Kontagent Ksuite Enhanced
April 15, 2012
The Kontagent Blog recently reported on their new enhanced suite of their social/mobile analytics platform in the post “Kontagent’s New Ksuite DataMine Changes Social/Mobile Analytics Game for App Developers.”
According to the article, the enhanced kSuite platform, now includes a data mining option that equips data analysts with unlimited query powers to help social gaming and mobile app developers better engage and monetize users. As one of the only app analytics solutions available on the cloud that allows for big data exploration. It also allows more flexibility and power than ever before.
Jeff Tseng, Kontagent Co-Founder and CEO said:
“Until now, data mining in our market has been largely unaffordable. You had to build or license expensive proprietary software, buy the servers, load the data, and hire engineers to maintain the database. With the kSuite DataMine solution, we are literally changing the game as well as dramatically reducing costs by providing a turnkey, 100% hosted solution with no customer overhead whatsoever.”
As technological progression moves towards apps rather than individual products, Kontagent’s DataMine is certainly a game changer.
Jasmine Ashton, April 15, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
IBM Does Big Interstellar Data
April 14, 2012
Venture Beat recently reported on a new universal sized undertaking by IBM in the article, “IBM Takes on a Gigantic Computing Task to Find the Universe’s Origins.”
According to the article, IBM has won a $42 million contract to work with the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON) to help decipher data from the world’s largest telescope that explores the origins of the universe. It’s known as the SKA project. Pretty cool, huh? too bad the project won’t be completed until 2024. The article states:
“The SKA project is backed by an international consortium to build the world’s largest and most sensitive radio telescope. Scientists estimate that the processing power required to operate the telescope will be equal to several millions of today’s fastest computers. The telescope will be used to explore evolving galaxies, dark matter, and data from the Big Bang, or the creation of the universe more than 13 billion years ago.”
This project has been referred to as big data analytics to the extreme. However, while this is a very cool endeavor, we wonder why IBM hasn’t brought Watson into the mix. Oh, Watson is busy curing disease. Next up interstellar big data.
Jasmine Ashton, April 14, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
An Adobe Core Competency: Analytics
April 14, 2012
Buy a company and you are an expert in what that acquisition does. I think that is how former middle school teachers, MBAs, and azure chip consultants perceive their expertise.
Media Post News Online recently posted the article “Adobe’s Project Midas Expands Predictive Marketing Tools,” which reports on Adobe Systems’ plan to push deeper into online marketing by adding software that can predict consumer behavior to the Adobe Digital Marketing Suite.
According to the article, the new product was tested around Black Friday, but sales fell short of Adobe’s other electronic offerings. So they have adjusting their advertising spending to compensate for this setback.
The article states:
“Adobe, which captures more than six trillion transactions yearly for more than 5,000 digital customers, collectively represents more than 27 petabytes of data. The company runs software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings through 23,500 servers and networked devices in 19 data center co-location sites. Aseem Chandra, vice president of marketing for Adobe’s Digital Marketing Business, calls the new feature “predictive marketing” to analyze events throughout the entire funnel to help marketers analyze the data to determine any concerns.”
It’s good to see that Adobe is keeping up with the times by adding predictive analytics software to their solutions. Will the analytics interface be designed to be difficult for 67 years olds to read? Oh, Adobe is an expert in interface design. Will this blend of art and math roll out a market steamroller? We watching.
Jasmine Ashton, April 14, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
English Majors Rejoice: WolframAlpha Does Willy
April 11, 2012
I know that quite a few search engine optimization wizards, most MBAs, and probably two thirds of the attorneys love William Shakespeare. From the wonderful days in those teen years all the way through English 410 at a top-notch school like the University of Phoenix. Willy’s passion is that which passes show to the glass of fashion, text mining. Ah, analytics, how use doth breed a habit in a man.
Well, not the entire corpus of Shakespeare. “Rape of Lucrece” warrants a “WolframAlpha doesn’t understand your query.” So for my own part, it was Greek to me.
Navigate to “To Computer or Not to Compute—WolframAlpha Analyzes Shakespeare’s Plays.” I thought immediately about Vivisimo’s academic vertical search demonstrations. These were great fun, but I am not sure that academic subjects hit the Instagram jack pot. The service may be useful to those trying for figure out which character was Desdemona’s mother’s maid, and I think the service helps educate some graduate students into the virtues of doing close reading by scanning outputs from a set of algorithms little understood. Here’s the passage in the write up I noted:
Entering a play into Wolfram|Alpha, like A Midsummer Night’s Dream, brings up basic information, such as number of acts, scenes, and characters. It also provides more in-depth info like longest word, most frequent words, number of words and sentences, and more. It’s also easy to find more specific information about a particular act or scene with queries like “What is the longest word in King Lear?”, “What is the average sentence length of Macbeth?”, and “How many unique words are there in Twelfth Night?”.
Literature teachers will face essays in which words fly up. What is below is a numerical recipes. And close reading? We have heard the chimes at midnight.
Stephen E Arnold, April 11, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Woopra Educates Users about Web Analytics
April 11, 2012
We paid attention in statistics class. The quality of the data and the questions one frames are key to making any analytics exercise work. Punching buttons and generating pretty charts and graphs are not too helpful if the underlying data and the questions are off base, incorrect, or training wheels for a hassled MBA.
Quora recently posed the question “Web Analytics: Most companies don’t use the full potential of their Web Analytics tools. What do you think?” and received eight answers.The most thought provoking response came from Natalie Issa, the Marketing Director of the web analytics company Woopra.
According to Issa, there are four key points one should keep in mind when tackling the web analytics challenge. These are: Google analytics, marketing vs. developers, large companies vs. small, and educating users.
When discussing the importance of educating users, Issa writes:
“Web analytics services need to invest and devote resources to educating users. The company I work for, Woopra, is tackling this head on by hiring individuals whose job it is to teach and create learning materials for our users to make sure they have all the support they need (if this sounds like your kind of job, feel free to message me :)). We’re also seeing more and more marketing firms and consultants helping small and medium size businesses with their web analytics needs.”
Does this mean that customers are making decisions without an appropriate understanding of what the math behind the system actually delivers? Our view: training wheels on analytics can produce some interesting consequences.
The reality is that analytics will not solve problems reliably unless the users understand the data and frame the correct question. Statistics 101. It is not the training; it is the fact that people want a silver bullet, not mental effort. Just our view, of course. Marketers have a different goal, and it is not education, is it?
Jasmine Ashton, April 11, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Thetus Rolls Out Multi Int Upgrade
April 10, 2012
Thetus is rolling out multi-intelligence software, we learn in Online PR’s “Thetus Debuts Newest Release of Multi-Int Analysis Solution, Savanna, at DoDIIS 2012.” The application builds on existing intelligence community investments, supporting the development of mission-specific functionality and enabling integration between agencies. Both worthy goals.
Savanna3 was just debuted at the Department of Defense Intelligence Information Systems Worldwide Conference in Denver, Colorado. The conference is a place for defense and intelligence IT pros to share current and future capabilities, investigate solutions, and share best practices.
The write up reveals:
“Savanna is a multi-Int, model-enabled analysis solution that builds on customer’s existing investments and programs bringing together multi-source analysis techniques to enable faster, more informed decision-making. Savanna is a solution that provides an integrated user experience for search, visualization, discovery, and output of actionable intelligence all while providing robust, analytic capabilities.”
Founded in 2003 in Portland, Oregon, Thetus focuses on predictive semantic modeling, outcome evaluation, and ongoing development of best practices. They embrace the challenges of complex systems; that’s a very good thing for someone serving the defense/intelligence community! The company also boasts clients in the fields of energy, law enforcement, and environmental services.
Cynthia Murrell, April 10, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Open Source Analytics Information Service Now Available
April 9, 2012
ArnoldIT has rolled out The Trend Point information service. Published Monday through Friday, the information services focuses on the intersection of open source software and next-generation analytics. The approach will be for the editors and researchers to identify high-value source documents and then encapsulate these documents into easily-digested articles and stories. In addition, critical commentary, supplementary links, and important facts from the source document are provided. Unlike a news aggregation service run by automated agents, librarians and researchers use the ArnoldIT Overflight tools to track companies, concepts, and products. The combination of human-intermediated research with Overflight provide an executive or business professional with a quick, easy, and free way to keep track of important developments in open source analytics. There is no charge for the service.
Stories include:
- White House Orders Big Data Solutions
- Public and Private Sectors Combine for Big Savings
- Analytic Revolution Looks Different from 90s Dotcom Boom
According to the publisher, Stephen E Arnold:
We believe that commercial abstracting and indexing services have become untenable for the busy professional. We have combined traditional indexing, literature reviews, and critical commentary which help reduce the time required to pinpoint the meaningful information in this exploding open source analytics field.
Our business model is to provide high value information without a fee. Individuals, law firms, and private equity firms wanting additional information about the people, companies, and products we cover are free to contact us. Like other professional services’ firms, we rely on motivated individuals with an information need to tap into our full-scale, in-depth research.
What sets TheTrendPoint and other ArnoldIT.com information services apart is that its approach is similar to that used by commercial information services such as Medline and Disclosure, two information services designed to make reference services more useful.
At this time, TheTrendPoint.com is designed to complement the finding services which ArnoldIT.com publishes. ArnoldIT.com is one of the leading sources of information on subjects ranging from search and content processing to next-generation intelligence systems.
New content is added to the service Monday to Friday. For more information about the service, contact the publisher at seaky2000 at yahoo dot com.
Kenneth Toth, April 9, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Protected: Exclusive Interview: David B. Camarata, IKANOW
April 9, 2012
Inteltrax: Top Stories, April 2 to April 6
April 9, 2012
Inteltrax, the data fusion and business intelligence information service, captured three key stories germane to search this week, specifically, lesser known industries falling in love with analytics.
“Safety Analytics Fits Every Industry” showed us how big data is adding major advances in public and private security.
“Small Biz Gaining in Big Data” told more about what we already know: data analytics helps level the playing field for small businesses.
“Customer Service Propels Many BI Companies” delves into the ways in which supporting users is helping vendors succeed.
Analytics is invading our world, often in the most unexpected places. This is just a small sampling of the deep research we provide every day.
Follow the Inteltrax news stream by visiting www.inteltrax.com
Patrick Roland, Editor, Inteltrax.
April 9, 2012
MarkLogic Adds Big Data to Its Line Up
April 7, 2012
MarkLogic Corporation has specialized in XML databases for years, but now they have turned their attention to Big Data. Marketwatch.com reports in, “Big Data Takes Center Stage at MarkLogic World 2012” that on May 1-3, 2012 in the Ronald Regan Building in our nation’s capital, Big Data leaders and MarkLogic experts will be gathered in one place. The conference presents an excellent opportunity to meet and network with the experts, but it is also a chance to learn about industry trends, new ideas, and tips/techniques. We noted:
MarkLogic World 2012 will be keynoted by retired Adm. Mike Mullen, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2007 to 2011. Mullen will discuss “The Intersection of National Security and the Global Economy.” In his keynote, Mullen will talk about the challenges he faced while serving as the top military adviser to the president and the secretary of defense through two administrations. Mullen will also discuss the challenges facing America, looking at economic growth, infrastructure, education, and foreign and military policy.
Other nig names are three leading research analysts: Matt Aslett, research manager, 451 Research; Mark Beyer, research vice president, Gartner; and Noel Yuhanna, principal analyst, Forrester, who will give a rundown on major trends in Big Data at their panel. An award ceremony will also be held to honor leaders and innovators in the field. Conferences are always the best tools, outside of LinkedIn and other professional social networking web sites, to connect with potential collaborators and get ideas for future projects. However, these conferences surprised us—is it a marketing or technological reconfiguration of our favorite XQuery system with proprietary extensions?
The defense flavor is interesting. With the US budget gripping the scissors for some defense spending, is MarkLogic aware of a funding windfall in this sector? With the harsh actions taken toward inappropriate General Services Administration spending, the US government market may face as much turmoil as commercial sectors like book, magazine, and newspaper funding.
Is the notion of big data the next golden goose. The farm yard is getting crowded. The number of azure chip consultants on the program is interesting as well. With MarkLogic a leader in XML, enterprise search, and big data, the company seems to be poised to grow rapidly. We’re looking for hard data about gross sales, margins, and market share in the company’s core markets.
Whitney Grace, April 4, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
