Apelon Expands with New Staff
November 29, 2012
The Sacramento Bee recently published the news release “Stuart Nelson, MD, FACMI, Joining Apelon” announcing that the respected scientist will augment Apelon consulting resources and remain heavily involved in research and development of informatics technology.
According to the article, Dr. Stuart Nelson, a well known healthcare informaticist, will be joining the company as Chief Innovation Officer. As CIO he will contribute to Apelon customer engagements and develop projects under Apelon’s infrastructure.
When explaining Nelson’s background, the article states:
“For the last sixteen years he has been at the US National Library of Medicine leading numerous initiatives of national importance. As Director of Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) Content, he managed the development of this seminal compendium of over 150 computer-based healthcare terminologies. Subsequently, as Director of the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) Development and Content, Nelson led teams that designed, maintained and deployed MeSH, the primary indexing methodology for all the NLM’s biomedicine literature. Most recently, Stuart was the developer and producer of RxNorm, a standard vocabulary for clinical drugs, now a national standard for communication of medication information between healthcare systems. His RxNorm work has led to additional computer-based drug systems including the DailyMed, a website of information about clinical drug products.”
Nelson has an impressive background. We are looking forward to seeing what innovations he will bring to Apelon.
Jasmine Ashton, November 29, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
HP Autonomy: Thoughts about Big Deals for Search Vendors
November 28, 2012
I just finished my Information Today column for next month (January 2013). I thought briefly about about focusing on the Hewlett Packard Autonomy matter which is a tad too much in the news at the moment.
Caveat emptor. Hasn’t anyone heard this reminder? The deal is over. Type A MBAs, whiz kid lawyers, and blue chip consultants crawled all over this deal. The HP board approved the deal which was roughly 10X more than Microsoft paid for the exciting Fast Search & Transfer technology thrill ride.
I choose not to tackle HP and Autonomy directly. What I decided to do was work through some of the business cases I have encountered over the year which make murky financial water the status quo. The players in these examples which I characterize at a high level and as a non accountant are like the predators in the Amazon River. I wanted to point out that some of the deals related to search, content processing, and analytics can be models of complexity theory for math experts at the Santa Fe Institute to ponder. Normal lawyers and accountants and the run of the mill MBA are out of their depth in my experience when thinking about a search plus services tie up.
As I was finishing the article, my alert service beeped. The occasion was the arrival of articles about letters from Autonomy placed in “open source” and an equally public response from Hewlett Packard. You can find more information in the “Former Autonomy CEO Challenges HP” article in MarketWatch or you can wade through the lists of stories posted on Techmeme.
I don’t have a dog in this fight. I have several observations I want to capture before the slip away from me as I get ready to head to South America.
The 1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk I almost bought in 1963 came with a sidewalk guarantee. Search and content processing systems are warranted in a similar manner by their sellers. The Wikipedia explanation of caveat emptor makes the meaning of this Latin catchphrase clear: Under the principle of caveat emptor, the buyer could not recover from the seller for defects on the property that rendered the property unfit for ordinary purposes. The only exception was if the seller actively concealed latent defects or otherwise made material misrepresentations amounting to fraud. See Wikipedia
First, the gap between some investors’ expectations for revenue from search and content processing greatly exceed reality. I have been around the information retrieval business for a week or two. In that time, I have encountered people who believe that their findability or indexing system will generate Google sized dollars. I tell these folks that Google generates Google sized dollars from ads, not its search technology. Only a handful of companies have been able to generate more than $100 million from search. These companies are the anomalies, not the rule. My hunch is that like the “smart money” that blew $50 million on one promising system, dreams can be expensive. As you may know, the folks who support the high expectations catch “spreadsheet fever”. The result is that when the money is finally sorted out, search is an expensive proposition. There’s a reason why IBM embraces open source search. May I suggest you read my IDC reports on this open source search subject.
Second, the crazy valuations are like the promises of teenagers in love. The parents, if they know, view such tie ups with skepticism. Just try and tell that to the two teens who have the force which through the green fuse drives the flower. In the grip of this “force”, history and hard facts play a modest role to play. What takes over is mutually reinforcing inputs from the youthful lovers on a hormone high. Deal lust works in the teen way. Is this why so many gray heads get into doing bigger and bigger deals under more and more false time constraints. Pant. Pant. Pant. I can hear the breathing now. Those contracts have to be signed, the commissions most definitely earned, and the money transferred pronto. Is it any surprise why so many acquisitions go off the rails? The parties to big deals include the buyer, the seller, the lawyers, the accountants, the partners, and the consultants. If that line up of professionals does not make clear how Voltaire’s bastards operate, read John Ralston Saul’s book on the subject.
Intrafind Knowledge Map Increases Overall Efficiency with a Quick Click
November 28, 2012
Network infrastructures, social media, mobile and the cloud continue to bring changes in daily business operations. Transformational technologies like these can provide the key elements necessary to stay competitive but success relies heavily on their ability to evolve within the enterprise.
The right strategy can bring prosperity through evolution to any industry. ZDNet’s article “CIOs unplugged: Straight Talk from Innovators” talks about some solid strategies to consider in order to increase operational efficiency when utilizing transformational technologies:
“Operational efficiency and cost reduction are always part of the IT mandate, so the discussion touched there. These CIOs distinguish themselves precisely because their key focus is innovation, rather than cost reduction. Many organizations primarily expect the CIO (and IT) to drive efficiency and cost savings, rather than participate in planning important strategic decisions. This view devalues IT, and is intensely shortsighted, because most industries today rely on technology to create strategic advantage.”
Innovative CIOs may find themselves more capable of driving change if their users are able to find the enterprise knowledge they need when they need it. Solutions such as Intrafind’s Knowledge Map allows for better use of enterprise knowledge assets and leaves more time for organizational innovation. Overall efficiency is increased with a user friendly interface which centralizes relevant company metadata in a 360 view for access with a few quick mouse clicks.
Jennifer Shockley, November 28, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Extract Meaningful Insight and Deliver Information with PolySpot Technology
November 28, 2012
When regular media means do not work to process data, you know you are dealing with big data. Marketing Pilgrim discusses this concept in their recent article, “Just How Big is Big Data.” Many organizations are currently focused on how to pinpoint the information they need, build off of insights from it and share it across the enterprise.
However, the biggest challenge for companies, according to Monetate’s new Infographic “The Retailer’s Guide to Big Data” is that it is difficult to calculate ROI.
The article told us:
45% said they aren’t using the data effectively to personalize marketing efforts and that’s a catch all for a lot of problems. That also goes along with the third highest response, “not able to link the data together at the individual customer level.” What both of those buckets are saying is that we know the data is out there, we know it’s useful, but we don’t know how to make it so.
The question is not how big is big data. Instead, we wonder how big big data will get. Enterprise organizations only have more vested in big data as the days go by when they use solutions like PolySpot to extract meaningful knowledge and information and enable users across the enterprise to access this information.
Megan Feil, November 28, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Top 25 Most Influential People in the Microsoft SharePoint Community
November 28, 2012
In “These are the Top 25 Microsoft SharePoint Influencers for 2012,” Mark Fidelman discusses the community around SharePoint and those influencers leading the way. The top 25 were chosen based on the social scoring system outlined in the book, Socialized!. Numbers one and two on the list are discussed:
Joel Oleson (number one on the list this year) created a public facing micro-community on Yammer called SPYam to discuss and support SharePoint and Yammer. The community rallied around the Microsoft acquisition and in an attempt to learn about it – then quickly started using it in a highly visible way. You can’t buy community members like him.
Mark Miller number #2 on the list, helped organize a world SharePoint promotional tour which helped to expand the community base.
The SharePoint community is a major benefit of the software platform. The article points out that the community has grown stronger and more influential given increase in numbers and strength from year to year. Along with using the SharePoint community, you may also want to use a third party tool to fill in any gaps in the software. Fabasoft Mindbreeze offers a proven enterprise search solution with the benefit of a SharePoint Connector. The Connector links systems for enterprise-wide information access with faceted search, a familiar user interface, search results that can easily be processed into actionable information, and more.
Philip West, November 28, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Do Not Always Use Relational Databases
November 28, 2012
Relational databases are the building blocks for most digital information structures, not to mention the basis for big name software such as Oracle and NoSQL. Infoworld noticed that the high demand in Big Data requires developers to take a second look at the type of databases they are using with “10 Things Never to Do With a Relational Database.”
The article is a list that focuses on tasks that most people try to complete with relational databases, such as e-mail, media repository, product cataloguing, high frequency trading, and more. The number one item to never do with a relational database is search.
The articles states:
“Even the most dedicated Oracle shops tend not to use Oracle Text, the extension Oracle bought for its database but doesn’t seem to develop very actively. Instead, you see a lot of people using complicated queries that are heavy on like and or operators. The results for these are ugly and the capabilities are weak — and the processes for getting the data just the way Oracle needs it are tough. Outside of Oracle, many other RDBMS products don’t have real search extensions.”
Most developers turn to outside search applications, like those created by the open source community. Search is a complicated matter that does not fit into the usual square relational database model. Out-of-the-box solutions are not programmed to do the heavy lifting needed for Big Data search. LucidWorks is a full-scale company that developed search applications especially for Big Data. The professional staff and dedicated engineers at LucidWorks give customers a confidence in having problems solved efficiently that some other open source companies may lack.
Whitney Grace, November 28, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
PolySpot Adds In Connector to Social Technology Giant Blue Kiwi
November 28, 2012
Productivity is the name of the game for enterprise infrastructure software vendor PolySpot. Now, they have added in another connector to their list spanning over 100. The article “The Blue Kiwi Connector for PolySpot is Ready!” tells us more about this forward-thinking move.
Since BlueKiwi is Europe’s largest cloud based enterprise social software solution, it was a no-brainer for PolySpot to develop a connector and add it to their library.
The author states in his post on the subject:
“But beyond collaboration and co-creation, what good is creating, or co-creating information if the fruit of the collective intelligence of employees can not be quickly found? Thus, to offer the use of our converging technologies, the R&D department at PolySpot has developed a BlueKiwi connector for PolySpot. With BlueKiwi and PolySpot, employees would enjoy a productive environment, strengthening collaborative and social innovation, expertise finding and sharing.”
What is productivity without social? This is the question users do not have to learn the hard way that social technologies do in fact fuel productivity. Thanks to PolySpot’s Information At Work, the social power of BlueKiwi is now a part of the picture.
Megan Feil, November 28, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
PolySpot Speaks More Than 50 Languages
November 27, 2012
Due to the ever increasingly globalized workforce, it is more important than ever that data analytics providers are able to appeal to a multitude of countries and languages and corner the polyglot market. Matthew Aslett of the Too Much Information blog recently reported on this topic in the article, “The Dawn of Polyglot Analytics.”
According to Aslett, the emergence of a polyglot analytics platform exemplifies a new approach to data analytics that is based on the user’s approach to analytics rather than the nature of the data.
The article states:
Polyglot analytics explains why we are seeing adoption of Hadoop and MapReduce as a complement to existing data warehousing deployments. It explains, for example, why a company like LinkedIn might adopt Hadoop for its People You May Know feature while retaining its investment in Aster Data for other analytic use cases. Polyglot analytics also explains why a company like eBay would retain its Teradata Enterprise Data Warehouse for storing and analyzing traditional transactional and customer data, as well as adopting Hadoop for storing and analyzing clickstream, user behaviour and other un/semi-structured data, while also adopting an exploratory analytic platform based on Teradata’s Extreme Data Appliance for extreme analytics on a combination of transaction and user behaviour data pulled from both its EDW and Hadoop deployments.
One company that is currently excelling in polyglot analytics is Polyspot. In the recent blog post, “Polyspot is Polyglot” we learned that Polyspot offers its services in over 50 languages. Language is no longer a hindrance to data management success. PolySpot warrants a close look. The company offers high value technology within the reach of most organizations’ budgets.
Jasmine Ashton, November 27, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
High Performing Enterprise Search Needs Solid Solutions That Work
November 27, 2012
It seems that once a month someone is announcing the latest, greatest development in search optimization software and each new or revamped product gets faster, more accurate or easier to use. The increasing competition among developers has inspired designers to get more creative with their initial designs… or possibly just their marketing.
TechWeek Europe’s article “Start-up InboundWriter Scales Search Optimization For The Enterprise” spotlights a new ‘writer’ targeted search optimizer:
“One of the last miles is having an automated and scalable way to make sure your content is really, really good. That’s what we do, and we do it as simple as a spell-check. When using the service, a writer gets notifications and suggestions on better SEO words and phrases to use as he or she goes along in writing the document. There is an efficiency meter in the upper-left corner of the application to keep the writer apprised as the document is being written about how SEO-ready it is.”
The AI ability to second guess the user is nothing new, although in marketing things can be open to interpretation. High performing enterprise search needs functionality and usability, not more gadgets and gimmicks. That is why Intrafind has been a successful enterprise search provider for well over a decade. They use solid solutions that began in the university environment and scaled out to commercial solutions that work. Their user friendly interface enables customizable connectors which allow enterprise wide access to both structured and unstructured data in a secure environment.
Jennifer Shockley, November 27, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Structured and Unstructured Data Join Forces Through PolySpot Technology
November 27, 2012
It was not surprising to learn of the large amount of spending towards big data in 2011 from a new study by the Experton Group. Over $4.3 billion dollars was spent, according to that study. It will not stop there, either. Spending is expected to increase at a rate of 36% each year for the next four years according to the Smart Planet article, “What Makes Big Data So ‘Big’”
Of course, we have seen venture capitalists dote over vendors in this arena and that will continue too. Traditional technologies involved in the data management realm are not to be forsaken, however.
We learned:
Organizations with their relational database systems — built up and tweaked and perfected over the past two decades — would have no issues amping up the amount of transactional or structured data, even if it did go into the petabye or even exabyte range. But today’s data environments are simply not ready for the deluge of unstructured data — all those tweets, all those log files, all those videos. And it’s unstructured data that will drive new capabilities, new collaboration and new innovation.
Opportunities and insights come from a variety of data types – both structured and unstructured. That is precisely why organizations need a big data solution such as PolySpot that connect all types of information and data in order to churn out important knowledge to departments all over the enterprise.
Megan Feil, November 27, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
