Finding Books: Not Much Has Changed
December 1, 2014
Three or four years ago I described what I called “the book findability” problem. The audience was a group of confident executives trying to squeeze money from an old school commercial database model. Here’s how the commercial databases worked in 1979.
- Take content from published sources
- Create a bibliographic record, write or edit the abstract included with the source document
- Index it with no more than three to six index terms
- Digitize the result
- Charge a commercial information utility to make it available
- Get a share of the revenues.
That worked well until the first Web browser showed up and individuals and institutions began making information available online. There are a number of companies that still use variations of this old school business model. Examples include newspapers that charge a Web browser user for access to content to outfits like LexisNexis, Ebsco, Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, and other outfits.
As libraries and individuals resist online fees, many of the old school outfits are going to have to come up with new business models. But adaptation will not be easy. Amazon is in the content business. Why buy a Cliff’s Notes-type summary when there are Amazon reviews? Why pay for news when a bit of sleuthing will turn up useful content from outfits like the United Nations or off the radar outfits like World News at www.wn.com? Tech information is going through a bit of an author revolt. While not on the level of protests in Hong Kong, a lot of information that used to be available in research libraries or from old school database providers is available online. At some point, peer reviewed journals and their charge the author business models will have to reinvent themselves. Even recruitment services like LinkedIn offer useful business information via Slideshare.com.
One black hole concerns finding out what books are available online. A former intelligence officer with darned good research skills was not able to locate a copy of my The New Landscape of Search. You can find it here for free.
I read “Location, Location: GPS in the Medieval Library.” The use of coordinates to locate a book on a shelf or hanging from a wall anchored by a chain is not new to those who have fooled around with medieval manuscripts. Remember that I used to index medieval sermons in Latin as early as 1963.
What the write up triggered was the complete and utter failure of indexing services to make an attempt to locate, index, and provide a pointer to books regardless of form. The baloney about indexing “all” information is shown to be a toothless dragon. The failure of the Google method and the flaws of the Amazon, Library of Congress, and commercial database providers is evident.
Now back to the group of somewhat plump, red face confident wizards of commercial database expertise. The group found my suggestion laughable. No big deal. I try to avoid the Titanic type operations. I collected my check and hit the road.
There are domains of content that warrant better indexing. Books, unfortunately, is one set of content that makes me long for the approach that put knowledge in one place with a system that at least worked and could be supplemented by walking around and looking.
No such luck today.
Stephen E Arnold, December 1, 2014
Xoogler Provides Google Plus Analysis
December 1, 2014
I don’t use Google Plus. I think an account was created when we set up Google Mail, but I am not sure. Furthermore, I am not sufficiently motivated to find out more.
But someone cares a lot about Google Plus. You can get a fairly interesting look at some of Google Plus’s “issues” by reading “Thoughts on Google+”: I F**ked Up. So Has Google.”
Google’s efforts, meanwhile, seem disjointed and confused, despite significant improvements to their settings and security features. If Google+ was intended to serve as Google’s “social backbone”, it should be the locus of control and access over the kind of information I’ve described above. And yet… it’s not. Far from it, in fact.
One of the factoids in the write up was that 3,000 people work on Google Plus. How many work on the Google Search Appliance? Two, six, seven?
Keep in mind the author of the analysis likes Google’s Loon balloons.
Stephen E Arnold, December 1, 2014
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Verizon Launches News Site with Censorship Built In
December 1, 2014
Here is but one reason today’s domination of news coverage by huge corporations is a problem: they don’t even feel the need to feign objectivity anymore. The Daily Dot reveals, “Verizon is Launching a Tech News Site that Bans Stories on U.S. Spying.” Verizon is calling this site SugarString, and, presumably, the company would like us to focus on its ambition to compete with tech news sites like Wired and the Verge. However, reporter Patrick Howell O’Neill cannot ignore that little restriction. He writes:
“There’s just one catch: In exchange for the major corporate backing, tech reporters at SugarString are expressly forbidden from writing about American spying or net neutrality around the world, two of the biggest issues in tech and politics today. Unsurprisingly, Verizon is deeply tangled up in both controversies….
“Verizon has been snarled in U.S. government surveillance for years. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, USA Today reported, Verizon gave the NSA landline phone records without customer consent or a warrant. Just this week, it was revealed that Verizon is tracking all of its wireless customers movement throughout the Web.
“Verizon has also led the charge to kill net neutrality—the principle that Internet service providers, like Verizon, should treat all Internet traffic equally—earning its place as the most vocal, aggressive, and well-funded opponent the so-called open Internet movement faces.”
O’Neill notes that SugarString allows articles on spying by non-U.S. agencies, presumably because Verizon does not (yet?) have info-sharing deals with foreign governments. Word of the limitations spread as the new site began soliciting tech reporters, including O’Neill, through email. The company might have expected at least one of these reporters to, ahem, report on the restrictions. The article notes that almost every story on SugarString’s front page (as of its writing) is one for which discussion of U.S. surveillance or net neutrality would be relevant. It is a shame that Verizon, and companies like it, are putting their interests ahead of fully informing readers. A shame, but is it any surprise?
Cynthia Murrell, December 01, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Announcing Kapow Enterprise 9.3
December 1, 2014
We can’t blame a company for crowing about new features. On its site, Kapow Software announces a new version of its business platform in, “New in Kapow Enterprise 9.3.” The write-up emphasizes:
“Kapow Enterprise 9.3 introduces new capabilities that give organizations greater flexibility, speed and reach in turning Big Data into business insights. These enhancements extend Kapow Enterprise as the leading data integration platform to access, integrate, deliver and explore data from the widest variety of internal and external sources.”
The new version boasts added flexibility and coverage when acquiring data across disparate sources. It also offers enhanced data distribution and exploration; of particular value to many will be the platform’s visual presentation of data through auto-generated graphs and tables, both of which update themselves as users add and remove filters. Kapow has also improved its Kapplets, the feature that lets users easily publish web apps that combine information into easily-digested interactive presentations. See the post for more information, or contact the company to request a demo.
Priding themselves on their products’ flexibility, integration-and-automation firm Kapow serves businesses of all sizes around the world. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Kapow was founded in 2005. The promising company was snapped up by process-applications outfit Kofax in 2013. Kofax is also based in Palo Alto, and was founded back in 1991.
Cynthia Murrell, December 01, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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