The State Department Delves into Social Media
October 13, 2015
People and companies that want to increase a form of communication between people create social media platforms. Facebook was invented to take advantage of the digital real-time environment to keep people in contact and form a web of contacts. Twitter was founded for a more quick and instantaneous form of communication based on short one hundred forty character blurbs. Instagram shares pictures and Pinterest connects ideas via pictures and related topics. Using analytics, the social media companies and other organizations collect data on users and use that information to sell products and services as well as understanding the types of users on each platform.
Social media contains a variety of data that can benefit not only private companies, but the government agencies as well. According to GCN, the “State Starts Development On Social Media And Analytics Platform” to collaborate and contribute in real-time to schedule and publish across many social media platforms and it will also be mobile-enabled. The platform will also be used to track analytics on social media:
“For analytics, the system will analyze sentiment, track trending social media topics, aggregate location and demographic information, rank of top multimedia content, identify influencers on social media and produce automated and customizable reports.”
The platform will support twenty users and track thirty million mentions each year. The purpose behind the social media and analytics platform is still vague, but the federal government has proven to be behind in understanding and development of modern technology. This appears to be a step forward to upgrade itself, so it does not get left behind. But a social media platform that analyzes data should have been implemented years ago at the start of this big data phenomenon.
Whitney Grace, October 13, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
CFO Ruth Porat Leads Transparency Directive at Alphabet Google
October 12, 2015
The article titled Google Opens Up to Wall Street on The Wall Street Journal describes the transparency efforts ramping up at Google under the direction of new CFO Ruth Porat. It seems that as risks go up for the “Alphabet” Google thing, the company wants to be more transparent to the Wall Street crowd.
“The new approach has contributed to recent gains in Google shares, Mr. Mahaney said. Google shares are up about 15% in the past three months, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index has dropped about 8%. Google still doesn’t offer revenue or earnings forecasts, as many companies do. But Ms. Porat is trying to provide insight to help investors better understand how Google runs its business and help analysts more easily build financial models. A Google spokesman declined to comment.”
The most impactful initiative the article discusses is “Office Hours,” or analyst and investor briefings wherein Google speaks to public information that will effect expenses, such as the seasonal hiring of recent college graduates. Investor and analyst briefings of this sort are common at most companies, although they skirt securities regulations. As long as Google only discusses already publicly disclosed information in the sessions they are safe.
Chelsea Kerwin, October 12, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Predictive Analytics: The Future of Big Data
October 9, 2015
I read “Predictive Analytics Are the Future of Big Data.” Who makes this pronouncement? None other than mid tier consultants. According to the write up:
Forrester analysts … believe that predictive analytics have never been more relevant and easier to use, and offer ways for forward-thinking enterprises to succeed in competitive sectors.
Why the sudden flurry of interest in predictive analytics? Well, the answer is not far to seek, gentle reader:
Forrester has authored another blast furnace brick of insight called Forrester Wave research Big Data Predictive Analytics Solutions, Q2 2015.
What’s the future hold? I like the predictions as a service. This will be useful to those who want to compare Bing predictions with the actual winner of the Kentucky Derby.
What companies are the leaders in predictive analytics? Forrester offers some well known outfits; for example, the free-spending IBM, the acquisition minded Dell, Microsoft, Oracle, and canny SAP whose enterprise software runs on Oracle, not just HANA. (I bet you knew that.) There are some surprises; for example, Alpine, Alteryx, and Angoss. The graduate student in psychology essential SAS is singled out as a leader in predictive analytics. (I am delighted to know that SAS is not a collection of components and programming methodologies with which one can build numerical machines.) There are some outfits not on my radar because I am simply not with the Forrester program; for example, KNIME and Predixion.
But the most interesting leader in predictive analytics is FICO, which is a publicly traded outfit active in 90 countries . How fresh are FICO’s predictive methods? Pretty fresh based on the Forrester analysis. I noted this passage on the FICO Web site:
Founded in 1956, FICO introduced analytic solutions such as credit scoring that have made credit more widely available, not just in the United States but around the world. We have pioneered the development and application of critical technologies behind decision management. These include predictive analytics, business rules management and optimization. We use these technologies to help businesses improve the precision, consistency and agility of their complex, high–volume decisions.
I am okay with innovations from a company with 59 of doing math for decision management and, of course, predictive analytics. (Wasn’t that calculator and mainframe centric?)
How can you get a copy of the Forrester report and learn about the companies pioneering in the predictive analytics sector? Due to the ominous legal verbiage on my copy of the high value mid tier report, I did not make a list of the companies nor hint at the wealth of insights the mid tier experts captured in the report. For me to get a copy, I clicked this link and the document became available. For you? I am not sure.
Were any companies omitted from the report. Yep, most of the firms I monitor. I am okay with Microsoft and the other big names, but there are some innovators chugging along but off the radar of the mid tier wizards in the mid tier consulting company.
If a company is not on the radar of a mid tier consulting firm, those companies are essentially irrelevant. I wonder if anyone from a mid tier consulting firm will share this devaluation of a certain Google and In-Q-Tel investment with the Alphabet Google thing?
This report is a marketing play. I hope many Fortune 50 companies turn to Forrester to guidance in predictive analytics. If I were a betting person, I would take the FanDuel-type and DraftKings-type approach to certainty. Oh, I just asked myself, “Maybe this is how the mid tier consulting reports already work?” Interesting question.
Stephen E Arnold, October 9, 2015
Attivio Does Data Dexterity
October 9, 2015
Enterprise search company Attivio has an interesting post in their Data Dexterity Blog titled “3 Questions for the CEO.” We tend to keep a close eye on industry leader Attivio, and for good reason. In this post, the company’s senior director of product marketing Jane Zupan posed a few questions to her CEO, Stephen Baker, about their role in the enterprise search market. Her first question has Baker explaining his vision for the field’s future, “search-based data discovery”; he states:
“With search-based data discovery, you would simply type a question in your natural language like you do when you perform a search in Google and get an answer. This type of search doesn’t require a visualization tool. So, for example, you could ask a question like ‘tell me what type of weather conditions which exist most of the time when I see a reduction in productivity in my oil wells.’ The answer that comes back, such as ‘snow,’ or ‘sleet,’ gives you insights into how weather patterns affect productivity. Right now, search can’t infer what a question means. They match the words in a query, or keywords, with words in a document. But [research firm] Gartner says that there is an increasing importance for an interface in BI tools that extend BI content creation, analysis and data discovery to non-skilled users. You don’t need to be familiar with the data or be a business analyst or data scientist. You can be anyone and simply ask a question in your words and have the search engine deliver the relevant set of documents.”
Yes, many of us are looking forward to that day. Will Attivio be the first to deliver? The interview goes on to discuss the meaning of the company’s slogan, “the data dexterity company.” Part of the answer involves gaining access to “dark data” buried within organizations’ data silos. Finally, Zupan asks what “sets Attivio apart?” Baker’s answers: the ability to quickly access data from more sources; deriving structure from and analyzing unstructured data; and friendliness to “non-technical” users.
Launched in 2008, Attivio is headquartered in Newton, Massachusetts. Their team includes folks with an advantageous combination of backgrounds: in search, database, and business intelligence companies.
Cynthia Murrell, October 9, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Savanna Offers Simplistic Search and Analytics
October 9, 2015
Thetus Corporation created Savanna, a collaborative all-source analysis platform based in a Web-browser. The company just released a brand new 4.5 upgrade to Savanna and it is guaranteed to keep users ahead of the competition with insightful information and business connections. Savanna 4.5 comes with some great improvements to search, upload and content management, and new ways to work with structured data. Virtual Strategy Magazine shares the details about the upgrade in “Savanna 4.5 Provides For Meaningful Analysis In Minutes.”
The most talked about feature in the upgrade is the new meaningful analysis:
“New avenues for structured data visualization in Savanna 4.5 allow analysts to uncover new connections between data, deepening their analysis and bringing new insights. The ongoing improvements to Savanna refine the analysis process by making it easy for analysts to search for and manage content, enhancing the overall Savanna experience. Licensed Savanna customers can expect new updates and enhancements on a regular basis.”
Also included in the upgrade is a more intuitive search layout with improved filters for content and source selection, more options to customize a timeline’s appearance, more options for structured data visualization, and integrated upload capabilities with faster upload and better classification.
Some of the new features are standard options in other analytics software, but Thetus has a good track for new business insights with its software.
Whitney Grace, October 9, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Restlet Promotes Paul Doscher to the Cloud
October 8, 2015
What has Paul Doscher been up to? We used to follow him when he was a senior executive over at LucidWorks, but he has changed companies and is now riding on clouds. PRWeb published the press release “Restlet Appoints Paul Doscher As New CEO To Accelerate Deployment Of Most Comprehensive Cloud-Based API Platform.” Doscher is the brand new president, CEO, and board member at Restlet, leading creators of deployed APIs framework. Along with LucidWorks, Doscher held executive roles at VMware, Oracle, Exalead, and BusinessObjects.
Restlet hot its start as an open source project by Jerome Louvel. Doscher will be replacing Louvel as the CEO and is quite pleased about handing over the reins to his successor:
“ ‘I’m extremely pleased that we have someone with Paul’s experience to grow Restlet’s leadership position in API platforms,’ said Louvel. ‘Restlet has the most complete API cloud platform in the industry and our ease of use makes it the best choice for businesses of any size to publish and consume data and services as APIs. Paul will help Restlet to scale so we can help more businesses use APIs to handle the exploding number of devices, applications and use cases that need to be supported in today’s digital economy.’ ”
Doscher wants to break down the barriers for cloud adoption and take it to the next level. His first task as the new CEO will be implementing the API testing tools vendor DHC and using it to enhance Restlet’s API Platform.
Restlet is ecstatic to have Doscher on board and Louvel is probably heading off to a happy retirement.
Whitney Grace, October 8, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Agriculturized Content Marketing
October 7, 2015
When you think of paid content, eggs are probably not the first product you envision. However, the Guardian reveals, “US-Appointed Egg Lobby Paid Food Blogs and Targeted Chef to Crush Vegan Startup.” Apparently, the American Egg Board’s (AEB’s) efforts began when Silicon Valley startup Hampton Creek began gaining traction with their egg alternative. Fearing encroachment on its territory, the AEB is reported to have paid food bloggers up to $2500 to insert their talking points into recipes and other content; to have slammed publications that wrote positive articles about Hampton Creek; to have attempted to recruit celebrities to push real eggs; and, my favorite, to have purchased Google ads that returned AEB-sponsored content when users searched for Hampton Creek or company founder Josh Tetrick.
There is a slight problem: these tactics appear to violate U.S. Department of Agriculture rules. Reporter Sam Thielman tells us:
“The scale of the campaign – dubbed ‘Beyond Eggs’ after Hampton Creek’s original company name – shows the lengths to which a federally-appointed, industry-funded marketing group will go to squash a relatively small Silicon Valley startup, from enlisting a high-powered public relations firm to buying off unwitting bloggers. One leading public health attorney, asked to review the internal communications, said the egg marketing group was in breach of a US department of agriculture (USDA) regulation that specifically prohibited ‘any advertising (including press releases) deemed disparaging to another commodity’. Tetrick called for the USDA to clamp down on the food lobby, as thousands of petitioners called on the White House to investigate the USDA itself for ‘deceptive endorsements’. ‘This is a product that has been around for a very long time,’ the Hampton Creek founder said. ‘They are not used to competition and they don’t know how to deal with it’.”
That’s one way to look at it. It seems that Tetrick’s company, however, is not beyond reproach. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently told them to rename their main product, “Just Mayo,” because mayonnaise, by definition, contains eggs. There also seem to be some issues with their methods and work environment, according to former employees. See the article for more details on this culinary rivalry.
Cynthia Murrell, October 7, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Facebook on Top of App Sales
October 7, 2015
While Facebook is a common social media tool and it does not make headlines as much as it used to, except when it added the new GIF function and angers users by rearranging its options, it now has something even more exciting to shout about. Business Insider reported that, “Facebook’s WhatsApp Hits Another Major Milestone” with a messaging app that it bought back in 2014.
Facebook bought WhatsApp for $19 billion and since its purchase its growth has exploded. There are now nine hundred million active users and it could jump to one billion by the end of the year. Compared to its competitors Viber and WeChat, however, is not bringing in much profit. Zuckerberg has plans for WhatsApp and has asked his investors to be patience. He wants WhatsApp to be a “natural place for people to communicate with businesses.”
” ‘The long-term bet is that by enabling people to have good organic interactions with businesses, that will end up being a massive multiplier on the value of the monetization down the road, when we really work on that, and really focus on that in a bigger way,’ Zuckerberg said.”
Zuckerberg knows what he is doing. He is setting up a messenger platform that people trust, enjoy, and is popular. When you have access to nine hundred million active users and want to grow it to one billion, there are definitely plans to monetize it. We just have to wait.
Whitney Grace, October 7, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Business Intelligence and Data Science: There Is a Difference
October 6, 2015
An article at the SmartDataCollective, “The Difference Between Business Intelligence and Real Data Science,” aims to help companies avoid a common pitfall. Writer Brigg Patton explains:
“To gain a competitive business advantage, companies have started combining and transforming data, which forms part of the real data science. At the same time, they are also carrying out Business Intelligence (BI) activities, such as creating charts, reports or graphs and using the data. Although there are great differences between the two sets of activities, they are equally important and complement each other well.
“For executing the BI functions and data science activities, most companies have professionally dedicated BI analysts as well as data scientists. However, it is here that companies often confuse the two without realizing that these two roles require different expertise. It is unfair to expect a BI analyst to be able to make accurate forecasts for the business. It could even spell disaster for any business. By studying the major differences between BI and real data science, you can choose the right candidate for the right tasks in your enterprise.”
So fund both, gentle reader. Patton distinguishes each position’s area of focus, the different ways they use and look at data, and their sources, migration needs, and job processes. If need to hire someone to perform these jobs, check out this handy clarification before you write up those job descriptions.
Cynthia Murrell, October 6, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Visual Analytics Makes Anyone a Data Expert
October 5, 2015
Humans are sight-based creatures. When faced with a chunk of text or a series of sequential pictures, they will more likely scan the pictures for information than read. With the big data revolution, one of the hardest problems analytics platforms have dealt with is how to best present data for users to implement. Visual analytics is the key, but one visual analytics is not the same as another. DCInno explains that one data visual company stands out from the rest in the article, “How The Reston Startup Makes Everyone A Big Data Expert.”
Zoomdata likes to think of itself as the one visual data companies that gives its clients a one up over others and it goes about it in layman’s terms.
“Zoomdata has been offering businesses and organizations a way to see data in ways more useful than a spreadsheet since it was founded in 2012. Its software offers real-time and historical explorations of data streams, integrating multiple sources into a cohesive whole. This makes the analytics far more accessible than they are in raw form, and allows a layperson to better understand what the numbers are saying without needing a degree in mathematics or statistics.”
Zoomdata offers a very interactive platform and is described to be the only kind on the market. Their clients range from government agencies, such as the Library of Congress, and private companies. Zoomdata does not want to be pigeonholed as a government analytics startup. Their visual data platform can be used in any industry and by anyone with the goal of visual data analytics for the masses. Zoomdata has grown tremendously, tripled its staff, and raised $22.2 million in fundraising.
Now let us sit back and see how their software is implemented in various industries. I wonder if they could make a visual analytics graphic novel?
Whitney Grace, October 5, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
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