During the early days when working on Inforbix technology, I then (2010) had a chance to speak to Lynda Moulton. Lynda was in the midst of her Gilbane research work – Semantic Software Technologies: Landscape of high Value Applications for the enterprise. You can download this report navigating your browser to the following link. Registration is required. Recently, I read the following blog – ETL and Building Intelligence behind Semantic Search. I found the following quote interesting:
Besides baked-in intelligence for answering human questions using natural language processing (NLP) to search, an answer-platform like Watson requires tons of data. Also, data must be assembled in conceptually and contextually relevant databases for good answers to occur. When documents and other forms of electronic content are fed to a knowledgebase for semantic retrieval, finely crafted metadata (data describing the content) and excellent vocabulary control add enormous value. These two content enhancers, metadata and controlled vocabularies, can transform good search into excellent search.
Her blog post, and this quote in particular, reminds me of the similarity between the problem described in the Watson-Jeopardy story and the problems we are trying to solve using Inforbix Apps. It all starts with tons of data. You need to acquire tons of data in order to provide the best answer(s) to questions. Now, think about manufacturing companies. Designers, Engineers, Managers; they are all facing data-related problems every day: how can I find similar assembly components? Where are the last design updates to be used for manufacturing today? What is the impact of a proposed ECO? What are the main elements of product and production cost? All these questions, asked daily in most manufacturing companies, require good answers. When thinking about Inforbix product data Apps in the early days, we understood the importance of building a Search application that will handle engineering data in an efficient way.
The Inforbix Search App helps everyone in a company search, browser, and navigate through tons of product data, helping to find the right information necessary to make the best decisions. Inforbix is simply elementary. Elementary my dear Watson.
Best, Oleg
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