Geospatial Intelligence: Autonomy and SharePoint
March 16, 2012
I must admit I don’t associate Hewlett Packard Autonomy with Microsoft. I know I should. Autonomy technology has been adding functionality to Microsoft SharePoint for years. I was reminded of Autonomy’s ability to “play well with others” when I read “Information Discovery Improves Search Capability for the Largest Database of Geospatial Intelligence.” If you are not involved in intelligence activities, you may not know what “geospatial intelligence” embraces. If you don’t know, I am not going to explain it to you.
The write up makes three points.
First, the use case described in the document performs what I call data fusion. For the azure chip crowd and the self appointed search experts, you can probably figure out that Autonomy technology is facilitating the integration of images, data, and other information. Without Autonomy, the merged outputs would not be possible.
Second, the use case makes clear that search is an essential component of information discovery. Everyone wants the outputs to tell the user what she or he needs to know. Won’t work. So outputs lead to search and search leads to more outputs. The use case explains that text and source data have to be “augmented”; specifically, entity extraction, categorization, geo-tagging, and reverse geo-tagging.
Third, the system handles open source and secure content in compliance with a Department of Defense metadata specification. If you like codes, here’s the one you need: DDMS 2.0.
Net net: Autonomy has some interesting capabilities for outfits who use Microsoft SharePoint.
Stephen E Arnold, March 16, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Give SharePoint a Solid Foundation with Mindbreeze
March 16, 2012
In “SharePoint Performance Troubleshooting,” Jason Himmelstein addresses the broad issue of improving performance issues in SharePoint. He points out that this can be a hard issue to confront as many end users may not adequately articulate the problem, such as ‘SharePoint feels slow’ or ‘uploads take a while.’ From an IT perspective, fixing such a problem isn’t easy without specific details.
But with user education a topic for another day, Himmelstein speaks to more general areas that IT can look at to “ensure that any bottlenecks users experience are not SharePoint-related.”
Himmelstein explains his approach:
When I initially sat down to start this article, I quickly realized that you can’t begin to troubleshoot performance issues until you have a sound baseline to start with. Otherwise, the likelihood of you figuring out what is going wrong in the environment is extremely low. With this in mind, I decided to tackle this topic from a bit of a different perspective, examining what forms the base of a solid and well-performing Microsoft SharePoint 2010 farm and working backward from there.
The author outlines some main areas. First on the list, Himmelstein says you’ll want to look at your Windows server hardware sizing and make sure the platform that supports SharePoint is sound. In terms of the SQL Server tier, Himmelstein suggests that is the one in which you’ll want to make your hardware investment. Web server load testing and other performance issue causes are also discussed in the lengthy article.
Himmelstein searches for that solid base in SharePoint. We agree a solid base is needed for optimum performance, but you may not find that with an out of the box SharePoint installation. A comprehensive third party solution, like Fabasoft Mindbreeze, can give your SharePoint system a solid foundation and extended capabilities.
Daniel Fallman points out:
. . . in Microsoft SharePoint only one facet of a company’s knowledge can be presented. The Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise 2012 Winter Release puts an end to this shortcoming. It enables all information that is connected to Mindbreeze to be displayed in Microsoft SharePoint. This takes place smoothly via Web Parts.
Read more at www.mindbreeze.com.
Philip West, March 16, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Google and Semantic Search
March 15, 2012
The Wall Street Journal certainly has a scoop if one has been ignoring Google’s actions over the last five or six years. For a traditional “real” news publication owned by News Corp., the newspaper knows how to generate what I call “faux excitement.” The for fee version of the Wall Street Journal story is at http://goo.gl/DnRrP although the link may go dead in a New York minute.
You will want to snag a copy of the dead tree edition of the March 15, 2012, newspaper. Turn to Section B1 and read “Google Gives Search a Refresh.” If you have don’t have an online subscription to Mr. Murdoch’s favorite newspaper, click here.
I found the write up bittersweet. An era has ended at the Google. Google is moving into the choppy waters of “smart” search. Others have been in the kayaks trying to navigate meaning for a long time. Perhaps the best known player is Autonomy, which is now the “baby tiger” at Hewlett Packard. Google wants to skip the baby tiger metaphor and jump to the semantic shark.
My research suggests that Google has been grinding away at semantic search for a while, at least a decade. There were signals about Google wanting to get beyond the “clever” linking method and the semantic techniques of Oingo (Applied Semantics) a decade ago. (Notice the word “semantics” in the company name?)
Then Google took a couple of steps forward when it landed the Transformics technologies and hired Dr. Ramanathan Guha. You can get the run down on Dr. Guha’s semantic leanings when you work through the hits for this query on Google: Ramanathan Guha semantic Web. No quotes required. Dr. Guha is the wizard behind the Programmable Search Engine, which I described in some length in Google Version 2.0: The Calculating Predator, published by the UK outfit Infonortics five years ago. The monograph may still be in print, and if you can snag a copy, you will see how Google’s wizard explains a system and method to populate “fact tables” and perform other feats of semantic legerdemain. The Wall Street Journal focuses on Google’s acquisition of Metaweb Technologies which is more along the lines of a a complementary content or fact generating system. Google has a tendency to “glue” technologies together, not toss the shark technologies out with the bathwater.
The write up is one of those fear-uncertainty-doubt maneuvers which technology companies enjoy. “Real” journalists are too savvy to fall for the shiny lures. The persistent reader will learn that there is no release date for the new Google search. This surprised me because I was sure I read and later heard that Google version 2.0 was Google Plus, not plain old search with some WolframAlpha.com like touches and Blekko nuances stirred in for enhanced flavor. I must admit I was confused about a news story written in the present tense which is really about some search advances which will arrive at an indeterminate time in the future, maybe tomorrow, maybe in September when the leaves turn.
The story suggests that Google is making changes because of Microsoft Bing, Apple’s voice search, or Facebook, which has no search service of much consequence. My hunch is that Google is making changes to search for one reason: ad revenue via traditional browser based search is softening. This is bad news for anyone dependent on online advertising revenue to pay for airplanes, Davos visits, and massive television and print advertising. Forget the competitors, Google has to do something that works to pump up margins and generate massive revenue. After more than a decade of trying to diversify its revenue, Google is under the gun. If Google’s magic touch were actually working, then the company should be rolling in dough from multiple revenue streams. Where is the payoff from appliances, enterprise sales, and me-too services which have essentially zero impact on companies like Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft.
Google’s PR thrust to focus attention on how it will improve search comes too quickly after Google got “real” journalists to believe that Google 2.0 was the “social” services. Well, how has that worked out for Google? I wrote about James Whittaker’s explanation of “Why I Left Google”. If you haven’t read the Whittaker write up, click here. The passage I noted was:
I couldn’t even get my own teenage daughter to look at Google+ twice, “social isn’t a product,” she told me after I gave her a demo, “social is people and the people are on Facebook.” Google was the rich kid who, after having discovered he wasn’t invited to the party, built his own party in retaliation. The fact that no one came to Google’s party became the elephant in the room.
Net net: Google has been in the semantic game a long time. Semantic technology is now in operation at Google, just as plumbing. Now Google wants to expose the pipes and drains.
The reason?
Semantic are hoped to give Google more hooks on which to hang advertising messages. Without something new, revenue growth at Google may degrade at a time when Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft continue to grow. The unthinkable? Nope, the reality.
Stephen E Arnold, March 15, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Business Intelligence in Tweets?
March 15, 2012
Six-year old Twitter has lot of credibility when it comes to knowing what people want. The social-networking site is serving up around 350 million tweets a day and that number is constantly growing. For businesses, that number means real-time analytics and activity from potential and current customers.
Mike Brown, current director of corporate development at Twitter, recently spoke at the CITE Conference and commented that the company is “the ultimate business intelligence tool.” This is because of Twitter’s ability to give a peak into what customers and competitors are saying, and the company plans to get more innovative on tracking activity and providing data analytics—with plans for advanced GPS sensors and targeted proactive advertisements for users.
A recent Computer World article, “Twitter Exec Calls Tweets the ‘Ultimate Business Intelligence Tool,” provides more insight from Brown on the importance of using Twitter in the business environment. The article states:
‘One of my favorite Twitter accounts, …because he just joined recently, is Rupert Murdoch,’ Brown said. ‘Whether you subscribe to his politics or not, the guy tells it like he thinks it and you really get that sense when you read his tweets. ‘I think whether you’re a brand or a marketer or a small business owner, [you need] to talk with an authentic voice that feels like your own, [one] your customers know,’ he said. ‘Your customer’s BS meter is pretty good. Don’t hand off your Twitter to your PR agency or even an intern who’s going to be with your business for a short while.’
Interesting advice. So, is the “ultimate business intelligence tool” statement by Brown self-serving? Nah, we think not. The assumption is a simple, fair, and par for the course. Note that raw tweet data can now be bought from companies like DataSift and Gnip. Everyone is starting to recognize the impact of tweets.
Andrea Hayden, March 15, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Musings: If Apple Designed SharePoint
March 15, 2012
As an avid Apple user, I can appreciate the simplicity of design and ease of use that is the center of their product line. However, Apple designs products for consumers and Microsoft designs products for the corporate world, for producers. This makes Chris Poteet’s article, “What if Apple Designed SharePoint?” quite interesting, musing about the potential to combine the two perspectives.
Poteet outlines his objective:
This post contrasts the design philosophies and approaches that underpin both Apple and Microsoft. It is meant to be a conversation starter and not a way to flame either side. If it weren’t for SharePoint, I couldn’t afford all my (admittedly) over-priced Apple products. Let’s now consider the question of what SharePoint might look like if Apple designed the product.
Poteet’s article leaves the reader with the impression that SharePoint’s current focus on functionality could do with a bit of tempering toward the end of usability. But until SharePoint starts making those adjustments, the addition of a third-party solution to an existing infrastructure can improve the usability and efficiency of the SharePoint beast. Fabasoft Mindbreeze is one highly competitive solution worth a second look.
Be well informed – quickly and accurately. The data often lies distributed across numerous sources. Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise gains each employee two weeks per through focused finding of data (IDC Studie). An invaluable competitive advantage in business as well as providing employee satisfaction.
Explore the features of Fabasoft Mindbreeze and see if it can bridge the gap between usability and functionality for your organization.
Emily Rae Aldridge, March 15, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Is Copyright Shifting Direction?
March 15, 2012
It is tough to search when content is not there. We have been alerted to the threat of censorship from lawmakers by conflicts over legislation such as SOPA, PIPA, ACTA and TPP. We must not ignore a more insidious threat: that of direct dealings between copyright industries and Internet service providers at the behest of government; so warns TechDirt in “UK Government Pressuring Search Engines to Censor Results in Favor of Copyright Industries.”
Rather than laws that would have to be enforced through legal channels, the back-door “notification” system described in the article would submit blacklists to search engines. These lists would name sites accused of infringement, which would then be barred from search results. Any accusation could doom an entire site to obscurity, possibly without recourse. Whitelists of approved media services would also be provided and those sites artificially promoted within search results. Writer Glyn Moody asserts:
Absolute power over search engines’ results in these areas would be handed to industries that hardly have a good track record for adopting a proportionate approach to tackling unauthorized downloads. In particular, they are unlikely to lose much sleep over all the legitimate content that will become invisible when sites of borderline legality are removed from search engines’ results ‘just to be on the safe side.’ And there are no indications that there would be any oversight as to who goes on the lists, or any right of appeal — making it a purely extra-judicial punishment.
It seems that most search engines are balking at the proposed arrangement, for now at least. Moody notes that complying with white lists could be considered anti-competitive and get sites in trouble with the European Commission. Yes, that would be important. Perhaps it is a sign that the whole scheme is a bad idea? How will the legal spat between India, Google, and Facebook work out? Our view: not well.
Cynthia Murrell, March 15, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Linguamatics Releases New Cloud Based Text Mining Solution
March 15, 2012
Search appears to be a transparent technology but in reality it is not. With the mass amounts of unstructured information being released into cyberspace there is a growing need for solutions to sort it. Enter text mining.Text mining allows users to extract value from vast amounts of unstructured textual data.
Business Wire recently reported on the release of a new text mining platform by Linguamatics in the news release “Linguamatics Puts Big Data Mining on the Cloud.”
According to the release, in response to the industry trend to move software applications on to the cloud, Linguamatics has launched the first NLP-based, scalable text mining platform on the cloud.
The article states:
The new service builds on the successful launch by Linguamatics last year of I2E OnDemand, the Software-as-a-Service version of Linguamatics’ I2E text mining software. I2E OnDemand proved to be so popular with both small and large organizations, that I2E is now fully available as a managed services offering, with the same flexibility in choice of data resources as with the in-house, Enterprise version of I2E. Customers are thus able to benefit from best-of-breed text mining with minimum setup and maintenance costs.”
We are very excited about the possibilities of text mining on the cloud as well as Linguamatics’ ability to get its software up and running quickly.
Our view is that Linguamatics is an outfit worth monitoring.
Jasmine Ashton, March 15, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Climbing the Complexities of SharePoint
March 14, 2012
Although the fine art of rock climbing is lost of me, a good analogy is a well-known educational tool for taking a complicated concept and making it more readily applicable. Jussi on SharePoint uses the technique in, “Five reasons why SharePoint is like rock climbing.”
The author lays out the analogy:
Rock climbing differs a lot from other traditional sports I did as a teenager in that you need an equal amount of physical strength, technical skills and mental capabilities. If you possess insane core strength and sky-high stamina but lack the mental abilities, it will hinder your evolution as a climber. In more than one ways rock climbing is so similar to doing SharePoint implementations that I decided to list out five of the most evident feats they share.
The author goes on to describe similarities: planning a route is essential, and just as in climbing the quality and currency of your gear is equally valuable for SharePoint installations. The author also highlights the importance of working smarter, not harder. Regarding this last point, working smarter instead of harder, a third-party solution can greatly increase the efficiency and effectiveness of an existing SharePoint installation. We like Fabasoft Mindbreeze and its enterprise offerings.
Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise is the leading solution for fast and comprehensive access to corporate-wide knowledge. Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise searches all structured and unstructured data (e-mails, documents, contracts, contacts, notes etc.) within seconds and provides all relevant information structured, prioritized and ready for further use. Staff resources are released to concentrate on their actual task.
Check out Fabasoft Mindbreeze and its suite of smart solutions to see if your organization can begin to work smarter instead of harder.
Emily Rae Aldridge, March 14, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Attensity Election Forecasts
March 14, 2012
Is the prediction half right or half wrong? Sci-Tech Today seems to opt for optimism with “Twitter Analysis Gets Elections Half Right.” Attensity attempted to demonstrate its social analytics chops by forecasting Super Tuesday Republican Primary results using Twitter tweets. Their predictions were about 50% accurate; isn’t that about what you’d get flipping coins?
A lack of location data seems to be the reason Attensity’s predictions were less precise than hoped. Writer Scott Martin reveals:
Part of the problem lies in a lack of location-based data about Twitter users’ tweets. Such information is ‘scarce’ on Twitter, says Michael Wu, principal scientist of analytics for Lithium, a social-analytics firm. That’s because Twitter users would have to turn on the ‘location’ feature in their mobile devices. A vast pool of location-based tweets would enable analytics experts to better connect tweets to where they come from across the nation. In the case of Super Tuesday, that would mean more localized information on tweets about candidates.
Another roadblock to accurate prediction lies in identifying when multiple tweets come from the same enthusiastic tweeter, or are spam-like robo-tweets. Furthermore, there is no ready way to correlate the expression of opinions with actions, like actually voting. It seems that this analytic process has a long way to go. It also seems that half right is close enough to spin marketing horseshoes.
Serving several big-name clients, Attensity provides enterprise-class social analytics as well as industry solutions for vertical markets. They pride themselves on the accuracy and ease of use of their tools. My thought is that I will pick horses the old fashioned way.
Cynthia Murrell, March 14, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
The Risks of an E-Hoarder
March 13, 2012
Hoarding shows are popular these days, with TV giving attention to a once ignored psychological disorder, and causing the rest of us to wonder if we are hoarders of one sort or another. It turns out that hoarding may also be an IT phenomenon. Jeff Vance for NetworkWorld addresses the topic in, “Warning: You May Be an E-hoarder.”
Vance explains that cheap storage has lead to the e-hoarding phenomenon but just because the hardware is cheap does not mean the overall process of storage is also cheap:
While the cost of storing data has dropped significantly, ancillary costs haven’t, including data management costs and even costs associated with adding space in data centers and paying for escalating HVAC bills. Retrieval is another problem, since even the best search tool won’t necessarily find data buried in an arcane application. Take SharePoint, for instance. As more people within an organization collaborate through it, the number of documents within SharePoint can spiral out of control.
Gartner predicts that overall enterprise data will grow 650% in the next five years. With the majority of organizations choosing SharePoint for their enterprise needs, one can see SharePoint as both part of the problem and part of the solution. Third party solutions like Fabasoft Mindbreeze can help make enterprise search more efficient and meaningful, helping to avoid mindless e-hoarding.
Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise is the center of excellence for your company’s knowledge. Highly efficient enterprise search and specific connectors link together data sources in companies and organizations. They integrate the knowledge of different sections of a company into a uniform, linked whole. The award-winning high-tech product is your personal assistant. 24/7, 365 days a year. Regardless of which data you are looking for and with which system you are working with – Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise answers your questions with pinpoint accuracy.
So as the IT world continues to deal with changing standards in content management, third party solutions may help deal with the immediate issue. Explore the solutions offered by Fabasoft Mindbreeze to see if their solutions are a good fit for your organization.
Emily Rae Aldridge, March 13, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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