The Gilbane Advisor

Curated for content, computing, and digital experience professionals

Author: Frank Gilbane (Page 19 of 70)

Gilbane Advisor 2-11-20 — future fingers, collaboration, taxonomy, adtech

February 11, 2020 /

Mapping workplace collaboration startups

Merci Victoria Grace provides a very useful breakdown of the current workplace collaboration space. As an investor her interest is in opportunities, but her insights also inform enterprise strategists and buyers considering not just products, but use cases. Read More

workplace collaboration startups
Workplace Collaboration Market Map by Merci Victoria Grace

Apple’s ‘Finger Devices’: wearable computing’s next big thing?

CB Insights reports on a new patent application from Apple. While “next big thing” is bit over-enthusiastic, they are right that it has potential as a core component of Apple’s coming wearable computing ecosystem.

While other patents have explored the use of fingers and virtual interfaces and feedback systems, this patent appears the first to contemplate the finger as the seat of a full-fledged computing device — containing a full battery of sensors, input and output systems, and the capacity to interact with other devices in different categories. Read More

Lumping and Splitting in Taxonomy

Taxonomies are often avoided because they are complex and require nurturing. Michael Andrews on why they are a necessary information technology…

Classification is the bedrock of algorithms: they drive automated decisions. Yet taxonomies are human designed. Taxonomies lack the superficial impartiality of machine-oriented linked data or machine learning classification. But taxonomies are useful because of their perceived limitations. They require human attention and human judgment. That helps make data more explainable. Read More

As Google Chrome crumbles the third-party cookie, what’s next for adtech?

Aside from the obvious boost for first-party data – where the legit value has always been – there are a number of questions on how and when this will all play out. The Drum collects some thoughts from adtec insiders. Read More

Also…

 

The Gilbane Advisor curates content for content technology, computing, and digital experience professionals. We focus on strategic technologies. We publish more or less twice a month except for August and December. We do not sell or share personal data.

Gilbane Advisor 1-14-20 — chatbots, pages that last, replacing martech

January 14, 2020 /

Dear Reader:

We have updated our privacy policy to include information about support for California’s CCPA and encourage you to read it. If you don’t have the time right now there is a link at the bottom of every issue of this newsletter and on every page on our web site. Note that we do not sell or share personal data.

Lessons from the failed chatbot revolution

“… and 5 industries where the tech is making a comeback.” This free report from CB Insights nails the story of the crazy hype and why some chatbots are succeeding. Read More

Chatbot shopping by age

This page is designed to last

Jeff Huang, in his Manifesto for Preserving Content on the Web, asks “How do we make web content that can last and be maintained for at least 10 years?”. It doesn’t sound like much of a challenge, but as someone with a 20+ year old website he didn’t need to convince me. Keeping up with varying life-cycles of web development tools, design trends, and links to sites no longer functioning, is not for everyone. And depending on platforms designed for non-developers is too risky for 10+ years. There is no simple solution but Professor Huang’s article has some suggestions for both tool developers and site managers. Read More

Open federal grant data is the default in the U.S.

Congress has quietly made an open, license-free identifier for the recipients of federal grants the default option for agencies in the United States. While truly open grant data is not mandatory, every agency must now decide whether to use non-proprietary identifiers or not. Read More

83% of marketers rip-and-replace a martech app each year

Scott Brinker highlights findings of a recent research report (link to full report included) on what martech applications are being replaced and why. While 83% will sound scary if you’re a vendor, remember how many martech apps there are. Also, about half the replacements were for custom in-house systems. (CMS vendors will be relieved to hear that only 4% of commercial CMSs were replaced, lower than most categories). Scott also notes that better integration was tied with better features and cost reduction as the top reason for replacement. Of course better integration directly affects operational costs and makes additional features possible. Read More

Also…

The Gilbane Advisor curates content for content technology, computing, and digital experience professionals. We focus on strategic technologies. We publish more or less twice a month except for August and December. We do not sell or share personal data.

Gilbane Advisor 11-20-19 — content value, enterprise search, EU, GOOG, FB

November 20, 2019 /

Content accounting: calculating value of content in the enterprise

Sarah O’Keefe provides a guide for measuring the business value of content for companies of all sizes. Helpful for content professionals, project managers, and senior management. Includes a sample P&L and balance sheet. Justify your project. Read More

content balance sheet

Content management on intranets: centralized, distributed, and hybrid models

This will be basic for many of you but is a clear and accessible description of the differences and the pros and cons of each model to share with non-specialist or non-technical colleagues. Read More

Google vs EU pubs and Facebook’s new trick

Frederic Filloux looks at the state of the complicated dance among EU publishers, Google, and Facebook in light of the recent announcements and motivations of each of them, and some research on news search behavior. A good read. Read More

The key to millions: enterprise search?

Steve Arnold dishes out a dose of reality in his inimitable slightly snarky way on the realities of the enterprise search market. Read More

Also…

The Gilbane Advisor curates content for content, computing, and digital experience professionals. We focus on strategic technologies. We publish more or less twice a month except for August and December.

Gilbane Advisor 10-22-19 — Interoperability, ambient computing, CCPA

October 22, 2019 /

Microsoft puzzling announcements

Jean-Louis Gassée has some good questions, including… “Is Microsoft trying to implement a 21st century version of its old Embrace and Extend maneuver — on Google’s devices and collaboration software this time?” Read More

Microsoft Duo

Integrated innovation and the rise of complexity

While Stephen O’Grady’ post isn’t addressing Microsoft’s recent Surface announcements as Gassée was, it is an interesting companion, or standalone read. Read More

Google and ambient computing

‘Ambient computing’ has mostly been associated with the Internet of Things (IoT). There are many types of computing things. But the most important, from a world domination perspective, are those at the center of (still human) experience and decision-making; that is mobile (and still desktop) computing devices. The biggest challenge is the interoperability required at scale. This is fundamental to computing platform growth and competitive strategies (see Gassée’s question above). Ben Thompson analyzes Google recent announcements in this context. Read More

Attention marketers: in 12 weeks, the CCPA will be the national data privacy standard. Here’s why

Now it’s 10 weeks. Tim Walters makes a good case for his prediction even though other states are working on their own legislation, and Nevada has a policy already in effect. Read More

Also…

The Gilbane Advisor curates content for content, computing, and digital experience professionals. We focus on strategic technologies. We publish more or less twice a month except for August and December.

Gilbane Advisor 9-18-19 — Good/bad Google, multi-purpose content, face recognition & DBs

September 18, 2019 /

Less than half of Google searches now result in a click

Some mixed news about Google for publishers and advertisers in the past few weeks. We’ll start with the not-so-good news about clicks, especially as it turns out, for mobile, detailed by Rand Fishkin…

We’ve passed a milestone in Google’s evolution from search engine to walled-garden. In June of 2019, for the first time, a majority of all browser-based searches on Google resulted in zero-clicks. Read More

Google organic click stats

Google moves to prioritize original reporting in search

Nieman Labs’ Laura Hazard Owen provides some context on the most welcome change Google’s Richard Gingras announced last week. Of course there are questions around what ‘original reporting’ means, for Google and all of us, and we’ll have to see how well Google navigates this fuzziness. Read More

Designing multi-purpose content

The efficiency and effectiveness of multi-purpose content strategies are well known, as are many techniques for successful implementation. What is not so easy is justifying, assembling, and educating a multi-discipline content team. Content strategist Michael Andrews provides a clear explanation and example of the benefits of multi-purpose content designed by a cross-functional team that is accessible for non-specialists. Read More

Face recognition, bad people and bad data

Benedict Evans…

We worry about face recognition just as we worried about databases – we worry what happens if they contain bad data and we worry what bad people might do with them … we worry what happens if it [facial recognition] doesn’t work and we worry what happens if it does work.

This comparison turns out to be a familiar and fertile foundation for exploring what can go wrong and what we should do about it.

The article also serves as a subtle and still necessary reminder that face recognition and other machine learning applications are vastly more limited than what ‘AI’ conjures up for many. Read More

Also…

A few more links in this issue as we catch up from our August vacation.

The Gilbane Advisor curates content for content management, computing, and digital experience professionals. We focus on strategic technologies. We publish more or less twice a month except for August and December.

Gilbane Advisor 7-29-19 — Enterprise ML risk, web contract, web 3.0, news & scale

July 29, 2019 /

Managing ML in the enterprise

Regulated industries are often among the first to figure out how to implement new technologies in complex, high risk environments. This O’Reilly article looks at how finance (mostly) and health care model risk in the context of machine learning. There are useful and important lessons for enterprises in general. Read More

 

Model risk management

A contract for the Web

We all know the web has a boatload of challenges coming from a collection of commercial and national sources intent on subverting or replacing it. But organizations and consumers of the web have also been too complacent as these threats have grown. The World Wide Web Foundation’s mission is to “advance the open web as a public good and a basic right.” by changing government and business policies. The foundation has just published a draft “Contract for the Web” and is asking for input from governments, businesses, and citizens. That’s right, they want your opinion. Read More

Is Web3.0 the next lifestyle brand?

Web 3.0 does not, and will likely never have, a canonical definition. Web 3.0 refers to a collection of aspirations, similar to those of the Web Foundations’, and new technologies to support those aspirations and a decentralized web, such as blockchain and crypto. Since these technologies are not widely understood, marketing Web 3.0 etc. is a problem. Jeremy Epstein has some “half-baked” (his words) ideas on relating it to modern intentional lifestyle choices as away to build support. Read More

By running unwitting PR for Jeffrey Epstein, Forbes shows the risks of a news outlet thinking like a tech platform

If journalists want to criticize the anything-goes ethos of Facebook, it’s only fair to note when news organizations’ hunger for scale leads them down the same problematic path. Read More

Also…

The Gilbane Advisor curates content for content, computing, and digital experience professionals. We focus on strategic technologies. We publish more or less twice a month except for August and December.

Gilbane Advisor 6-26-19 — Deepnews.ai, iPadOS, open AI, agile vs waterfall

June 26, 2019 /

Introducing Deepnews Digest

Frederic Filloux and team have been working for 18 months on the Deepnews.ai project that uses a deep learning model to find the most relevant and non-duplicative articles on a particular news topic. They recently released a beta version of a newsletter that uses their model. The project, and his progress reports, are worth a look. Read More

Deepnews Digest 600

Agile versus waterfall

Apparently, there is some controversy over which approach is best. While this might make sense for a particular project, choosing one as an overall technology strategy is just silly. Scott Brinker explains (though he doesn’t say ‘silly’). Read More

The iPad operating system

Horace Dediu has one of the best takes on Apple’s WWDC announcements. I would agree that the new iPadOS is the most interesting/surprising of the announcements (Dediu says “most significant”). But I think the most interesting, if more predictable, announcement is the separation of the Apple watch App Store access from the phone. This is an important step in making the watch a stand-alone computing device with market reach well beyond Apple. Read More

AI can thrive in open societies

According to foreign-policy experts and the defense establishment, the United States is caught in an artificial intelligence arms race with China—one with serious implications for national security. The conventional version of this story suggests that the United States is at a disadvantage because of self-imposed restraints on the collection of data and the privacy of its citizens, while China, an unrestrained surveillance state, is at an advantage … This idea makes for a compelling narrative, especially for those trying to justify surveillance—whether government- or corporate-run. But it ignores some fundamental realities about how AI works and how AI research is conducted. Read More

Also…


The Gilbane Advisor curates content for content management, computing, and digital experience professionals. We focus on strategic technologies. We publish more or less twice a month except for August and December.

Digital Experience is all about integration and agility

June 26, 2019 /

“Digital Experience” (DX) covers a lot of territory – so much so that discussions about DX technology often result in a consensus that collapses as projects surface incompatible expectations. “Customer Experience” (CX) had a similar problem, getting way out of hand with expectations of “omnichannel”, including brick and mortar. If you’ve been around enterprise software for a while you’ll be familiar with software category labels outgrowing their britches and acting like they can do anything, if you’ll forgive the anthropomorphizing. 

Digital experience is not a single thing that you buy. It is a solution you build with unique collections of products for a specific audience. This is not a walk in the park given the vast number of potentially-relevant components. It can help to keep in mind a few universal laws of enterprise software, and one very relevant piece of history. 

Universal laws of enterprise software

  • Software products never stop growing. Even if there were a cure for feature bloat, ongoing maintenance will add code.
  • Software categories, which are created by a combination software marketers and industry analysts, grow, shrink, and get re-purposed to meet the business needs of their creators, and to accommodate new technologies and industry applications. 
  • Software companies, like all businesses, need continuous growth. That means new products, expanded product capabilities, perhaps a suite, and if possible, a platform play for a bigger piece of the pie.
  • Software needs to be integratable because enterprises have complex data and workflows that all involve software. 
  • Software needs to be agile because even the best software engineers and product managers can’t anticipate all the ways customers will use the software, and neither can their customers. 

A lesson from the past

Before the Web juggernaut progress had been made in building graphical user interfaces for business applications and managing and presenting digital content in increasingly friendly ways. But the solutions were mainly proprietary, which meant multiple user interface learning curves, and complex and costly integrations. The Web, with a much simplified and standardized markup language for content and a way to present it in a browser, soon became the dominant digital experience for both business and personal computing. The Web experience was so simple that the audience for digital content increased dramatically. Brochure-ware and simple intranets blossomed. Then things got complicated. 

The promise of e-commerce and new business models fueled investment fever. But the integrations required between the web publishing and the backend systems necessary to support web commerce (pricing databases, supply chain, logistics, etc.), didn’t exist. Early attempts to build them were custom, complex, and costly, and the results were fragile. The technical challenges were compounded by a lack of domain and integration expertise in dot-com startups, and a lack of agility and organizational resistance in larger organizations. “Frictionless commerce” failed on the front and back-ends, and the dot-com bubble burst.

DX today

We have come a long way, but the pace of new technologies ensures integration and agility will remain core challenges. DX is riding high today and that is a good thing. DX is not a bubble. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be overly ambitious strategies, unsuccessful implementations, and weak products. 

  • Don’t forget the laws of enterprise software, or the lessons from the dot-com crash. 
  • Note that integratablility and agility are as critical for operational efficiency as they are for a smooth digital experience. 
  • DX is about audiences, not just about customers, employees, or partners – each of these can be made up of many audiences. 
  • Scope for success. Ensure your strategy includes achievable projects for well-defined audiences. You will be more successful and able to implement in less time by picking specific integrations that have high value, for example, content management ( CMS) with CRM, or e-commerce. 
  • Don’t limit DX technology research to a single analyst firm. They mostly cover the same vendors, but their analysis often differs significantly. 
  • Be sure to develop enough in-house expertise to make well-informed decisions about the applicability and readiness of new technologies such as deep learning, AR, blockchain. 

And of course, join us at Gilbane’s Digital Experience Conference in Washington DC, April 29 – May 1, 2019, where we’ll be looking at the latest DX technologies, integration strategies, and practices.

NOTE: This article was first published by eContent Magazine on November 26, 2018

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