Concept Searching Announces Product Compliance with Office 365
November 12, 2012
Concept Searching was founded in 2002 and provides conceptual metadata generation, auto-classification, and powerful taxonomy management from the desktop to the enterprise software. The company recently announced their conceptClassifier product is now available for all Office 365 products. Details of the announcement can be read in, “conceptClassifier for SharePoint Available for Microsoft Office 365.” The announcement is explained:
Prior to this announcement, Office 365 clients have only ever had the ability to tag and classify content to the term store manually, which is at best inconsistent and rarely occurs at all. This has been the biggest barrier to enterprise account adoption. This has in part been due to a number of inherent technical issues that had to be overcome to deploy the solution, including real time synchronization with the term store, a key feature Concept Searching was first to market with for SharePoint 2010.
Martin Garland, President of Concept Searching, adds that this makes Microsoft Office 365 truly enterprise ready. If you are looking for an enterprise search platform with SharePoint connectors, you may want to consider a company that has already been offering and improving on Microsoft and SharePoint capabilities. Fabasoft Mindbreeze offers optimum search and information access capabilities with a full suite of connectors, including SharePoint and Exchange as well as IBM Lotus, RSS/Atom, and more.
Philip West, November 12, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
Open Source Cults: Good Business or Good Egoism?
November 11, 2012
I participated in a call on Wednesday (November 7, 2012) which was routine. Another giant company was struggling with a “search” problem. Sigh. How many of these calls have I endured since 1972? Answer: Too many.
The twist on this call was that the group buying my time had three different decisions. The crowd was doing what I call group juggling. Not a particularly successful management style. But the 30 somethings really don’t care about methods of 68 year olds. Heck, this group did not know they were doing group juggling. Higher order thinking was not on the agenda.
The three issues the group found problematic were:
- License a proprietary enterprise search system and then add wrappers which would make the system do what the group thought users needed. (Yep, thinking for the less enlightened is a great idea I suppose.)
- Use an open source search systems, save money on the license, and do what needs to be done to implement a search system which works.
- Skip search and license a flashy new “semantic intelligence system.” Who needs search anyway? I let this rhetorical question go unanswered.
Today I read “Ending the Cults of Personality in Free Software.” The write up resonated with me because the personality thing looms large in search and business intelligence. Open source is developer centric. The savvy developers know how to surf the community and convert that dev support into fame and fortune. A good example of this is what is going on with Elasticsearch and Sphinx Search.
In the proprietary search space, star billing goes to the happy Googlers. In addition to dominating certain market sectors, the company’s top dogs are going nose to nose with a country. My perception is that one may want to make sure than one’s defenses include a police force, missiles, and the power to make laws. Money helps but companies are not countries in my experience even if the blue ribbon show dogs think a company is on an equal footing with a nation state.
And business intelligence? Since the world of next generation analytics is a playground for math geeks, the cult of personality is in the ascendant. If anything, the funded business intelligence company puts the ego seekers in proprietary and open source search to shame. Examples include both well know outfits like IBM and some of the lesser known operations.
So what?
Three observations:
First, technology and ego are like peanut butter and jelly. As technology grips capitalist outfits more firmly, the ego factor is going one way: up.
Second, ego is one of those paradoxical characteristics. In some ways, ego is a driver. In other ways, ego is a crusher of opportunity. What troubles me is that ego centric decisions are being made without much consideration for the duality of the beastie.
Third, the cult of personality is here for the duration. With each passing day, controlling the ego driven becomes more difficult.
When it comes to a search decision, ego influences most decisions. When an information retrieval system does not deliver what users want, ego prevents remediation. When trying to decide what’s best for the users, ego does not brook factual input. When trying to be famous, ego does not permit consideration of anything except doing the obvious.
Is there an ego deflection device? No cults for me. Thanks.
Stephen E Arnold, November 11, 2012
Mindbreeze InSite Announces Screen Reader Accessibility Feature
November 9, 2012
Mindbreeze InSite recently announced added capabilities and features to the search system to make it more accessible for people with disabilities. In the announcement, “Mindbreeze InSite Search Accessible,” Fabasoft highlights that they are working to make all products more accessible in parallel, rather than making long-term promises and working on each product successively. The new accessibility features are explained:
Use the functionality of your screen reader to find the entry field with the label “Search”. If your screen reader has shortcuts for landmarks, you can enter the region “Search” and focus the search field by pressing the TAB key. Enter the search term here and start the search by pressing the ENTER key. If the search is successful, an accessible results list is displayed. The focus is initially set on the title ‘Search Results.’
Steps for navigating search results and resuming a search after an error message using a screen reader are also included in the article. Mindbreeze InSite seems to really understand how to add features and capabilities to increase not only search, but also information access for users. With intuitive search facets and increased access capabilities, Fabasoft Mindbreeze InSite can really boost a user’s Web site experience.
Philip West, November 9, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
LucidWorks Success was Obvious Early
November 9, 2012
An early (2009) discussion on The Noisy Channel entitled, “Lucid Imagination” gives some insight into the LucidWorks (formerly Lucid Imagination) business model.
The author, Daniel Tunkelang, begins:
“Can Lucid Imagination really succeed as the Red Hat of enterprise search, making money by supporting open-source Lucene and Solr? Perhaps. Lucene is certainly popular among folks looking for a free search engine. Moreover, for people who want to tinker with it, its being open source is a big plus . . . Will Lucid Imagination revolutionize the enterprise search market by providing low-cost services on top of free software?”
So LucidWorks and others like it count on users who want the innovation and cost-efficiency of open source, but need some help with the customization. So far it is a working business model. Furthermore, other open source search experts agree.
Otis Gospodnetic of Sematext left the following comment on the post:
“There is room for both the ES [enterprise search] vendors and companies like Lucid or Sematext. Which road a client chooses to take depends on a number of factors, such as initial price (obvious), TOC, feature set, speed of engagement and delivery of solution, presence of in-house search expertize, so on. ES vendors clearly have more features, more user-friendly UIs, etc., but I think it’s a matter of time when Lucene & friends catch up or at least significantly close the gap.”
From the perspective of the modern day, the business model is working. Users are satisfied by the service and support offered by LucidWorks and the innovation and stability provided by the base of Lucene and Solr.
Emily Rae Aldridge, November 09, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
The Cloud is the Focus of Microsoft Office and Server Products
November 8, 2012
Cloud service capabilities are a major emphasis in the suite of coming Microsoft products, including Office 2013, Exchange, Lync server products, and SharePoint. In “Microsoft’s Wave of Office, Server Product Releases Brings Flood of Questions,” Jonathan Hassell discusses the newest Microsoft release of products and poses some questions about what to expect.
Hassell has this to say on Cloud incorporation:
Dependency on the cloud should not shock you: Hopefully you have been paying attention to Microsoft’s conversations with you about being “all in” with the cloud. Just look at Office for a prime example: For the first time, Office licenses will be sold by subscription directly to consumers; they will download, install and manage it all from office.com.
He adds this about SharePoint changes:
By default, SharePoint 2013 runs newly created workflow services on Windows Azure, and you have to install the old Windows Workflow engine on SharePoint 2013 instances in order to run previously used workflows.
The author also warns that if your company has not embraced the cloud yet, you may want to get in the game because it is no doubt the dominating feature in the next wave. Hassell’s article is worth a look for some valid questions to pose your IT team as you ready for the changes.
If you’re weighing enterprise search applications for your existing SharePoint investments, you may also want to look up Mindbreeze. Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise gains each employee two weeks per year through focused finding of data, a competitive business advantage and added bonus to employee satisfaction. With SharePoint connectors, the Mindbreeze solution seamlessly integrates into your system and gives users the ability to be well informed, quickly and efficiently.
Philip West, November 8, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
Memory Usage and Hardware Requirements for Solr
November 8, 2012
The SearchHub community at SearchHub.org provides open resources for Lucene and Solr developers. LucidWorks has recently shifted their former DevZone resources to this new platform, but took archived content with them as well. A post from earlier this year, “Memory Comparisons Between Solr 3x and Trunk,” focuses on hardware requirements and memory comparisons between open source search options.
Erick Erickson, the author, writes:
“At Lucid, we often get asked ‘How much hardware do I need given X documents and Y QPS?’ A similar question is ‘How many documents can I fit on a machine like Z?’ These are perfectly reasonable questions, ones I’d like to have answered myself. Grant Ingersoll created a spreadsheet that tries to help estimate the memory requirements here: Grant’s Memory Estimator. Looking at that, you’ll see some of the problems. There are just too many variables you have to know up front. Often the hardware people are looking for some ballpark estimates before the search requirements are nailed down, which makes it even harder.”
While Lucene, Solr, or LucidWorks users can always find answers to their questions amongst the SearchHub content, researchers can also find interesting food for thought amongst the postings’ comments. Industry experts such as Paul Doscher, Otis Gospodnetic, and Charlie Hull often make appearances – proof that the LucidWorks offerings are built upon the trust names of open source industry standards Lucene and Solr.
Emily Rae Aldridge, November 08, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Fabasoft Mindbreeze InSite for an Intuitive Web Site Search
November 7, 2012
Ensuring that Web site users find the right content on a site the first time is an imperative way to gain and retain site visitors and customers. Mindbreeze InSite makes it easy to know customers are finding what they need. In “Mindbreeze InSite: The First Steps,” Iris Fallmann explains the simple process of setting up InSite on your site.
With no install required, it only takes a few minutes to tailor the search solution to fit your needs. The first step is to register, which simply requires a name, email address, and the URL of the site to be indexed. You’ll receive a demo page to try the search and find feature. Fallman explains how to then create views:
You can create search tabs quickly and easily on your demo page. In the first tab the results from all data are displayed. To refine the search, just enter the searched word into the search field. All the results are displayed. If these results should now be displayed in a separate tab, you just have to click on the ‘plus’ symbol next to the existing search tab, enter a name for the new tab and click on ‘add search tab.’
When a tab is added, all the results for the topic are then displayed under the search tab and a new search only searches in restricted data. The friendly user interface makes it simple to get up and running. Setting up, facets, information pairing, and embedding InSite are also explained in the brief how-to. It may be worth it to check out the 28 day free trial offer.
Philip West, November 7, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
LucidWorks and Apache Lucene/Solr Resources
November 7, 2012
LucidWorks provides consulting, training, and customer support surrounding its open source search offerings, including: LucidWorks Search and LucidWorks Big Data. But LucidWorks is also devoted to the support of the underlying open source software and infrastructure. LucidWorks provides training materials for its LucidWorks products, but also for Apache Lucene/Solr on its resources page.
Read what the resource page has to offer:
“The Reference Materials section provides all developers access to the most in-depth information about installing, configuring and using Solr and LucidWorks Search. Here you will find comprehensive documentations, reference guides, tutorials, and books that are related to the Lucene/Solr and LucidWorks community.”
Among the resources featured are books, white papers, and webinars from big names in enterprise and open source including: Erik Hatcher, Otis Gospodnetic, and Grant Ingersoll. Additionally, 9 out of the 27 core committers for the Apache/Lucene project are LucidWorks employees. Lucene/Solr is highly touted and widely respected. Implementing this industry-vetted technology through a company that will support and train its customers, like LucidWorks, seems like a no brainer. Visit the LucidWorks Product Suite to learn more.
Emily Rae Aldridge, November 07, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Enterprise Content Management in the Big Data Era is Complex
November 6, 2012
The evolution of ECM through the past years can be tough to follow, and the future can be even harder to predict. The challenges range from digitizing paper documents to constant process changes. The article “Maturing ECM Technology Tested by Increase in Data” on PropertyCasualty360 speaks on the various problems that can arise in the Big Data era, like analyzing and managing content in data warehouses and the cloud.
The article continues and elaborates on the future of enterprise content management:
“Through web services, carriers will call out to the ECM systems to restore, retrieve, and search through documents. They are not necessarily interacting with the ECM solution, but the new core system as the front end.
‘There are different approaches being taken and the effort going forward and finding how these systems work together and how the workflows work together is proving to be a big job for carriers,’ says [David Packer, a principal for the technology consulting group X by 2.]”
Enterprise content management has multiple layers and they are complex, and the systems are likely to remain elaborate. Working with vendors such as Intrafind that offer secure access and robust search is a good business practice that can help alleviate some of the complexity.
Andrea Hayden, November 6, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Business Users SharePoint Conference
November 6, 2012
In the world of enterprise search, particularly SharePoint, training and professional development opportunities are a lifeline. Solutions can be complex and often change rapidly. Conferences are a good way to stay abreast of emerging trends and updates. CMS Wire advertises an upcoming opportunity in, “SharePoint Conference for Business Users Amsterdam 2013.”
The conference program is summed up:
Join us at the SharePoint Conference for Business Users in Amsterdam next March to learn how to evaluate, deploy, use, and customize SharePoint to run a more efficient and integrated business. The 3 day event is a jargon-free environment designed for business professionals to hear from like-minded users on how they have moulded SharePoint to suit requirements, how to realise business benefits and make the most of their SharePoint environment. The program features case studies and best practice workshops from leading organizations which would help users and decision makers pick up new techniques and more importantly, avoid costly mistakes.
Some users will find that trainings such as this conference are enough to keep up to speed. However, others will find that a more intuitive solution is needed to avoid costly customization or lengthy in-house training. Fabasoft Mindbreeze offers solutions that bridge the learning gap and improve end user experience. They also offer their own training. The addition of third party solutions cuts down on overall cost and staffing investments to manage the enterprise.
Emily Rae Aldridge, November 6, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
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