New Book on using SharePoint 2010 and Silverlight
January 2, 2012
While it is now too late for Christmas, a new book out by Bob German and Paul Stubbs gets a positive review from Andrew Connell, the Microsoft Developer with a focus on SharePoint. SharePoint 2010 Development with Silverlight is discussed in Connell’s “Great Resource for SharePoint 2010 & Silverlight.”
Connell’s review:
Are you interested in looking for a good resource on doing SharePoint 2010 or Silverlight development with both tools? This is the book for you. Bob & Paul, the two best people to write this book with their deep experience in both technologies, have done a fantastic job in starting with primers on both technologies and then diving in deep on doing various things you’d want to accomplish with both SharePoint 2010 & Silverlight.
The book includes a discussion on both SharePoint 2010 and Silverlight development as well as guidance for setting up your environment and building custom applications. Connell does provide the forward to the new publication, but his knowledge on the topic points to this being a good resource for interested parties.
However, if you do not have the time to read right now while you’re focused on adding value and efficiency to your business information, rely on experts at Fabasoft Mindbreeze. Their suite of solutions provides intuitive access for the right people with the right information at the right time.
Here you can read about their capabilities:
Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise offers unified information access to enterprise and cloud resources. It combines and links the information. Information can be grouped and classified. A user can scan the results using search tabs and categories and find a relevant document without having to click through a list of links. The information’s semantic context is recognized and depicted, and navigation elements for drill down are provided; one click and the preview of any result is available. Fabasoft Mindbreeze provides a 360 degree view of your business, customers, competitors, and more.
Find what works for you with Fabasoft Mindbreeze.
Philip West, January 2, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Search Technology Evolves to Encompass Sound
December 6, 2011
Lockergnome reported on the evolution of search technology this week in the article “In Search Of Sound With MediaMined.”
As a way to continue to evolve search technology beyond searching for text and images, audio engineers at Imagine Research in San Francisco have been working on what they call “the world’s first sound object recognition Web service.”
The service is called MediaMined, and is driven by artificial intelligence that is able to “listen” to sound files — whether they’re properly labeled, mislabeled, or not labeled at all — and analyze what they actually are.
Writer Robert Glen Fogarty states:
“Musicians, podcasters, radio broadcasters, and audio engineers would obviously benefit from this kind of technology, but some other unexpected applications could make use of it, as well. Mobile devices could use a MediaMined type of system to detect their surroundings and present new ways to interact with their users based on this incoming data (think augmented reality cranked up to 11). Medical professionals might be able to use this technology in order to gather data based on sounds made by patients — such as sneezing, snoring, coughing, and wheezing — to help with more keenly diagnosing their condition.”
Here at beyond search we believe that this new search technology is definitely a step in the right direction. The experts at Search Technologies can provide organizations with search
solutions–text or talk.
Iain Fletcher, December 6, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Going Fast and Skidding
July 26, 2011
Search Technologies Can Steer You to Safety, If Necessary
Last week we heard a number of rumors about layoffs and other organizational shifts at the Microsoft FAST Search units. We are not sure whether the news reported at Enterprise Search: The Business and Technology of Corporate Search was accurate.
We noted the coverage in Beyond Search here and found this section interesting: “[We] just learned that most of the FAST people we work with here in California and across the country have been laid off by Microsoft, apparently effective immediately. This is the team that was responsible for selling the FAST ESP products – FSIS and FSIA – as well as working with the Microsoft sales teams on FAST Search for SharePoint (FS4SP). ”
There’s been similar stories and rumors in the UK too. What does it all mean?
We think the talk is related to the consolidation of FAST into the Microsoft ecosystem. There’s always a reason or two to dislike change and where job losses are concerned, we all sympathize.
But here’s a broader view.
First, let’s remember that FAST is a darned good search engine. You can scale it forever, it is rock-steady in mission-critical applications and it has plenty of tweakability so you can tune it to precisely support specific business needs and applications.
Second, don’t forget that FAST, as much as any company back in the early noughties, pioneered the use of search navigators that told you exactly how many documents would be left in your results set if you clicked the navigator link. This is now established best practice, from Amazon and Ebay down to small departmental intranet applications.
Third, and perhaps most importantly, let’s not forget our search fundamentals. Just like the proverbial needle in a haystack, your chances of finding something depend largely on the size of the haystack. An awful lot of large companies are intent on using SharePoint to front their data haystacks, and although they don’t all realize it yet, they are going to need tools like FAST during the next few years.
Perhaps like you, when Microsoft bought FAST Search & Transfer a few years ago, my initial reaction was, “How much?” That said, most things are expensive in Norway, not just search engine companies and vodka.
But if the FAST technology helps a lot of large corporations to drive real ROI from SharePoint over the next few years – and I for one suspect that it will – then just like a good bottle of Christiana, the original price will come to seem reasonable once the content has been fully explored.
By co-incidence with these changes within Microsoft, , we at Search Technologies announced this week our 100th FAST Search customer for implementation services. We’ve delivered more than 25,000 consultant days of services to FAST customers since becoming FAST Worldwide Partner of the Year back in 2006.
It takes time before people appreciate what’s brewing.
Iain Fletcher, July 25, 2011
Protected: SharePoint’s Potential for Building Dashboards
July 1, 2011
Protected: Making Microsoft Duet into a Trio
February 1, 2011
Google: Very Right or Very Wrong
January 24, 2011
I remember the US history lesson about the Missouri Compromise. In grade school or the Calvert Course lesson about the “Great Compromiser,” I marveled at a Kentucky farmer who could find the middle way. I later learned that despite the talk about compromising and dealing with “shades of gray”, compromise is not exactly what most folks or companies aim to do.
I had a publisher who wanted me to write a book by a specific target date right after I had what my doctor described as a “heart event.” I was not too peppy, and I had other things on my mind that the publisher’s need to generate cash for his struggling business. There was no compromise for me. I wanted to take care of myself, and I don’t think the Great Compromiser or any business school baloney would have changed my mind. I am still in business and reasonably energetic for a 66 year old goose. The publisher? Well, not on a par with my business I fear.
Now what about the Three Amigos, the Digital Triumvirate, and the the less elevated groups of leaders, pundits, and film stars. Don’t honk that horn, please. I learned in the midst of a client report that the Digital Triumvirate at Google is still intact. Now one member of the Triumvirate has been elevated, not quite to Caesar’s status, but close. Other two remain at relatively lower levels, but one of the two who did not get promoted is now the top dog. If that strikes you as sort of anti-Triumvirate, you are not alone. I think we have a pecking order of sorts, with one of the three given the role of chief executive.
The Guardian, a UK publishing outfit with an affection for open source, described Google’s new CEO, Larry Page, as “intense.” I find that an interesting description of a person who has not been in the spotlight in my opinion. Yep, he is Silicon Valley royalty, but he might not be noticed as a Hollywood B list party.
Sergey Brin, the other founder of Google, is still in his original spot. So the way I see the reorganization is that the two founders elevated the “adult in charge”. The two founders appear to be content with the new set up. A $100 million “atta boy” for Eric Schmidt , the elevated member of the Triumvirate has 100 million more reasons to be happy as a Googler.
Management ballet aside, I think there is a clear signal that Google has taken steps to get the company back on track.
The view I have held since I wrote Google Version 2.0: The Calculating Predator is that Google tried to move beyond search and pretty much has accomplished that objective. Unfortunately, the company still has one revenue stream. I don’t count video ads and online ads as diversification. In the algebra of the addled goose, the revenue is advertising revenue. So after “discovering” the Overture/Yahoo model, Google has not been able to craft another derivative, let alone original, revenue stream that comes close to its advertising business.
The pivot year for me was 2006. What’s happened since that time?
IBM: A Yahoo Acquisition Emulator
October 17, 2010
In the pre-Semel days, Yahoo bought companies. Yahoo then allowed the companies to operate in silos. Bad move. Is IBM emulating this Yahoo tactic? I don’t know for sure but IBM has been buying aggressively in the data and analytics space. With Cognos and SPSS, what’s missing?
“IBM Acquires PSS, Bolsters Information Management Portfolio” reveals that the next puzzle piece may be information governance. As I wrote in my Information World Review column, everyone likes governance but not too many folks like to be governed. Obviously IBM has a different view.
For me, the most interesting passage in the ZDNet write up was:
The PSS portfolio will be added into IBM’s Information Lifecycle Management product line, part of IBM’s software unit. Information lifecycle management refers to the assessment of content, archiving, imaging and recordkeeping as well as analytics.
The article has a spectacular graphic that covers the waterfront from the anchor of an “atlas map”, whatever that means.
With $100 billion in revenue, if IBM can deliver governance via its “atlas map” pivot point, who am I to doubt? I just keep thinking about Yahoo’s approach to acquisitions. Not even UIMA can make these many different companies’ moving parts mesh smoothly without spending a lot of money. Maybe that is the point?
Stephen E Arnold, October 17, 2010
Freebie
Avoiding the AP and Its Copyright Hummer
July 9, 2010
It shouldn’t really be surprising that a recent article in Techdirt.com is still highlighting the position by a particular patent attorney when it comes to open source versus proprietary software.
According to the blogger who took the time to dissect the blog from patent attorney Gene Quinn, open source software is actually a hindrance to innovation and some patent holders can claim willful infringement if the party involved had seen their patent.
Legal arguments aside, we’re not sure that the premise for the whole debate is sound, at least from the perspective of Gene Quinn. How can constant innovation not be considered one of the foundations that drives American business forward? The blogger who takes umbrage to this correctly implies that innovation doesn’t require an original idea, just the ability to solve a market need.
The goslings at Beyond Search try to avoid the Associated Press, which could drive its Hummer right over the addled goose and the scrawny little ones. Life is too short for that.
Rob Starr, July 9, 2010
Freebie
Lexalytics Pushes into Pharma
May 26, 2010
Once a search and content processing vendors finds success in a niche market, other vendors are going to follow. I remember listening to Temis executives explaining how that firm’s technology benefited organizations engaged in the type of content processing favored by big pharma.
As the market for basic search continues to face challenges, specialty vendors are looking for ways to pump up their growth. The pharmaceutical industry is one of a handful of business sectors that understand the value that can be derived from structured and unstructured data.
I received a link to a PRWeb item title “Lexalytics Continues Growth Trend with Expansion into Pharmaceutical Search Solution and PR Management and Media Intelligence Markets”. For the life of a may fly, you can read the item on the Web. Once the PR may fly goes to the big picnic in the sky, you will have to hunt for a copy of this document. The company has made a concerted effort to move into advertising and marketing niches. So the push into big pharma is not a surprise to the Beyond Search goslings.
Lexalytics has become a “go to” partner for companies who need to get a Microsoft Fast search implementation off the ground and then into orbit. Now Lexalytics has teamed with another search integration company – Raritan Technologies – to get Lexalytics’ functions into Raritan’s pharmaceutical clients.
Here at the goose pond, the most interesting passage in the news release was:
Raritan Technologies is implementing Lexalytics’ text analytics into its PharmaLytics platform, geared at providing fast, efficient and smart search of the fire hose of medical information available to practitioners, research and development and medical affairs professionals.
Our view is that blurring of search and content processing vendors with consulting businesses is a path that may lead to a treasure chest. However, that path can also lead into a digital everglades. Who is responsible for what feature and function? becomes an important question.
If Lexalytics implements functions within Microsoft Fast, who has to work on the details? Who pays? If Raritan blends Lexalytics with Raritan functions, who works out the glitches? And, of course, who pays?
The easy answer is, “The customer.” Now the tricky bit, “Who is the customer?” With search and content processing becoming more important and, in some cases, more frustrating to licensees, the blurring of product and service presents management challenges to each party in the transaction. I remember a call to Verizon last week about its high speed Wide Area Network service. One customer support engineer told me that Verizon’s Novatel modem was working. Verizon’s network was working. Therefore, the laptop with Windows XP was at fault. It is so easy to absolve oneself of responsibility unless the statement of work and contract are in sync. Then the lawyers get to decide.
Stephen E Arnold, May 26, 2010
Freebie
Funnelback Books London School of Economics
April 14, 2010
The LSE (London School of Economics) has adopted the Funnelback search system. According to a news release issued by Squiz, a content management vendor in Australia:
LSE have set up Funnelback to search all external LSE Web site content as the default. Searches can also be restricted to specific groups or faculties. The public events search facility on the LSE website is also powered by Funnelback. This helps users find out when and where events such as the next concert or public lecture are to be held.
If you are not familiar with Funnelback, it is an open source search solution. The description on the LSE’s Web site says:
LSE uses Funnelback as the search facility for the LSE Web site. Funnelback indexes the LSE website. Submitting a query – word, phrase or question – returns a list of results – pages and documents matching the query – which are sorted by relevance. In addition to this standard search function, Funnelback allows the results to be refined by type, topic, site and file type. This refinement allows results to be more closely associated with the original query thereby aiding discovery of the sought for pages/documents or awareness of their absence from the site.
The service is publicly accessible at http://www.lse.ac.uk. I ran queries on the system and worked through relevance ranked results with different file types clearly marked. The PDF files, for example, are colored blue, which made them easy to spot. Here’s a typical results list:
The search box has a drop down menu that allows the user to limit the results to specific collections.
I find this type of narrowing useful. I was baffled by the link that said, “to improve results, try”. I could not figure out what was happening. I finally figured out that the right hand link to improve my results was a tiny graphic showing the left hand links that allowed refinement by type (which really means topic category), domain, and file type.
There is an advanced search function. The system invites me to fill out a form. The advanced search functions are used by power users but most users whack two or three words in the search box and give the system a go.
Performance was acceptable, but I don’t have a sense of the size of the corpus processed by the system. You can get more information about Funnelback from the firm’s Web site at www.funnelback.com.
Stephen E Arnold, April 14, 2010
A freebie.
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