Enterprise Search

Start-up fever?

If you've ever been curious about starting a business, our friend Sean Murphy over at SKMurphy is holding a free web event you may want to attend. Sean, who runs the popular Bootstrapper's Breakfast groups that meet at cities around the country, is hosting a call in discussion of the first chapter of Barry Moltz's book 'You Need to Be a Little Crazy" on Wednesday June 8 2011.

Participating in the call along with Sean are serial entrepreneurs Dorai Thodla of iMorph.com, Massimo Paolini of MPThree Consulting. I've been invited to participate as well, having co-founded both SearchButtin.com and New Idea Engineering; but it is Sean, Dorai, and Massimo you'll want to hear.

If you've ever wondered what it takes to start a company, this call is for you.

Details:

Time: 3PM EDT; Noon PST (2000GST)

Registration link is:

http://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2011/05/07/you-need-to-be-a-little-crazy-by-barry-moltz/

Use 'NewIdea' as your discount code to get in at no cost

Just remember, as Wally found out from Dilbert in 1991- 'the company stops paying you if you quit' to become an entrepreneur!

 

/s/Miles

 

 

SPTech February 7-9 2011

December is sometimes a tough month to get much business done unless you're an eCommerce company. Nonetheless, 2011 will be here soon, and a hectic January may keep you from noticing a really great SharePoint conference in February: SPTechCon. It's the largest independent SharePoint conference, the kind where the Kool-Aid is just a refreshing beverage.

The early-bird registration that can save a few bucks from your professional development budget ends next Friday, December 17. It's not an easy three days: sessions start at 8:30AM and end at - or after - 5PM. There is time to meet with vendors and with other attendees, but it's certainly a conference you attend to work. The program (yes, which includes yours truly as a speaker), lists more than 100 workshops and classes, and you'll surely find them educational and professionally valuable.

Since you asked, my session is 'Which SharePoint search is Right for You'. With Microsoft and SharePoint, you have four or five choices in search technology to use just from Microsoft. Throw in a couple of other search products that work well with SharePoint and you've got the potential for some serious confusion. Come by the event, tell me that 'Dr Search sent me' and let's talk about your concerns one-on-one after the Wednesday 8:30AM (sunrise) session.

So while you're enjoying some quiet time leading up to the holidays, get out and register today! See you in February!

/s/Miles

 

 

Share your successes at ESS East next May

Our friends over at InfoToday who run the successful Enterprise Search Summit conferences have asked us  to announce that the date for submitting papers to their Spring show in New York in May 2011 has been extended until Wednesday, December 8. You can find out what they are looking for and how to submit your proposal online at http://www.enterprisesearchsummit.com/Spring2011/CallForSpeakers.aspx.

Michelle Manafy, who runs the program again next May, really likes to have speakers who have found creative and successful ways to select, deploy, or manage ongoing enterprise search operations. We've co-presented with several of our customers in the past, and trust me, it's great fun and not bad for your career! And - no promises - the weather at ESS East has been great for just about every year - and we've been there for nearly 6 years now!

A friend told me something years ago that I've always fond helpful; I hope you'll take it to heart: 'Everything you know, someone else needs to know'. Don't worry if your search project isn't perfect; or worry that someone will find fault with what you've done. Trust me: there are many organizations newer to enterprise search than you are, and anything you found helpful will sure be valuable for them as well. And you get to attend al of the sessions, so you might learn more as well! A 'win-win' situation if I've ever seen one!

See you in New York!

/s/Miles

 

 

Document filters webinar July 28 2010

Document filter independent ISYS is hosting a webinar on Wednesday, July 28 at 1PM Eastern to talk  about the role document filters play in successful search indexing and display. You can register now.

Of course, as a search technology company, ISYS has enjoyed great success, particularly among law enforcement where search has to work right at a reasonable price. We've always liked their technology and their approach.

But like every search platform, ISYS needed filters to convert so-called 'binary' formats like Microsoft Office, PDF, or even Photoshop files into a stream of text - after all, today's search platforms primarily operate on words.. in textual format. But ISYS looked at the market at the time, and found that two of their competitors, Autonomy and Oracle, own the best of the filter technologies.

Like any company, they made a 'make or buy' decision, and in their case, making their own filters was the right answer for them, and possibly for you. You see, ISYS decided to start selling their filter technology independent of their search platform, so now you can acquire some really great filtering and viewing technology for just about any search engine, 'off the shelf'. Their customers include other vendors with the need to extract text from various types of content, not just search vendors but also eDiscovery and eCompliance companies and many others who don’t want to pay excessive prices for technology - and who want really great filtering at a reasonable cost.

Then, a few years back, ISYS decided that open source platforms Lucene and Solr - which had no filters - needed them as well. So now you can buy a great filter pack 'off the shelf' with no huge volume commitment - no volume commitment at all! And you can get world class filtering for your open source search project.

Come hear ISYS, the guys from Lucid Imagination, and us here at New Idea Engineering talk about the critical role of filters in your search applications. See you then!

/s/Miles

Enterprise Search Summit 2010 - DC

Even as we prepare for ESS East in New York (ESS NY from now on?), Information Today has issued its call for papers for the first ever ESS-DC to be held in Washington DC November 16-18 2010.

Follow this link to find background on what InfoToday is looking for; or jump right to the submissions page. Don't be shy: everyone who presents papers had, at one time, never done it before. What you know, someone else needs to know!

In our experience, the kind of content InfoToday likes is the information that can help an organization select or manage search and related technologies. Generally, real-world stories about how other companies and organizations have succeeded with search are the ones that attendees appreciate the most. 

We'll also be having a searchdev dinner at ESS DC this year. Details to come late in summer, but plan for it now!

Are you doing search now? Have you been successful getting it going on time and under budget? Tell your story. Submit your idea now!

Google I/I Open for registration!

Google has announced its Google I/O 2010 to be held in San Francisco May 19-20 at the Moscone Center.

I think this is their third such annual event, and it's always been a full two days of information. The good news is the price is $400 per person (until April 15), a bargain really. The bad news? You'll need to bring four or five people from your company to hit all of the sessions in each track!

This conference is VERY technical, VERY good. You get the most from it if you are a developer, you know Java, Ajax, Python, or the other technologies Google uses in its various products. You won't find much in the way of marketing fluff here: in our experience, most presenters are Google developers.

The conference is being held the same week that Gilbane content management conference comes back to San Francisco. Bad timing for them, but good for you: you can probably walk to the nearby Westin at lunch and maybe catch the exhibits.

Last year, attendees received a free phone for development purposes on the Android OpSys; who knows what they might give away this year - besides the expected cool T-shirt!

Register at http://code.google.com/events/io/2010/.

Deep Web Sponsoring a federated search challenge

Abe and Sol Lederman over at Deep Web Technologies have announced the second annual contest to discover the best federated search methodology out there. The objective, from their FederatedSearchBlog web site:

Tell us about the most impressive federated search application you’ve ever seen, or about one you’ve dreamed up. How innovative can federated search be? What unique problems can it solve?

The first ten serious entries get an Amazon gift certificate or $25 via PayPal; and the top prices are $1000, $500, and $250 respectively. The winner will be a panelist at the April 2010 Computers in Libraries conference; and Deep Web will pick up the travel costs for the winner.

Federated Search is a hot topic, partly because nearly every organization wants to search content they may not have rights to index. Deep Web Technologies has some great examples of federated search and query time facets and clustering. Check out their web site, then write up a submission, win a few bucks, and speak at the Computers in Libraries conference next Spring! Do it now!

/s/Miles

Webinar: Basics of Search and Relevancy with Solr

Lucid Imagination, the Lucene and Solr folks, are running a webinar featuring Mark Bennett, CTO of New Idea Engineering. The presentation is scheduled for Wednesday, December 2nd at 2:00PM Eastern/11AM Pacific time (1900 GMT is my calculations are correct). Read more about the event and register today!

The description of the sessions follows:

In this introductory technical presentation, renowned search expert Mark Bennett, CTO of search consultancy New Idea Engineering, will present practical tips and examples that web application developers can use to quickly get productive with Solr, including:

• Working with the "web command line" to control your search
• Understanding Solr's DISMAX parser
• Using Solr's Explain output to tune your results relevance
• Using Solr's Schema browser

Sign up today and get ready for some relevance.

/s/Miles

KMWorld/ESS West moves to Washington DC 2010

Andrew McAfee of MIT and Harvard fame presented a great keynote last week at what may turn out to be the last ESS West. InfoToday has announced that KMWorld, and probably the enterprise Search Summit, will take place in Washington, DC, next Fall rather than in San Jose. ESS East, traditionally held in New York in May. While held at a smaller venue - the midtown Hilton Hotel - ESS East has always had a stronger feel to it, and apparently InfoToday will be looking for growth in the government sector.

Ironically, InfoToday recently acquired the Boston Search Engine Meeting from Infonortics, so they'll be running two shows in the Spring (Boston in April and New York in May), leaving leaves the west coast high and dry in terms of search conferences. Maybe the west coast companies are more comfortable in the 'so it yourself' search using Lucene and Solr; or maybe west coast companies just don't want to spend the time schmoozing at shows, when the real work gets done one-on-one.

In any case, look to Washington for KM World November 16-19 2010  at the Renaissance Washington DC Hotel. Should we call it ESS DC?

/s/Miles

SearchDev Dinner in San Jose at ESS West

We've just put the final touches on the annual SearchDev dinner in conjunction with the Enterprise Search Summit West next week in San Jose, California. Anyone who attends the conference, or anyone in the Bay Area, is welcome to attend.

Lucid Imagination is sponsoring the dinner this year along with New Idea Engineering, which will be held on Wednesday night, November 18, at 630 PM in the San Jose Hilton, adjacent to the convention center.

Seats are limited, so if you think you will want to attend, please RSVP today to info(at)ideaeng.com with your name and names of the folks who will join you. Of course, replace the (at) with @...

Miles