Boutique Search Again

Reminds me of the early days of search and things we set up for specialty use.   Especially healthcare based, but could be related to any domain.    Curated web and supporting search engines.    Recall setting up a search engine pointed (curated to) directly at a specific project.   See 'Zakta' as an example, is it still available? 

The Future of Search Is Boutique, By Sari Azout in future.a16z

This is an edited version of a post that originally ran here. 

For most queries, Google search is pretty underwhelming these days. Google is great at answering questions with an objective answer, like “# of billionaires in the world” or “What is the population of Iceland?” It’s pretty bad at answering questions that require judgment and context like “What do NFT collectors think about NFTs?”

The evidence is everywhere. These days, I find myself suppressing the garbage Internet by searching on Google for “Substack + future of learning” to find the best takes on education. We hack Twitter with the “what is the best” posts over and over again. When I’m researching a new product, I type “X item reddit” into Google. I find enormous value in small, niche, often forgotten sites like Spaghetti Directory.

There’s an emergence of tools like Notion, Airtable, and Readwise where people are aggregating content and resources, reviving the curated web. But at the moment these are mostly solo affairs — hidden in private or semi-private corners of the Internet, fragmented, poorly indexed, and unavailable for public use. We haven’t figured out how to make them multiplayer. In cases where we’ve made them public and collaborative — here is a great example — these projects are often short-lived and poorly maintained.

The stated mission of a company worth almost two trillion dollars is to “organize the world’s information” and yet the Internet remains poorly organized. Or, stated differently, in a world of infinite information, it’s no longer enough to organize the world’s information. It becomes important to organize the world’s trustworthy information.  .... ' 

Scoping from Big Data to Big Knowledge

 This was brought to my attention by the 'Window Weekly Podcast' this week, in part because it dealt with conversations we had with Linkedin before they were acquired by Microsoft.   This did not lead anywhere, but touched on many aspects of how to handle corporate knowledge effectively.  See also the similarity to another system, called Zakta, which we called  a 'Collaborative Search Engine'.  See Zakta.com   Which uses classifications of kinds of knowledge.   Which we tested early on.  Worth a look.  

Project Alexandria is a research project within Microsoft Research Cambridge dedicated to discovering entities, or topics of information, and their associated properties from unstructured documents. This research lab has studied knowledge mining research for over a decade, using the probabilistic programming framework Infer.NET. Project Alexandria was established seven years ago to build on Infer.NET and retrieve facts, schemas, and entities from unstructured data sources while adhering to Microsoft’s robust privacy standards. The goal of the project is to construct a full knowledge base from a set of documents, entirely automatically.

The Alexandria research team is uniquely positioned to make direct contributions to new Microsoft products. Alexandria technology plays a central role in the recently announced Microsoft Viva Topics, an AI product that automatically organizes large amounts of content and expertise, making it easier for people to find information and act on it. Specifically, the Alexandria team is responsible for identifying topics and rich metadata, and combining other innovative Microsoft knowledge mining technologies to enhance the end user experience. ... '

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/alexandria-in-microsoft-viva-topics-from-big-data-to-big-knowledge/   Originally in MS Research.   ... ' 

Detective by Charlie to Enhance, Speed Research

We took a look at early ideas like these,  look forward to trying.  Recall rhis used to be don by just running multiple searches nd combining results. We may finally be at the point where this is possible, when powered by better natural-language capabilities.  Combining internal and external knowledge.   Remembrance engines again.  See also Zakta, which I tried in this space as well.

Detective By Charlie Is The AI Tool That Enhances And Speeds Up Your Research Time  By Curtis Silver,     In Forbes

Detective by Charlie is today's example of artificial intelligence working to make our daily lives easier in some specific regard. AI is constantly being referred to as a thing that may destroy us all but the reality is that AI is more of a tool to enhance and streamline our workflows than it is something that will take our jobs. Detective by Charlie is one such AI tool, designed to save you time when performing browser-based research.

Every day we sit down at the computer and work on maintaining our lists, or compiling our lists or adding to our lists. Whether they be sales lists, lists of journalists to receive terribly composed PR pitches or a newsroom intern researching a story. Instead of hundreds of individual searches, 

Detective by Charlie is programmed to intelligently aggregate relevant information from a wide array of sources, presenting it in a cogent manner. It does this through AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP). It is automated, accurate and takes about a second.

Detective by Charlie can run dozens of Google searches in a second with whatever Boolean strings you've indicated. It is a product that is aimed at the sales industry. So think about how you would normally conduct that research for each lead. You'd hit up Google and Linked in to figure out the current CIO at a company. You'd hit up Crunchbase and Google News to check on any funding news. You'd do a Twitter search then Google News again to find any other relevant company news. That's a lot of searches for one lead. A whole bunch of tabs (which many of you pride yourself in having open) and time out of your day that could be spent making money instead of figuring out who to make it from. ... " 

More from Detective Labs.

Group Editing Photos as Collaboration Example

Nice idea ... Collaborative work is a kind of inteligence enhancement.  You could further see collaboration between multiple people and advisory machines.  Group collaboration of new kinds has power.  The most important thing I want when solving a tough problem is the collaboration of a domain expert.

Google is working on a new social app for small groups to edit photos together by Ingrid Lunden

While Google continues to add more features to its two social communication apps Allo and Duo, TechCrunch has learned that it has quietly been working on least one more social app. Google has been developing a new social app that lets small groups edit photos together and then organise them for future enjoyment: think Path meets Snapchat-style filters and edits meets Google’s imaging smarts.

Google confirmed the existence of the app after we asked about it, and told us that (for now) is an experiment, one of many it’s running.

But it sounds like Google may be downplaying this a bit.  According to our sources, one plan had been to launch the app during its I/O event in May — much as it did last year with Duo and Allo — although from what we understand right now there is no specific date set. ... " 

Supporting Team Cognition

( Update - I was reminded that this is what the Zakta system does)

Ultimately quite an important topic.  How do groups think?   How do we make them better?

" ... our Cognitive Systems Institute Speaker Series on Thursday, February 9, 2016 at 10:30 am ET US (7:30 am PT).  Our speaker is Steve Fiore from the University of Central Florida, who will be presenting “Developing Cognitive Systems to Support Team Cognition.”

Please point your web browser to https://apps.na.collabserv.com/meetings/join?id=2894-8491 password=cognitive.   Use audio on computer or dial 855-233-7153 PIN Code: 43179788    Non-IBMers please use the "guest" option instead of entering your email.   

Please find the schedule of presenters herefor the next several calls.   A link to slides and a recording of each call should be available on the CSIG website (http://cognitive-science.info/community/weekly-update/).   We encourage those who join the calls to add questions and comments to the LinkedIn Discussion Group https://www.linkedin.com/groups/Cognitive-Systems-Institute-6729452  please ask questions at the end of the call.

Thank you and please let me know if you would like to be a presenter on an upcoming call!  

Dianne Fodell
IBM Global University Programs
fodell@us.ibm.com   .... " 

Automatic Document Search

Back to this approach, examined for years, obviously useful in legal, but in most any other kinds of research as well.  Now being integrated into word processors and note taking systems.  In Fastcompany. 

Word 2016 Researcher Feature

Happened on this.  I note that this does not appear in the current version,  but in the insider addition of Word  2016 in Office 365.   This method lets you quickly assemble research from searches while developing a document.  It uses Bing. We examined a similar approach that would automatically search for content in a document and suggest associated research. The startup Zakta uses related approaches but also enables group research on a topic.

Word 2016 Researcher Feature

Happened on this.  I note that this does not appear in the current version,  but in the insider addition of Word  2016 in Office 365.   This method lets you quickly assemble research from searches while developing a document.  It uses Bing. We examined a similar approach that would automatically search for content in a document and suggest associated research. The startup Zakta uses related approaches but also enables group research on a topic.

Virtual Assistant for Documents

Fileee is an intelligent, personal assistant that automatically organizes all of your paper and digital documents in one system. It’s the new filing cabinet of the future, including personal assistance that recognizes the structures and information of your documents. ... "

This is probably the most important need for the knowledge worker.  Attempts like Google Intranet search, internal Wikies and Zakta have been used to address this.    Recently have seen examples of how Watson is being used at more depth, and most examples I have seen are also mostly about how to gather all your data, and external data, in all its forms, and apply it to specific contexts of need.

Forrester on Knowledge Discovery

A long time topic of interest.  You can get the full report from Forrester with Registration.  They cover a number of well known vendors in the space:   " ... In Forrester’s 31-criteria evaluation, they've identified nine big data search and knowledge discovery solutions providers — Attivio, Coveo Solutions, Google, HP, IBM, Lexmark International, Lucidworks, Mindbreeze, and Sinequa — and researched, analyzed, and scored their current market offerings. ... " .

Is it best to think of such discovery as a form of search?  Or should such a system be attentive rather than directed?

Recall just last year I investigated IBM's Watson Developer Cloud and Alchemy.    Which includes more cognitive aspects of discovery.   This ranks high in Forrester's analysis.

I would also again point to local vendor Zakta, which I have worked with as well.  Worth a look.

Knowledge Management

The APQC collection of documents on knowledge management.   See also Ken Hayman's short piece on the subject,  Reexamining.   How in particular does AI connect to this?

Supporting Cooperative Research

In the CACM: Cooperative research always makes me think of our local Zakta effort.   Social and visual.  Worth taking a close look at as it continues to evolve.

BlueSpring Visual SharePoint Search

Have previously known BlueSpring as a BPM vendor.  Have been informed of their capabilities of visual search of SharePoint data.  I remember that search process for analytics data being painful. This is built on the Zakta visual search engine, which is impressive. Worth a look.

" ... Provide an instant boost in find-ability, visual appeal and value to users of Microsoft SharePoint.  ... 
Organizations have spent millions of dollars making Microsoft SharePoint™ the de-facto standard platform for their associates to store, collaborate and share information. Sites, document libraries, lists, wiki’s, discussion boards and blogs abound housing all types of corporate IP from HR frequently asked questions to new product development ideas. Gaining access to this semi-structured or unstructured data can be daunting for a casual user looking for information to better perform their job.  ... " 

Siri, Cortana and SoundHound Compared

In CIO Today.  Interesting look at current state of human to machine advisory communications.  Much I would like to learn from the comparison.  What's best in understanding and Semantics?   Or is it really more about an adaptable and dynamic knowledge graph to anticipate your current context?   How is risk of error being included in the correctness of an error, and how is that being communicated to the questioner?   A good starting point for many advisory systems is search.

Vinimaya Visual Marketplace Discovery

Mentioned last week in conjunction with delivering visual Marketplaces.  Can you understand your market visually through search?  Impressive approach.

 Vinimaya’s Visual Discovery capabilities provides users of MarketPlace an experience beyond  “Amazon-like” shopping. 
 vMarketPlace Procurement Shopping Experience Enhanced Through Visual Discovery To achieve success with any eProcurement system, it is essential that organizations overcome the challenges of user adoption and content enablement – getting quality catalog content from suppliers quickly into a user-friendly digital format. Employee buy-in and adoption are key to driving spend under management using eProcurement systems.  .... "

Memory Implants for the Brain via Advisory Systems

I think we are some ways from being able to do this, at least in the sense it can be connected directly to the brain. Perhaps sooner as an external interface that forms a 'remembrance engine'.  Search engines by themselves already do this to a degree.  Perhaps they can be augmented to do it better.   Beyond the military, It has also been suggested for Alzheimer therapy.  Essentially it can be seen as an advisory system based on context.    In Military.com: 

" ... Now, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) wants to expand on that cutting-edge work to build other potential breakthrough medical technologies, including a pacemaker-sized device that might someday improve the memory of troops who suffered a traumatic brain injury. Think of it as a hard drive of sorts for the brain.  ... "

DebateGraph: Collective, Collaborative Wisdom in Action

This week’s presenter for the ISSIP SIG Education & Research Service Evangelist Series was David Price, Ph.D. Organizational Learning (Cambridge University), Judge Business School, Consultant & Public Policy Advisor. He will discuss DebateGraph – Collaborative Wisdom in Action.  The system can be see in action  here.  There you can explore Debategraph using David Price's own map.   (Slide link will be posted here)

Anyone can use this freely, and create maps that are public or private.   External documents can be attached on the web.  Transparency of knowledge is the default. and considered key.    See also Zakta.

Has similarity to concept maps, but with  more problem oriented visualization. Multi lingual interaction?   Euro commission example.

" ... DebateGraph.org is an award-winning cloud-based platform that enables communities of any size to build and share dynamic interactive visualizations of all the ideas, arguments, evidence, options and actions that anyone in the community believes relevant to the issues under consideration, and to ensure  that all perspectives are represented transparently, fairly, and in full in a meaningful, structured, and iterative dialogue.DebateGraph.org is an award-winning cloud-based platform that enables communities of any size to build and share dynamic interactive visualizations of all the ideas, arguments, evidence, options and actions that anyone in the community believes relevant to the issues under consideration, and to ensure that all perspectives are represented transparently, fairly, and in full in a meaningful, structured, and iterative dialogue. ... " 

(Update)  A description of DebateGraph, using the debategraph visualization.

Zakta Search and Social Intelligence

I went back to look at Zakta, a company formed by a number of former colleagues.  A few years ago I had cause to take a deeper dive.  Now looking again.    " ... Zakta is the Social Intelligence Platform. Enable smarter decisions by tapping into the collective wisdom ... ".    Worth taking a look, because enterprise research and analysis is rarely done well collectively.  This came out of a number of deep looks at how the enterprise works and how it now uses search, often very ineffectively.   Good white paper is included.

Visual Search for eProcurement

Have brought up this method a number of times for minimizing costs. Now new methods include a novel visualization supporting search to find better, cheaper, procurement solutions.  They describe it:

 " ... Vinimaya, Inc., a leader in e-Procurement marketplace and supplier catalog management solutions, announced today that it has added a dynamic Visual Search technology into the latest release of its cloud-based vMarketPlace solution. The new search capability will drive even greater efficiency for users within Vinimaya’s e-Procurement marketplace.

The proprietary Visual Search technology dynamically organizes cross-catalog supplier search results into a real-time, interactive visual heat map and helps corporate shoppers quickly and efficiently find items they are seeking. The heat map analyzes and displays multiple areas of user interest to enhance search relevance. With just a mouse click or two on the color-coded category segments within the heat map, shoppers can drill down to quickly zero in on the exact product they are seeking. ... " 

(Update) Saw this application recently again, and how it related to generalized knowledge and research management.   Interestingly updated.   Worth re-examining.

Collaborative Information Seeking

An abstract, but the challenge is interesting.  " ... Information searches based on expert-seeking technology can prove time-consuming or unsuccessful if search terms do not turn up extrinsic identifiers in profiles and saved documents. In many such cases, knowledge brokers function as "humans in the loop," providing intrinsic enterprise knowledge to mediate between information seekers and expert sources--a fact that future collaborative information-seeking system designs should take into account. .... "   Similar to what the company Zakta has been  attempting at the practical level for years.