Quote to Note: Management Wisdom
June 24, 2012
I love management wisdom published by the New York Times, an outfit working to inject technologists into its management structure. Yes.
Navigate to the your local vendor of newspapers (good luck with that). Purchase the June 24, 2012, New York Times which contains news as fresh as two day tuna, and read “Who Made That Cubicle?” in the New York Times Magazine. (Fees may apply, but the Sunday newspaper is just $6 in rural Kentucky. You will find the quote below on page 19 as the last paragraph of a Dilbert-type story: “Not all organizations are intelligent and progressive, Propst [the father of the Dilbert cubicle] two years before he died in 2000.” Now the keeper:
Lots are run by crass people. They make little, bitty cubicles and stuff people in them. Barren rat hole places.” He spent his last years apologizing for his utopia.
Ah, irony. Utopia. Are any search and content processing vendors relying on cubicles? Probably not. Enlightened management. Don’t trip over the scooters, volleyball, or crate of organic protein bars.
Stephen E Arnold, June 24, 2012
Sponsored by Polyspot
New Version of Cuadra STAR Available
June 4, 2012
Knowledge management company Cuadra is releasing version 2.0 of their popular archival collections management solution, STAR Knowledge Center for Archives (SKCA). This version features the addition of a Research Services module, which had been requested by costumers. The press release explains:
“SKCA users requested the new module because they wanted to integrate the tracking of requests with the cataloging data that they already have in SKCA. They needed to be able to track the work done by archives staff on behalf of researchers, including actions such as pulling materials from storage, photocopying, digitizing, and research. . . .
“With SKCA 2.0’s integrated approach, a staff member can easily log a request, generate a pull report, identify materials that need digitization, and use batch operations to mark the catalog records of materials that have been pulled, returned and reshelved. In addition, archivists can use the statistical and management reports to help them substantiate the work they have already done and monitor the additional needed work.”
Customer response to the new module has been positive. In fact, one client shared that the software will not only help with their current work, but also help them pursue long-term plans. Very nice.
Founded in 1978, Cuadra is headquartered in Los Angeles and has offices in Silver Spring, MD, and New York, NY. At the core of each of their products is STAR, an acclaimed software package with the power and flexibility to manage information collections of all types from many types of environments, including archives, libraries, museums, and publishing houses. A SaaS version of the system was released in 2003.
Cynthia Murrell, June 4, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
More Autonomy Activity at HP
May 31, 2012
Short honk. The addled goose is in London. The management traffic jam at Hewlett Packard seems to be getting worse. I thought London was tangled. I read “HP Names New Software Chief, COO.” The founder of Autonomy will leaving HP, which purchased Autonomy for $10 billion or so about eight months ago. First, an HP software wizard named William Veghte had responsibility for Autonomy. Not if the write up is accurate. The new boss reporting to Margaret Thatcher inspired Meg Whitman is a venture capitalist and former IBM software wizard, George Kadifa. Will there be more changes? Will the management snarl be resolved? Sure. But how will HP recover its $10 billion and keep those Autonomy customers happy? Tough questions. The goose has some ideas, but these are not for the free blog.
Stephen E Arnold, May 31, 2012
Sponsored by Information Today which bought me dinner last night
MarkLogic: The Door Revolves
May 17, 2012
MarkLogic hit $55 or $60 million. Not good enough. Exit one CEO; enter an Autodesk exec. Hit $100 million. Not good enough. Enter a new CEO. Navigate to “Former senior Oracle exec Gary Bloom named CEO of Mark Logic.” The new CEO is either going to grow the outfit or get it sold if I understand the write up. Here’s a passage which caught my attention:
Gary Bloom has been named CEO of Mark Logic, which returns him to his database roots.
According to MarkLogic’s Web page, the company is:
an enterprise software company powering over 500 of the world’s most critical Big Data Applications with the first operational database technology capable of handling any data, at any volume, in any structure.
However, I can download a search road map. Hmmm. I thought search was dead. Well big data search is where the action is. MarkLogic is pushing forward with its XML data management system.
Stephen E Arnold, May 17, 2012
Sponsored by HighGainBlog
Google Strategy Questioned
May 9, 2012
Blogger Dustin Curtis presents his take on Google’s business strategy in “Google’s Coherent Bouquet.” Riffing off of Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin’s line, “We’ve let a thousand flowers bloom; now we want to put together a coherent bouquet,” Curtis questions whether such flower arranging is within the company’s abilities. At issue is the importance of social media and, naturally, the threat of competition from Facebook that continually dogs the search giant. The write up asserts:
“Google has about 150 legacy core products which have slowly evolved into great tools over the past decade, but which were designed and built with the complete absence of consideration for any social interaction. Google+ is an attempt to shoe-horn Google’s legacy products into things that are compatible with a new set of social interaction paradigms.
“My point here is that ‘social’ is a point of view from which to design products and not a ‘layer’ that can be easily draped over existing, non-social products.”
Hmmm. Interesting logic. Curtis insists that a shift like the one Google needs is not going to happen without the impetus of “new and unexpected outside ideas.” Is the self-described “villain” blogger correct? Is Google too set in its ways to achieve social success?
Cynthia Murrell, May 9, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Yahoo and Governance: Semel to Scott Thompson
May 4, 2012
Short honk: I don’t much, if any, attention to Yahoo. My last big analysis of Yahoo was shortly after its then Chief Technology Officer tried to explain to a financial services client of mine that Yahoo was ahead of Google in search. Crazy assertion from a crazy outfit. In my report, I included an image of Terry Semel as the captain of the Titanic. Got a laugh. Yahoo got zero positives from me. (By the way is that Wikipedia profile of Mr. Semel accurate? Check it out between conference calls and SMS texting.)
Navigate to “Scott Thompson Resume Scandal Is Not an Inadvertent Mistake—He Also Claimed Comp Sci Degree as CTO of PayPay.” I want to comment on the spelling of résumé but who cares? That’s my attitude to the coverage of an executive fudging a biography. Furthermore, in my analysis Yahoo is the type of outfit which lives in a world of illusion, silos, and confusion.
The fact that a senior executive would take the time to do a little digging is absolutely no surprise to me. I hear the phrase “I’m too busy” from people whom I know are not too busy. Some of these people ask me for work and then tell me, “We have a spring vacation.” I heard this phrase from a company president who is guiding a company which is losing millions of dollars each quarter. Right. Vacation. Spring break.
I think we have plenty of solid evidence of a core governance problem at Yahoo, but the same issue exists in many US organizations. Whether it is the confusion about the actions of US government employees or the unfortunate Google Street View incident, governance is not a core competency in many US organizations. Enron, Lehman Brothers, Tyco—remember these executive edifices?
Furthermore I don’t think governance can be fixed quickly, if at all.
When an individual professional does not do the basics like checking key facts, the egregious mistakes will continue and most likely increase.
Governance problems are not black swans.
Governance problems are a direct outcome of people who do not focus, gather information, analyze, and reflect.
Rushing to meetings, asking for others to collect information, and staring at mobile devices—these are flashing signals of trouble at Yahoo and elsewhere.
Fiddling with a biography is either effective public relations, impactful marketing, or the shortest distance between a person and the top of Maslow’s hierarchy. For me, Yahoo and fake credentials are no big deal.
Baloney is the business of many businesses.
Desperation marketing is the new normal marketing.
Stephen E Arnold, May 4, 2012
Sponsored by no one but me.
Google Trims Its Sails
April 21, 2012
I live in rural Kentucky on a pond filled with mine runoff. I know zero about sailing on the open seas. However, I do know that the phrase “trim the sail” means a series of steps taken to deal with what the Dockside wearing crowd calls “heavy weather.”
Sailing ships with canvas sails can be tough to handle when the wind blows with gusto. The idea is that the sails should be rolled up in order to minimize the likelihood that a sailing vessel will turn over. The Ahabs call this capsizing. Old geese in Kentucky call this loosing control.
The USS Google, the largest and most unsinkable search system based on advertising, is taking prudent measures to streamline itself. I would describe the actions as “trimming its sails.” The reason? My hunch is that the MBA-speak word would be “efficiency.” My word would be “control.”
“Spring Cleaning: Google Shuts Down Patent Search Homepage, One Pass, Google Related & More” informed me that Google is presenting a lower profile to the economic winds. The write up reports:
Ever since Larry Page took over as Google’s CEO, the company has shut down more and more of its products that were only being used by a limited number of users. Today, the company announced another round of “spring cleaning.”
But here’s the comment which caught my attention, a verbal fog horn perhaps:
As part of this process, Google is also retiring a number of APIs, but most importantly, it is moving to a one-year API deprecation policy across its products (that’s down from three years for some of the company’s APIs).
APIs matter little to the garden variety Google user. APIs do matter to the enterprise, and I think APIs may have a contribution to make to the legal process underway between Google and Oracle.
My view is that most people are blissfully unaware of many Google services. Seven years ago, I counted about 80 Google products and services in The Google Legacy. I no longer keep track of Google products and services because many of them seem anchored in Google’s brute force approach to content processing.
For me, the shift in Google’s approach to APIs will signal that the company may be moving toward a more proprietary approach for developer interaction with Google services. I also think the shut downs and direction changes may give some enterprises additional variables to consider before embracing a “total” Google approach to storage, email, and hosted applications.
A final thought: Perhaps Google knows a major storm is coming. Precautions may be designed to keep the USS Google safe until it reaches a safe harbor.
Stephen E Arnold, April 21, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Is Google Making a Wrong Turn?
April 11, 2012
We came across a poignant view from a person who does not embrace Google‘s pursuit of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft. Andrew Badr reminisces in his post, “The Google We Lost.” Was the past really that good? We’re not so sure.
Larry Page’s new focus on what Badr calls “human problems” (social, design, and product) bothers the blogger because he feels it does not play to the company’s strengths. Google has spent the last ten years, he says, almost exclusively hiring engineering talent. The best engineering talent, to be sure, but engineers just the same.
Badr posits that the reason for the focus on more touchy-feely issues springs from a “fear of Facebook” as well as the influence of Apple. He charges:
“Google trying to become more like Apple smacks of a nerd who decides to try to be popular. Even if you succeed, you lose something valuable about yourself. Making a decision based on principles like ‘be true to yourself’ is heuristic and long-term; it would be hard to justify to shareholders. But it sure would feel better. ‘Beat Facebook’ is not an inspiring vision, and Google needs to keep inspiring developers if it wants to keep hiring the best ones. And the world loses something — the company that could have been.”
Grousing employees are common today. Grousing that evokes pity is a different type of complaint.
Cynthia Murrell, April 11, 2012, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Google: Listen Up. The IPO Harmed You
April 8, 2012
I love inputs from the bleachers. Well, anyone who is anyone knows that Google’s going public in 2004 was the fatal step, the digital equivalent of Adam’s going for the apple. Point your browser thing at “How The IPO Ruined Google.” The idea is that Google has lost its original focus. The company is chasing the social media sector which means Facebook. The author points out some social media goofs by the GOOG. He writes:
How’d Orkut do? Do you remember it? Didn’t think so. Sidewiki? Failed. Friend Connect? Gone. Google Wave didn’t even get past testing. Now we’ve got Google Plus, which is showing some of the worst engagement numbers of any major social media site.
Google, now under the management whiz Larry Page is focusing, or I think that is what he said in his Update memorandum that big bets are needed. So focus is there, right?
Several observations:
First, I think that advice to big companies is a tricky business. Most big companies find outsiders’ inputs more like background information than course corrections.
Second, Google is going to be a tough outfit to change even when one is the CEO. The start up mentality has been smothered under the hard facts that Apple’s business model is performing better than Google’s business model. Facebook chugs along, apparently untroubled by Googzilla’s desire to feast on the haunches of prime zuck. Google has managed to build a one-trick pony but increasingly has to find inspiration for new ideas elsewhere.
Third, Google is not about search. I remember reading that social is the new Google. So search is a subset of social.
Google is, what, 12, 13 years old. If I consider Backrub, Google is 14, maybe 15 years old. Like Lycos and Yahoo, Internet companies face a number of challenges. Chief among them is management. Technology is important, but making the right decision at the right time is part of the magic.
Perhaps the pundits who make suggestions about what Google should may find magic more useful than inputs?
Stephen E Arnold, April 8, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Attivio Hires a New Chief Scientist
April 6, 2012
PR Web recently posted “Attivio Promotes John O’Neil to Chief Scientist,” a new release announcing the promotion of John O’Neil to Chief Scientist at Attivio Inc, a software company specializing in enterprise search solutions and unified information access.
According to the release, in his new role, O’Neil will be responsible for developing and productizing Attivio’s core capabilities as well as working with the company’s Technology Advisory Board to drive corporate thought leadership.
We learned:
“O’Neil has written and designed software for search, natural language processing and machine learning for more than a decade. After receiving a Ph.D. in linguistics from Harvard University, he worked for LingoMotors where he designed the company’s main commercial product. He also worked at Basis Technology, Inc. where he was the designer and lead developer for the Rosette Linguistics Platform, a language processing and entity extraction suite of products. O’Neil is the author of more than 20 papers in Computer Science and Linguistics and has given talks at numerous professional conferences.”
We find this decision to be interesting. Could the Fast Search roots be in need of technical replenishment?
Jasmine Ashton, April 6, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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