Facebook Skiing Downhill to the Rest Home?
December 15, 2011
Is it possible that the most widely used Web site on the Internet is at the end of its time? Some seem to think so.
In September 2011, Facebook claimed 14.7 percent of total U.S. consumer Internet-usage minutes. This number is higher than any other Web site; the average Facebook user spent 410 minutes on the site during that same month. However, despite these numbers, some predict the Web site has peaked or is near its peak.
Ben Bajarin, director of consumer-technology analysis at Creative Strategies Inc., gives his outlook in the Time’s article, “The Beginning of the End for Facebook?”
When I survey the landscape and look at trends, which is one of my jobs as an industry analyst, I see declining usage of Facebook as a significant trend. Taking that into context and combining it with the unique new offerings coming up daily, you can see why I’m asking the question. Facebook may have run its course. Of course, it’s too early to tell, and Facebook can still innovate and, in essence, disrupt itself.
The author cites his own declining use of the site, as well as a poll of almost 500 high school students, as evidence for the imminent failure of Facebook. He calls it “Facebook fatigue” and believes people will slowly drift toward websites that put limits on your network or are based upon specific interests.
I disagree. Although people may find they are spending more time on other social networking sites, at the end of the day, the will return to Facebook. Why? Simply because everyone else is. With a network where everyone logs in everyday to post thoughts and pictures and events, it’s a catchall that will survive because it is seemingly limitless.
Andrea Hayden, December 15, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Library of Congress Is Atwitter
December 15, 2011
The Library of Congress triggers many trends. These range from mini conferences to poetry awards to spurring the House and Senate to create on site libraries.
Tweets as historical documents? Yep. Apparently that’s what they are these days.
Last year, the Library of Congress made an agreement with Twitter to archive every public tweet ever sent on the website. Only recently, however, has the announcement been discussed much by the public.
Infonary’s article, “Library of Congress to Store Tweets Based on Twitter Deal,” gives us more information on the thinking behind the deal. Bill Lefurgy, digital initiatives program manager at the library’s digital information infrastructure and preservation program, told Federal News Radio.com:
The archive contains ‘billions and billions of tweets’ and is ‘a unique record of our time,’ he said. ‘There have been studies involved with what are the moods of the public at various times of the day in reaction to certain kinds of news events,’ Lefurgy told the news organization. ‘There’s all these interesting kinds of mixing and matching that can be done using tweets as a big set of data.’
The tweets will be held by the library’s repository of historical documents and will only include tweets that were not marked protected or private.
I understand the potential importance of following Twitter trends on popular social topics or riveting news events, but to store every single tweet casted off into Twitterland seems ridiculous to me. The ramblings of emotionally supercharged teens and PR for Chas Bono will now not only be annoyingly posted on the social networking site, but will be available to scholars, researchers, and members of the House and Senate via the Library of Congress.
Andrea Hayden, December 15, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Protected: The Contested Fact: Sharepoint Has Social Media Potential
December 13, 2011
OpenText Social Framework: The Auto-Classification Bump Up
December 12, 2011
Is this perfect timing or has the train already left the station? OpenText has posted the press release, “OpenText Introduces First Auto-Classification Solution with Built-in Transparency and Defensibility.” OpenText’s offering is unique, the company insists, because its statistical sampling and quality assurance ensure innate transparency and defensibility.
Why is automated classification increasingly essential for businesses? The article asserts:
[Managers] are being asked to manage massive volumes of ‘transitory’ or low value social content and emails due to their cost and potential risk. Classification of content is critical because it lets the business know what content to keep and what can be thrown away. Historically, end-users have been asked to classify content, but adoption and accuracy rates have been low, often leaving the organization exposed to expensive eDiscovery requests and penalties.
Automation takes classification out of the hands of mistake-prone humans, and into the OpenText Content Analytics engine, which is based on the work of linguistics experts and promises dramatically improved accuracy.
OpenText has been working in the field of enterprise content management since 1991, and now has clients worldwide. We just hope they aren’t arriving too late to automated classification, an already crowded subset. We will check back on the platform in the near future because the company is busy repositioning itself into a social framework. Just think. A few years ago it was an SGML database, then a document management vendor, a collaboration platform, and now a social framework. Beneath the marketing fog, OpenText remains a $1 billion outfit focusing on selling services and husbanding its integration and research and development expertise. Does the heart of Autonomy beat within RedDot? Is OpenText the new Autonomy? Eerie parallels with one difference: No $10 billion buy out.
Cynthia Murrell, December 12, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Social Media and an Enterprise Strategy
December 9, 2011
Social media is an essential ingredient to the success of any organization hoping to excel in today’s market. However, if not approached intentionally and with a plan, social media efforts can seem daunting and unorganized. Not as linear as traditional IT needs, social media has to be tackled with a different strategy. Jonathan Gourlay gives his insight in, “Effective social media strategy: A must for success in a social world.”
Enterprises large and small are embracing social media as a way for employees, partners and customers to collaborate and communicate, but many are doing so without being fully prepared. It’s an issue that many are finding costly in a number of ways.”
Social media must also be tied in to an organization’s overall enterprise strategy. While the two don’t initially seem to play well together, if combined with a smart enterprise solution, both efforts can be done with more ease.
Gourlay continues:
“The fourth level is described as the stage of enablement. ‘You must get here to scale,’ Owyang said. Enterprises continually measure their use of social media at this stage and are empowering workers rather than constraining them. The more advanced organizations at this level implement their social strategy across corporate functions, ignoring business unit silos.”
Take a solution like Fabasoft Mindbreeze and its Folio Cloud. ‘Fabasoft Folio Cloud enables quick, secure and mobile collaboration both internally and between international companies,’ explained Michael Hadrian. ‘Business processes with customers and partners cannot be realized any quicker or more cost effectively.’
Combining internal and external communications is key to social media, ensuring that dreaded social media crises don’t occur. Such a solution allows an overall view of social media communications, inviting participation from a variety of employees, but ensuring all efforts are moving in the same direction. When tackling an overall social media initiative, planning is key, and solutions such as those offered by Fabasoft Mindbreeze can help.
Emily Rae Aldridge, December 9, 2011
Sponsored by: Pandia.com
Google Plus a Demerit?
December 9, 2011
The Harrod’s Creek goose read “Google+ Struggling to Remain Relevant.” The goose was surprised. His goslings have been paddling away on new functionality for the Mountain View kids’ social network. Google Plus, as we understand it, is Google 2012. The pre-plus Google is no more. So we pay close attention to what the “new” Google delivers in its “plus” modality.
InfoWorld, however, takes the view a seven year old has after a first visit to the dentist. Little wonder dentists are often faced with mean kids when the parents bring the child back for a six month check up and maybe a drilling session. Dentists often make enemies without doing much more than taking a look. Is Google+ or Google Plus the social equivalent of a dental procedure? We don’t think so, but the InfoWorld write up appears to revel in some Google+ (Google Plus) functional carries.
Let me highlight a fairly interesting comment from the InfoWorld write up:
As of now, Facebook boasts 1,000 times as many referrals as Google+. Web referrals alone don’t tell the whole story of how successful a site is, though they do indicate a level of user engagement. Plus, advertisers are more likely to sink dollars and resources into buying ads and setting up business pages on sites that demonstrably lead users to their own. Still, it would be useful to know, for example, how many active users Google+ has versus Facebook. However, Google has remained mum on that detail — a telling move, given the company’s purported philosophy of being open.
Not these are words that even a cut rate sentiment analysis system can score in the “negative semantics” zone.
This passage buries the needle in the red zone in my opinion:
Google+’s most recent attempt to generate traffic and increase buzz was its rollout of business pages, which from day one paled in comparison to Facebook’s business pages. In a recent Q & A about Google+ for business, Google revealed that features that arguably should have been implemented from the get-go are still being planned or merely considered. For example, support for multiple administrators will arrive by the end of the year. Analytics are coming “soon.”
Three observations:
First, I think that the argument advanced by Google that Google+ (Google Plus) is the new Google has annoyed some folks; perhaps the InfoWorld article writer? Perhaps relevance has gone out the window and Google+ (Google Plus) is the scape goat?
Second, the goose does not understand the “silver bullet” magic of social networks. They seem fraught with Lady Gaga type information and in an enterprise could be precursors to some executives donning orange jump suits and doing perp walks. If you are not in the law enforcement environment, you won’t understand this point, but it is clear enough to me.
Third, Google is trimming services and at the same time firing up giant new, almost irrelevant ones. I am unsure whether the YouTube Channels, the Amazon Prime initiative, or the changes in search results is the best example. What is clear is that the focus seems mushy and Google + (Google Plus) is a good example of a cupcake that needs more love in the kitchen.
Net net: InfoWorld may be expressing a broader sentiment. Aside; why am I writing Google+ (Google Plus)? Ever try searching for odd ball characters?
Stephen E Arnold, December 9, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Protected: CRM Idol Offers ISV Insights
December 8, 2011
The Solution to Email Overload? No Email
December 4, 2011
I enjoy France and the French. The country is essentially an engineering outfit with a soft spot for art, a love of intellectual discussion, and a clever approach to thorny problems. Consider email. At Atos, the senior management has found a solution to email overload, the risks of eDiscovery, and the cost of trying to manage unfindable PowerPoint attachments. (My hunch is that the news report missed some of the story, but, hey, that’s okay.
How? Here’s what I learned in “Tech Firm Implements Employee ‘Zero Email’ Policy.” Let’s assume ABC News has the facts lined up like Napoleon’s army before it did the Moscow in Autumn thing. Here’s what I learned:
The company says by 2013, more than half of all new digital content will be the result of updates to, and editing of existing information. Middle managers spend more than 25 percent of their time searching for information, according to the company. Crouch said Atos is evaluating a number of new tools to replace internal email including collaborative and social media tools. Those include the Atos Wiki, which allows all employees to communicate by contributing or modifying online content, and Office Communicator, the company’s online chat system which allows video conferencing, and file and application sharing.
So “zero” does not mean zero. Social interactions are not email. Okay, ABC News, close enough for horseshoes. I assume the cloud, Gmail, and various on premises solutions along the lines of SharePoint and Exchange would not work.
The reality is that email is going to be tough to eliminate even if one calls the outputs “collaboration” with a “social” twist of lemon. No lemonade here, however. Search vendors can rest easy. Atos is a prospect. Symantec, HP, and Recommind can make sales calls confident that non-email digital information must be searched, made findable, and discoverable by avocats which are lawyers no matter what one calls these fine professionals.
Stephen E Arnold, December 4, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
SAS Creates Customer-Centric Analytics Software
December 4, 2011
Business analytics and software firm SAS recently unveiled the Phillippine’s first customer intelligence software that can analyze data from online conversations and relationships in social networking sites.
The SAS Customer Intelligence, includes a range of applications that allow firms to better understand their customer base. These include: customer analytics, forecasting, and credit-scoring to choreographing multi-channel marketing strategies and gathering marketing data from social media.
NewsBytes Phillippines reported on the new software in the November 25 article “SAS Rolls Out First BI Software For Social Media in PH.”
the article states:
“SAS global senior product marketing manager Ken King said in a press briefing that the new software is a comprehensive tool that can monitor and analyze data from social media – a capability that ordinary statistics services such as Facebook analytics cannot provide.”
Customer decisioning is an important focus area for any business so I’m glad to see SAS’ investment in this area. This software will allow organizations to gain deeper customer insight, create and manage a customer-centric data repository, predict customer behavior, and give accurate customer profiles.
Jasmine Ashton, December 04, 2011
New Google News Feature Needs Polish
December 1, 2011
Silicon Feature reported on search related news this week in the article “Google News Now Features Limited Social Recommendations Based on +1s”
On November 22, the search giant announced a new Google+ powered feature for Google News as a small step towards creating a personalized news experience for users by featuring articles that Gmail contacts and people in your Google+ circles have publicly +1 in the Google’ News’ Spotlight section.
The article states:
“Google is only making baby steps toward social recommendations here, though. As Google software engineer Erich Schmidt points out, the Spotlight section will only “sometimes” features stories that were +1’d by your friends or people in your circles.”
Since Google’s news algorithms already provide some personalized features based on your web history and which articles you click on, it seems a bit redundant for such a historically inventive company to simply jump on the bandwagon to ad this feature. It appears that De Tocqueville was right… America goes average. Precision and recall go out the window to the cheers of the popular.
Jasmine Ashton, December 1, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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