New Offering from Attensity Poised to Blow Up ROI
December 21, 2012
Analytics tools from social-minded vendors are now using text analytics technology to report on market perception and consumer preferences before the product launch. BtoB reported on this new offering in the article, “Attensity Releases Analytics Tools for Product Introductions.”
Now, businesses will be able to monitor product introductions with this new tool from Attensity. It is only a matter of time before we start seeing specific technology solutions to evaluate and analyze every specific phase of the product development cycle.
Both new insights for further developments and opportunities to avoid risk will be possible with New Product Introduction.
The article states:
“The tool uses text analytics technology to report on market perception and preferences before roll out, uncovering areas of risk and opportunity, according to the company. It then tracks customer reception upon and after the launch to determine the impact of initial marketing efforts. Attensity said the New Product Introduction tool is one in a series of planned social text-analytics applications devoted to customer care, branding, and campaign and competitive analytics.”
Many organizations will be chomping at the bit to utilize this technology since it offers an easy way to improve ROI.
Megan Feil, December 21, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Capability Smart on Route to Becoming New Buzzword
December 21, 2012
The countdown to 2013 is here in the form of predictions of technology trends. This year ‘capability smart’ popped up on Gartner’s recent list. Soon after,Connotate posted a recent article called, “Gaining Insights from Big Data and Analytics Requires Companies to be “Capability Smart.”
We learned how Connotate sees this idea manifesting at their company: partnerships. They have partnered with Clarabridge, Crowdsource, Digital Reasoning, Luminoso, SJV Associates, and Temis.
While capability smart veers off into many possible directions as far as a definition, the most fundamental level suggests:
“[T]hat we shouldn’t spin our wheels trying to build in-house solutions when there is a perfectly good commercial technology available that can do what it is that you need. For instance, when it comes to leveraging Web data for your Big Data projects, it’s not necessary to ask IT and Developer resources to build web scrapers to monitor products, pricing, reviews, asset sales, inventories or any other kind of accessible Web data, you can use a commercial solution.”
Now that Gartner has called 2013 the year where vendors must become capability smart, we might be seeing this phrase more often than big data. Capability smart means, amongst other definitions, that buzz words still work.
Megan Feil, December 21, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Predictive Coding: Who Is on First? What Is the Betting Game?
December 20, 2012
I am confused, but what’s new? The whole “predictive analytics” rah rah causes me to reach for my NRR 33 dB bell shaped foam ear plugs.
Look. If predictive methods worked, there would be headlines in the Daily Racing Form, in the Wall Street Journal, and in the Las Vegas sports books. The cheerleaders for predictive wizardry are pitching breakthrough technology in places where accountability is a little fuzzier than a horse race, stock picking, and betting on football games.
The godfather of cost cutting for legal document analysis. Revenend Thomas Bayes, 1701 to 1761. I heard he said, “Praise be, the math doth work when I flip the numbers and perform the old inverse probability trick. Perhaps I shall apply this to legal disputes when lawyers believe technology will transform their profession.” Yep, partial belief. Just the ticket for attorneys. See http://goo.gl/S5VSR.
I understand that there is PREDICTION which generates tons of money to the person who has an algorithm which divines which nag wins the Derby, which stock is going to soar, and which football team will win a particular game. Skip the fuzzifiers like 51 percent chance of rain. It either rains or it does not rain. In the harsh world of Harrod’s Creek, capital letter PREDICTION is not too reliable.
The lower case prediction is far safer. The assumptions, the unexamined data, the thresholds hardwired into the off-the-shelf algorithms, or the fiddling with Bayesian relaxation factors is aimed at those looking to cut corners, trim costs, or figure out which way to point the hit-and-miss medical research team.
Which is it? PREDICTION or prediction.
I submit that it is lower case prediction with an upper case MARKETING wordsmithing.
Here’s why:
I read “The Amazing Forensic Tech behind the Next Apple, Samsun Legal Dust Up (and How to Hack It).” Now that is a headline. Skip the “amazing”, “Apple”, “Samsung,” and “Hack.” I think the message is that Fast Company has discovered predictive text analysis. I could be wrong here, but I think Fast Company might have been helped along by some friendly public relations type.
Let’s look at the write up.
First, the high profile Apple Samsung trial become the hook for “amazing” technology. the idea is that smart software can grind through the text spit out from a discovery process. In the era of a ballooning digital data, it is really expensive to pay humans (even those working at a discount in India or the Philippines) to read the emails, reports, and transcripts.
Let a smart machine do the work. It is cheaper, faster, and better. (Shouldn’t one have to pick two of these attributes?)
Fast Company asserts:
“A couple good things are happening now,” Looby says. “Courts are beginning to endorse predictive coding, and training a machine to do the information retrieval is a lot quicker than doing it manually.” The process of “Information retrieval” (or IR) is the first part of the “discovery” phase of a lawsuit, dubbed “e-discovery” when computers are involved. Normally, a small team of lawyers would have to comb through documents and manually search for pertinent patterns. With predictive coding, they can manually review a small portion, and use the sample to teach the computer to analyze the rest. (A variety of machine learning technologies were used in the Madoff investigation, says Looby, but he can’t specify which.)
More Funding for DataSift Means More Offerings
December 20, 2012
Technology focused on analytics for the social realm picks up speed. Tech.Huanqiu.com reported on more venture capital funding going towards DataSift. The article “Social Data Analysis Company DataSift $15 Financing” reveals the details on the funding given to this firm specializing in helping developers and third-party access to Twitter, Facebook and other sites.
This technology uses natural language processing techniques and is therefore not solely limited to search function keywords. Their most unique functionality involves their many filters that can sort information according to a variety of factors.
The article discusses how DataSift’s 300 corporate customers, but:
“[C]ompared with 200 a quarter has improved, including Fortune 500 companies, also including social technology companies, news agencies, consulting firms and government agencies. DataSift also recently released a variety of new services to facilitate corporate social data analysis and commercial data integration. This service and business intelligence applications, databases, data warehousing platform and other cloud computing services complement each other, including Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon S3, MongoDB, CouchDB, FTP / SFTP, ElasticSearch and WebHooks.”
When DataSift gets more money, they will have even more ability to support more services. Not that the current list has that many shortcomings.
Megan Feil, December 20, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Another Partnership Locked in for Tableau
December 18, 2012
The press release published on CTOLabs announces the partnership between Karmaspehere and Tableau. The release entitled, “Karmasphere and Tableau Partner to Deliver Rich, End-to-End Big Data Analytics Solution,” posits a current era of transition into a new world of big data analytics.
The selling point and the feat these two companies have accomplished by working together is the self-service ability without any IT involvement. The analytics workflow includes data ingestion, exploration, analysis, reporting and visualization – all without reliance on IT.
Chief Executive Gail Ennis is quoted by the release:
“It is time to bridge the gap between Big Data Analytics and BI. Tableau is the world’s fastest growing BI company with industry-standard reporting and visualization capabilities. Customers who live in this BI world will now be able to access the power of Hadoop through Karmasphere, and get their Big Data analytics delivered seamlessly through Tableau.”
What is more important that Karmasphere customers can now access Hadoop and Tableau customers can now access big data analytics through that platform? Well, this partnership is one of Tableau’s many recent partnership announcements. We are not counting, but they certainly seem to have friends in the right places.
Megan Feil, December 18, 2012
Sponsored by Arnold IT.com, developer of Augmentext
Small Business Gets Business Intelligence Too
December 17, 2012
Many enterprise information management vendors target larger enterprise organizations that can stomach paying big bucks to manage information. There are more and more small businesses with savvy ownership looking to extract value from big data, however. Several very affordable options are outlined in the Terra article, “Data Crunch: 5 Analysis Tools for Small Businesses.”
Tech giant Google obviously has a solution in this arena, like they do in every other arena. The Application Gallery is an app market connecting third-party developers to Google Analytics to essentially expand its features.
We learned:
“Google Apps Application Gallery can be a place to start for owners looking to upgrade their data analysis IQ quickly and easily. Price: You can browse the Application Gallery for free. You can purchase apps for varying fees. Hub’scan runs $750 for 250,000 analyzed pages, LogMycalls is free to start, with paid services running $29 per month.”
Additionally, the other four solutions are: WolframAlpha’s Facebook Reports, Quantum Leap Buzz, JackBe Presto, and Recorded Future. Business intelligence for small business has definitely arrived. The only question remaining is whether or not these tiny companies have the resources to use it.
Megan Feil, December 17, 2012
Sponsored by Arnold IT.com, developer of Augmentext
Big Data plus European Football Equals Beautiful
December 17, 2012
Of course there is a reason for real-time UK football analysis companies to exist. With the amount of money fueled into this industry and the huge amount of buzz games and predictions draw, it would be silly for a company like Squawka not to be here. The Guardian delves into how this company works in the article, “How Does Big Data Add to the Experience of Watching Football?”
Social analytics expert, DataSift is also on board. On October 28, they tracked over 380,000 Tweets and gained insight on sentiment during the game where Chelsea lost to Manchester United.
The article quotes Squawka’s co-founder and CEO:
“There are so many ways we can use this sort of data, and we’re certainly planning to do more in this area. For example, does a bit of ultimately unnecessary skill boost online reaction more than a simple yet effective pass? Do foreign players get more abuse for diving than their English counterparts? It’s all in the data.”
Squawka will be adding services for cricket and formula one racing due to their success with European football. We find this usage of big data absolutely fascinating and completely beautiful. It is a creative way of adding even more to already amazing games.
Megan Feil, December 17, 2012
Sponsored by Arnold IT.com, developer of Augmentext
IBM Asks Britain to Discover Full Potential of Crime Analysis Software
December 14, 2012
England and Wales residents are soon to elect local cop chiefs, and IBM is already trying to help the new force with a little advice regarding predictive model tech. According to the article “IBM Begs Britain’s New Top Cops: C’mon, Set Up Pre-Crime Units” on The Register, UK already uses IBM’s SPSS statistics module and 12 analyst notebook, but apparently not to the full potential of the software. Instead of crime prevention, the software is being used for “beancounting” and basic statistical analysis.
The article comments on the potential of the predictive content:
“IBM believe British forces should hit the beat on crime prevention by employing content analysis and predictive modeling using unstructured data – something that comprises 95 per cent of the data police handle in the form of video, written statements, crime reports, media, Tweets – along with the structured stuff. Also, police should be able to draw on data from sources outside of day-to-day policing – groups involved in housing and education.”
The article states that in joining forces with US police, one specific cooperating department has reduced crime by 30 percent by predicting where a crime would happen.
Seems like IBM is a big motion picture fan. First, we note Watson is eerily similar to 2001’s smart computer HAL. Now Minority Report is moving the company toward PreCrime if this report is accurate. Next up: Disney’s Episode VII of Star Wars? We will be waiting with our popcorn.
Andrea Hayden, December 14, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
ElasticSearch Scores Ten Million in Funding
December 12, 2012
ElasticSearch has secured some hefty new financing for its analytics engine and other projects, we learn from the post, “Elasticsearch Big Data Search Startup Pulls in $10M Funding” at the TrustedInsight blog. With this $10 million in series A funding, Elasticsearch will have to work fast to outrun the one-man-band reputation the firm has earned since the days of Compass search.
The press release specifies:
“In addition to [primary investor] Benchmark, other investors in the round include Rod Johnson, the creator of the Spring Framework and co-founder of SpringSource, and Data Collective. Elasticsearch said it will use this initial round of funding to help build out the organization in all functional areas and expand into key geographic regions to support the adoption of Elasticsearch. The open-source search and analytics software emerged in the last six months as one of the more popular open-source projects in the big data market and is already being used by thousands of companies all over the world, the company said.”
Shay Banon, founder of the Compass open source search project, decided that the software really needed a complete overhaul; the ElasticSearch software, which Banon says he sees as “Compass 3.0,” is the result. Both projects are built on Apache Lucene.
ElasticSearch (the company) was formed this year by Banon and folks from Apache. It offers resources for users of the ElasticSearch solution with training, consultancy services, and support subscription plans. Naturally, they emphasize their unique expertise on the subject. The company is headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Cynthia Murrell, December 12, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Visualization Woes: Smart Software Creates Human Problems
December 10, 2012
I am not dependent on visualization to figure out what data imply or “mean.” I have been a critic of systems which insulate the professional from the source information and data. I read “Visualization Problem”. The article focuses on the system user’s inability to come up with a mental picture or a concept. I learned:
I know I am supposed to get better with time, but it feels that the whole visualization part shouldn’t be this hard, especially since I can picture my wonderland so easily. I tried picturing my tulpa in my wonderland, in black/white voids, without any background, even what FAQ_man guide says about your surroundings, but none has worked. And I really have been working on her form for a long time.
A “tulpa” is a construct. But the key point is that the software cannot do the work of an inspired human.
The somewhat plaintive lament trigger three thoughts about the mad rush to “smart software” which converts data into high impact visuals.
First, a user may not be able to conceptualize what the visualization system is supposed to deliver in the first place. If a person becomes dependent on what the software provides, the user is flying blind. In the case of the “tulpa” problem, the result may be a lousy output. In the case of a smart business intelligence system such as Palantir’s or Centrifuge Systems’, the result may be data which are not understood.
Second, the weak link in this shift from “getting one’s hands dirty” by reviewing data, looking at exceptions, and making decisions about the processes to be used to generate a chart or graph puts the vendor in control. My view is that users of smart software have to do more than get the McDonald’s or KFC’s version of a good meal.
Third, with numerical literacy and a preference for “I’m feeling lucky” interfaces, the likelihood of content and data manipulation increases dramatically.
I am not able to judge a good “tulpa” from a bad “tulpa.” I do know that as smart software diffuses, the problem software will solve is the human factor. I think that is not such a good thing. From the author’s pain learning will result. For a vendor, from the author’s pain motivation to deliver predictive outputs and more training wheel functions will be what research and develop focuses upon.
I prefer a system with balance like Digital Reasoning’s: Advanced technology, appropriate user controls, and an interface which permits closer looks at data.
Stephen E Arnold, December 10, 2012
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
