SharePoint Facing Inevitable Changes
May 13, 2014
SharePoint is so ubiquitous, that major changes to the platform can really touch almost every organization, in some way. Fierce Content Management is projecting huge changes in the way that SharePoint is deployed in the future. Read more in their story, “SharePoint Might Not be Dying, But It’s Changing and You Need to be Ready.”
“Gartner analyst Jeffrey Mann had a message about the venerable SharePoint for folks at the Gartner Portals, Content and Collaboration Summit this week in LA: It might not be going away anytime soon, but Microsoft was changing the way it delivered SharePoint and customers need to prepare for this.”
The story goes on to project that 2015 might be the last SharePoint version to offer an on-premise installation. While the cloud is gaining popularity, it still has its detractors, concerned primarily about security. Stephen E. Arnold has devoted his life’s work to all things search, and SharePoint is a popular feature on his Web site, ArnoldIT.com. His SharePoint feed features the latest news and tips, and would be a good place to turn for organizations that are in flux.
Emily Rae Aldridge, May 13, 2014
Sentiment Analysis: A Breakthrough
May 12, 2014
Short honk. I have some questions about the efficacy of search vendors who pitch sentiment analysis. The jargon blizzard obscures some of the methods. I talk about some of these hyperboles in my video about search jargon. The article “Turning the Frown Upside Down: Kraft’s Jell-O Plans Twitter Mood Monitor” explains one of the secrets of the sentiment analysis wizards. Big Data? Nah, counting smiley faces. What Dark Arts do other sentiment analysis mavens conjure?
Stephen E Arnold, May 12, 2014
Predictably No One Trusts Google Glass
May 12, 2014
A portion of Back To The Future II where Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly invades the far-flung future of 2015. Among flying cars, self-drying clothes, and hover boards a few of the citizens where these weird glasses that they use to watch TV and do other activities. The people wearing these devices look weird and are committing a horrendous fashion faux pas. This is how many people view Google Glass, but fashion statement aside they also don’t trust the digital accessory because of privacy concerns. TechEye.net explains in “Americans Distrust Google Glass” that a recent market survey from Toluna explained that more than 72 percent of Americans do not want to spend the money on the device, because they’re worried their private data could become public and being recorded without consent.
“Toluna managing director Mark Simon said: ‘Google Glass is not yet available on the open market, although it is clear that a high proportion of individuals have concerns about the potential impact on their privacy. This is something Google and other tech companies using the technology should address before the product can become mainstream.’ “
Google has released a list of Google Glass misconceptions, but it does not help alleviate concerns about it being a safety hazard, especially while driving. Interesting more than 33 percent were worried about being mugged if they wore Google Glass in public. Either they would be mugged to steal the Google Glass or because the fashion police found they had committed a felony.
Whitney Grace, May 12, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Beware Of Oracles In Old Clothing
May 12, 2014
InfoWorld reports there is going to be a halt in progress for Oracle in the article, “Beware Of NoSQL Standards In Oracle’s Clothing.” Industry standards help regulate and control information technology. They can even help push IT forward, but according to some anonymous sources Oracle is trying to make NoSQL startups sign up for a standards body in order to slow down change.
Just the very idea of this happening is sickening for the open source community:
“In reality, big vendors use standards to halt their larger customers from adopting new technology or create weird new-old hybrids to keep the old ways alive. There are many companies that, once they see a standardization effort, will wait for the BigCo-supported standard to be adopted before they upgrade their tech stack. Since such adoption tends to be slow anyhow, this is an effective delaying tactic. Meanwhile, the big vendor works to control the standards body.”
Oracle wants to slow down progress, because it eats into their profit margin. Oracles wants the future come at a pace it chooses, where they will control the market, get patented technology under FRAND terms, and buy up NoSQL vendors.
Standardization is a good thing, but Oracle needs to realize that relational databases are too small to handle the amount of big data in systems. It’s a call to arms for the open source community to fight relying on outdated technology. Echoes of keeping video rental stores over streaming services are in this.
Whitney Grace, May 12, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Patent Excitement: Smart Software for Those Who Want to Invent Photography
May 11, 2014
I recall that Amazon or a similar firm patented photography. I have been struggling with how to capture my Eureka moments. A solution is at hand, and I think it will apply to many sophisticated tasks including search and retrieval.
Navigate to “Transform Any Text into a Patent Application.” Either download the open source files or just read the article. You are on your way.
A sample is provided:
“An apparatus and device for staring into vacancy” (The Hunger Artist by Kafka)
Whipping up some systems and methods for struggling search and content processing companies to file is getting easier. Making up baloney for marketing pitches is, alas, still easier. But where there is a will, there may be a way. Now how can these financially challenged Big Data, metatagging, social search companies produce revenues? I have no clue.
Stephen E Arnold, May 11, 2014
Ravn Amps Up Its Search Prowess
May 9, 2014
I read “RAVN Systems Revolutionises COWI’s SharePoint 2013 Search.” I learned several things. First, COWI means “a leading international consulting group with 50 remote locations.”
Next, RAVN delivers some performance assertions; for example:
In representative tests across their estate COWI have achieved a 57% reduction in indexing time of remote content, over 90% reduction in bandwidth usage during indexing and 70% reduction in time to preview compared with opening content. They have also estimated a saving of 12 physical servers.
Unfortunately there were no data about life before RAVN, the system’s throughput, etc. But the assertion is interesting.
Finally, the article states:
“RAVN Connect revolutionises SharePoint Search in distributed environments”.
I have heard this before from Fulcrum Technologies decades ago. I assume this time the nail in SharePoint’s findability coffin is hammered tight. No word from the legions of other SharePoint indexing systems, however.
Stephen E Arnold, May 9, 2014
MongoDB NoSQL Database Upgrade
May 9, 2014
In what they are calling its “biggest release ever,” the updated open source MongoDB 2.6 boasts even more features than before. Application Development Trends describes the improvements in, “MongoDB Releases Major Upgrade to NoSQL Database.” MongoDB Inc. has done the math, and says MongoDB is the now leading NoSQL database. The company also has high hopes for the future.
The article describes one concept key to the new version:
“The improved query engine features a new index intersection that will fulfill queries that are supported by more than one index. Also, index filters will limit the indexes that can ‘become the winning plan for a query.’ Developers using the database can now use the count method in conjunction with the hint method. You can learn more about that here.”
Writer David Ramel turns his attention to security:
“Security improvements include better SSL support, x.509 authentication, an enhanced authorization system that features more granular controls, centralized storage of credentials and better tools for user management. The new version also features TLS encryption, along with user-defined roles, auditing functionality and field-level redaction, which Horowitz described as ‘a critical building block for trusted systems.’ The database auditing feature is extended by the new capability to integrate with IBM InfoSphere Guardium.”
MongoDB CTO and co-founder Eliot Horowitz reports that his team has re-written the query execution engine for better scalability. The upgrade also includes an easier-to-maintain codebase, the ability to return result sets in any size, and improved support for bulk operations. Horowitz notes that this version includes the groundwork for improvements planned for version 2.8, like document-level locking. See the articles for more improvements and details.
The company behind the open source MongoDB database, MongoDB Inc. makes their money on related management services. Launched in 2007, the company has offices throughout North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region.
Cynthia Murrell, May 09, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
New COO with Fast Roots for Attivio
May 9, 2014
When Microsoft snapped up Fast Search in 2008, the great minds behind the platform “scattered to the four winds,” as our own expert, Stephen E Arnold, put it back in 2012. Now, yet another Fast Search alum has joined Attivio, we learn from “Attivio Names Stephen Baker Chief Operating Officer” at Virtual-Strategy Magazine. Baker will serve as the company’s very first COO. The press release summarizes his background:
“Prior to joining Attivio, Baker was President and Chief Revenue Officer of RAMP, a SaaS-based Online Video Platform based in Boston. During his seven years at RAMP, Baker led the sales, account management and client operations teams to profitability and was an integral part of raising the company’s B and C rounds of funding.
“Baker previously worked under Riaz at FAST, first as Product Manager and VP of Business Development for the AllTheWeb Business unit, which was sold to Overture/Yahoo! in 2003, and later as VP/General Manager eBusiness for FAST’s enterprise software business. Baker also spent a year as CEO of Online for Reed Business Information, where he was instrumental in driving digital strategy, execution, and revenue growth.”
It does seem the position should be a good fit, and we wish Baker and Attivio well. Baker’s revenue background reminds us of the recent legal troubles for Fast Search founder John Lervik, who it seems will serve at least a year in prison for financial reporting issues. See here for Arnold’s analysis on why enterprise search is so difficult to manage financially (and technically.) I view it as a cautionary tale.
Cynthia Murrell, May 09, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Yahoo Acquisitions: A Hunch about Why
May 8, 2014
I read “Yahoo Spent More Than Anyone on Acquisitions in 2013, but Why?” At dinner tonight several colleagues and I discussed Yahoo’s buying spree. The article surmises:
There has to be rhyme and reason for Yahoo to have picked up these companies, even if it was just to keep talent from the likes of Google or Facebook. In the continued push for Yahoo to be more mobile and contextual, we should look forward to a Yahoo stacked with both talent and money in 2014.
That’s a positive view. The thoughts of the ArnoldIT conversation drifted a different direction; for example:
- Yahoo is taking advantage of the “bet on a bunch of horses.” The notion is that one or more will be winners
- Yahoo is just doing stuff to demonstrate that it has direction, intent, and purpose. In short, the deals are Wall Street theatre, just way off Broadway
- The Silicon bubble is a habitat that encourages gorging.
Financial results may shine a light on the actions.
Stephen E Arnold, May 8, 2014
RSuite Incorporates Temis into Content Management Platform
May 8, 2014
RSuite content management users can now can tap into TEMIS, we learn from “RSuite CMS Leverages TEMIS’s Content Enrichment Capabilities to Deliver a Powerful Semantic Solution.” The partnership makes TEMIS’s semantic enrichment capabilities available to RSuite’s customers in the publishing, government, and corporate arenas. The deal was announced at this year’s MarkLogic World conference, held April seventh in San Francisco; both companies are MarkLogic partners.
The press release elaborates:
“RSuite CMS provides an intuitive user interface that minimizes actions required to execute complex searches across an entire set of content. The solution can globally apply metadata, dynamically organize massive amounts of documents into collections, package and distribute content to licensing partners, and enables customers to meet their multi-channel publishing goals.
“By leveraging TEMIS’s Luxid® Content Enrichment Platform, RSuite CMS can enable customers to automatically enrich their content with domain-specific metadata directly within their publishing workflows. This enables faster and more scalable content indexing, improved metadata consistency and governance, more efficient authoring, and more powerful search and discovery features within customer applications and portals.”
With its focus on publishing and media, RSuite strives to meet today’s ever-evolving publication challenges. The company serves such big names as HarperCollins, Audible, and Oxford University Press. RSuite was launched in 2000 and is located in Audubon, Pennsylvania.
With its collaborative platform, TEMIS adds domain-specific metadata to clients’ data, allowing publishers to supply more relevant information to their own audiences. TEMIS maintains several offices across Europe and North America.
Cynthia Murrell, May 08, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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