I've been involved with an initiative to transform search and information discovery at a company for a while now. We're trying some really groundbreaking things, but it ultimately comes down to getting the right information to the user when the ask for it, and we tend to call this relevance. Relevance is a tricky thing because, to a large degree, it is contextual. There are … [Read more...]
Thar’s Opportunities In Them Thar Challenges!
I'm afraid this post is going to read like enterprise-grade Chicken Soup for the Soul, but I'm going to write it anyway, because I'm hoping to capture what has been a really great lesson from my current work. I am currently leading a proof-of-concept to test the delivery of some new capabilities in the firm. Everyone involved (from vendor to stakeholder) is very excited … [Read more...]
Duolingo: Esta Aplicación Es Muy Buena
It has long been my ambition to learn foreign languages, but to do so using the wrong accent. For instance, I've always wanted to learn Spanish with an Australian accent: Along comes Duolingo to help make my dreams come true. Duolingo promises free language education for the world and has some really great tactics for delivering on that promise. It's … [Read more...]
Adaptive Reading » Example
Based on my last post, I thought I'd provide an example of what I meant. Here's a short piece of writing that can adapt to a specified level. None of the levels are accurate, just an example of what I mean: Let me know what you think. … [Read more...]
A Rosaceae Rosa By Any Other Name…
I have an interesting conundrum and an interesting proposition for a solution. I'd be interested in input from the two of you who actually read my blog... The Problem My daughter (henceforth referred to as "The Bean") was an early reader. She read early and often. As a result, she now reads at a level well beyond her school years. To be precise, she reads at a 9th grade … [Read more...]
Google Knowledge Graph: Clustering On Crack
One of the big problems with most search technology is that it still functions in a Web 1.0 way. For instance, you type in your search term and hit enter; when results come back, you scan for what you want and if it you can't find it, you enter a new search term and hit enter again. It's kind of like Battleship - you take a shot where you think something is and then find out if … [Read more...]
Ifttt This Is Wrong, Then I Don’t Wanna Be Right
Every once in a while, something comes along that makes me hit my head like the star of an old V8 commercial, then reminds me why I'm so optimistic about technology. Ifttt is one of those things. Ifttt, while a funny domain name, stands for "If This, Then That," and that's the simple beauty of this free web solution. I haven't been this geeked up about a solution since … [Read more...]
Predict This! Kaggle Seeks The Michael Jordan Of Analytics
Last week, my boss and I had the pleasure of speaking with Anthony Goldbloomd and Karthik Sethuraman of Kaggle (http://www.kaggle.com/) and we were both impressed by what this San Francisco startup has cooking. Kaggle is a platform for crowd-sourcing solutions to complex analytics problems. There's a great writeup at Forbes about the company. Here's the gist of it, … [Read more...]
Web 3.0 Density with Clima.me
Over at Total Social Media, and as part of their Web 3.0 Lab, they've developed a pretty cool mashup of location and social/semantic data called Clima.me. Clima.me is a tool that measures the density of location-tagged data from a number of web apps (Twitter, Wikipedia, Flickr, Yelp, and Foursquare) and kicks back a Web 3.0 temperature for your location or, for that matter, any … [Read more...]
Brand Spankin’ New WordPress
Wordpress released version 3.0 of the popular publishing platform today. I've already upgraded this blog to that version. You probably can't tell by looking at it, but it just feels better... Doesn't it? I've already benefitted from the bulk update option. That will be a real time-saver in the long-run. For a complete list of 3.0 features, visit the Wordpress Codex. … [Read more...]