 2012, IT Departments to Adapt or be Swept Aside.”
“According to Daryl Plummer, managing vice president and Gartner fellow, the primary characteristic of IT next year will be fluidity, and where that fluidity does not exist, IT departments will be replaced by business managers who see the economy of cloud computing and the value of moving their IT requirements there . . . Devices that are easier to use, combined with more intuitive software, as well as the acceleration towards cloud computing, means that IT will have less responsibility than before.”
Two implications: one, IT teams need to prove their worth when it comes to enterprise, but they need to do it in a way that improves the user experience. Two, they need to find the right solution that ensures that employees maintain high productivity and quality search results. This brings us to another conjecture from the Gartner findings:
“And to add insult to injury, it looks like IT organizations are going to be held responsible when organizations are not able to extract full meaning out of their growing amount of data and when businesses miss out on key opportunities.”
We think that a quality solution is the key to all of the potential IT woes in 2012. One suite of solutions we like is Fabasoft Mindbreeze. They excel in assigning meaning to results in a way that others, namely SharePoint, lack.
“There are several ways to connect with standard and even highly customized line of business applications. An effective information access tool needs to facilitate users’ access to all of these content sources while preserving value and context of each information object and knowledge asset.”
Will there be challenges in the new year? Yes, there always are. But choose the right solution and meet those challenges head on.
Emily Rae Aldridge, December 9,2011
Sponsored by: Pandia.com
Enterprise Search in the Realm of Social Media
December 13, 2011
Enterprise and social media are two emerging trends gaining ground fast in the world of IT, but how do they work together? Not just fads, they have proven their worth and are here to stay, but how can they both be utilized in order to maximize efficiency? SharePoint is an obvious place to start, as it controls a large segment of the market. Rich Blank gives the pros and cons in, “5 Myths about SharePoint as an Enterprise Social Platform.”
When SharePoint 2010 arrived in the marketplace, the platform included new social capabilities to improve productivity and collaboration. However, as the consumer social web exploded, it became clear that the 2010 platform only provided the basic building blocks of social computing. As many organizations are now making social collaboration a priority, it’s important to dispel myths and provide a reality-based understanding of SharePoint 2010 as a social computing platform.
While SharePoint works as an enterprise foundation, its true potential comes through the addition of third party solutions. A solution that we like is Fabasoft Mindbreeze. Fabasoft has taken an interest in social media, and is working to maximize its offerings to compliment social media needs.
Here Michael Hadrian discusses their participation in the Content and Collaboration Summit in London:
’With Folio Cloud, Fabasoft has developed a European Cloud for ECM and B2B collaboration. This enables worldwide connected collaboration and secure data exchange in protected team rooms,’ explained Michael Hadrian, Fabasoft Distribution GmbH managing director. ‘As Premier Sponsor at this established conference, we are looking forward to contributing towards the continued advancement and assertion of business Cloud applications.’ In his presentation, Michael Hadrian presented Fabasoft’s latest inter-company business applications live, showing which concrete business advantages companies can benefit from with Fabasoft Folio Cloud based on customer projects.
While there is not yet a single out-of-the-box solution for organizations needing to merge their enterprise and social media needs, there are good solutions out there. Check out the Mindbreeze suite of offerings to see if it might work for you.
Emily Rae Aldridge, December 13, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Spotlight: Streamlining Enterprise 2.0
December 6, 2011
As enterprise runs rampant and adoption continues at break-neck speed, the risk is that solutions are becoming more complicated without becoming more functional. In other words, do we need to return to simplicity in order to regain a positive user experience? Molly Bernhart Walker tackles that question in, “The case for stripped-down Enterprise 2.0 tools.”
“Content management systems live and die by requirements, but sometimes even the longest checklist in an RFP won’t deliver tools that yield real results. There’s a lot to be said for simple Enterprise 2.0 tools, said Tim Young, founder of Socialcast and vice president for social software at VMware. ‘Simple tools are incredibly powerful,’ said Young Nov. 15, during a keynote at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Santa Clara, Calif. It’s very difficult to solve a complex problem with a complex tool, he added.”
SharePoint 2010 is notably the most widely adopted enterprise solution, but its many quirks require complimentary solutions to increase functionality. Fabasoft Mindbreeze offers an alternative to SharePoint, but also through its Connectors, offers a companion to SharePoint. We like Mindbreeze because of its commitment to simplicity and gracefulness.
“The Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise user interface is based on Web 2.0 technology and combines simplicity with elegance. The operation is self-explanatory. Work just as you are used to. Access your data from anywhere. Also on smartphones and tablets. Elegant design, easy operation. With you wherever you are. Find and access your enterprise and cloud information straight away.”
Choosing an appropriate enterprise solution is not an easy decision. Remember to keep user experience in mind. Locating a solution like Fabasoft Mindbreeze, that maintains a dedication to simplicity and usability, will pay off long-term dividends in terms of saved time and frustration. The most complicated solutions are often the most convoluted as well.
Emily Rae Aldridge, December 6, 2011
The Solution to Email Overload? No Email
December 4, 2011
I enjoy France and the French. The country is essentially an engineering outfit with a soft spot for art, a love of intellectual discussion, and a clever approach to thorny problems. Consider email. At Atos, the senior management has found a solution to email overload, the risks of eDiscovery, and the cost of trying to manage unfindable PowerPoint attachments. (My hunch is that the news report missed some of the story, but, hey, that’s okay.
How? Here’s what I learned in “Tech Firm Implements Employee ‘Zero Email’ Policy.” Let’s assume ABC News has the facts lined up like Napoleon’s army before it did the Moscow in Autumn thing. Here’s what I learned:
The company says by 2013, more than half of all new digital content will be the result of updates to, and editing of existing information. Middle managers spend more than 25 percent of their time searching for information, according to the company. Crouch said Atos is evaluating a number of new tools to replace internal email including collaborative and social media tools. Those include the Atos Wiki, which allows all employees to communicate by contributing or modifying online content, and Office Communicator, the company’s online chat system which allows video conferencing, and file and application sharing.
So “zero” does not mean zero. Social interactions are not email. Okay, ABC News, close enough for horseshoes. I assume the cloud, Gmail, and various on premises solutions along the lines of SharePoint and Exchange would not work.
The reality is that email is going to be tough to eliminate even if one calls the outputs “collaboration” with a “social” twist of lemon. No lemonade here, however. Search vendors can rest easy. Atos is a prospect. Symantec, HP, and Recommind can make sales calls confident that non-email digital information must be searched, made findable, and discoverable by avocats which are lawyers no matter what one calls these fine professionals.
Stephen E Arnold, December 4, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Customer Experience to Take Center Stage in 2012
December 2, 2011
We are post-Thanksgiving—that time of year when the “year in review” articles start emerging and predictions are made for coming trends to meet us in the new year. The world of content management systems is no exception. Marisa Peacock gives us some of her predictions in, “If 2012 Is the Year of Customer Experience, What Will it Bring?”
According to Peacock, customer experience will take center stage in areas such as mobile, social, personalization, and localization to name a few. What does all this mean to us? A need for better content management.
Peacock’s advice:
“Of course, we must wait for 2012 to really understand how and if brands will leverage the customer experience. With only a month left before the new year, companies of all sizes are strongly encouraged to revisit their mobile strategies, customer relationship management tools and social media policies.”
How do you prepare in a smart way, despite what changes the new year may bring? Invest in a smart content management solution, one that can handle information needs on multiple levels. We like Fabasoft Mindbreeze and its suite of offerings.
“Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise understands you, or to be more precise, understands what the most important information is for you at any precise moment in time. It is the center of excellence for your knowledge and simultaneously your personal assistant for all questions. The information pairing technology brings enterprise and Cloud data together.”
Mindbreeze can handle mobile, email, enterprise, website search, etc. Their Connectors feature works with SharePoint 2010, if that system is already in place at your organization. Regardless of the size or scope of your organization, information needs continue to grow exponentially. Heed the warnings and manage your information in a way that improves the customer experience. Find a smart solution like Fabasoft Mindbreeze and you will be able to adapt to changing needs.
Emily Rae Aldridge, December 02, 2011
Sponsored by: Pandia.com
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
