Enterprise Search

Solr 4 Training 3/27 in Northern Virginia/DC area

Interrupting my series on whether open source search is a good idea in the enterprise to tell you about an opportunity to attend LucidWorks' Solr Bootcamp in Reston, Virginia on Wednesday March 27. Lucid staff and Lucene/Solr committers Erick Erickson and Erik Hatcher will be there, along with Solr pro Joel Bernstein. Heck, I'll even be there!

The link is here; for readers of our blog, use discount code SOLR4VA-5OFF for a discount.

Course Outline:

• What's new in Solr 4
• Solr 4 Functional Overview
• Solr Cloud Deep Dive
• Solr 4 Expert Panel Case Studies
• Workshop and Open lab

And ask the guys how you can get involved in Solr as a contributor or committer!

 

SharePoint Saturday Silicon Valley June 2 2012

I'm happy to announce a 'first ever' event: SharePoint Saturday will finally come to Silicon Valley in less than two months. We're been working behind the scenes for a few months now with some really enthusiastic people to secure sponsors, a facility, and some great speakers with valuable insights on SharePoint.

For those of you who follow search but may not know about SharePoint Saturday, it is an organization that holds events held in dozens of cities around the world. It brings together SharePoint experts in every aspect of SharePoint, from development to administration to power users - and yes, even to search. And, for attendees, it's always free to attend. To find an event near you, check the main SharePoint Saturday web site for updates and background.

I'd like to thank the people who we have been working with to get this first-ever event for Silicon Valley, all of whom are volunteering their time to make it possible. Christian Buckley of Axceler has provided great suggestions drawing on his deep experience with SharePoint and in organizing SharePoint Saturday events; Ken Lo from Kattelo has helped us locally organize a team and gather great speakers from around the country; Kelley Tyburski of Avepoint who ran last year's SharePoint Saturday in Sacramento; Jerry Pierre of SLAC, who has volunteered to help in selection of topics and in keeping us on track; and our own Chris Fernandez who we asked to get the event organized and manage all those pesky details. And of course I'd like to thank our sponsors, without whom this event could not be happening.

Between now and the June 2nd event, I'm sure you'll be hearing more about the event; you'll find #spssv on Twitter. And if you're in the area, register now and plan on attending. 

/s/ Miles

 

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