Monday, 31 May 2010
David Cameron does U-turn on computer hacker Gary McKinnon - mirror.co.uk
David Cameron does U-turn on computer hacker Gary McKinnon
David Cameron is to make a humiliating U-turn and allow computer hacker Gary McKinnon to be extradited to the US.
The Prime Minister intended to alter the law to let McKinnon, who has Asperger's Syndrome, stay here on health grounds.
But the Government has been warned that the change would let terrorists such as hate preacher Abu Hamza stay for the same reasons.
Mr McKinnon, 44, from Glasgow, hacked into the Pentagon computer system after 9/11. He claims he was looking for information on UFOs.
A Whitehall source said: "Home Secretary Theresa May has advised Cameron and Clegg that they do have the power to change the law - but it would have disastrous consequences.
"A bunch of terrorists including Hamza would fight their extradition to the US on medical grounds and be allowed to stay."
Brazil: UN rights expert urges stepped up efforts to fight slavery
Brazil: UN rights expert urges stepped up efforts to fight slavery
29 May 2010 An independent United Nations human rights expert has called urged Brazil to strengthen efforts to close loopholes perpetuating the practice of slavery, including forced labour in the vast South American nation's rural areas.Gulnara Shahinian, UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery
“Slavery is a crime that should not go unpunished,” said Gulnara Shahinian, Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, including is causes and consequences, at the end of her visit to Brazil.
The Government has taken commendable action to combat the scourge, including publishing a so-called 'Dirty List' of all farms and companies using slave labour, excluding them from accessing public funds, she said.
But “some landowners, businesses and intermediaries, such as the gatos, have found a way to avoid criminal prosecution by taking advantage of legal loopholes that delay justice and foster impunity,” the expert said.
Civil penalties have been successfully applied to some landowners and companies but criminal penalties have not been enforced, with jurisdictional conflicts and delays in the judiciary system resulting in the lapsing of the statute of limitations, she pointed out. Although forced labour is considered a serious crime, first-time offenders might only face house arrest or community service.
Brazil could shortly become the world's fifth largest economy, but the Special Rapporteur cautioned that this ascendancy should not come at the expense of people's rights.
Forced labour in rural areas, which she said is a “slavery-like practice,” is most wide-spread in the cattle ranching and sugar cane industries, and the victims are mostly men and boys over the age of 15. In Brazil's urban areas, forced labour takes place largely in the garment industry.
“In all these situations the victims of forced labour work long hours, with little or no pay,” Ms. Shahinian said. “They are threatened with, or subjected to physical, psychological and sometimes sexual violence.”
During her visit, she held talks with Government authorities, international organizations, the private sector and non-governmental organizations, and visited communities in SPaulo, CuiabImperatriz, Alia and Brasa. In rural areas, she met with people subjected to forced labour and slavery-like practices in the cattle ranching and sugar cane industries, and she also spoke with garment workers.
The expert called for the adoption of schemes that ensure that the people most vulnerable to performing forced labour can enjoy basic rights, such as the rights to food, water and education to allow for their rehabilitation and reingetration into economic life and social protection networks.
Education should also include vocational training and literacy programmes, which should be complemented by Government action to safeguard the right for indigenous groups and others “to work without having to succumb to forced labour,” she stressed.
“The strongest message that the Brazilian Government can send to Brazilians to show that the crime of slavery will not go unpunished is to pass the constitutional amendment” which would allow for the expropriation of land where forced labour is used,” the Special Rapporteur emphasized.
“This expropriation would occur without compensation and the land would be re-distributed, with priority being given to those workers previously held in conditions analogous to slavery.”
Passing this amendment, she said, “will show that Brazil is indeed strongly committed to fighting slavery.”
News Tracker: past stories on this issue
Todays slavery practices must be eradicated, Secretary-General says
Sunday, 30 May 2010
Gary McKinnon extradition can be stopped, says LibDem QC Lord Carlile | Mail Online
An affront to British justice: Gary McKinnon extradition CAN be stopped, says Lib Dem QC
By James Slack and Michael Seamark
Last updated at 1:34 AM on 31st May 2010Campaign: Gary McKinnon with his mother Janis Sharp
The coalition can and must save Gary McKinnon from extradition, the Government’s terror law adviser Lord Carlile says today.
The senior Lib Dem peer insists that blocking the Asperger’s sufferer’s removal to the U.S. for computer hacking would not set any legal precedent involving other pending or future cases.
Those currently fighting extradition to America include hookhanded preacher of hate Abu Hamza, who is wanted on allegations of setting up a terrorist training camp.
Lawyers for the convicted fanatic, currently in Belmarsh prison, would almost certainly point to his own poor health in a cynical ploy to try to save him from being thrown in a U.S. jail.
But in an article for the Daily Mail, Lord Carlile says of Gary’s plight: ‘It is a one-off, that suggests no precedent for other cases.’
The QC’s intervention heaps new pressure on Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to ensure Gary is tried in the UK – not sent to face up to 60 years in a U.S. jail.
Last week we revealed how Mr Clegg was backtracking on his previous position that the Government had the power to halt Gary’s removal on charges of hacking into military computers.
But Lord Carlile, legal adviser to the Home Office, said there was no doubt that the 44-year-old could be punished for his offences here.
He writes: ‘There is no doubt that Mr McKinnon could be prosecuted in this country, given that the acts of unlawful access occurred within our jurisdiction (ie from his computer in North London) and that he has admitted the offences.
‘I am not alone among experienced lawyers in considering the Home Secretary has the power to halt this extradition.’
Lord Carlile points out three cases similar to Gary’s have been tried in the UK.
Medical experts have warned that – if sent to the U.S – a vulnerable Gary will almost certainly kill himself.Home Secretary Theresa May has temporarily halted his removal to consider new medical evidence.
Mr Clegg – previously one of Gary’s staunchest supporters – surprised campaigners when he said: ‘What I haven’t got power to do, neither has the Home Secretary neither has even the Prime Minister, is to completely reverse and undo certain legal aspects of this.’
Gary’s solicitor Karen Todner said: ‘I think Nick Clegg needs to understand there is no court decision the Home Secretary would be undermining were she to make a decision based on the medical evidence which she now has that Gary McKinnon
should not be extradited.’His lawyers are submitting new evidence to Mrs May, who is then expected to spend weeks considering it. Mrs May has also ordered a review of the 2003 Extradition Act.
Legal experts insist that – while lopsided – the Extradition Act does allow Gary to be saved.
Advice obtained from human rights QC Tim Owen and Julian Knowles, one of the UK’s leading extradition lawyers, by the Mail stated the Act ‘gives the English courts the primary responsibility – but, importantly, not the exclusive responsibility – for ensuring that…safeguards are maintained’.
They went on: ‘It is therefore plain the Home Secretary has the power – and indeed the duty – to intervene in any extradition case, even after the court process has ended, if the evidence establishes that there is a real risk of a human rights breach should extradition proceed.
‘Statements made to the contrary are obviously and plainly wrong.’
Lord Carlile said there was no doubt that Gary McKinnon could be punished for his offences here
Lord Carlile, legal adviser to the Home Office, said there was no doubt that the 44-year-old could be punished for his offences here
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1282765/Gary-McKinnon-extradition-sto...
Spotting Irate Customers with 'Emotion Detection' : NPR
Spotting Irate Customers with 'Emotion Detection'
by Xeni Jardin
New "emotion detection" software could help companies detect when their telephone customers are starting to get angry.
A high-tech company called NICE systems has developed software that records calls and listens for emotional signals that the call is going badly. It could be valuable to Fortune 500 companies, because it would help them spot problems in customer support and improve their service.
Day to Day technology contributor Xeni Jardin reports on how the software works, and whether it is effective in calming an angry customer.
Related NPR Stories
Phone Guide Is a Real Customer Service Nov. 23, 2005Customer Service in the Age of the Web Jan. 8, 2005Study: Consumers Frustrated with Customer Service Jan. 6, 2003
 
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Jack of Kent: A Skeptic Looks at the McKinnon Case: Part One
2 comment(s):
Chris Nicholson said...I'll try to add this as a first comment (as a Gary McKinnon supporter and a friend of Janis Sharp, his mother) that will be moderate. Hopefully that will impact others who might leave more inflammatory posts.
I have two issues with Gary McKinnon's extradition itself. As a web developer, I find it near-impossible to believe the bits of the case which allege criminal damage. From the equipment he was using, it would be near-impossible for that amount of damage. Secondly, the fact that he hacked into US military machines *is* a crime and he should be appropriately tried in a Court of Law - I just don't see it as necessary as carting him thousands of miles away to do it. There's scope for having US officials come over here or (for goodness sake!) use teleconferencing!
As for the Extradition Act itself, I think it's terribly flawed and a worse miscarriage of justice via the Act can be better measured against it's use against Brian Howes family in Scotland. I thoroughly recommend you get up to speed on the Howes family's troubles with the Extradition Act, as it doesn't even look like him and his wife have committed a crime!
30 May 2010 15:25
Daniel Rendall said... Thanks for writing this. I'd sort of absorbed the received wisdom that McKinnon was merely a loner searching for evidence that the US were covering up UFO activity or whatever the story was. I wasn't aware of the severity of the allegations of damage to the US networks.
I'm against the extradition on the general (and very possibly spurious) grounds that I don't believe the US would be terribly forthcoming if we wanted to extradite a US citizen to face trial for an equivalent offence here. The US always strikes me as a nation which is all in favour of the rule of law when it's in their interest, but are rather snooty about the idea of anyone else (e.g. the International Criminal Court) having jurisdiction over them. I'm not a lawyer, so I could be completely wrong about this, of course.
But anyway, I'm now satisfied that McKinnon does have a serious case to answer and I'm looking forward to the subsequent posts...
30 May 2010 15:26
Saturday, 29 May 2010
Petition to: declare a moratorium on all pending extraditions of British citizens to the USA. | Number10.gov.uk
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to declare a moratorium on all pending extraditions of British citizens to the USA. More details
Submitted by Claire Simmons – Deadline to sign up by: 01 April 2011 – Signatures: 50
The new administration is currently assessing how best to proceed with the e-petitions service. We will update users as soon as practicable.
More details from petition creator
Until the Extradition Act (2003) is reformed to require a prima facie case to be presented and won prior to any extradition, and until the USA stop abusing a law that was designed for terror suspects (see for eg Ian Norris, Brian Howes, Gary McKinnon etc), there must be, in the interests of justice and decency, an immediate moratorium on all pending extraditions of British citizens to the USA.
Current signatories
Claire Simmons, the Petition Creator, joined by:
- Janis Sharp
- michelle howell
- Oliver Stanton
- Verity Smart
- Adrian Taylor
- Mari Anderson
- Peter Raymond
- Gary Flunder
- Janita Thomson
- Niamh Larkin
- paul Stevenson
- Guy Powell
- Louise Harffey
- Daniel Aston
- Chris Townsend
- Russ J Graham
- David Hastings
- Colin Hughes
- Timothy I Mullen
- Toby Bryans
- maria panayiotis
- Christine Crowstaff
- H Robertson
- Vivian Kydd
- Mark David Justin Aldiss
- Margaret King
- dp
- gareth payne
- D H Harvey
- MARK HOUGH
- kevin healey
- Susannah Browning
- Cliff OSullivan
- Kayleigh Jones
- Shareen Faddah
- Nat Queen
- simon moore
- P Kennedy
- Stephen Richards
- Karen-Louise Taylor
- Levent Akbulut
- Rhiannon Stateczny
- Jen Johnson
- Lesley Boal
- Andrea Milner
- Faye Watts
- angie cox
- Sandra Evans
- Benjamin James Francis
Friday, 28 May 2010
After-Action Report 1: CRM Evolution ‘09 | Third Idea Consulting
If you’re wondering why the blog has been quiet for the past few days, it’s not a question of laziness—I’ve been working. Specifically, I was at CRM Evolution 2009 in NYC (co-located with SpeechTEK 2009), experiencing my first professional conference as an independent. It was fantastic, and before I write anything else, I have to express my gratitude to the people who made it possible. David Myron (editorial director of CRM and Speech Technology) and Paul Greenberg (conference chair and all-round great guy) outdid themselves from their positions at the top. Bill Spence and Paul Johnston kept the technical side of the show running smoothly. Josh Weinberger, Jessica Tsai, Lauren McKay, and Chris Musico (the staff of CRM); Len Klie, Adam Boretz, and Eric Barkin (the staff of Speech Technology); and all the support staff of Information Today should be proud. I’m sure the staff of the Marriott Marquis Hotel deserve thanks and credit as well. I just don’t like the place as a conference venue, so it’s hard for me to be as magnanimous with my praise.
The reason you’re hearing about CRM Evolution ‘09 now, instead of during the show itself (except for my tweets, hashtag #CRMe09) is because I am not used to doing it all myself. I’ve always had access to a laptop, but I don’t own one—there was no need, and I prefer desktops for personal use. While I knew I’d need to buy one before the conferences started in mid-September, I figured that for late August I’d be able to write my reports from home after hours. Little did I realize that there would be no “after hours” for me. I was getting home so late I only had time to sleep, shower, and go back. Lesson learned.
Paul kicked the show off right with his opening keynote, “The Social Customer: Listen, Then Act.” Not surprisingly, he made an apparently bulletproof case for the power and relevance of social networking technology as applied to CRM. Some highlights:
- The most trusted source of info for customers today is other customers.
- Customers want to do business with companies that are transparent, and that understand and cater to their needs.
- Social CRM humanizes the company in the customer’s eyes, and gives the company insight into its customers.
Of course there’s much more to it than that, and I expect the transcripts and recordings of Paul’s presentation and the many conference sessions will be available before too long.
——————-
It’s been said that trade shows and their ilk are more about meeting and greeting than about learning anything. I have sometimes felt this was true. This conference was both for me. I learned what Sage North America’s next ACT! product will be like (more about that next time), and also got a sense of what SugarCRM is planning in the near future, but most of the learning wasn’t about specific pieces of software.
- I learned how speech analytics can be leveraged in social CRM, courtesy of Steve Graff, vice president of technology and chief architect for Autonomy/eTalk.
- Bruce Temkin of Forrester Research gave a great talk on the CRM journey, teaching more about what it takes for a company to fully embrace customer experience as its chief mission.
- Michael Krigsman, ZDNet blogger, extended his coverage of IT failures to include failures in traditional and social CRM efforts, yielding a lively discussion.
- Brent Leary (CRM Essentials, CRM Playaz, biscuit fiend) unloaded tons of great info in his talk on CRM and the Socially Empowered Customer. Next to Paul’s keynote, it may have been the most eloquent discussions of the power of social CRM I’ve heard.
- Casey Coleman from the government’s General Services Administration and Bob Greenberg (CEO of consultancy G&H International Services) amazed me with examples of how government agencies are using social technology to improve information flow, especially in times of crisis.
That’s just some of what came out of this show; I missed a lot of sessions I’d otherwise have attended due to scheduling conflicts. I also learned more about my own position as a consultant and analyst in the CRM world—there were too many sharp minds around, so I couldn’t help but improve myself by talking to them. Meeting and greeting them—old friends and new, including some I’ve known for some time but never encountered face to face—gave me a serious case of the warm fuzzies.
Maybe it’s because I was working for myself instead of providing coverage for an employer, but this felt like the best trade show I’ve been to in a decade. And that’s just for a relatively small event. My head might explode at Dreamforce.
Tags: #CRMe09, Brent Leary, conference, CRM, Paul Greenberg, social CRM, social customer, social media
This entry was posted on Friday, August 28th, 2009 at 5:33 pm and is filed under Summaries. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Sunday, 23 May 2010
One child is raped in South Africa every three 3 minutes
THE PLATFORM
You are Here: Home / The PlatformThe Ushahidi Platform was built for information collection, visualization and interactive mapping. Below are some of the countries and projects that are using it:
Contact us if you are interested in the Ushahidi Platform.
- new!Sudan Vote Monitor is a Sudanese civil society initiative that used SMS to monitor the elections in the Sudan.
- new!Chile Crisis Map is tracking the post-earthquake crisis response and recovery efforts in Chile.
- Snowmageddon: The Cleanup - Where the Washington region comes together to dig out of Snowmageddon 2010.
- Haiti Crisis Map is tracking the post-earthquake crisis response and recovery efforts in Haiti.
- Wildlife Trackers is a citizen science project to track wildlife in Kenya.
- Connection GeoMap, managed by Survivors Connect seeks to create a space to share critical information about trafficking and anti-trafficking activity globally, promote transparency in our efforts, engage communities and learn best practices, current challenges and needs in our global effort.
- Atlanta Crime Maps tracks crime in the Atlanta metro area.
- Stop Stockouts is an initiative to track near real-time stockouts of medical supplies at pharmacies (in a medical store or health facility) in Kenya, Uganda, Malawi and Zambia.
- The Computer Professionals' Union in the Philippines created the initiative called TXTpower, an effort to keep an eye on the mobile phone companies by ordinary citizens.
- The Cuidemos el Voto mashup is an independent platform to help monitor the federal elections of 5 July 2009 in Mexico.
- We set up a site to track the Swine Flu reports coming in from official and unofficial sources at Swineflu.Ushahidi.com. We have also created a way for citizen reports to be submitted (they remain unverified).
- Vote Report India is a collaborative citizen-driven election monitoring platform for the 2009 Indian general elections.
- Al Jazeera uses Ushahidi in their "War on Gaza" website covering the activity happening in Gaza in January 2009.
- Peace Heroes: Unsung Peace Heroes is a campaign developed by Butterfly Works and Media Focus on Africa Foundation. The goal is to nominate people who helped do positive things during and after the post-election violence in Kenya. Kenyan heroes are ordinary people who did extraordinary things for their fellow citizens or their country.
- Congo (DRC): Deployment to the DRC Congo happened on Nov 7, 2008 - the week after our initial release of the alpha version of the new Ushahidi Platform.
- Kenya: The initial mashup, used to track reports of incidents of violence around Kenya.
- South Africa: Used to map xenophobic attacks perpetrated against non-South Africans.
About Ushahidi
ABOUT
You are Here: Home / AboutWhat is Ushahidi? from Ushahidi on Vimeo.
Introduction & History
Ushahidi, which means "testimony" in Swahili, is a website that was initially developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post-election fallout at the beginning of 2008. Ushahidi's roots are in the collaboration of Kenyan citizen journalists during a time of crisis. The website was used to map incidents of violence and peace efforts throughout the country based on reports submitted via the web and mobile phone. This initial deployment of Ushahidi had 45,000 users in Kenya, and was the catalyst for us realizing there was a need for a platform based on it, which could be use by others around the world.Since then we have grown from an ad hoc group of volunteers to a focused organization. The team is comprised of individuals with a wide span of experience ranging from human rights work to software development. We have also built a strong team of volunteer developers in primarily in Africa, but also Europe and the U.S.
As early as May of 2008, we shared our code with a group in South Africa that used it to map incidents of xenophobic violence. This rudimentary deployment made us realize the need to rebuild the framework from the ground up. By August seed funding from Humanity United in the amount of $200,000 allowed the team to get started rebuilding the platform. In October the alpha version of Ushahidi was completed and promptly deployed to the DR Congo for testing. In its alpha form, Ushahidi was tested and deployed with 11 different organizations directly, including the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), Peace Heroes and the Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights. Externally, there were 4 major alpha deployments, including Al Jazeera during the War on Gaza, Vote Report India (to monitor the recent local elections) and Pak Voices (to map incidents of violence in Pakistan).
Our goal is to create a platform that any person or organization can use to set up their own way to collect and visualize information. The core platform will allow for plug-in and extensions so that it can be customized for different locales and needs. The beta version platform is now available as an open source application that others can download for free, implement and use to bring awareness to crisis situations or other events in their own locales, it is also continually being improved tested with various partners primarily in Kenya. Organizations can also use the tool for internal monitoring or visualization purposes.
We are now focusing on scaling the organization in order to make the tool as widely accessible as possible, to increase the platform’s user-friendliness, and to help support the community that has grown around Ushahidi.
Hidden Markov model - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Lawrence R. Rabiner (February 1989). "A tutorial on Hidden Markov Models and selected applications in speech recognition". Proceedings of the IEEE 77 (2): 257–286. doi:10.1109/5.18626. http://www.ece.ucsb.edu/Faculty/Rabiner/ece259/Reprints/tutorial%20on%20hmm%20and%20applications.pdf. [1]
- Xuedong Huang, M. Jack, and Y. Ariki (1990). Hidden Markov Models for Speech Recognition. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0748601627.
- Richard Durbin, Sean R. Eddy, Anders Krogh, Graeme Mitchison (1999). Biological Sequence Analysis: Probabilistic Models of Proteins and Nucleic Acids. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-62971-3.
- Xuedong Huang, Alex Acero, and Hsiao-Wuen Hon (2001). Spoken Language Processing. Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-022616-5.
- Lior Pachter and Bernd Sturmfels (2005). Algebraic Statistics for Computational Biology. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-85700-7.
- Olivier Cappé, Eric Moulines, Tobias Rydén (2005). Inference in Hidden Markov Models. Springer. ISBN 0-387-40264-0.
- Kristie Seymore, Andrew McCallum, and Roni Rosenfeld. Learning Hidden Markov Model Structure for Information Extraction. AAAI 99 Workshop on Machine Learning for Information Extraction, 1999 (also at CiteSeer: [2]).
- Li J, Najmi A, Gray RM (February 2000). "Image classification by a two dimensional hidden Markov model". IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing 48 (2): 517–533. doi:10.1109/78.823977. http://www.stat.psu.edu/~jiali.
- Ephraim Y, Merhav N (June 2002). "Hidden Markov processes". IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory 48: 1518–1569. doi:10.1109/TIT.2002.1003838.
- Newberg LA (July 2009). "Error statistics of hidden Markov model and hidden Boltzmann model results". BMC Bioinformatics 10: article 212. doi:10.1186/1471-2105-10-212. PMID 19589158. PMC 2722652. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2105/10/212.
- B. Pardo and W. Birmingham. Modeling Form for On-line Following of Musical Performances. AAAI-05 Proc., July 2005.
- Thad Starner, Alex Pentland. Visual Recognition of American Sign Language Using Hidden Markov. Master's Thesis, MIT, Feb 1995, Program in Media Arts
- Satish L, Gururaj BI (April 2003). "Use of hidden Markov models for partial discharge pattern classification". IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation.
The path-counting algorithm, an alternative to the Baum-Welch algorithm:
- Davis RIA, Lovell BC (2000). "Comparing and evaluating HMM ensemble training algorithms using train and test and condition number criteria". Journal of Pattern Analysis and Applications 0 (0): 1–7. http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/677948.html.
SALT Cymru | Archive | Speech Technology
Owen – a new Welsh synthetic voice
Author : admin Published: March 23rd, 2010The speech technology company Bitlips has released the most natural sounding Welsh-language synthetic voice yet, called 'Owen'. The voice is based on resources developed as part of the WISPR project undertaken by the Language Technologies Unit at Bangor University, but uses Hidden Markov Model techniques rather than the diphone method used by the [...]
SALT Cymru | Technoleg Iaith a Lleferydd || Speech and Language Technology
Newsletter
Newsletter »
The SALT Cymru newsletter includes the latest news about developments within the SALT Cymru network. In addition, short bulletins are distributed to [Read More]
Events
Saturday, 22 May 2010
A Different Approach
Location: Autonomy White PapersDate: 2009/9/29Relevance: 66.90%Summary: ...Autonomy Technology Overview. Built upon the seminal mathematical works of Thomas Bayes and Claude Shannon, and on a range of innovations that are covered by 170 patents, Autonomy technology identifies the patterns that naturally occur in text, voice or video files based on the usage and frequency of...
Location: Autonomy White PapersDate: 2008/8/28Relevance: 57.13%Summary: ...can be traced to Bayesian Inference and Claude Shannon¹s Principle of Information. Bayes Theorem has become a central tenet of modern statistical probability modeling. Autonomy’s advanced pattern-matching technology exploits high-performance probabilistic modeling techniques and extract a document's...
Location: Autonomy White PapersDate: 2003/10/3Relevance: 50.03%Summary: ...agnosticism at a fundamental level. The Intelligent Data Operating Layer that lies at Autonomy's heart uses a unique combination of Bayesian Inference and Shannon's Information Theory to apply a technique known as Adaptive Probabilistic Concept Modelling* to the problem of understanding unstructured information....
Location: Autonomy White PapersDate: 2006/9/28Relevance: 48.16%Summary: ...organizations to manage vast quantities of information regardless of format or storage location. In evaluating all types of queries, IDOL Server employs complex algorithms based on a combination of Information Theory and Bayesian methods to automatically weight and rank the document returns by statistical...
Location: Autonomy White PapersDate: 2008/9/16Relevance: 45.81%Summary: ...low computation, useful for IVR Autonomy offers all methods and has developed these systems originally for use in the UK and US Intelligence community. Cannot handle silence in conversational speech—>fails Limited predefined keywords spotted Find arbitrary word, low computation Accurate, flexible, can...
Location: Autonomy White PapersDate: 2006/7/28Relevance: 45.72%Summary: ...and structured data be it visual, auditory or alphanumeric in character. At its core, the technology uses a combination of Bayesian Inference and Shannon’s Information Theory to automatically extract the key concepts from any piece/s of information. As a mathematical platform, it is not constrained...
Location: Autonomy White PapersDate: 2006/5/16Relevance: 43.42%Summary: ...to warrant security to Fortune 500 companies. The Foundations of IDOL Autonomy's strength lies in a unique combination of technologies that employs advanced pattern matching techniques, using Bayesian Inference and Claude Shannon's principles of information theory. ...
Location: Autonomy White PapersDate: 2009/7/3Relevance: 39.83%Summary: ...Explore has self-learning capabilities that allow it to continuously update itself with new information. Thanks to the unique combination of Bayesian Inference and Shannon’s Information Theory in Autonomy etalk’s technology, the system is able to continuously develop and learn automatically. As new...
Location: Autonomy White PapersDate: 2010/3/4Relevance: 38.63%Summary: ...Analytics is uniquely positioned because it is built on Autonomy’s Meaning Based Computing which leverages advanced mathematical and statistical algorithms and powerful, meaningbased technologies to automatically: • “Ingest” and understand all content and information, whether structured or unstructured...
Location: Autonomy White PapersDate: 2006/6/6Relevance: 37.49%Summary: ...performance requirements. Adaptive Probabilistic Caching Two of the key factors in any deployment are query and index performance. Autonomy’s Adaptive Probabilistic Concept Caching algorithm ensures that frequently used concepts are maintained in memory caches and that query results are returned as...
Location: Autonomy White PapersDate: 2009/8/5Relevance: 37.36%Summary: ...Meaning Based Marketing. All of this is possible through the application of advanced mathematical and statistical algorithms and powerful, meaning-based technologies to automatically: • “read” and understand all content and information, whether structured or unstructured • identif y and extract...
Location: Autonomy White PapersDate: 2008/9/16Relevance: 37.05%Summary: ...analysis with IDOL’s meaning-based technology, Autonomy provides accurate, content-based retrieval of information. While legacy phonetic approaches merely use keywords and cannot contend with variant expressions of an idea, IDOL combines both phonetic and conceptual methods to disambiguate the limitations...This is a small selection of the Autonomy White Papers available, please visit our publications site at http://publications.autonomy.com/ for more information.
Automatic Hyperlinks provided by IDOL Server 7
can an outsider to all of your industries trigger a positive reaction from you?
Thanks for replying.
Autonomy can offer projectbrainsaver 100% understanding of what is said and, with minor amounts of questioning, quickly build a bank of that clients pronunciation to enable a 100% transcription rate 27/7/365. Aungate is an example of Autonomy realtime understanding of voice content. Your example “it is 1PM and a co-worker sticks his head in the door and says “Jeet yet?” is one of a type of example that Autonomy feature regarding their guessing technology that would understand, using Bayes theory and Shannon’s law, what was being said.
Both Nuance and Autonomy/Softsound have the ability to understand vast amounts of colloquial speech (and accuratly guess at the rest in Autonomy’s case) and both can optomise any language - #300,000 project cost get you an optimised language from Autonomy… enabling any user of that language to talk and achieve… it also adds the ability, in times of disaster, to use that constantly building understanding of that language to do such things as join members of families back together just by handing them a mobile phone - family members have something in common regarding their speech, father and son - mother and daughter - as do village members and regions.
Part of the build of projectbrainsaver was a firewall for human beings… a way of protecting the most vulnerable from the difficulties modern society can place with regard to information overload, dishonest practices, misinformation, best or worst specialist, etc.. even power over people people. Butterworth’s Law is catalogued by Autonomy and would be capable of building in to this kit as a whole enabling the system to know when something isn’t right before it pops through an elderly person’s door - As would all the laws, rules and regulations for any industry, country, organisation, etc - Aungate already covers litigation in the US, UK and other countries. Because of the build of this technology from Autonomy it is possible for it to ‘feed’ itself; Autonomy has the ability to automatically configure itself - it is known as atomated infrastructure technology.
One use of Autonomy technology can diagnose a patients illness within 95% accuracy first time on just listening to the patient’s description of their symptoms.
No, this can be done now… when you add a personal account that hold a long term databank of what you add into it… all that data to analyse regarding the actual meanings of the words that the client says…. Mmm.Filip De Graeve, ex manager of the Belgian EGovt build knew the core of projectbrainsaver kit could be done in February of 2003 using Lernout & howsbie technology - its the real time transcription that used to cause the problems but that died with P4 processors and above… fast computers with lots of hard drive and memory.
Autonomy can offer real time understanding of voice. So can Nuance… IBM have come out with an open source offering that does the same… understands what i am saying in real time and with serious accuracy.Add VoIP, SAN’s, Data Centres and Call centre’s and you have a high powered piece of kit that can be used cheaply by individuals and groups for enhancing their lives without having to aim for the whole world one people bit when their individuality or group offering would other wise be lost as it is now, more often than not…
So, I reiterate, why am i typing? (-: thanks for the replies so far
Mark
Forrester Research
With the present visions of digitization of everything (CORUS)and open source x or y, to VoIP, Autonomy (Blinkx)(?), Microsoft/Yahoo Google search battle to be, and the oh so wide Digital Divide, With mobile phones cheaper to run in war torn Somalia than in the UK and a united, networked world, what is being offered is the tiniest tear in the fabric of the cover over tomorrow. I have been talking with Autonomy / Aungate / Audentify / Softsound regarding the use of their voice technology coupled with their IDOL engine to build the worlds best S*** sorter, a problem sorter and organisation tool that works as much by the use of voice only as possible - it has a web portal as well as a powered by Autonomy people populated 24/7/365 switchboard!
Designed to help people run their lives in an ever more complex world this kit can give you voice control over ANY computer program ever written - giving you power to run any job any computer was designed to work... An executive from Verity called it Enhanced DNA - Real time brain power increase...
The future is the power of computers working their magic on a private and personal level on the long term(200 years plus - saleable now!) data held in world class encrypted storage in constantly flowing data streams of past and present (A strange mix of Google Achitecture and SAN with IBM Webspheres and... (?)) with world class income levels for all the differing avenues - each person sees their own use for their own data - Each group - with the powerful profiling tools used and customisable by the client to suit, with answers from all the data fed in during those long nights alone in Brazil when you were up that mountain with your account and the view.... Did you think of something new? feed it in and off this kit runs to build and sort and even check the feasability and market... or how many disabled people already use a better artificial leg than the one you are about to waste 36 hours designing because you lost your focus... would your design be a better mouse trap? maybe. Someone on this world network might be interested enough to want to talk with you, take it further... it's done if it can be... and it all fits around your ways of working your life best.... A new world ?
projectbrainsaver had this notion in 2000 after listening to a talk by Mike Lynch of Autonomy on UK Radio 4.The Unknown needle in the haystack...
with this kit and the power of voice you can throw mobile phones into crowds of displaced people and it can link them up based on the sound of the voices of the area/ village / town where they come from ... if father loses son father just has to talk about his son and the son just has to talk and click... sorted...
When the word on the street is contrary to the official word this will show - hot spotting ...Based on the needs of the Rwandan refugees 1992
So, a wide open playing field with all the tools needed to build some stunning, future filling enterprises and ....
Voice gives the rest of the world the ability to join in
Now
(-:
Mark
A comment from me
Customer Management, Billing & HR Services - Convergys
Our consultative philosophy rests on the principles of customer experience management. Convergys provides a unique competitive advantage through the combined approach to knowing what customers think, how customers behave and what customers say.
Delivering the complete "outside-in" view of the customer experience and aligning this view with that of the enterprise uncovers and prioritizes actions that drive positive cash flow for the business. A proven, proprietary methodology coupled with sophisticated speech analytic technologies to transform your business is used to:
- Collect and analyze data, thereby bringing to light what your customers experience with each transaction and uncover root causes to disconnects in meeting their expectations
- Prioritize and implement business solutions with guaranteed in and near quarter return on your investment
The Tech 100 - BusinessWeek
MethodologyData: Bloomberg, as of April 30
Methodology: To compile our list, we started with the more than 6,500 actively traded primary securities in the Bloomberg database in 13 tech sectors. We then set requirements of a minimum market capitalization of $1 billion, revenues of at least $500 million, and no more than a 5 percent decline in revenues from 2008 to 2009 (calculated in local currency). We also excluded companies whose stock had fallen by 50 percent or more in the 12 months ending April 30, 2010.
We then developed a means to normalize revenues and operating income of the remaining 210 companies so they could be fairly compared, and ranked them on these metrics as well as total shareholder return and employee growth, a key indicator of growth in tech companies, with 1 being the top ranking. The rankings received for normalized revenue and operating income were weighted at 35% each, shareholder return at 20% and employee growth at 10%. Adding them all up, the companies with the lowest summed weighted rankings made the Tech 100 list.
Watermark Medical home sleep apnea testing company overview
(WM) is a medical services company whose co-founders/investors are serial entrepreneurs with extensive experience building successful business models and outstanding sales and distribution channels for medical services. Our team's most recent experience was with CardioNet, Inc. (NASDAQ:BEAT), a reimbursement-based, medical services company focused on cardiac arrhythmia monitoring.
WM’s initial focus is on the underserved sleep disorders market by building a transformational company based on an insurance channel reimbursement model combining innovative medical diagnostic and therapy technologies with extensive U.S. sales channels to doctors, hospitals, sleep clinics and the home healthcare industry. Our highly experienced team of seasoned industry professionals has a proven ability to combine innovative technology solutions and outstanding sales channels for medical services. WM’s leadership has proven success in the acquisition and integration of operating companies. Our extensive industry network and strategic relationships bring an unprecedented level of business experience ability to exceed our growth potential.