Atigeo Releases Medical Research Search Application
August 27, 2012
A big data analytics company, Atigeo, is making strides in the health care field with a new application that searches the federal database to produce more relevant medical data search results.
Atigeo has launched PubMed Explorer which allows users to search the National Institute of Health’s PubMed database to present results of medical studies based on context in a graphical display.
A story on eWeek.com, “Atigeo Launches Big Data Semantic Search Tool Using NIH PubMed,” tells us more about the product. We learn that the product uses Atigeo’s xPatterns big data semantic search platform in the cloud to fine-tune search results to help the program learn user’s search patterns. This makes for quicker medical research. The article states:
“‘Our goal is to provide medical researchers with the appropriate tools to shorten research cycles, enable breakthroughs and ultimately improve our health,’ Michael Sandoval, chairman and CEO of Atigeo, said in a statement.
PubMed Explorer acts as a domain expert in which an algorithm extracts relevant terms from research studies or clinical EHRs and generates a graph of connections between the documents and discovered data, Burgess explained.”
Over time, this tool can learn the context of searches and the manner in which the query relates to the data can change. A demonstration is available here. These capabilities can help reduce errors in the health care field and facilitate better and faster research.
Andrea Hayden, August 27, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Inmagic Releases Presto with Web Publishing Capabilities
August 27, 2012
A new product is available from Inmagic that will enable many advanced Web-publishing capabilities for current DB/Text users.
The product, Presto for DB/Text, was created by the company to work with its current full featured, Web-based library management system and will enable new Web-publishing abilities while still allowing textbases to continue to be created and maintained in DB/Text. According to a post on Inmagic Inc. blog titled, “Announcing ‘Presto for DB/Text’,” capabilities include the ability to easily search across all textbases at once and display results in one view as well as integration of social features. We learn:
“Presto for DB/Text has been designed for customers that require advanced web-publishing capabilities without the need for custom programming, which is often necessary when using WebPublisher PRO. Presto for DB/Text does not replace WebPublisher PRO, however — WebPublisher PRO will continue to be enhanced and supported. Presto for DB/Text just gives DB/Text customers an additional option for publishing information to the Internet or their intranet.”
Additional (albeit optional and at a cost to the customer,) features include SharePoint integration, federated search, and the ability to add and create native Presto databases/content types. We are interested to see more from the company and are excited about these available features.
Andrea Hayden, August 27, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Tweaking the Cuban Two Part World
August 26, 2012
I agree in general with “Which USA Do You Work In? The premise is that it is good to be smart and digital. Those who are not smart and pretty much users of ATM machines or maybe robbers of those who use ATM machines. Mr. Cuban, a digital and smarts mogul, writes:
The problem for those who work in brick and mortar is that as the intelligence is sucked out of the job. The intelligence required to do the
job is reduced. Yes, you still have to be good at what you do. But you can be great at customer service or great in a factory line with out a college education. The competition for jobs that don’t require degrees has pushed down the wages paid for brick and mortar jobs as well. When there are no specific skills beyond basic people and communication skills required the job pool competing for any openings expands considerably. Forcing down wages. Leaving more unemployed unemployed. The other unfortunate part of working brick and mortar is that as intelligence is moved out of of physical locations it also reduces the number of jobs available. Have you ever seen a cashier at an Apple Store ? Unemployment is sky high in the brick and mortar world.
In my goose pond, the split is described as “knowledge value.” And “split” is not exactly right. Knowledge value suggests that information can be monetized. If the facts or skills one possesses match a need, then one may be able to charge to deliver knowledge value. Skip the socio-political implications of this idea and focus on work, money, and influence.
I like to visualize one of those sliding controls in a user interface. Move the virtual know to the left and the knowledge value drops to zero. Slide the virtual knob to the right and you get into McKinsey and Bain territory. If you know about the compensation for blue chip consultants, you see the monetary value of the high knowledge value setting.
What’s this mean to the issues Mr. Cuban addresses?
First, those who have low knowledge value jobs are stuck unless the individuals pump up their knowledge value. Here’s how it works. You know how to fix an MBA’s laptop so it will print a document. You can do this for free or you can charge big bucks. If the person with the know how is into the knowledge value game, the MBA may pony up some cash to get the document. Now think about a nasty legal situation. Do you want a low knowledge value or a high knowledge value attorney helping you out?
Second, some knowledge work can deliver a big payday. I suggest people think about getting jobs in terms of knowledge value. When one leverages knowledge value in an optimal way, money awaits the person who can find a person or company requiring knowledge value. How does one get knowledge? How does one communicate value? High knowledge value has more magnetism than low knowledge value. One can determine one’s knowledge value when others find you.
Do schools teach this knowledge value method? See The Knowledge-Value Revolution, Or, a History of the Future.
Google and Apple Debate Intellectual Property
August 26, 2012
MacRumors recently reported on one way to solve the problem of intellectual property theft in the article “Google’s Top Lawyer: Some Apple Inventions Are Commercially Essential, Should Be Made Into Standards.”
According to the article, there is some disagreement between Apple and Google regarding whether or not commercial inventions that impact “consumer welfare” should be considered as important as technical patents. Google says yes, while Apple strongly opposes this idea.
In addition to highlighting a portion of a letter written by Google General Counsel Kent Walker, the article summarizes Bruce Sewell, Apple’s top lawyer, stating that just because Apple products are popular among consumers does not mean that Apple has to license that technology to competitors.
In a rebuttal letter Sewell writes:
“The capabilities of an iPhone are categorically different from a conventional phone, and result from Apple’s ability to bring its traditional innovation in computing to the mobile market. Using an iPhone to take photos, manage a home-finance spreadsheet, play video games, or run countless other applications has nothing to do with standardized protocols. Apple spent billions in research and development to create the iPhone, and third party software developers have spent billions more to develop applications that run on it.”
While both sides bring up interesting points, we have to agree with Apple on this one and tell Google to go back to inventing its own stuff.
Jasmine Ashton, August XX, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Russia Passes Internet Censorship Legislation Impacting LiveJournal Blog
August 26, 2012
Internet censorship is a hot topic these days due to the fact that some countries do not value freedom of speech and choose to restrict it. ZeroPaid recently reported on this issue in the article “Russia Censors LiveJournal.”
According to the article, Russia has passed internet censorship legislation in the name of protecting its citizens from suicide, drug use, and other criminal activity. The impetus for censoring LiveJournal, a social network owned by SUP Media where Internet users can keep a blog, occurred on July 18 when:
“Local law enforcement informed a Yaroslavl court about pat-index, a neo-Nazi blog it had found on LiveJournal during a sweep. The blog’s hateful message violates Russian federal laws against extremism. Because of Bill 89417-6, the court now has the power to stamp it out completely and immediately. The court ordered Internet provider Netis Telekom to block, among other illegal sites, this blog’s IP. The court order shows the IP to be blocked as 208.93.0.128.
However, LiveJournal blogs don’t have unique IP addresses. That IP belongs to all of LiveJournal Russia, effectively blacking out LiveJournal for everyone in Yaroslavl (a city of nearly 600,000) and all the surrounding areas to which Netis Telekom provides service.”
Despite the fact that the censorship only occurred for a short period of time, the fact that legislation restricting Internet rights, which have been deemed part of freedom of speech by the United Nations, exists is very problematic.
Jasmine Ashton, August 26, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Original Content on YouTube
August 26, 2012
Move over ABC, CBS, and NBC: YouTube is doubling down on original content. We’ve written before about Google‘s push to infuse more premium media content into YouTube. Now, ReadWriteWeb informs us that “YouTube Premium Channel SourceFed Racks Up 500,000 Subscribers.”
The ad-supported SourceFed is the first of YouTube’s Original Channel Initiative projects to reach such success. It and other shows that demonstrate potential were produced by folks with experience building audiences through the site. SourceFed, for example, is the creation of six-year YouTube veteran Philip Defranco. The article relates:
“James Haffner, SourceFed’s producer, believes the channel’s success lies in a couple of factors: First, the channel provides ‘easily consumable’ content that’s also accessible on mobile devices (accounting for 50% of views). ‘We get to have fun every day, but at the same time, we inform people,’ Haffner said. And because each video is short, people can pick and choose among segments. Second, the way the four SourceFed show hosts interact with fans is key, because it fosters a sense of online community. ‘Our viewers treat us like we’re their best friends,’ Haffner explained.”
This relationship with viewers is exemplified by SourceFed’s self-congratulatory video, which features fans describing why they love the channel. It’s Experimental Theatre for the Internet world. Interesting.
Cynthia Murrell, August 26, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Minority Report Software Sifts Through Big Data
August 25, 2012
Yahoo!News recently reported on big data software that looks more like science fiction than fact in the article “Minority Report Software Hits the Real World.”
According to the article, scientist John Underkoffler developed the same interface as that appears in the 2002 Steven Spielberg sci-fi film “Minority Report”. The difference is, rather than using the technology to predict crime, the software is designed to sift through massive amounts of video and other data.
The article elaborates:
“Kwin Kramer, chief executive of Oblong, said the software can help in searching through “big data” for information. It can also create souped-up video-conference capabilities where participants share data from multiple devices like smartphones and tablets, integrated into a large video display.
“We think the future of computing is multiuser, multiscreen, multidevice,” Kramer told AFP. “This system helps with big workflow problems.”
This software allows you to move back in forth in time and zoom in to look at details. Exactly like the user experience in the movie. While gestural interfaces have been developed by other firms like Microsoft, this is far more sophisticated and will help businesses allow for better collaboration, visualization and analysis of large amounts of data.
Jasmine Ashton, August XX, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Our Mobile Phone Wonderland
August 25, 2012
Here is where hype and over-the-top marketing collide with reality. Cell Phone Digest reports that “Pew Research Reviews Mobile Phone Problems.” Reporting on a recent survey from the Pew Research Center, the article states:
“Even though mobile technology often simplifies the completion of everyday tasks, cell phone owners can also encounter technical glitches and unwanted intrusions on their phones. In an April 2012 survey, the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project assessed the prevalence of four problems that cell owners might face.”
The four problems: dropped calls (72% experienced them), unwanted sales calls (68%), spam texts (69% of texting users), and slow download speeds (77% of those who go online with their phones). The survey found that smartphone users experienced these problems more than those with phones of average intelligence.
The write up notes that, though the study was not structured to measure illegal cell phone marketing, the amounts found imply a lot of that is going around. The article reminds us to look into the National Do Not Call Registry if we wish to reduce the number of marketing calls and texts we receive.
Researchers suspect that our levels of dissatisfaction are the result of technology that has not been able to keep up with our expectations. Could less-than-completely-honest advertising have anything to do with that? Nah, that can’t be it.
Cynthia Murrell, August 25, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Dedicated iPad Content is No Media Savior
August 25, 2012
It seems that content tailored to the iPad is not the panacea media outfits hoped it would be. Gigaom examines the (lack of a) trend in “HuffPo, The Daily and the Flawed iPad Content Model.”
It has been just over a month since The Huffington Post launched their paid iPad content service, and already the site announces it is reducing the price. To zero. Meanwhile, News Corporation‘s dedicated iPad division The Daily has sharply reduced its staff and, it is rumored, may be on its way out altogether. What’s happening? Is the iPad not the savior of news organizations?
Writer Matthew Ingram suspects the culprit is the very way users have come to access media online. He explains:
“Whether media companies like it or not (and they mostly don’t), much of the news and other content we consume now comes via links shared through Twitter and Facebook and other networks, or through old-fashioned aggregators — such as Yahoo News or Google News — and newer ones like Flipboard and Zite and Prismatic that are tailored to mobile devices and a socially-driven news experience. Compared to that kind of model, a dedicated app from a magazine or a newspaper looks much less interesting, since by design it contains content from only a single outlet, and it usually doesn’t contain helpful things like links.”
This viewpoint, though probably correct, seems to leave little hope for traditional publishers who strive to make it in today’s media landscape. Ingram acknowledges that a couple of organizations who already had a very strong brand, like the New York Times, and some that target niche audiences are doing well. For the field as a whole, though, fresh ideas are desperately needed.
Cynthia Murrell, August 25, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
The Future: Computing Toasters and Microwave Ovens for Search
August 24, 2012
After floundering around Denali National Park, I had a backlog of stories which Overflight flagged as “must reads.” One, which caught my attention, was “Fewer and Fewer People Want to Know about Computers, Says Google.” I took a look at the write up.
The first thing which hit me was that the article was pegged to Google Trends. If you are not familiar with this service, navigate to Google Trends. Type in your search terms and hit “Search Trends.” Google taps into some of its data to generate a chart which purports to show the number of queries for the terms over the timeline. I ran this query on August 23, 2012, tablet, notebook computer. Google happily displayed:
Despite the lousy Web log graphics, the flat red line represents search for notebook computers. The squiggly blue line shows queries for the word “tablet.” Now there is an issue with disambiguation of “tablet” but no degree in math is needed to see that the squiggly blue line alleged shows more queries for “tablets.” The chart tell a search engine optimization maven that buying the word “tablet” will get more traffic than the phrase “notebook computer.” An SEO expert will also figure out that the cost of the word tablet might be higher than buying the phrase “notebook computer.”
Yum. Information pizza. Filling and really good for your brain.
Now back to the write up and the phrase “Says Google.” Google is not saying anything. A person ran queries and received data. One never knows how comprehensive the data set available to Google Trends is. Furthermore, I am not sure I know how the data sets are generated.
The article reports what I already knew. Each time Dell or Hewlett Packard releases its financial reports, I am reminded that certain mainstay computing products are not selling like hot cakes. HP’s printer ink business was down. Dell’s hardware sales were down. Non Apple tablets are non-starters. Fancy Dan consultants generate massive reports about the shift to mobile devices. On a personal front, at meetings I see more iPads than 15 inch notebook computers. The small form factor netbooks have mostly disappeared from the circles in which I travel.
What about the phrase “Fewer People Want to Know about Computers”? I have worked in various technology centric businesses for more than 50 years. Guess what I learned on my first day at Halliburton Nuclear in 1972? I learned that at a subsidiary with more than 600 nuclear engineers, only a tiny fraction of the professionals wanted to learn about computers.
Flash forward 50 years. Most people don’t want to learn about computers. If you happen to work at a company which is steeped in computer hardware and software, the interest in computing technology is quite high. However, when one asks one of these experts to fix a dead laptop, does that person eagerly volunteer to disassemble your machine, replace a dead hard drive, and reinstall and operating system and applications? My experience is that modern assembly methods make today’s gizmos tough to fix.
I may know how to take apart an iMac, and iPhone, or a Toshiba laptop. But I don’t want to do it, never did. Even a trivial fix such as replacing a VGA port with a bent pin can be an exercise in frustration. I don’t want to go through the drill of locating a disassembly guide, finding my sets of electronics screwdrivers, getting my magnifying gizmo set up, and repairing the system. The components are tiny. I have other work to do. Do you really want to reinstall OSX or Windows on your mother’s PC? So consumerization is here.
The larger issue is, “What does this mean about understanding information access?”l
With folks just wanting a tablet or mobile phone to work, I believe that many people will accept what the provider or vendor delivers. With the gap between those who learn zip in high school and college, figuring out that information payloads are shaped will be impossible and possibly irrelevant any way. For those lucky dogs who are in the technology flow, I understand the opportunity to take advantage of those operating at a lower clock speed, with less RAM, and a flawed storage device.
Once I thought that a search should return objective, high value results. I have learned that search systems have to allow system administrators to boost certain content. The app revolution generates money when the app delivers an experience which is similar to a microwaved pizza. Some calories, lots of fat, and quickly and easy to cook.
I don’t need a Google Trend chart to make clear the business opportunities consumerization presents.
Stephen E Arnold, August 24, 2012
Sponsored by Augmentext
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