Value as a Knowledge Professional
January 25, 2014
The article on SMR titled Are You Valued? How Indispensable is the Strategic Knowledge Professional? is an invitation from Guy St. Clair to his free webinar brought to you by Soutron Global. St. Clair is a well-known librarian and knowledge management professional who has served as the president of the Special Libraries Association and lectured at Columbia University. The article suggests the topics of the webinar,
“In November, at the last Soutron Global Transforming Libraries Webinar, I spoke about how we move to a new role as the organization’s knowledge thought leader. I gave special attention to the role of the librarian (or other collections manager) as strategic knowledge professional, with the emphasis on our role as influencer, communicator, and doer (as I phrased it in the webinar). You can see the slide deck from that webinar here.”
He suggests a few thoughtful queries that will accompany his talk, such as what is the standing of knowledge services in your association? He demands that people ask themselves if they are valued as a knowledge professional. The seminar also promises to offer tips on improving the economic feasibility of increasing knowledge assets while cutting costs. There will also be a concluding Question and Answer session.
Chelsea Kerwin, January 25, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Mondeca Acquisition by Stephane Senkowski and Christophe Prigent
January 24, 2014
A article titled Mondeca is Taken by Private Investors, Operation Advised by Largilliere Finance, an Independent Firm of Corporate Board on the french-language Fusacq describes the semantic technology developer Mondeca’s acquisition by Stéphane Senkowski and Christophe Prigent through the administration of Largilliere Finance as of December 2013. Mendeca was established in 1999 and in recent years spent some time under the direction of investor capital.
The article explains:
“Mondeca is taken by two experienced in editing software professionals and IT service delivery. The company has a strong technology core and a client installed with reference customers in France Park… The new shareholders are the operational management of the company with the ambition to accelerate its development. They will rely on a team of research and development very involved and leading partners to carry out their expansion in France and abroad.”
Mondeca will be managed by Stéphane Senkowski and Christophe Prigent, who both stated their excitement at the prospect of taking over the company. Mondeca is comprised of a small team of 15 staffers who have, after more than a decade of effort, hit a revenue of 1.3 million euros. Their clients include AP-HP, BNF, National Geographic and LexisNexis France.
Chelsea Kerwin, January 24, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Valuable Primer on Data Logs
January 24, 2014
Who knew LinkedIn could be so useful? The site’s Engineering blog supplies an thorough look at logs in, “The Log: What Every Software Engineer Should Know About Real-Time Data’s Unifying Abstraction.” Writer and LinkedIn Engineer Jay Kreps aims to fill what he sees as a large gap in the education of most software engineers. The site’s transition last year from a centralized database to a distributed, Hadoop-based system opened his eyes.
Kreps writes:
“One of the most useful things I learned in all this was that many of the things we were building had a very simple concept at their heart: the log. Sometimes called write-ahead logs or commit logs or transaction logs, logs have been around almost as long as computers and are at the heart of many distributed data systems and real-time application architectures. You can’t fully understand databases, NoSQL stores, key value stores, replication, paxos, hadoop, version control, or almost any software system without understanding logs; and yet, most software engineers are not familiar with them. I’d like to change that. In this post, I’ll walk you through everything you need to know about logs, including what is log and how to use logs for data integration, real time processing, and system building.”
He isn’t kidding. The extensive article is really a mini-course that any programmer who hasn’t already mastered logs should look into. Part one is, titled “What is a log?”, covers logs in general as well as their place in both databases and distributed systems. Part two discusses data integration, including potential complications, the relationship to a data warehouse, log files, and building a scalable log. Real-time stream processing is discussed in part three, as well as data flow graphs, real-time processing, and log compaction. Part four covers system building, delving into the prospect of unbundling and where logs fits into system architecture. At the end, Kreps supplies an extensive list of resources for further study.
Cynthia Murrell, January 24, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Watson and the Future of Cognitive Computing
January 24, 2014
A thoughtful piece at Information Age delves into the reasons IBM keeps pushing the thinking computer. “Man and Machine: Cognitive Computing in the Enterprise” answers those who wonder what the development of a computer that can win Jeopardy has to do with the business of doing business. Writer Ben Rossi recounts the history of Watson‘s game show prowess, describes how such a creation advances important technology, and touches on a few of the (actually beneficial) projects Watson has been involved with so far. What interested me, though, is the story’s assessment of the future of computing. He describes both hardware and software needs that will grow more urgent as businesses (and personal lives, for that matter) become increasingly more data-driven. See the article for Rossi’s take on these matters.
How does IBM plan to prepare for the future? Rossi reveals:
“In order to power assist the development of cognitive computing, IBM has just announced its collaboration with four leading universities: MIT, Carnegie-Mellon, New York University and Rensselaer Polytechnic. Together they plan to focus on a number of key areas including processing power, data availability, algorithmic techniques, AI, natural interaction and automated pattern recognition. But all of this is still just the tip of the iceberg, says [IBM VP Zachary] Lemnios: ‘Cognitive systems will require innovation breakthroughs at every layer of information technology, starting with nanotechnology and progressing through computing systems design, information management programming and machine learning, and, finally the interfaces between machines and humans.'”
It is no surprise to see IBM working with some of the best in academia. Though we may have an idea of the challenges ahead, it looks like the potential for solutions is still wide open. One thing we can count on: whatever the future brings, Watson is on the case.
Cynthia Murrell, January 24, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Increasing SharePoint Productivity
January 24, 2014
SharePoint is no doubt the enterprise content management giant, and yet it is no longer a one-stop-shop for all things enterprise. The information environment is increasingly complex, and managers are looking for increased productivity. CMS Wire covers this topic in their article, “SharePoint Strategy: Focus on Productivity Improvements.”
The article states:
“With an updated platform release, companies often reflect on the state and well-being of their existing investments, asking themselves whether a move to the newest version is necessary, or possible. The same can be said for reviews of SharePoint implementations. A common question from executives to the teams and stakeholders who own and manage SharePoint is ‘How productive are our end users in SharePoint?’”
And executives may not like the answer to that question. Stephen E. Arnold is a longtime leader in search and follower of SharePoint news. His latest coverage on ArnoldIT.com has focused on how despite the fact that SharePoint is still the leader in the market; companies are looking toward more and more customization in order to achieve efficiency in an increasingly complex work environment.
Emily Rae Aldridge, January 24, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
A Formula for Selling Content Processing Licenses
January 23, 2014
Do equations sell? Some color:
I know that I received negative feedback when I described the mathematical procedures used for Google’s semantic search inventions. I receive presentations and links to presentations frequently. Few of these contain mathematical expressions. In my forthcoming no-cost discussion of Autonomy from 1996 to 2007, I include one equation. I learned my lesson. Today’s search and content processing truth seekers want training wheels, not higher level math. I find this interesting because as systems become easier to use, the fancy math becomes more important.
Anyway, imagine my surprise when I received a link to a company founded 14 years ago. The outfit does business as Digital Reasoning, and it competes with Palantir (a segment superstar), IBM i2 (the industry leader for relationship analysis), and Recorded Future (backed, in part, by the Google). Dozens of other companies chase revenues in this content processing sector. Today’s New York Times includes a content marketing home run by an outfit called YarcData. You can find this op ed piece by Tim White on page A 23 of the dead tree version of the paper I received this morning (January 23, 2014). Now that’s a search engine optimization Pandas and the Times’s demographic can love.
To the presentation. My link points to Paragon Science at http://slidesha.re/1jpXAGd. I was logged in automatically, so you may have to register to flip through the slide deck.
Navigate to slides 33 and following. Slides 1 to 32 review how text has been parsed for decades. The snappy stuff kicks in on page 33. There are some incomprehensible graphics. These Hollywood style data visualizations are colorful. I, unlike the 20 somethings who devour this approach to information, have a tough time figuring out what I am supposed to glean.
At slide 42, I am introduced to “dynamic cluster analysis.” The approach echoes the methods developed by Dr. Ron Sacks-Davis in the late 1970s and embedded in some of the routines of the 1980 system that a decade later became better known as InQuirion and then TeraText.
At slide 44, the fun begins. Here’s an example which I am sure you will recall from your class in chaos mathematics. If you can’t locate your class notes, you can get a refresher at http://bit.ly/1mKR3G9 courtesy of Cal Tech, home of the easy math classes as I learned during my stint at Halliburton Nuclear Utility Services. The tough math classes were taught at MIT, the outfit that broke new ground in industry sponsored educational methods.
Identify Drones from Below with this Handy Guide
January 23, 2014
A guide brought to our attention by Popular Science highlights the dilemma of living in areas where drones of unknown origin may fly above you, your loved ones, or your home at any time. Reporter Kelsey D. Atherton shares “A Guide to Spotting and Hiding from Drones” created by Dutch graphic designer Ruben Pater. Available in Pashto, Dutch, German, Italian, Indonesian, Arabic, and English, the one-sheet guide presents to-scale silhouettes of drones and suggestions for hiding from them.
The article tells us:
“The selection of drones included in the guide leads heavily towards those from NATO member countries, with the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, and the United States all represented, as well as NATO itself, for the other member countries that use these drones. Partly because those are the countries that have used drones, in Afghanistan and elsewhere, the most, but partly because they are just the countries where it is easier to get information about the scale and wingspan of their flying robots.
Also represented are drones from China, Morocco, India, the United Arab Emirates, and Israel. In fact, Pater told Popular Science that part of his inspiration came from people in the Gaza Strip, who filmed Israeli drones overhead, and the challenge of making out what kind of machine it is from the silhouette alone. The silhouettes also resemble Airplane Spotter Cards, made during World War II so that servicemen could differentiate between aircraft, both friendly and allied.”
From the 23-inch-wide Parrot AR quadcopter to the Global Hawk with its 130-foot wingspan, each drone is presented as a black silhouette as seen from below. They are categorized by function—those that only perform surveillance and those that can also kill you. Atherton notes that, as a survival guide, the page is a bit limited. However, as an educational tool, it has a lot of potential. As a symbol of today’s world, I’d say it is spot on.
Cynthia Murrell, January 23, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Nuance Offers New Vocal Search
January 23, 2014
People have been waiting for years when they could go into their homes or work place and simply say a vocal command, then a computer would respond with the correct information. Nuance Communications is taking the world a step closer to that reality, says 4 Traders in the article: “Nuance To Start A Whole New Conversation With Launch Of New Dragon Assistant For Intel RealSense Technology.” Nuance’s new Dragon Assistant is available for computers that use Intel Real Sense technology and even better is that tablets can now use it.
Dragon Assistants comes with two personalities, British Butler and American female. Users can have an ongoing dialogue with their assistant and can ask it to do a variety of activities using vocal commands. Users will also be available to ask questions and receive answers. Dragon Assistant will have a knowledge pool supplied from over 170 content providers.
The article states:
” ‘Together with Intel, we are changing the way people experience their devices, starting a whole new conversation,’ said Michael Thompson, executive vice president and general manager, Nuance Mobile. ‘This latest version of Dragon Assistant is transformative. People can have an interactive dialogue that is natural and intuitive, with a voice assistant that listens and understands the context of conversation – just as you would expect from a personal assistant powered by Nuance and Intel.’ “
Expect there to be kinks in the Dragon Assistant. Developers have been trying to create an intelligent and human-like assistant for years, each project brings us one step closer. I presume, however, we still have not brought it up to Star Trek standards yet.
Whitney Grace, January 23, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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
SharePoint Licensing Models
January 23, 2014
SharePoint used to be a straightforward on-site installation. However, as with all things, SharePoint has changed to keep up with the times. They now offer a few options for licensing, and Search Content Management attempts to break them down in their article, “Making Sense of SharePoint Licensing Models.”
The article begins:
“Microsoft is moving away from, though not yet abandoning, its traditional model. The new model increasingly emphasizes annuity payments for Software as a Service and services. So how can customers make sense of this new model amid an already confusing licensing setup? Microsoft has simplified licensing somewhat. There are three major approaches you can make sense of today: 1) Traditional SharePoint on-premises 2) SharePoint in the cloud and Office 365 3) Hosted SharePoint.”
The traditional on-site licensing model is still the backbone of SharePoint. However, organizations are growing more agile, and more mobile, and that means they appreciate the new options. Stephen E. Arnold, of ArnoldIT.com, is a longtime leader in search and follower of SharePoint. His coverage of the latest SharePoint news points to a trend in customization and mobile, which means that SharePoint is listening to what the customers want. Whether or not customers are completely satisfied with the out-of-the-box solution is another matter.
Emily Rae Aldridge, January 23, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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