Watson Weakly: Jargon and Resource Allocations
March 9, 2016
In case you missed the news, IBM seems to be trimming its workforce. Does anyone remember Robert X. Cringely’s “IBM Is So Screwed?” I do. I would wager that Mr. Cringely remembers IBM’s suggestion that Mr. Cringely was off base with his analysis.
Perhaps Mr. Cringely is vindicated. I read “IBM Job Cuts: US Tech Giant Begins Mass Firing One Third of Workforce.” Hmmm. One third of a workforce having an opportunity to find its future elsewhere? That sounds like a swell way to greet spring 2016. March in like a lion and march out like a lamb. Is the lamb heading to the local meat packers?
Against this cheerful seasonal background, I want to mention “Moving from Enterprise Search to Cognitive Exploration.” This is a recycling of an earlier white paper for which one must register in order to read or download the document. Please, note that you will have to jump through some hoops to get this March 2016 publication. Do not complain to me about the link, the involvement of a middleman, and the need to provide details about your interest in enterprise search. Take it up with IBM; that is, if someone will take your call or answer your email. Hey, good luck with that.
What’s notable about this white paper is this word pair: Cognitive Exploration. Original? Nah. The phrase turns up in the title of a collection of essays called Cognitive Exploratioin of Language and Linguistics in 1999. The phrase is some of the jingoism from the super reliable psychology linguistics disciplines. IBM has dallied with the phrase for a number of years but in the RA world, the phrase is getting a jump start. An example of IBM’s arguement is that no one no longer runs a search across a customer service database. Nope, one cognitively explores that customer database.
Cognitive Exploration. It flows trippingly on the tongue does it not. IBM does not fire people; IBM RA’s them. (RA. Resource allocation or termination or reduction in force.)
What is Cognitive Exploration? Well, it is Lucene search plus some home brew code and a dollop of acquired technology. IBM’s original commercial enterprise search system (STAIRS) is just not up to the task of cognitively exploring one’s information assets it seems.
The white paper is a tribute to the search buzzwords that have been used by marketers in the past. I just love Cognitive Exploration.
What is it? For the full answer, you will need to read the 13 pages of explanation. Here’s a sampling of the facts in the write up:
Analysts expect the total data created and copied to reach 44 ZB by the year 2020 (Analyst firm IDC). After all, there are more than 204,000,000 emails launched every minute every day (Mashable.com). How do you manage, search, and process that data and turn it into usable information?
Yep, that’s a lot of information. How is an organization going to deal with “all” those zeros and ones? I suppose I would begin by using a system designed to manipulate large data flows. How about Palantir, BAE Systems, Leidos for starters. What no IBM? Bummer.
The IBM argument advances:
To meet today’s expectations, a search system must be able to access all of your important data sources and filter results based on a user’s access permissions within the organization.
I love the “all”. IBM obviously has nailed video, audio, binaries of various types, disparate file types, and dynamic content flows from intercepts, social media, and interesting sources from the Dark Web. I love “all” type solutions. Too bad these are science fiction based on my experience.
The fix is Cognitive Exploration. Thank you, IBM. A new buzzword to explain what search and retrieval has flubbed for — what? — 50 years” IBM explains:
Cognitive exploration is the combination of search, content analytics, and cognitive computing. Not only can cognitive exploration accelerate the rate at which users can find and navigate information; by leveraging advanced technologies such as content analytics, machine learning, and reasoning it has the potential to augment human expertise.
I don’t want to be a party pooper, but this is perilously close to Palantir’s “augmented intelligence” jargon. Attivio, BA Insight, and even the French folks at Sinequa use similar lingo. Me-too’ism at its finest? Nah, this is IBM, the outfit taking Groupon (a discount coupong business) to court for allegedly infringing on Prodigy patents. Prodigy? Remember that online service?
After snoozing through the white paper’s three pillars of Cognitive Exploration, I raced to the the finish line.
Cognitive Exploration involves the i2 type of relationship analysis, some good old fashioned cuddling between search and cognitive computing (think Watson, gentle reader), and a unified view or what a popular novelist calls “God’s eye” view. Please note that IBM offers some examples, but get the numbering wrong. Where is number one? Watson, Watson, can you assist me? Guess not. IBM’s cognitive exploration essay begins counting with number 2. I am okay with zero. I am okay with one. But I am not okay with an enumerated list beginning with the number two. Careless typo? Indifference? Rushing to the RA meeting? Don’t know. Cognitive Watson counts two, three, four, not one, two, three.
At the end of this remarkable description of Cognitive Exploration I learned:
The cognitive capabilities that can be leveraged by Watson Explorer are provided by the IBM Watson platform.
Isn’t this a recycling of some of the early 1990s marketing material from i2 Group Limited, which IBM bought. Isn’t this lingo influenced by Palantir’s explanations of its Gotham platform?
Omitted from the “all” I assume is the seamless interchange of Gotham files with i2 Analyst Notebook and i2 Analyst Notebook with Gotham. The users and customers have to learn that “all,” like Mr. Clinton’s “is” may not be exactly congruent with one’s understanding of “federation” and “unified.”
Enough already. Go for the close:
IBM Watson Explorer unlocks the value within your data, utilizing that information to help employees make well-informed decisions, provide better support, and identify more customers and business opportunities. By reaching across multiple silos of information within your enterprise, search results will include information never previously integrated into single solutions. Users will benefit from search results from all the data in your company, structured and unstructured, and include data from outside as well. Rather than trying to make good decisions with limited insight, cognitive exploration users can now extract and understand all of the valuable information at their fingertips.
With such a wonderful tool at IBM’s disposal, why is IBM’s management unable to generate revenues? Perhaps the silliness of the marketing explanation of Cognitive Exploration does not deliver the results that obviously someone at IBM believes.
I am stuck on that error in numbering, the recycling of Palantir’s marketing lingo, and the somewhat silly phrase “Cognitive Exploration.”
I won’t sail my Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria to that digital shore. I will use Google Earth and tools which I know sort of work.
Stephen E Arnold, March 9, 2016
IBM and Apple Wake Up an App
March 8, 2016
Are we approaching peak app? Not likely if one works at Apple and IBM. I read “SleepHealth Debuts as First ResearchKit App & Study to Support IBM Watson Health Cloud.”
According to the write up, Apple and IBM along with Johnson & Johnson (a fine outfit) and Medtronic (sounds very technical, doesn’t it?) are now on Watson’s band wagon.
The write up states:
Official titled the SleepHealth Mobile Study, IBM’s latest initiative seeks to leverage the advanced sensor suite provided by Apple’s iPhone and Apple Watch, in conjunction with the open source ResearchKit framework, to determine how sleep quality impacts daytime activities, alertness, productivity, general health and medical conditions. The study is being rolled out in partnership with the American Sleep Apnea Association.
It is working. I got tired reading about Watson and the connection between slep and health. Heck, who needs an app. El Chapo wants to be extradited to the US because Mexican jailers won’t let him sleep. No Watson needed if El Chapo is representative of a tired person and clear thinking.
Time for a nap. When I wake up, will Watson have revenues? Will IBM complete its downsizing?
Stephen E Arnold, March 8, 2016
IBM Watson, Google DeepMind Is Slicing into Health Care
March 3, 2016
Gentle reader, you may have seen out write ups about IBM Watson and its work to cure cancer and develop innovative recipes for barbeque sauce with tamarind.
I read “Smart Care: How Google DeeepMind Is Working with NHS Hospitals.” The write up points out:
A smartphone app piloted by the NHS could improve communication between hospital staff and help patients get vital care faster.
Yikes, Watson, a phone. Come here I need you will echo in the corridors of these paragons of efficiency throughout Britain.
I learned:
Their research, published in the journal Surgery, showed that half of hospital patients do not get the care they need fast enough, usually because of poor communication, particularly when one team of doctors or nurses hands over to another. In early pilots at St Mary’s Hospital, part of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, where Darzi [former health minister in the Blair government and director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London] is a consultant surgeon, they found medical staff responded 37% faster when alerted by the Hark app than when they used pagers.
Will an app work cooperatively with IBM Watson? Will DeepMind, the app, keep IBM Watson in the lounge area?
Painful questions for an app to answer or notify in this case of technological innovation.
Stephen E Arnold, March 3, 2016
IBM Continued to Brag About Watson, with Decreasing Transparency
February 29, 2016
A totally objective article sponsored by IBM on Your Story is titled How Cognitive Systems Like IBM Watson Are Changing the Way We Solve Problems. The article basically functions to promote all of the cognitive computing capabilities that most of us are already keenly aware that Watson possesses, and to raise awareness for the Hackathon event taking place in Bengaluru, India. The “article” endorses the event,
“Participants will have an unprecedented opportunity to collaborate, co-create and exchange ideas with one another and the world’s most forward-thinking cognitive experts. This half-day event will focus on sharing real-world applications of cognitive technologies, and allow attendees access to the next wave of innovations and applications through an interactive experience. The program will also include panel discussions and fireside chats between senior IBM executives and businesses that are already working with Watson.”
Since 2015, the “Watson for Oncology” program has involved Manipal Hospitals in Bengaluru, India. The program is the result of a partnership between IBM and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Watson has now consumed almost 15 million pages of medical content from textbooks and journals in the hopes of providing rapid-fire support to hospital staffers when it comes to patient records and diagnosis. Perhaps if IBM put all of their efforts into Watson’s projects instead of creating inane web content to promote him as some sort of missionary, he could have already cured cancer. Or not.
Chelsea Kerwin, February 29, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Watson Weekly: Managing Smart Buildings
February 29, 2016
I read “Now IBM Watson Wants to Look after Your Office Too.” Interesting. IBM as a company seems to be struggling with watching over its stakeholders’ interests, but let’s not go there.
No, let’s go there. I find the idea that a company which has demonstrated its inability to reverse a revenue decline after four years of trying and talking lacks a bit of credibility in the “management” area of expertise.
The write up informs me:
Siemens and IBM have announced they are working together to integrate software from IBM’s Watson IoT Business Unit, including analytics and asset management, into Siemens cloud-based Navigator energy and sustainability management platform to make it easier to manage smart buildings.
Now how many smart buildings are not managed at this time? I suppose I would like to know what a “smart building” is. Once that information is available, one can ask, “Who is providing management functions for these light, HVAC, and other accoutrements of life in increasingly marginalized traditional office structures?”
No answers in the write up, which is not surprising.
IBM’s public relations and marketing efforts for Watson are roaming far and wide. This is okay from a marketer’s point of view, but when the horse carrying the valiant marketers into battle is Lucene, I wonder about the steed’s trailworthiness.
Is anyone thinking about the glue factory? Do these facilities need Watson?
Stephen E Arnold, February 29, 2016
IBM: Transforming to What?
February 28, 2016
I read “Multi-Billion Dollar Question: Is IBM’s Transformation for Real?” The question is being asked by Fortune Magazine, an outfit which certainly has had a front row seat to its own transformation efforts.
The write up focuses on a Wall Street analyst who is not drinking the Big Blue fruit juice. Here’s the passage I highlighted:
IBM’s “core” revenues have declined by a stunning $29.7B, resulting in revenue declines (adjusted for currency and acquisitions and divestitures) in each of the last 4 years. Most sobering, IBM’s revenue growth rate on this normalized basis has not improved during the period.
This is news? I think not.
One of the initiatives which underscores IBM’s performance is the presentation of Watson. As you may know, Watson is a combination of:
- Lucene and other open source bits and pieces
- Home grown scripts
- Acquired technology
These “innovations” are presented as something new, innovative, and significant to businesses and consumers. Each time I read a puff piece like “IBM Watson Machine Learns the Art of Writing a Good Headline.” Text summarization and machine written news stories are not new.
IBM warrants some skepticism. What’s remarkable is that Fortune Magazine has seized on a single analyst’s observations? Good for the analyst. But the reality of IBM has been front and center for years.
Progress?
Stephen E Arnold, February 28, 2016
Weakly Watson: Oscar Ads
February 27, 2016
Short honk. I read “IBM Watson battles Hollywood robot stereotypes with Carrie Fisher and Ridley Scott.” Pretty darned amazing. IBM, an enterprise software company, is advertising on the Oscars award television program. The commercials feature Carrie Fisher and Ridley Scott. All I can say is, “Wow.” Lost in Space may be available after the ads appear.
Stephen E Arnold, February 27, 2016
Weekly Watson: IBM Interviews Itself and Does Not Mention Watson as a Favorite App
February 26, 2016
I came across an article in IBM Events called “Dan Magid Chief Technologist, IBM i Solutions.” It appears, and I am thinking in rural Kentucky, not a technology nerve center like Cedar Rapids or Boise, that Dan Magid, the article, reports an interview with Dan Magic (chief technologist) conducted and edited by Dan Magid.
I hope I have that straight.
There were some interesting points in the article / interview / content marketing thingy.
In response to a question about trends, I learned from Dan Magid (interviewer, expert, author, and i Solutions technologist):
Connectivity, Big Data and Cloud. Everything else going on is in some way connected to these three trends.
What? No Watson? Perhaps Mr. Magid, the interviewer, should ask Dan Magid, the technologist at IBM i Solutions, “What about Watson? You remember, don’t you? TV game show winner. Cook book author. Curer of disease.”
I also learned that IBM is concerned about customers. There is a baffling reference to something called Rocket. I know about Rocket, the search vendor, but the “Rocket” in the interview is presented as if the reader knows wherefore of that which Mr. Magid speaks. Sorry, I don’t. I get the main idea: IBM listens to customers. I would add that being a large company with a dedicated IBM capture team helps out the customer support thing.
I noted this question, “How can an organization stay relevant five years from now?” I was hoping that Mr. Magic would consult IBM’s senior management and relate the question to the 14 consecutive quarters of revenue decline, the stock price, the reductions in force, and other oddments of the Big Blue approach to “relevance.” Nope. Here’s what I learned:
The key to staying relevant is to understand your customers, your market and the direction of technology. … You need to understand technology direction so that you can take advantage of emerging technologies that will help your customers and so that you can ensure your organization is not surprised by a new technology that could make your business model obsolete.
Business model obsolescence. I would suggest that IBM’s business model might be a suitable subject for a case study by some eager beaver MBA candidates. Just a thought.
I enjoyed this comment too:
Question from Mr. Magid to Mr. Magid: What app can you not live without?
Answer from Mr. Magid to Mr. Magid:
The Expensable mobile app. I travel 2-3 weeks a month and keeping up to date on expense reports used to be a nightmare. I would return from each trip with an envelope full of receipts and spend a few hours organizing and entering them for reimbursement. I would often get months behind. Now, I use the Expensable app to enter my expenses as they are incurred. I take five minutes to review it when I get home and submit the report. It’s simple.
Yikes. Not Watson.
Remarkable write up which delivers quite an insight into IBM’s thought processes.
Stephen E Arnold, February 26, 2016
IBM and Its Watson Branding
February 18, 2016
I read “IBM Hits 52-Week Low as Watson Branding Flails.” The write up comes from a person allegedly in touch with the pulsing world of Wall Street. The article is interesting and contains a number of points which I found in line with my own ideas about IBM; for example:
- Watson is not a consumer product. IBM is relying on consumer marketing tactics, including TV and cultural icons like Bob Dylan.
- IBM’s financial performance has been disappointing to shareholders.
- IBM bought the Weather Company “platform” and put its CEO in charge of Watson.
The highlight of the article was this statement:
Bob Dylan walks off stage in his Watson commercial, he seems frustrated. Watson can’t sing. That is not all it can’t do.
Keeper for my quote folder.
Stephen E Arnold, February 18, 2016
Weekly Watson: Playing Hoops with the Raptors
February 16, 2016
The Raptors do not have Stephen Curry on their team. The Raptors do have IBM Watson. I read “Raptors Team Up with IBM Supercomputer Watson to Analyze Player Talent.” The idea is that the basketball loving Canadians (no the game is not played on ice) will have a more effective squad with Watson in the locker room.
Watson is not a disturbance. The new team member is more of a cloud thing. As a result, Watson is everywhere, which addresses some of the problems in the Raptors’ line up.
According to the article:
…they’re [the basketball team] hoping that recruiting some help from a supercomputer will help Toronto take them to the next level.
I have had limited exposure to NBA professionals and managers. That experience suggested that supercomputers were absolutely one of the primary interests of those involved. None of this fashion, exotic cars, and friendly fans. Nope. Throughput, massive parallelism, and fresh approaches to machine learning were the chatter on and off the court.
A whiteboard with Xs and Os. Nope. Math equations for optimizing statistical anomalies when processing real time data like how many times the announcers said, “He drained that shot.”
I envision the announcers saying:
Watson mods the open source code. A quick call to Vivisimo and then more of those old Almaden home brew moves. It’s up. A miss. The Raptors lose again at the buzzer. Bummer.
Watson, in the post game interview, says, “My bad.”
Meanwhile the Golden State Warriors keep on winning.
Stephen E Arnold, February 16, 2016
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