Information Governance Standards Group Suggests Caution in Approaching eDiscovery
November 14, 2014
The records management group ARMA International weighs in about search with an article in their Information Management magazine: “Enterprise Search vs E-Discovery Search: Same or Different?” The short answer, not surprisingly, is “different.” Writer Kamal Shah explains:
“To date, most enterprises have used the same search technologies for both tasks. However, a recent trend among large and small enterprises suggests that a significant divergence is occurring between enterprise searches and e-discovery searches. Both start by entering a search term in a search box, but that’s where the similarities end. The business requirements are different and, as a result, each needs different capabilities.”
The article goes on to elaborate on the reasons traditional enterprise search is not sufficient for most eDiscovery needs. For example, while a regular enterprise user may be looking for the top five or 10 documents that relate to a search term, a firm performing an eDiscovery search in response to litigation must turn up all relevant documents (while minimizing irrelevant clutter.) Users of eDiscovery must also be prepared to prove in court that they followed best practices in assembling their data. Shah summarizes:
“Conducting e-discovery for litigation or an investigation using enterprise search technology is a risky gamble that can result in negative outcomes in court, penalties, and excessive litigation costs.”
See the article for more details, but the upshot is clear: eDiscovery is an environment where it is becoming increasingly crucial to use the right tool for the data-digging job.
Cynthia Murrell, November 14, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Welltok Embraces IBM Watson for Personal Health Platform
November 14, 2014
It’s so satisfying to watch a young A.I. grow up and give back to the community. VentureBeat tells us “How Welltok Tapped IBM’s Watson to Upgrade Its Health Optimization Platform.” Ever eager to expand Watson’s resume, IBM reportedly approached Welltok in 2013 about working together. Writer Devindra Hardawar reports:
“Welltok has been developing a health optimization platform for years, dubbed CafeWell, which analyzes your health profile from a variety of sources and offers up insight on how to stay fit…. Welltok announced last summer that it was taking advantage of Watson for a souped-up version of its product, CafeWell Concierge, which is currently in beta testing with an unnamed partner. And earlier this year, Welltok was also the first startup to receive funding from IBM’s Watson Group (and it just recently raised another $25 million). Rather than waiting until you get sick to head to the doctor, CafeWell Concierge always keeps track of your ‘personal health itinerary’ (Welltok’s cutesy name for your health profile) to offer up health help. If you’re traveling while on a specific diet, for example, it could automatically recommend restaurants near your hotel that suit your needs. Or it could remind you that it’s been too long since your last doctor’s appointment.”
The piece quotes Welltock’s CMO Michelle Snyder, who was happy IBM turned its gaze on her company when looking to shift Watson’s healthcare-related focus from the clinical to the personal. It seems the A.I’s cognitive-computing chops are the perfect solution for Welltock’s need to create personalized user experiences — a crucial detail that will likely prompt many more patients to actually use the platform.
Calling itself the “health optimization pioneer,” Welltok aims to make it easy and rewarding for people to take a more active role in their own healthcare. The company was founded in 2009, and is based in Denver, Colorado.
Cynthia Murrell, November 14, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Telegraph Breivik Text Forgotten
November 13, 2014
Short honk: I assume that the Telegraph is not happy with Google’s removal from its index of Breivik content. You can read the allegedly accurate story here. It seems to be a good idea to eliminate information about a convicted mass murderer of young people. As I have said before, it is tough to look for information when the index contains no entry. Ah, progress.
Stephen E Arnold, November 13, 2014
Why I Dismiss Search Vendors Who Sell Customer Service Solutions
November 13, 2014
I have had feedback over the years about the baloney generated by mid tier consultants, struggling enterprise search vendors, and failed webmasters about their expertise in customer service.
Customer service means cost cutting or worse to me. I ignore the silliness of Comcast apologists too.
I wish to offer a tiny bit of possibly true information from the annals of real customer service; that is, attention to customers the it is, not as it is supposed to be.
Navigate to http://bit.ly/112cWdc. Allegedly this is a “real” letter from a former Amazonian to big cheese bits at the digital WalMart with drones, Amazon.
As I read this allegedly accurate epistle, a person asserts that the digital WalMart wanted an Amazon professional (now apparently seeking a future elsewhere) to prevaricate. Here’s the passage I highlighted:
I tried to get Amazon to address what I believe to be misleading and deceptive, and possibly criminal ?nancial fraud issues related treatment of an Amazon advertising customer while I was an employee at the company. I was subsequently terminated for raising the internal ethics complaint even though Amazon’s own policies require that employees report events of this nature. To be terminated for that is wrong and is the subject of current litigation which I have asked the Washington Attorney General’s office to assist in resolving, since it deals with important issues related to misleading,deceptive, and what I believe to be ?nancially fraudulent trade practices that relate to Amazon customers and employees.
Is this perhaps the first instance of alleged misconduct in the handling of “customer service” issues? If so, mark it down. If not, my views of customer service have been affirmed.
Stephen E Arnold, November 13, 2014
Remember Bing Translator?
November 13, 2014
Short honk: Microsoft offers an online translation service. It was called Bing once. That name has gone the way of the dodo. Details are here: “Bing Translator Picks Up an Update, Drops Bing Name and Adds Offline Translation for Vietnamese.” Just Bing it, but make sure you know the current name. Is this what MBAs learn today?
Stephen E Arnold, November 13, 2014
Attivio Sponsors a Hackathon
November 13, 2014
Short honk: I find this item interesting: “Attivio to Sponsor Qlik World Conference 2014.” Attivio is providing financial support to a Qlik hackathon. The idea is for participants to become the “ultimate hacker for good.” See http://bit.ly/1ufoeXn. What will the hackers hack? If the goal is business intelligence, will these efforts be directed at open source content or other repositories?
There are media luminaries on the conference program; for example, Mark Cuban. The information about the program states that sessions, times, and locations are subject to change.
The only question I have is, “Is this a user conference or a commercial conference?” I know that Qlik offers software that, to me, seems to overlap with Attivio’s functionality.
With the increasing interest in without permission breaches of major systems, is a hackathon a completely positive positioning?”
My take is that this is essentially a single company affair designed to create a big marketing blast. I hope it works. As I pointed out, traditional vendors face a difficult challenge from firms that are offering what I would call “revolutionary approaches.” Watch for my upcoming Information Today write up that explains how some vendors have been leapfrogged by firms pushing information access in a new and quite useful direction.
Stephen E Arnold, November 13, 2014
Sinequa Launches U.S. Subsidiary
November 13, 2014
Another French company is setting up shop in America. Business Wire reports, “Sinequa to Open New York Subsidiary Following Continued Success in U.S. Market.” The search and analytics company has found so much prosperity here they’ve decided to make it official. The write-up tells us:
“The creation of the U.S. Corporation and the New York office is a necessary next step as Sinequa has recently announced major client wins in the U.S including AstraZeneca, Biogen Idec, Mercer, and several ongoing RFPs. Sinequa is projecting that the largest part of the company’s future growth will come from the U.S., and they are also expecting to extend their presence there as well.
“The first employee of Sinequa Corp. is Nicolas Brel, who brings his deep experience with Sinequa to New York as the company’s Solutions Architect. The hiring process for a new sales manager is well advanced, and Xavier Pornain, VP Sales & Alliances, will soon relocate to the U.S. and assume the role of country manager and head of Sinequa Corp.”
Will Sinequa outperform Dassault (Exalead), Antidot, or PolySpot? The French market appears to be problematic. The U.S. market, on the other hand, seems to be a slam dunk compared to demand for proprietary search in the healthy European countries. Interesting.
Launched in 2002, Sinequa serves hundreds of organizations around the world. Naturally, the company boasts strong business analytics across multiple data sources and types. Sinequa also emphasizes an intuitive interface and strong visualization tools. Based in Paris, the firm maintains offices in Frankfurt and London as well as their shiny new location in New York City.
Cynthia Murrell, November 13, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
RapidMiner Cloud Includes Wisdom of the Crowds Operator Recommendations
November 13, 2014
The article on Inside BigData titled RapidMiner Moves Predictive Analytics, Data Mining and Machine Learning into the Cloud promotes RapidMiner Cloud, the recently announced tool for business analysts. The technology allows for users to leverage over 300 cloud platforms such as Amazon, Twitter and Dropbox at an affordable price ($39/month.) The article quotes RapidMiner CEO Ingo Mierswa, who emphasized the “single click” necessary for users to gain important predictive analytics. The article says,
“RapidMiner understands the unique needs of today’s mobile workforce. RapidMiner Cloud includes connectors to cloud-based data sources that can be used on-premises and in the cloud with seamless transitioning between the two. This allows users to literally process Big Data at anytime and in any place, either working in the cloud or picking up where they left off when back in the office. This feature is especially important for mobile staff and consultants in the field.”
RapidMiner Cloud also contains the recently launched Wisdom of the Crowds Operator Recommendations, which culls insights into the analytics process from the millions of models created by members of the RapidMiner community. The article also suggests that RapidMiner is uniquely capable of integration with open-source solutions, rather than competing, the platform is more invested in source-code availability.
Chelsea Kerwin, November 13, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Private Investor Buys Metalogix
November 13, 2014
SharePoint support and add-ons are big business, and there is news this week of a major shakeup in the market. Permira Funds just announced their purchase of Metalogix. Read more in the CMS Wire article, “SharePoint Shakeup: Private Investor Acquires Metalogix.”
The article says:
“Metalogix spent the latter half of 2013 buying out some SharePoint technology to boost its content infrastructure software suite. Permira Funds is spending time a year later buying Metalogix. The Menlo Park, Calif. international private equity firm announced today it acquired Metalogix, known for its suite of Microsoft management platforms that include SharePoint, Exchange and Office 365 . . . Metalogix, based in Washington, DC, fattened its SharePoint suite last year, making it an attractive acquisition target.”
The news may affect some customers more than others, in terms of day-to-day operations, but many are waiting to see how the move affects the overall market. Keep an eye on enterprise specific resources like ArnoldIT.com from Stephen E. Arnold, a longtime leader in search. His SharePoint feed is a great way to stay in tune with the latest news, tips, and tricks.
Emily Rae Aldridge, November 13, 2014
Will Hand-Carved Type and Printing Return to Strasbourg?
November 12, 2014
I am not hip to the ins and outs of France and its financial situation. I assume the country with more than 200 varieties of cheese and almost as many somewhat obscure search and content processing companies is rolling right along.
I was puzzled by this item: “France Signs a Five-Year National Deal with Elsevier.”
The main points seems to that Elsevier, part owner of the outstandingly expensive online service LexisNexis, has signed a deal to provide Elsevier content for what strikes me as a reasonable price: €171 697 159.
The article seems to imply that this is not a good deal:
French research is in disarray. Some universities are on the verge of bankruptcy. Others anticipates four meager years. Strangely enough, money is not the problem. The French State actually gives away several billions each year in the form of tax incentives so that private companies fund research (the “Crédit impôt recherche”). This policy has proven dramatically ineffectual : it is actually nothing more than a tool for tax optimization, that does little if nothing to encourage research.
I have confidence that the French know exactly how to maintain their premier position in education, finance, and linguistic excellence. Elsevier, by the way, has one very happy sales person.
Stephen E Arnold, November 12, 2014
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