Vivisimo Velocity Discovery Module

Vivísimo Launches New Velocity Discovery Module - Newsbreaks (May 22)

"Vivísimo (www.vivisimo.com), a provider of enterprise search software and expertise, launched the Velocity Discovery Module, an addition to the Vivísimo Velocity Search Platform that expands the ability of organizations to quickly and automatically classify all data by topics and themes. The new module also adds improved collaboration tools that speed the process of accessing, reviewing, and sharing search results."

Data Harmony for Taxonomies

Suite taxonomies, KMWorld (May 12)

"Access Innovations has released Version 3.4 of its Data Harmony software suite. The Data Harmony suite contains three major modules:

* M.A.I. for automatic and assisted indexing,
* ThesaurusMaster for taxonomy and thesaurus creation, and
* XML Intranet System for content creation and maintenance.

The release includes more than 30 new features and revised and updated documentation. Current users will find the same look and feel with friendlier and more functional features, says the company. Data Harmony 3.4 Professional Edition fully supports ISO 8859-1 character encoding covering most character sets, including diacriticals used in Western Europe and the Americas. Data Harmony 3.5.1 International Edition provides full Unicode support, UTF-8, multiple language support and multilingual display."

See http://www.dataharmony.com/

Study: Beyond Search from Stephen Arnold

The New Study Beyond Search Now Available Stephen Arnold, ArnoldIT (Apr 2008)

Stephen Arnold announced the availability of his latest study into enterprise search -- Beyond Search: What to Do When Your Enterprise Search System Doesn't Work. Arnold found that people are quite unhappy with current methods of searching corporate / enterprise materials. Keyword search is not satisfactory.

"Key word retrieval is no longer enough for today's increasingly savvy and demanding users. Few people want to guess what magic sequence of key words unlocks the information in an enterprise search system. Users want to go "beyond search" with the system providing suggestions, delivering answers, and providing actionable information. Laundry lists just aren't what users want today."

From selected quotes

"Classification, entity extraction, and point-and-click access to related content are quickly becoming “must have” features. However, many organizations find themselves unable to afford the seven figure price tags of some of the higher profile systems. Page 89"

Alex Wright talks about Glut

The History of Information Architecture - "Listen as Gartner analyst Whit Andrews speaks with Alex Wright - information architect for the New York Times - about his recent book, Glut."

About the Thesaurus

There is much to learn about creating a specialized thesaurus from this interview with Daphne Worsham - The Thesaurus Challenge - done by Cybele Elaine Werts. This was published in the March 2008 issue of the SLA magazine, Information Outlook.

Daphne Worsham has lots of experience from her work to create a special eduction thesaurus for the Western Regional Resources Center in Eugene, Oregon.

The interview covered the main questions in people's minds - value of the thesaurus, what is controlled vocabulary, the process for building a thesaurus and amount of time needed, and the problems with user generated tagging.

One eye-opening remark on the importance of a thesaurus came from a discussion of regional differences in language. Worsham gave this example: "I learned when I worked in a restaurant, that if you order a regular coffee in certain parts of the country, that automatically means to put cream in it. If you order a regular on the West Coast, it means black. So if we use "regular" to tag something as an identified, it wouldn't mean the same thing to everyone." This one example show the importance of "clarity in language".

Need a Vision for Search

Avoiding the Big Mistakes -- How to Step Aside and Recover from the Worst Problems by Susan E Aldrich, Enterprise Search Center

Written for project and program leaders, this article reflects on the influence of culture or attitudes and the understanding of publishing requirements that affect the success of a project to improve "search".


"First, most companies do not understand how to be effective content producers. In fact, most companies don’t believe they are publishers."

"...it is impossible to guess who will use the search service you are building and what questions they will expect it to answer. Nailing down requirements becomes extraordinarily difficult: pilgrims in pursuit of the unknowable."

Identifies four phases to the lifecycle of the project, each with failure points.

1 Establish and Communicate Vision
2 Analyze Requirements and Select Technologies
3 Establish Findability Policies and Procedures
4 Post implementation

Makes a plea to consider "interfaces to manage synonyms, concepts, metadata, reprting, analysis, rnaking, promotion and merchandising". There aren't easy answers.

Full document available with registration.

Autonomy's Enterprise Search with Clustering

Search tool analyzes context, user profiles By: Kathleen Lau, Computer World Canada (March 31)

Autonomy added new features to its enterprise search platform, IDOL, that provides for "deep video indexing and quantum clustering".

"The goal of IDOL, or Intelligent Data Operating Layer, is to provide a single unified and vendor-neutral platform for searching all file formats and media-types for legal and business purposes, said the San Francisco-based company’s CEO, Mike Lynch."

Features:

+ "intent-based ranking bases search results on a user’s profile and other contextual factors, instead of solely depending on popularity or keyword matches".

+ "the quantum clustering feature applies quantum mathematics to calculate concepts within data so that users can better identify conceptual information"

+ "enhancements to existing media support for deep video indexing and analytics."

It's another advance in meaning extraction and meaning-based search. Could advances with this technology obviate the need for taxonomies or will the controlled vocabulary of the taxonomy help in expressing meaning?

Reports on Sharepoint

The March 2008 issue of the Montague Institute Review has two articles on Sharepoint.

http://www.montague.com/le/alerts/le0308.html

From the newsletter:

Sharepoint conference report: Report on what's new at the first public Sharepoint conference in Seattle on March 3 - 6. Includes information on the FAST acquisition and a new federated search function.


Sharepoint search: An enterprise contender? (free but requires registration)
Montague Institute founder Jean Graef thinks that MOSS 2007 will suffice
in some situations -- but by no means all.


Jean Graef commented on MOS capabilities for using existng metadata and thesaurus relationships.

Color and Information Design

Color Chart: Reinventing Color from 1950 to Today
[Macromedia Flash Player]
http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2008/colorchart/flashsite/

This online exhibit on color from the Museum of Modern Art is a fascinating for the way it has organized information and used multiple points of views. Visitors can browse by artist name, medium (photographs, paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints, and other), and timeline by year starting in 1918 to the present. The commercial color chart is the organizing premise or starting point.




The site "handles" very well in navigation and has a good mix of image, audio, and text. When viewing the art work, watch for links to Full Caption | Extended Text.

There are also four videos of artworks being installed at MOMA.

Checklist for enterprise search

Delivering on the Promise of Enterprise Search -- 10 Issues to Consider, by BRIAN DIRKING for the Enterprise Search Center (Mar19)

Checklists are always helpful. This one is about enterprise search.

"When an organization identifies the need for enterprise search, there are myriad questions it must answer. It is vital to identify the most important criteria for your organization, as they will guide your evaluation and eventual implementation of enterprise search. As a starting point, here are 10 issues every organization must consider to help ensure that its investment in a search solution delivers on its promise."

Taxonomy isn't mentioned directly, but it might come into play when considering scale and scope -- "As you consider what needs to be searched, you will also find new uses and new users for your search technology. With new users comes a question: Should you choose separate search tools for different uses, or can you use a single search solution to address these different applications?"