Floss Plone Information
October 4, 2010
I have been listening to podcasts when at the gym. New to the podcast world, I have been downloading programs to try and find out which ones have consistent, solid content. Yesterday I listened to Floss Weekly Number 137: Plone, produced by an outfit called Twit. You can get the show and information about Twit from the company’s Web site at http://twit.tv. I was surprised with the information revealed on this particular podcast, hosted by Randal Schwartz (aka merlyn), a Perl expert.
The guest on the program to which I listened was Alexander Limi, former Googler, employee at Mozilla, and user experience specialist for Plone. If you are not familiar with Plone, it is an open source content framework. You can use it to create content for industrial strength applications like the FBI and Discover Web sites. For more information about Plone, navigate to http://plone.org/.
I have no solid information about the accuracy of this particular podcast. I do want to highlight two points made in the podcast because I don’t want them to slip away.
The first point concerns Microsoft SharePoint. On the podcast I heard that Microsoft is not really selling or licensing SharePoint. Instead the model is shifting to providing the software and relying on services to generate revenue. I will have to poke around to find out if this is an early warning of a shift in the SharePoint business model or if there are only certain situations in which Microsoft is providing access to SharePoint in this way. The reason this is important is that SharePoint is, in my opinion, the fertile soil of an ecosystem that supports quite a few third-party vendors. These range from Microsoft Certified Partners who produce software that snaps in or overlays SharePoint. Example range from European vendors like Fabasoft to US firms like BA-Insight. In addition, there are many engineers who take some Microsoft classes and then support themselves making SharePoint work as the licensee requires. The notion of a “free” SharePoint or even a low cost SharePoint can explain why so many English majors, unemployed journalists, and third string business school MBAs are vociferously marketing their SharePoint expertise. This is a big ecosystem and it is going to get even bigger. I documented a study that suggested some SharePoint installations were challenges. The pricing implications are significant and the outlook for companies which can actually make SharePoint work are significant as well. I think most of the SharePoint snap in vendors could still be walking on a knife edge. The reason is that big accounts will be sucked up by Microsoft itself. Why let that revenue go to those who cultivated the cornfield? Just like big agriculture, the small farmer gets an opportunity to find a new future.
Need to Understand Transparency and Online Advertising
October 3, 2010
I don’t but you may. An outfit called Initiative for a Competitive Online Marketplace offers a free white paper “Openness & the Internet: The Role of Transparency in Online Search and Search Advertising.” You have to jump through a bunch of hoops to get this 24 page document. Begin the question by navigating to ComputerWeekly.com. You can try this link or run a query with crossed fingers for the title of the white paper. Good luck.
I read the white paper and noted that Lord Watson of Richmond CBE wants me to provide feedback. So, here goes.
The idea is that big online entities should be able to figure out how much dough Google makes so that information can be used by advertisers to get a better deal.
Why not ask Ptolemy why he is using so many circles and arcs? I bet he would drop what he was doing and fill you in? Wrong. The guy was busy reworking Hipparchus’ system of epicycles and eccentric circles. If you didn’t get it, he probably wasn’t going to give the information to you. Is Google much different?
Fat chance.
The silliness of this idea is clear in one passage:
How important is it that a dominant firm employs consistent and predictable procedures for resolution of complaints for online publishers and advertisers?
Really? Why not just write directly about Google? A couple of thoughts:
First, I suggest the author of the white paper drop by the local high school or pre-college institution and attend a Math Club meeting. Once in the room, ask this question, “I am having trouble figuring out how many miles to the gallon I get in my Honda.” The author of the paper should note the response of the group and then revisit this question about consistent and predictable. The only behavior that will be predictable and consistent, in my opinion, will be scorn and laughter.
Second, the notion of dealing with humans who want something the Math Club does not want to provide is addled. The whole idea behind Math Club is that those who join it intuitively grasp certain ideas. Those who don’t “get it” are not worthy of Math Club and, therefore, will never “get it.” Ergo. Go find your lacrosse pals and ask them something.
Third, the underlying principle of online advertising is that everything is dynamic. That means that at any point in time factors change the rules. Asking a human, even a Math Club member, what is happening at a particular point in time and why it is happening evokes a look of disbelief.
In short, the white paper wants the Math Club to change. I think if you tracked down Ptolemy and asked him to explain how he did maps of what is now Northern Europe 2000 years ago, he would have snorted and ignored you.
That behavior doesn’t seem to change in my opinion.
Stephen E Arnold, October 3, 2010
Freebie
Arnold For Fee Columns, October 2010
October 3, 2010
Yep, another month and another series of for-fee columns. The Beyond Search blog content is a marketing effort. The good stuff finds its way into the work that people actually pay me to do. We just knocked off a report about a new market for search and content processing companies, but I won’t be sharing any of that solid gold information in this blog. Keep in mind that the blog, although written by five people each week, is putting information in the voice of a 66 year old goose. I dearly lover the breathless 20 somethings who want me to participate in briefings with senior executives who have something to say about search engine optimization or the junior mid tier consultants who think I will sit through a Webinar because some vendor was silly enough to give these azurini money to put them in touch with a thought leader. Sigh.
If you want a glimpse of some of the research we have done into information retrieval, you will have to chase down one or more of these for fee columns when each appears either in print, online, or in both media.
- For Information Today, “Connectors: The Next Search Battleground”. I used this phrase in a personal email to a vendor and the vendor wanted to snag my phrase for its Web site. No way, José. If you are in the connector business, you will want to read this column. If you have licensed connectors, you will want to read this column. Why you ask? Who cares about connectors? Well, grasshopper, you don’t know what you don’t know. Think racketeering. How about a Federal court? Of course, you can chase down your PR person or your mid tier consultant and get the “real” story. Pick a path but stay informed.
- For Information World Review, “Governance: A Politically-Correct but Toothless Notion.” I hear so much baloney about governance, I was thrilled when someone paid me to dig into the subject of “taxonomy governance.” Talk about baloney. Instead of recycling a narrow take on governance, I upped the ante an invoked Jeff Papows, Oracle, HP, and Sun Tzu. Bottomline: governance like much info-baloney is a straw man. Talk about being politically correct. You can find out more when the story hits the online and hard copy Information World Review in the next few weeks.
- For KMWorld, “Google Enterprise: Reseller Challenges Arriving.” In this column I talk about Google’s recent attempt to shore up the security of its enterprise products and services. The Google is trying, but now the battle is shifting to productive partners, resellers, and integrators. The point of the story is that now that Google is addressing some important issues with its product offerings, competitors are shifting the battle. Can the Google react quickly? You will have to read the column to find out what’s ahead.
- For Smart Business Network, “Marketing to the US Hispanic Markets: Digital and Grandmother Methods.” Fancy digital marketing is great for those who live in Silicon Valley, are between the mental ages of 10 and 40, and lack the ability to focus on one task for more than three minutes. For SBN online and its network of 12 hard copy business magazines, I point out that the burgeoning Hispanic market may require some different types of market planning and methods. Olé.
A final reminder to the PR people. Please, read the About information for this blog. I sell ads, interviews, and stories. Each story points out that it is a freebie or in some way sponsored. Beyond Search is not a “real” news publication. I have two or three readers, and these folks should have better things to do with their time. I suggest going to the park and feeding the ducks and geese. Winter is coming help out my feathered relatives. If you are an English major, take a book of Browning’s poems and puzzle over “brown Delores.”
Stephen E Arnold, October 3, 2010
Freebie
Alleged Android User Data Harvesting
October 2, 2010
Short honk: I have no idea if “Android Apps Sending Covert Info to Advertisers” is spot on or disclosing part of a larger story. The main idea is that Android phones beam user data, including phone numbers and location data, back to someone’s ranch. Maybe an advertiser? Maybe some other entity? If the story is false, I remain concerned that certain types of covert data collection is possible. If the story is true, I wonder if there is much chance for a user of any mobile device to have a reasonable expectation of privacy. I don’t get too many secret calls. The idea that information can be intercepted and used for some purpose for which I have not given permission could pump up my blood pressure. But at this point, I believe that this type of data activity is part of the landscape. The question is, “What other types of data sucking is going on?” Math Club was never this fun in 1958 when I was in high school.
Stephen E Arnold, October 2, 2010
Freebie
Digg Dug Deep Dip
October 2, 2010
I use an aggregation tool we built called Oversight. You can see how it works with its features stripped away at this link. We look at some aggregation sites at lunch, so we don’t have much first hand knowledge about Digg.com. “Is It Too Late for a Digg Comeback?” raises an important question. For me, this passage seemed particularly interesting:
Whether or not the adjustments and upcoming changes will be enough to bring back some of the vibrant Digg community of old remains to be seen. More new features are likely to be rolled out, including “interests” pages, but not much is known about that or whether users will want it. Rose mentioned the return of user “leader-boards,” which had always been popular in the past. The pagination could mean an uptick in page views, which could do good things for the company’s bottom line and morale. Also, once the site’s API stabilizes, it could mean a slew of new products developed around Digg, as well as more traffic. “Publishers can reliably use Digg buttons and Digg widgets once Digg gets its API up to speed,” said Barrera. “More developers will also be able to create web experiences around Digg data, which means Digg will be able to reach a lot more people than through just their site.”
Changes and technology conspired to create problems for Digg. I thought that zippy outfits in Silicon Valley and San Francisco were able to handle tweaks. I think the idea is agility, flexibility, and adaptability. I was wrong. When a site makes fixes, the same old problems crop up just as they do in more traditional, less hip systems. The idea that big Webby systems are easy to manage is silly.
But the main take away for me is that a hot site can cool quickly. On top of that, annoyed users no longer click away. Those annoyed users fire up their Twitter account and start tweeting. Then blogs jump in. Finally, a serious news outfit like Venture Beat picks up the story.
At that point, it is indeed too late. Online is tough even for the young of heart, living in San Francisco, doing podcasts, and implementing Google-esque management methods. Just an opinion from Harrod’s Creek.
Stephen E Arnold, October 2, 2010
Freebie
Fancy Math Maybe Not Needed?
October 2, 2010
“Search Data ‘No More Informative’ Than Standard Analysis” seems to challenge the fancy math of outfits like Recorded Future, Palantir, and IBM SPSS. How can fancy math fail to wow the researchers? The VC crowd won’t be amused. Palantir scooped up $90 million and for what?
The article asserts:
Tracking web searches worked the best in predicting how a new video game would sell, Yahoo’s Sharad Goel and Jake Hofman said.
Ah, ha. Yahoo. The purple outfit with the revolving door this week.
The Yahooligans said:
“Given the attention that search-based predictions have received recently, it may seem surprising that search data are, at least in some cases, no more informative than traditional data sources…”
One point that jumped out at me was that using third party tabulations such as a list of top tunes worked better than fancy math.
Palantir has 90 million reasons to prove Yahoo somewhat incorrect. IBM may not care. Recorded Future has the support of the Google and In-Q-Tel. Well, Yahoo may have a better way.
Stephen E Arnold, October 1, 2010
Freebie
Yahoo Became AOL, Now AOL Is Becoming Yahoo
October 1, 2010
Neither Yahoo nor AOL strike me as companies with a strong commitment to search. In fact, Yahoo worked hard to become a “free” version of AOL. The company acquired lots of promising outfits and then allowed these to coast along. Yahoo ran into a problem of integrating the different services. A notable example was Flickr and Yahoo Photos. Eventually the two service became Flickr, but the task was time consuming. In fact, a heterogeneous infrastructure coupled with acquisitions that operated as standalone properties contributed to the shift at Yahoo. A shift that is still underway.
AOL, on the other, sort of wobbled along. The big change came with hiring a manager from Google (could this be an oxymoron?) and becoming a separate company. In the last few days, there’s been quite a bit of activity at AOL, mostly related to acquisitions that deliver content. If AOL can integrate its new purchases – a popular blog and conference property TechCrunch and 5min Media (a company with a couple of hundred thousand videos), AOL will become more like today’s Yahoo.
Can AOL become a content company that generates sufficient revenue to fly high again? Would a union of AOL and Yahoo make sense to some deal starved investment firm? What happens if Facebook buys one of these outfits, a suggestion when I first heard struck me as a wild and crazy idea?
This is not a good or a bad thing. I find it fascinating that two established online companies seem to be doppelgängers. Yes, that includes search.
Stephen E Arnold, October 1, 2010
Freebie
Fierce Criticism of SharePoint
September 30, 2010
I have lost interest in SharePoint and SharePoint search. Not much strikes me as new and improved. Nevertheless, when my newsreader spits out an interesting link from Fierce, I do scan it. “New Survey Reveals Dissatisfaction with SharePoint” caught my attention and provided me an opportunity to write an ambiguous headline. Surveys, as readers of this blog, know are suspect to me from the git-go. There’s the issue of sample size, sample selection, question shaping, and analytic methods. These juicy items are tough to get even when you have the survey wonks who did to work sitting directly in front of me.
Here’s the passage that caught my attention:
For instance a whopping 78 percent of respondents reported that SharePoint “user experience was inadequate,” while only 17.6 percent chose that SharePoint was “great and adequately met their needs.”
So, unhappy campers. You can read more about the survey’s findings in the Fierce write up.
My questions:
- Why is a product so widely used generating so much discontent?
- Why aren’t the third party, certified vendors making more of this discontent? My view is that these folks pay money to be certified and don’t want to anger their meal ticket.
- When will the open source community exploit this pain point?
In the meantime, I will maintain my present position and waddle forward without much concern. No search worries. No governance worries. No metatagging worries. Life is good at the goose pond. I will leave those worries to the CFOs who have to figure out why SharePoint is so darned interesting when it comes to costs.
Stephen E Arnold, September 30, 2010
Freebie
MarkLogic Reveals Strategies for Publishers
September 30, 2010
A reader sent me a copy of a news release from MarkLogic. “MarkLogic Unveils Strategies for Publishers to Create Innovative New Tools and Products at Frankfurt Book Fair 2010” contained some interesting information. Here are two points that jumped out at me:
- MarkLogic’s customers include, if I read the news release correctly, seem to include McGraw-Hill, Springer, Pearson Education, Thomson Reuters, John Wiley & Sons, Simon & Schuster, and Oxford University Press. That’s an impressive line up, and it certainly suggests that the company has been inroads in a number of top firms. The implication is that MarkLogic will continue to capture customers in this segment.
- MarkLogic’s system allows its customers to create new products and streamline work flow, aggregate content, syndicate content, and deliver content. The outputs? Print, of course, as well as mobile devices and digital products.
My take on this announcement is that MarkLogic has shifted from offering an XML solution to a broader information solution. XML is still there, but the message in the news release for me is that MarkLogic allows publishers to generate new revenue, reduce costs, and support the consumer’s growing appetite for content when it is wanted and how it is wanted. Looks to me that I will have to chase down a MarkLogic senior manager and find out more about the firm’s positioning for 2010 and beyond.
Stephen E Arnold, September 30, 2010
Freebie
Connector Craziness: The Next Search Battleground
September 29, 2010
A reader sent me a link to a blog post from one of the mid tier consulting firms. The article is “Document Filters as a Search Proxy War.” I really don’t have much to say about the write up. So I will pretty much ignore it. I do this with quite a bit of blog content as I flap past 66.
However, I would like to add some information that I think those involved in search and content processing may want to have at their fingertips. I am reasonably familiar with the number of connectors available from Autonomy and Oracle. However, the connector world is not limited to two vendors, nor is it likely that most of those in search of connectors are aware that the outcome of a legal matter could – and I emphasize could – have a significant impact on the market. You can read more about this matter in my Information Today column and in a series of posts I am doing for a new Web log that will be available in mid-October. The announcement of the new Web log will appear in Beyond Search and I believe there will be a news release if I remember to alert one of my goslings to the task.
First, EntropySoft is a vendor that offers document connectors. You can get information about that firm’s offerings at www.entropysoft.net.
Second, there is a major dust up in the document connector world, and it is one that is the subject of my October Information Today column. The issue is an allegation by i2 Ltd., a company based in England. The core of the allegation is that improper actions were used to reverse engineer a document connector by Palantir. Depending on the outcome of this legal matter, there may be some modifications in the connector world. The issue is a connector for file type ANB. I have done work for i2.
Third, there are some open source connector initiatives underway. If you have not explored this side of the connector world you can begin with a Google search, a Black Duck search, or navigate to http://openconnector.org. The open source software movement, particularly in light of the Oracle litigation with Google, may have an impact on open source connectors.
There are also connector vendors in Hungary and India, but I won’t list these. When the mid tier consultants recycle my work, I want them to have something to do.
With the financial vice closing on many keyword search firms, one has to be vigilant for partial or edited information. Hiving off connectors is a way to generate cash from “must have” code widgets. A serious connector business is a relatively large undertaking. That is one reason why certain firms eschew connectors completely; others code their own with varying degrees of success; and most firms turn to third parties for a bundle that handles the most common file types.
The goose may be old, but he makes an effort to identify as many sides of an issue as possible. What we have, therefore, is a potential instability in the shift from basic search to more sophisticated information fusion.
Stephen E Arnold, September 29, 2010
Freebie, unlike information from English majors, former journalists, and the azurini of the world
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
