Inteltrax: Top Stories, April 16 to April 20
April 23, 2012
Inteltrax, the data fusion and business intelligence information service, captured three key stories germane to search this week, specifically, how three of the biggest supporters of analytics are fairing.
Surprisingly, transportation has taken a shine to analytics, as we discovered in “Transportation Analytics Grows Crucial to Success”.
Not so surprisingly, government spending is leaning heavy on analytics. “Intelligence Community Leads Public Sector Analytics” showed how spy agencies love analytics.
Unfortunately, the one-time titan of analytic love, the medical field, is falling behind, as we learned in “Healthcare Analytics Needs a Boost”.
While there are thousands of industries that utilize big data analytics, these three are probably the most visible. Their successes and failures are important elements of the analytic story and ones we’ll be monitoring daily.
Follow the Inteltrax news stream by visiting www.inteltrax.com
Patrick Roland, Editor, Inteltrax.
April 23, 2012
Google Pursues Big Data
April 20, 2012
It was only a matter of time before Google wanted a piece of the big data pie and the New York Times Bits column reports, “Google Ventures’ Big Data Bet.” Did you know that Google funds an independent venture capital entity called Google Ventures? Currently, Google Ventures is building an internal data sciences team and Hazem Adam Ghobarah is their most recent hire. Ghobarah formerly worked at Google for six years. He will spend his new career searching for investment opportunities in the data analysis business. Ghobarah will work with the companies under Google’s umbrella on how they can gather and make use of the information.
“It should not be too surprising that a Google-created entity should have this bent. Google, along with Web pioneers like Yahoo and Amazon, was crucial to the creation of the emerging Big Data industry. By tracking things like consumer clicks and the behavior of thousands of computer servers working together, they amassed large volumes of data at a time when collapsing prices for data storage made it attractive to analyze. They also captured information from nontraditional sources, like e-mail, leading them to create so-called “unstructured” database software like Hadoop and MapReduce.”
The methods Google uses to analyze web traffic and predict patterns can be applied to other fields as more data moves online. Google Ventures is one of many companies who are venturing into big data. Everyone is trying to make a buck from the next big trend. The question is will we get a lot of companies chasing the big data client, but will their products and services be top quality?
Whitney Grace, April 20, 2012
Sponsored by OpenSearchNews.com
Datameer Explains Its Services
April 20, 2012
SmartData Collective’s Bob Gourley gives his take on a fairly young company in “Datameer Provides End-User Focused BI Solutions for Big Data Analytics.” The company, founded in 2009, supplies a business intelligence platform that runs on top of the open source Hadoop engine from Apache. Gourley writes:
“Datameer provides a big data solution that focuses on perhaps the most important niche in this growing domain, the end-user. . . . I’ve met with the CEO (Stefan Groschupf) and other Datameer executives. I’ve also interacted with them in events like our Government Big Data Forum. Through these events plus demonstrations by some of their greatest engineers has led me to a few conclusions about Datameer. In general, I believe enterprise technologists should take note of this firm for several reasons.”
Those reasons include: familiar and easy-to-use interfaces; the availability of free trials; scalability; software wizards that guide non-techies through accessing and integrating data; the ability to deploy either on premises or in the cloud; and the ease with which capabilities can be expanded through plug-ins and open APIs.
These are all good features, it is true. But we still have one important question: what differentiates this outfit from such fast movers as Ikanow, Quid, and Digital Reasoning?
Cynthia Murrell, April 20, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
IBM and Its Analytics Roll Up
April 20, 2012
IBM created WebFountain. In 2004, Searchblog posted a lengthy discussion of a system which would make sense out of the World Wide Web. “WebFountain, the Long Version” was a result of information provided by IBM’s engineers at its Almaden research facility. In 2004, WebFountain was one consequence of “ten years of work at Almaden on the problem of search.” The system was able to perform a number of sophisticated processes in order to allow IBM customers to make sense of large volumes of data. Wikipedia has a brief write up in which WebFountain is described as an “Internet analytical engine implemented by IBM for the study of unstructured data.”
In “IBM Betting Big Bucks on Data Analytics Software” I learned that IBM acquired Varicent Software. Varicent is an analytics and sales performance management company, which is a vertical solution with analytics as a foundation block. The key point in that article is that IBM’s “make sense out of data” revenue is expected to hit $16 billion by 2015. With analytics emerging as a hot sector for start ups, IBM seems to be a giant.
However, IBM’s analytics shadow has not been built on IBM innovations. The company has pursued an acquisition path with milestones such as Cognos (a $4.9 billion purchase in 2007) and SPSS (a $1.2 billion purchase in 2009), and the recent Varicent deal for an undisclosed amount. In addition, IBM acquired Algorithmics, Clarity Systems, i2, and OpenPages. “IBM and Varicent: Another Piece of the Analytics Puzzle” noted “IBM’s 4Q11 acquisition of DemandTec enables companies in the retail and distribution industries to make insightful decisions around pricing, while the fourth quarter acquisition of Emptoris focuses on improving and facilitating supply chain management decisions.”
Each is an analytics vendor.
The approach was described by Zacks.com as “accretive acquisitions.” “IBM to Buy Varicent Software” said:
Since 2005, the company has invested $14.0 billion in acquiring 25 companies. The company has engaged more than 10,000 technical professionals and 7,500 consultants in its analytics operations. IBM has 8 analytics solutions centers across the world and has more than 100 analytics-based research assets.
At a recent conference, analytics vendors talked about the demand for their services. None of the firms making presentation—for example, mentioned the IBM analytics empire or it possible dominance of the industry.
Several observations about IBM’s impact on the analytics sector.
First, there is now considerable blurring of structured data and unstructured data. The term “big data” implies that there are sufficient volumes of data to require highly sophisticated “roll up” systems to make sense of available information. IBM’s portfolio of analytics companies seems to have a solution to almost any business problem. At this time, IBM’s analytics products and services are not tightly integrated. Some assembly required applies to most analytics solutions. Will IBM be able to offer the “snap in,” fast start, and point-and-click approach some organizations desire?
Second, IBM’s broad portfolio of analytics tools, vertical solutions, and components is extremely broad and deep. IBM’s Web page “Take the Lead with business Analytics” covers only a fraction of what the company offers. How will IBM solution engineers keep track of what’s available and how certain products best solve certain customer problems?
Third, IBM seems to be collecting technologies, revenues, and customers. Some of the companies IBM has acquired such as i2 Group require specialized skills and expertise. In the case of i2, the typical analytics professional would require additional vetting and training to work with the firm’s particular tools. How many other of IBM’s analytics acquisitions “look” on the surface to be general purpose but on closer inspection are actually quite narrow and deep in their application?
My view is that IBM’s investments in analytics have created a demand for analytics. How can Big Blue be wrong? On the other hand, IBM may find that buying analytics companies does not deliver the payoff IBM management and IBM customers expect. The time, cost, and actual “real world” deliverables may be different from the expectations.
IBM will have to demonstrate that it can create a portfolio of solutions which can compete with the lower cost, cloud centric approaches that are proliferating. IBM has an anchor in open source search for unstructured data and a number of specialized luxury yachts for structured data. From a distance the fleet looks formidable. Up close, the same vulnerability teenagers in a skiff exploit in commercial shipping traffic may exist.
What’s clear is that IBM’s reputation for innovation has given way to innovation via acquisition. My hypothesis is that analytics is a very fragmented and niche business. IBM may have to buy more and more analytics vendors just to have a solution for the quite individualized problems many organizations face.
Stephen E Arnold, April 20, 2012
Sponsored by OpenSearchNews.com
Attivio Beefs Up Staff
April 19, 2012
Attivio has welcomed aboard David Woroboff, as Market Watch informs us in “Attivio Appoints General Manager of Government Solutions.” A former Northrop Grumman employee, Woroboff is known for inventive answers. Attivio President & CEO Ali Riaz commented:
“For our rapidly-expanding customer base in government, intelligence, and law enforcement, the challenge of managing extreme information is even more critical due to the immensely high stakes involved. When lives are at stake, there is no margin for error of delayed response. David brings his rich experience and proven ability to understand their mission challenges and problems to the conversation — we are confident that his perspective and insight will translate to broader deployment of Attivio’s solutions across this sector.”
There certainly is a lot at stake in the field of government, intelligence, and law enforcement. Fortunately, Attivio boasts high-performance, cost-effective approaches to the complex data challenges faced by government agencies and their defense and aerospace colleagues. Attivio prides itself on innovatively integrating enterprise search, intelligence, and analytic capabilities to provide the best solutions.
Cynthia Murrell, April 19, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Real Journalist Ignores Future of Many Real Journalists
April 18, 2012
Years ago I worked for Bill Ziff, yep, the magazine guy. In the late 1980s and in the early years of the 1990s, magazines worked. But today magazines are no longer the slam dunk. In 1989 it took about $1 million to get a new title off the ground. If you had lots of titles, the costs were still punishing but there were economies of scale.
I read “Is a Blogger a Journalist?”, published in a property once owned by Mr. Ziff. The write up contains this passage:
Hopefully this un-American precedent will be reversed shortly. Meanwhile, the public should be outraged. Furthermore, for years, many writers have advocated for the idea that the Bill of Rights is outdated in the modern era and that journalists per se should be regulated. These people should be strongly rebuked. If we do not protect our rights, we lose them.
Sounds good. My thoughts are:
- The distinction between a “real” journalist, a run-of-the-mill journalist like those riffed from the Courier Journal a couple weeks ago, and bloggers is a fuzzy one indeed. Fuzziness leads to ambiguity, of which there are seven types.
- When “real” journals find a way to make money like the News Corp., the notion of behavior becomes somewhat plastic. Alleged criminal behavior seems to surface when some of the “real” journalists’ methods come to light. The run-of-the-mill journalists try to build a following or eek out an income doing whatever. I had one writer tell me he made more spreading mulch than producing content for my non-real information services.
- The folks who consume content do not know when a story is “real”, “shaded,” or flat out incorrect. The ability or willingness to dig in and determine facts, no matter how slippery, is eroding. The rush to “smart software” which tells a person what he or she needs to know is the next wave in information.
Bottom line: Say, hello, to murky. Do you know if the search results you get from Bing, Google, or Yandex are “accurate”? I didn’t think so. Assumptions are much easier than figuring out what is going on with “free” content no matter who produces it. I have not decided if I will post the paper I am giving at the Text Analytics Conference in San Francisco next week. The subject? Manipulating predictive systems by exploiting persistence, simplification, and sampling.
Stephen E Arnold, April 18, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Algorithms Can Deliver Skewed Results
April 18, 2012
After two days of lectures about the power of social media analytics, Stephen E Arnold raised doubts about the reliability of certain analytics outputs. He opined: “Faith in analytics may be misplaced.”
Arnold’s lecture focused on four gaps in social media analytics. He pointed out that many users were unaware of the trade offs in algorithm selection made by vendors’ programmers. Speaking at the Social Media Analytics Summit, he said:
Many companies purchase social media analytics reports without understanding that the questions answered by algorithms may not answer the customer’s actual question.
He continued:
The talk about big data leaves the impression that every item is analyzed and processed. The reality is that sampling methods, like the selection of numerical recipes can have a significant impact on what results become available.
The third gap, he added, “is that smart algorithms display persistence. With smart software, some methods predict a behavior and then look for that behavior because the brute force approach is computationally expensive and adds latency to a system.” He said:
Users assume results are near real time and comprehensive. The reality is that results are unlikely to be real time and built around mathematical methods which value efficiency and cleverness at the expense of more robust analytic methods. The characteristic is more pronounced in user friendly, click here type of systems than those which require to specify a method using SAS or SPSS syntax.”
The final gap is the distortion that affects outputs from “near term, throw forward biases.” Arnold said:
Modern systems are overly sensitive to certain short term content events. This bias is most pronounced when looking for emerging trend data. In these types of outputs the “now” data respond to spikes and users act on identified trends often without appropriate context.
The implication of these gaps is that outputs from some quite sophisticated systems can be misleading or present information as fact when that information has been shaped to a marketer’s purpose.
The Social Media Analytics conference was held in San Francisco, April 17 and 18, 2012. More information about the implications of these gaps may be found at the Augmentext.com Web site.
Donald C Anderson, April 18, 2012,
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Big Data: The Next Bubble
April 18, 2012
A colleague in Europe sent me information about a new study sponsored by SAS. To tow the line, I have done work for SAS in the past and we use SAS technology for certain types of analytic work. Nevertheless, the SAS report surprised me with its robust estimate of the uptake of big data, which is now the buzzword and trend poster child for 2012. The report was generated by CEBR, which is an azure chip outfit performing various analyses for government entities and enterprisers.
First, you will need to snag a copy of the report “Data Equity: Unlocking the Value of Big Data.” SAS did not “know” me, so I had to register again and you may have to jump through hoops as well. I don’t know if SAS will call to sell me something, but you may get a ringy dingy. Don’t blame me.
The main point of the study is that every industrial sector will be forced to deal with big data. Okay, as news flashes go, this is not one which lit up the Beyond Search editorial team. We did notice a number of interesting charts. The one reproduced below shows how much uptake in big data occurs by industrial sector today and in 2017. The key point is that the numbers and bars show big data becoming a “big” deal.
Source © 2012 Centre for Economics and business Research Ltd.
My view is that the study is interesting. Omitted is obvious weightings which consider:
- Economic downturns in the broad economy
- Facts which suggest even laggard sectors like manufacturing will embrace the big data shift
- Exogenous factors such as war in the Middle East or in the volatile areas bordering on China.
So big estimates go with big data. Big dreams are useful. Reality? Well, that is often different.
Stephen E Arnold, April 17, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Conflicting Facebook Studies Should Be Taken With a Grain of Salt
April 17, 2012
Search Engine Watch’s Miranda Miller recently reported on some interesting brand trends resulting from Facebook’s switch to the Timeline in the article “Conflicting Facebook Brand Page Studies Highlight Universal Truths in Online Marketing.”
According to the article, there have been conflicting reports regarding fan engagement with the new Facebook timeline. Simply Measured’s study found that fan engagement increased 14 percent; content engagement was up 46 percent; and interactive content engagement skyrocketed 65 percent. EdgeRank Checker, on the other hand, concluded that brand pages are seeing a drop in engagement, regardless of whether they’ve switched to Timeline. Plus they had a much larger sample group of 3,500 pages compared with Simply Measured’s measly 15.
After sitting several other conflicting studies that are bound to make your head spin, Miller encourages readers not to drink the Kool-Aid:
“We can use their data not at face value as the be-all-that-ends-all or cornerstone of our own strategy, but as a benchmark for our own pages. It could mean as much to you as the catalyst for a full audit of your own accounts, or as little as a piece you skimmed over in 30 seconds and might only recall as, “I heard something, somewhere about that… 190 percent or something, what was that…”
Okay, Facebook helps reveal “universal strategies”. We’re believers in universal strategies from the commons, are you?
Jasmine Ashton, April 17, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Inteltrax: Top Stories, April 9 to April 13
April 16, 2012
Inteltrax, the data fusion and business intelligence information service, captured three key stories germane to search this week, specifically, the ways in which money is dealt with in analytic terms.
Saving money is the focus of “Knowing Needs and Wants Save Tons with Big Data” which aims to help buyers decide what they want in an analytic package before buying.
Making the right investment for you is covered in “Speed is the Analytic Key” which says, above all other factors, spend extra money on speed because that’s the quickest to get outdated.
Finally, “Series-B Investments Expand Analytic Growth” shows how smaller firms and startups depend on private investors to compete with the big names in a big data.
Money makes the world go around and the big data planet is no different. But the ways in which it is saved and spent and acquired could fill a book. We are writing a new chapter every day and hope you’ll join us.
Follow the Inteltrax news stream by visiting www.inteltrax.com
Patrick Roland, Editor, Inteltrax.
April 16, 2012
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