Google to Combat Terrorist Messages with Counter Narrative AdWords
February 22, 2016
Governments are not alone in the fight against terrorism. Google Will Show ‘Counter-Narrative’ AdWords To Users Searching For Terrorist Websites from Tech Week Europe explains how Google is playing a role in containing terrorist messages. In effort to prove their commitment to anti-terrorist initiatives to UK members of parliament, Google will employ a counter narrative strategy using Google AdWords as a marketing channel for their anti-extremist messages. According to the article,
“Users searching for words and websites associated with religious extremism that is linked to terrorism will be shown the ‘counter-narrative’ via Google AdWords, the sponsored links that appear at the top of a search results page. Dr House also told MPs at the Common’s home affairs select committee that Google had removed 14 million videos from YouTube in 2014 for reasons that include terrorist content, according to the Telegraph. Google reportedly offers AdWords grants to NGOs, so that their ‘counter-narrative’ websites can appear on search results for queries such as ‘join Isis’, reported The Telegraph.”
In the article’s concluding remarks, the author raises several questions regarding censorship, freedom of speech and user control; the saying with great power comes great responsibility comes to mind. Developments related to Google’s counter narratives will be important to follow as the bigger-picture conversation unfolds.
Megan Feil, February 22, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
The Pros and Cons of Data Silos When It Comes to Data Analysis and Management
February 22, 2016
The article on Informatica Blog titled Data Silos Are the Death of Analytics. Here’s the Fix explores the often overlooked need for a thorough data management vision and strategy at any competitive business. The article is plugging for an eBook guide to data analytics, but it does go into some detail on the early stages of streamlining the data management approach, summarized by the advice to avoid data silos. The article explains,
“It’s vital to pursue a data management architecture that works across any type of data, BI tool, or storage technology. If the move to add Hadoop or NoSQL demands entirely different tools to manage the data, you’re at risk of creating another silo…When you’ve got different tools for your traditional data warehouse versus your cloud setup, and therefore different skill sets to hire for, train for, and maintain, you’re looking at a real mess.”
The suggestions for streamlined processes and analysis certainly make sense, but the article does not defend the reasonable purposes of data silos, such as power, control, and secrecy. Nor do they consider that in some cases a firm is required to create data silos to comply with a government contract. But it is a nice thought: one big collection of data, one comprehensive data strategy. Maybe.
Chelsea Kerwin, February 22, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Text Extraction from Medical Records
February 21, 2016
If you are interested in the application of text extraction methods to medical records, you may find “Extracting Information from the Text of Electronic Medical Records to Improve Case Detection: A Systematic Review.” if you act quickly, the paper may be available at this link. (If the link goes dead, well, that’s life in 2016.) The paper contains an algorithm table which includes the coding and diagnostic elements. Instead of identifying the specific systems and methods, the write up is an academic review of “studies.” But for those interested in the topic, the write up is worth a look.
Stephen E Arnold, February 21, 2016
Alphabet Google Ideas Becomes a Jigsaw
February 21, 2016
Please, do not confuse this “jigsaw” with Salesforce.com’s Jigsaw (now Data.com), Jigsaw Puzzles (online puzzles), Jigsaw (online clothing for women), Jigsaw (the learning strategy), Jigsaw (a marketing company), Jigsaw (the font), Jigsaw (an open source thing), Jigsaw (Ireland’s youth mental health program), Jigsaw (the band of merry music makers), Jigsaw (the real estate outfit), Jigsaw (the WordPress plug in), Jigsaw (the scalable cache method), Jigsaw (a now defunct “zine”), Jigsaw (the time travel-oriented interactive story), Jigsaw (the film), and the Bow Handle Jigsaw (Bosch power tool).
Locating one of these Jigsaws may be an interesting task. Why? Alphabet Google has rebranded Ideas as Jigsaw. Guess what pops to the top of a Google results list. Check it out with the query “jigsaw”.
I read “Google’s Think Tank ‘Google Ideas’ Becomes Alphabet’s Jigsaw.” I learned there was an entity called Google Ideas. I did not know that. The write up stated:
Alphabet’s Executive Chairman, Eric Schmidt, has now confirmed the next department to see an identity change and this time it is ‘Google Ideas’, which has now become ‘Jigsaw’. Google Ideas was the company’s think tank and as Schmidt notes, was created with the original intention to try and bring to the forefront ideas on how to “help the next five billion people coming online for the first time”.
The search engine optimization for “jigsaw” is working as well as Loon balloons which may loom soon.
Puzzle? Nope. A search for revenue as the traditional desktop search upon which Google was assembled is getting a touch of arthritis.
Stephen E Arnold, February 21, 2016
Print and Digital: Both Goners
February 20, 2016
I read in McPaper this article: “Wolff: Print’s Dead — but So Is Digital.” Okay, I learned from Dr. Francis Chivers (Duquesne University professor in the 1960s) that God is dead. I learned from Francis Fukuyama (assorted universities) that history is dead. Now I learn from McPaper that print and digital are dead. A two’fer! That is what makes McPaper so darned compelling.
The article informed me:
the effort to compete with native digital news outlets like BuzzFeed means traditional news organizations, with traditional share price values, must, like the venture-capital supported natives, pay more for traffic than can ever hope to be made back from advertisers. In this model, the digital natives can yet hope to sell to deep-pocket buyers, whereas the traditionals can only go out of business.
Where does McPaper land in this business scenario?
I noted this passage and its nod to the recently acquired yellow orange newspaper, the Financial Times:
At present, the FT concludes, there is no viable economic model for a written news product. Hence, in some ever-increasing existential darkness, it’s back to the drawing board in search of one.
Question: How many trips to the drawing board do traditional newspaper publishers get to make? I thought the digital revolution kicked off 40 or 50 years ago. I wonder if the drawing board is okay, but the folks visiting it are in a digital version of Sartre’s No Exit.
Well, well, I dare say one gets used to it in time.
Stephen E Arnold, February 20, 2016
The Independent: Gets with Digital Finally
February 20, 2016
I read “Independent to Cease as Print Edition.” The write up contained several interesting statements:
- Some folks will be terminated but there “would be 25 new digital content roles.” There you go. No teaching old dogs new tricks.
- The likely new owners of the “i newspapers” are Johnston Press. What? Who?
- The London Evening Standard continues as it is.
Here’s the quote I circled:
The Independent’s editor Amol Rajan tweeted: “Impossible to over-state how proud I am of the most dedicated, clever, industrious and brave staff in the history of Fleet St.”
Excluding the folks who will be cut loose I assume.
Stephen E Arnold, February 17, 2016
Google in London
February 19, 2016
I know that the Sun newspaper is not an academic journal. I admit to reading its football coverage once every week or so. Enjoyable stuff.
I noted a example of “real” journalism with the alluring title “Kicked in the Googlies.” I am not sure what a “googlie” is, but the notion of kicking reminded me of football, so I read the article.
I learned that the focus of the story was Alphabet Google. The article presented some interesting “real” journalistic facts; to wit:
- Google’s London office has a dance studio
- There are 5,000 Googlers in the Covent Garden office, which is definitely good news for the vendors next to their stalls selling oddments
- Breakfast, lunch and dinner are free. Well, bad news for the food emporia in the new Covent Garden which was Ludenwic and then became a fruit and veggie garden. The gardens gave way to folks who sported at theatres and ogled other folk.
- Onsite haircuts are available in the event that the locks need trimming.
I liked this phrase:
The company is spending £1billion on a new London HQ which has more in common with a holiday camp than an office.
Whoa, Nellie. The write up reveals that Alphabet Google is proposing a new structure near King’s Cross station. The idea is to include “a meditation room, a running track, a games area, and five massage parlors.”
The point of the article is that these offices (real and proposed) are not permanent. The idea that Google is not paying its fair share of taxes holds the disparate factoids together in a chewy caramel of modern fiscal responsibility.
Interesting write up. I envision the ghosts of medieval life enjoy a return to life as it once was. I say, did we ride our horses through your home? Pity that.
Stephen E Arnold, February 19, 2016
Computational Demand: Not So Fast
February 19, 2016
Analytics, Big Data, and smart software. The computer systems today can handle the load.
The death of Moore’s Law; that is, the drive to make chips ever more capable is dead. I just learned this. See “Moore’s Law Really Is Dead This Time.” If that is the case, too bad for some computations.
With the rise of mobile and the cloud, who worries about doing complex calculations?
As it turns out, some researchers do. Navigate to “New Finding May Explain Heat Loss in Fusion Reactors.”
Here’s the passage that underscores the need to innovate in computational systems:
it requires prodigious amounts of computer time to run simulations that encompass such widely disparate scales, explains Howard, who is the lead author on the paper detailing these simulations. Accomplishing each simulation required 15 million hours of computation, carried out by 17,000 processors over a period of 37 days at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center — making this team the biggest user of that facility for the year. Using an ordinary MacBook Pro to run the full set of six simulations that the team carried out…would have taken 3,000 years.
The next time you buy into the marketing baloney, keep in mind the analyses which require computational horsepower. Figuring out who bought what brand of candy on Valentine’s Day is different from performing other types of analyses.
Stephen E Arnold, February 19, 2016
Hobbit: Not Palantir Hobbits
February 19, 2016
I read “Hobbit—First Deliverables and Online Presence.” The news item reminded me that a European consortium “aims to develop a holistic benchmarking platform for big linked data and corresponding industry grade benchmarks.” The article pointed out an open benchmarking platform to evaluate the performance of state of the art systems on standardized hardware. To learn more about this European initiative navigate to this link. Will vendors participate so that meaningful performance data become available? That’s the hope.
Stephen E Arnold, February 19, 2016
Recommind Enables Easier Oversight into E-Discovery for Legal Industry
February 19, 2016
A recent article, entitled Recommind Adds Muscle to Cloud e-Discovery from CMS Wire, highlights an upgrade to Recommind’s Axcelerate e-discovery platform. This information intelligence and governance provider for the legal industry has upped their offering by adding a new efficiency scoring feature to enable “extensive visibility into the overall e-discovery review process.” Recommind make the updated based on polling their clients and finding 80 percent do not have oversight in regards to the technological competency of their outside counsel:
“Citing the same survey, he added that 72 percent of respondents pointed to insufficient visibility into the discovery practices of their outside counsel — legal professionals working with them but outside the firm — as a major concern. Axcelerate Cloud also eliminates the cost unpredictability that arises with traditional hosting charges with cloud-based e-discovery tools providers and the infrastructure maintenance required for on-premises solutions.”
When insights from big data is what a company is after, stronger cloud-based functionality is often the first step. Reminds us of enterprise search firm Autonomy which was eventually sold to HP. What will be next for Recommind?
Megan Feil, February 19, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
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