This week we feature articles from Kurt Cagle, and Mike Dillinger.

Additional reading comes from Michael Parekh, Jeremy Arancio, Sam Shedden, and Mike Loukides.

News comes from Neoj4, Acquia, Ontotext, and Fivetran.

Reminder: We don’t usually publish in December. We’ll be back in January. Hope you all have healthy and happy holidays! 

All previous issues are available at https://gilbane.com/gilbane-advisor-index

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Opinion / Analysis

Do you really NEED that LLM?

Kurt Cagle explains why large language models (LLMs), specialized or not, may be overkill for many applications, describes some of the characteristics of those applications, and suggests knowledge graphs and other existing technologies that may be preferable. (6 min)

https://metaphoricalweb.substack.com/p/do-you-really-need-that-llm?

Knowledge graphs or plain ol’ snake oil: How would you know?

Mike Dillinger addresses the question of what a knowledge graph is, is not, and how it is different from related technologies and resources.

“The overarching goal of knowledge graphs is to store and reproduce conceptual information in a machine-accessible way, as verifiable facts linked to objective data — not only as statements or opinions…” (11 min)

https://medium.com/@mike.dillinger/knowledge-graphs-or-plain-ol-snake-oil-how-would-you-know-0e810a868d28

More Reading

• Why are AI products doomed to fail? The mistakes businesses have been making. via Towards AI
• Q*… AI: Doing the reasoning math reliably via Michael Parekh
• Model Collapse: An experiment showing that collapse is not unique to AI via OºReilly Radar
• OpenAI offers ChatGPT voice chat to all free users on mobile Not recommended while driving. via readwrite

All Gilbane Advisor issues

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Content technology news

Neo4j collaborating with AWS to enhance generative AI results

The agreement includes integration with Amazon Bedrock for enterprise generative AI outcomes that are more accurate, transparent, and explainable.
https://neo4j.com/press-releases/neo4j-aws-bedrock-integration/

Acquia Site Studio introduces capabilities to create Drupal and headless applications from a single platform

Now developers and marketers can create and manage digital experiences for traditional Drupal websites and headless applications using the same content.
https://www.acquia.com/newsroom/press-releases/site-studio-drupal-headless

Ontotext and TopQuadrant partner to accelerate adoption of graph and semantic technologies

Ontotext clients gain a knowledge graph creation and curation tool, while TopQuadrant clients get improved scalability, usability, performance.
https://www.ontotext.com/company/news/ontotext-and-topquadrant-a-powerful-partnership/

Fivetran deepens relationship with Microsoft; adds new data lake destinations

Fivetran supports Microsoft OneLake through integration with Microsoft Fabric and Delta Lake on Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2.
https://www.fivetran.com/blog/fivetran-supports-microsoft-onelake-as-a-destination-through-integration-with-microsoft-fabric

All content technology news

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The Gilbane Advisor is authored by Frank Gilbane and is ad-free, cost-free, and curated for content, computing, web, data, and digital experience technology and information professionals. We publish recommended articles and content technology news weekly. We do not sell or share personal data.

Subscribe | View online | Editorial policy | Privacy policy | Contact

This week we feature articles from Michael Andrews and Mike Loukides.

Additional reading comes from Alan Morrison, Cobus Greyling, Thomas Macaulay, and Nicholas Megaw.

News comes from Transperfect & Sitecore, OpenAI, Brightcove & Socialive, and Elastic.

Note: We’ll be off next week due to the Thanksgiving holiday.

All previous issues are available at https://gilbane.com/gilbane-advisor-index

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Opinion / Analysis

How to compare CMSs, objectively

“There are literally hundreds of CMSs on the market, possibly thousands. So much choice, but often so little satisfaction, judging by the gripes of end-users. Why is the right option so muddled? Old CMS vendors soldier on, and new ones enter the market all the time, promising a better future. How do we make sense of this?”

Michael Andrews provides some help. He argues for benchmarking usability, and illustrates how using the recently proposed Enterprise System Usability Scale (ESUS). (7 min)

https://storyneedle.com/how-to-compare-cmss-objectively/

Creativity isn’t just remixing

Mike Loukides has a delightful post on generative AI and creativity. His conclusion is uncontroversial, but his discussion is a gem.

“It’s amazing that an AI system can produce derivative works, but we have to remember that they are derivative works. And we have to recognize that AI, as a tool for artists, makes perfect sense. Just as we don’t confuse the artist’s creativity with the paintbrush, we shouldn’t confuse their creativity with the AI.” (8 min)

https://www.oreilly.com/radar/creativity-isnt-just-remixing/

More Reading

• A prisoner’s dilemma shows AI’s path to human cooperation via TNW
• Investors use AI to find out what executives really think via Financial Review
• From knowledge graph discussion group to think tank via Data Science Central
• Now you can toggle OpenAI model determinism via Cobus Greyling

All Gilbane Advisor issues

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Content technology news

TransPerfect announces integrated translation solution for Sitecore XM Cloud

The integration provides the ability to create, manage, and deliver multilingual content with an enterprise content management system (CMS).
https://www.transperfect.com ■ https://www.sitecore.com

OpenAI introduces custom GPTs

You can now create custom versions of ChatGPT that combine instructions, extra knowledge, and any combination of skills.
https://openai.com/blog/introducing-gpts

Brightcove and Socialive partner

Brightcove customers can leverage Socialive’s remote production features to improve their content operations for internal communications.
https://www.brightcove.com ■ https://socialive.us

Elastic unveils Elasticsearch Query Language (ES|QL)

The dedicated query language to simplify data investigation enables data aggregation and transformation within a single query.
https://www.elastic.co

All content technology news

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The Gilbane Advisor is authored by Frank Gilbane and is ad-free, cost-free, and curated for content, computing, web, data, and digital experience technology and information professionals. We publish recommended articles and content technology news weekly. We do not sell or share personal data.

Subscribe | View online | Editorial policy | Privacy policy | Contact

This week we feature articles from Cobus Greyling, and Julia Cohen, Ana Iglesias-Molina, Kian Ahrabian, Filip Ilievski, Jay Pujara & Oscar Corcho.

Additional reading comes from Michael Parekh, Caroline Mimbs Nyce, and Ethan Zuckerman.

News comes from DataStax, Cloudera & Pinecone, SnapLogic & Acolad, and Fivetran.

All previous issues are available at https://gilbane.com/gilbane-advisor-index

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Opinion / Analysis

What is happening to OpenAI’s playground?

“Creating solutions with longevity which are based on LLMs and Generative AI will demand exceptional UX, a solid layer of IP which creates differentiation” and “Users do not care about the underlying technology, they are looking for exceptional experiences.” 

Greyling provides a useful update on what OpenAI is doing to make sure they don’t miss out on the value of direct UX control. (6 min)

https://cobusgreyling.medium.com/what-is-happening-to-openais-playground-76c04816adc2

Comparison of knowledge graph representations

In addition to RDF, knowledge graphs can be represented using 
alternative models such as property graphs, the Wikidata model, and RDF-star, which may more useful for certain use-cases. When might they be advantageous? This paper looks at the fitness of popular knowledge graph representations for three consumer scenarios: knowledge exploration, systematic querying, and graph completion. 

(3 min intro): https://viterbischool.usc.edu/news/2023/11/finding-answers-about-the-best-way-to-find-answers/
Paper: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-47240-4_15

More Reading

• The AI tech value stack and… Google’s strategy with Anthropic via Michael Parekh
• AI search is turning into the problem everyone worried about via The Atlantic (gift link)
• We need tools for studying social media… When the internet becomes unknowable via Prospect

All Gilbane Advisor issues

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Content technology news

DataStax launches RAGStack

RAGStack, is a retrieval augmented generation solution to simplify RAG implementations for enterprises building generative AI applications.
https://www.datastax.com/products/ragstack

Cloudera and Pinecone announce strategic partnership

With the combination of Pinecone vector database and semantic search customers can improve and accelerate generative AI use cases.
https://www.cloudera.com ■ https://www.pinecone.io

SnapLogic and Acolad partner to provide generative AI translation solutions

Pre-built integration connectors for instant document translation allows SnapLogic users to add Acolad’s translations to integration pipelines.
https://www.snaplogic.com ■ https://www.acolad.com

Fivetran unveils new SDKs for connectors and destinations

Enables third-party vendors to build integrations on Fivetran’s infrastructure for extensive compatibility with data sources and integrations.
https://www.fivetran.com

All content technology news

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The Gilbane Advisor is authored by Frank Gilbane and is ad-free, cost-free, and curated for content, computing, web, data, and digital experience technology and information professionals. We publish recommended articles and content technology news weekly. We do not sell or share personal data.

Subscribe | View online | Editorial policy | Privacy policy | Contact

This week we feature articles from Agustinus Nalwan, and Stephen Wolfram.

Additional reading comes from Victoria Song, Nidhi Hebbar & Christopher Savčak, and Shayne Longpre & Sara Hooker.

News comes from Ontotext, Sinequa, DataStax & LangChain, and Altova.

All previous issues are available at https://gilbane.com/gilbane-advisor-index

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Opinion / Analysis

The untold side of RAG: addressing its challenges in domain-specific searches

This is the best kind of case study, clearly written by Agustinus Nalwan, the lead executive and project manager, includes detailed use-case examples, resources used, challenges, learnings, and solutions to date. This will be especially valuable for those planning or building Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) applications. (29 min)

https://towardsdatascience.com/the-untold-side-of-rag-addressing-its-challenges-in-domain-specific-searches-808956e3ecc8

How to think computationally about AI, the universe and everything

If you are not familiar with Stephen Wolfram, his Ted Talk from a couple of weeks ago is a good place to start. You’ll need to put your abstraction hat on and be prepared to be awed, but you will learn something. For others, the talk or the transcript are a quick way to reacquaint yourself with this remarkable thinker. (transcript 12 min, Ted Talk 18 min)

https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2023/10/how-to-think-computationally-about-ai-the-universe-and-everything/

More Reading

• It’s the watch chip, but also the gesture… The Apple Watch’s double tap gesture points at a new way to use wearables via The Verge
• 3 new ways to check images and sources online via Google
  https://blog.google/products/search/google-search-new-fact-checking-features/
• A worthy approach to help with a difficult problem… Data Provenance Explorer launches to tackle data transparency crisis via Cohere

All Gilbane Advisor issues

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Content technology news

Ontotext GraphDB 10.4 enables users to chat with their knowledge graphs

The new release offers finer grained security, improved flexibility, easier cluster administration and monitoring, and natural language queries.
https://www.ontotext.com/products/graphdb/

Sinequa integrates enterprise search with Google’s Vertex AI

The integration brings advanced Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) capabilities to the workplace.
https://www.sinequa.com

DataStax launches new integration with LangChain

Support for Astra DB Vector Database and Apache Cassandra now available out-of-the-box for LangChain users for retrieval augmented generation.
https://www.datastax.com/blog/llamaindex-and-astra-db-building-petabyte-scale-genai-apps-just-got-easier

Altova announces version 2024 with AI assistants and PDF Data Mapping

XMLSpy boosts productivity for XML and JSON development tasks by generating schemas, instance documents, and sample data based on NLP prompts.
https://www.altova.com/whatsnew

All content technology news

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The Gilbane Advisor is authored by Frank Gilbane and is ad-free, cost-free, and curated for content, computing, web, data, and digital experience technology and information professionals. We publish recommended articles and content technology news weekly. We do not sell or share personal data.

Subscribe | View online | Editorial policy | Privacy policy | Contact

This week we feature articles from Cassidy Trier, and Dan McCreary.

Additional reading comes from Kim Salazar, Tim Neusesser & Nishi Chitale, David Pierce, Petar Veličković, and Kurt Cagle.

News comes from Netlify, Language Weaver, dbt Labs, and OpenLink Software.

All previous issues are available at https://gilbane.com/gilbane-advisor-index

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Opinion / Analysis

Case Study: Iterative design for skimming support

As you know, I often recommend academic and technical papers to read. I do so because it is the only way to keep up with the rapidly changing areas I cover. I recommend papers that I think you can learn from without having a math PhD, or other deep technical expertise. I just ran across Semantic Scholar, a free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature from the Allen Institute for AI. I have just started playing with it (it is still in beta), and I think it has promise for technical researchers, but also for less technical analysts and strategists. Cassidy Trier provides a good introduction with links to try it out, and provide feedback. (7 min)

https://blog.allenai.org/case-study-iterative-design-for-skimming-support-5563dbe0899e

The Jellyfish and the Flatworm

“Many executives are pondering difficult decisions about making large investments in AI. For many of them, their lack of a technical background makes it difficult for them to visualize the impact of AI on their customers, their products, and their employees. To help executives make the right strategic decisions, we need powerful storytelling in terms they can understand and remember.” Dan McCreary provides one. (9 min)

https://dmccreary.medium.com/the-jellyfish-and-the-flatworm-bdad78e6f68b

More Reading

• It is an annoying issue… The negative impact of mobile-first web design on desktop via NN/g
• What’s always been true is new again… The poster’s guide to the internet of the future via The Verge
• More thoughts about knowledge graphs and LLMs… Writing context free SPARQL for AI via The Ontologist
• For serious CS theorists… “Can neural networks learn to execute classical algorithms?” Neural algorithmic reasoning via The Gradient

All Gilbane Advisor issues

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Content technology news

Netlify announces Composable Web Platform

The platform unifies content, data sources, code and infrastructure with your chosen components integrated into a single workflow.
https://www.netlify.com/platform/

Language Weaver extends neural machine translation capabilities with LLMs

To accelerate development and deployment of generative AI to enhance the capabilities of its secure, AI-powered machine translation platform.
https://www.rws.com/language-weaver/

dbt Labs announces the next generation of dbt Semantic Layer

New features: Dynamic join support, optimized query plans and SQL generation, expanded data platform support, a new integration with Tableau.
https://www.getdbt.com

Introducing the OpenLink Personal Assistant

A practical application of a Knowledge Graph-driven Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) for modern knowledge discovery and exploration.
https://medium.com/openlink-software-blog/introducing-the-openlink-personal-assistant-e74a76eb2bed

All content technology news

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The Gilbane Advisor is authored by Frank Gilbane and is ad-free, cost-free, and curated for content, computing, web, data, and digital experience technology and information professionals. We publish recommended articles and content technology news weekly. We do not sell or share personal data.

Subscribe | View online | Editorial policy | Privacy policy | Contact

This week we feature articles from Michael Andrews, and Barr Moses.

Additional reading comes from Daniel Tunkelang, Matthias Pfefferle, Jonny Protheroe & Sian Davies, and Michael Parekh.

News comes from Adobe, Optimizely, Ontotext, and MadCap Software.

All previous issues are available at https://gilbane.com/gilbane-advisor-index

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Opinion / Analysis

Bridging the divide between structured content and user interface design

Michael Andrews explains why implementing decoupled design with headless decoupled content management systems is difficult, and makes the case for UI models as the eventual solution. (15 min).

https://storyneedle.com/bridging-the-divide-between-structured-content-and-user-interface-design/

5 Generative AI use cases companies can implement today

“… where do most companies actually start when it comes to incorporating generative AI? What generative AI use cases are realistic, achievable, and actually worth the ROI?”

Barr Moses investigated and does a nice job describing what some early adopters have implemented, with a bit of how and who included. (10 min).

https://towardsdatascience.com/5-generative-ai-use-cases-companies-can-implement-today-f458707bfbbe

More Reading

• About those AI costs again …a yellow flag on financial growth metrics via Michael Parekh
• Good advice… Critical reasoning and generative AI via Daniel Tunkelang
• For bloggers especially… Engage a wider audience with ActivityPub on WordPress via Matthias Pfefferle
• For marketers… New Google research: What we now know about ‘decoding’ consumer decision-making via Think with Google

All Gilbane Advisor issues

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Content technology news

Adobe releases new Experience Manager for Enterprises

Adobe Experience Manager Sites enable businesses to build websites, and easily create and edit web content using popular word processing tools.
https://business.adobe.com/products/experience-manager/sites/aem-sites.html

Optimizely debuts marketing operating system

Optimizely One provides a single workflow making it simpler for marketers to create, manage, deliver, and optimize content all in one place.
https://www.optimizely.com

Ontotext GraphDB now available in AWS Marketplace

GraphDB listing on AWS Marketplace enables global customers to apply semantic technology to connect the dots of their enterprise data easily. https://www.ontotext.com/products/graphdb/

MadCap Software brings ChatGPT to MadCap Central

The content management platform provides integrated ChatGPT functionality optimized for authors and editors of technical content.
https://www.madcapsoftware.com

All content technology news

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The Gilbane Advisor is authored by Frank Gilbane and is ad-free, cost-free, and curated for content, computing, web, data, and digital experience technology and information professionals. We publish recommended articles and content technology news weekly. We do not sell or share personal data.

Subscribe | View online | Editorial policy | Privacy policy | Contact