Comments on: Unstructured Information Management http://storagemojo.com/2006/12/08/unstructured-information-management/ Data storage info & analysis Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:21:17 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Robert Pearson http://storagemojo.com/2006/12/08/unstructured-information-management/#comment-11394 Robert Pearson Sat, 09 Dec 2006 09:53:47 +0000 http://storagemojo.com/?p=326#comment-11394 I would like to share some information I have about "unstructured" Information. First, a quick Operational Definition. I use "Information" to refer to information that can produce revenue and "information" to refer to still combined data and Information using Walter A. Shewhart's data presentation rules: 1. Data has no meaning apart from its context. 2. Data contains both signal and noise. To be able to extract Information, one must separate the signal from the noise within the data. Unstructured data has an unknown Information Context. The Information Content may be known but this is often meaningless out of the Context. There are various ways of attempting to quickly determine Context. Ad hoc Information spaces seem to be the most popular. How does this apply? Quoting Ray Ozzie from an ACM interview at: http://www.acmqueue.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=349&page=3 "But IT really needs to leave it to the line of business to understand what the key collaborative processes are. The line of business really has to understand the role of structured processes versus ad hoc projects, and it has to assist IT in defining what tools are best to enable its structured processes and ad hoc processes. The line of business must understand the skills of the people and how best to match the tools with those skills. ...[snip]... For example, if somebody did all of his or her work totally in an ad hoc, unstructured manner, there would be no artifacts that benefited the organization." This quote is from page 3 of a 5 page interview. I recommend reading the entire interview. I have been a big fan of the concept of "Weaving the Pervasive Information Fabric using agents and multi-agents" since I first ran across it. The closest thing to a home page is: http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/3797/ The best write-up is the PDF at: http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/3797/01/ohs6-weaving.pdf A companion PDF is the "Hypermedia by coincidence" at: http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/5901/01/ht01-coincidence.pdf What does all this mean? The "Pervasive Information Fabric" is required by the IoD (Information on Demand) infrastructure. The IoD is necessary for the timely creation and rapid dispersal, with Persistence, of transient "ad hoc" Information spaces. The "ad hoc" Information spaces extract Information from "unstructured" data to satisfy User requests. Think of it as JIT (Just In Time) Information. To deal with the "Fundamental Shift in the Information Paradigm" we need some new concepts. The two key ones are Information Centric and Technology Centric. To manage these two concepts we need the "Lower Metric" definitions of the Unit of Information and the Unit of "Enabling" Technology. The Unit of Information is the key element and the Managed Units of Information are the "Profit Center" of the enterprise. A Managed Unit of Information is simply a Unit of Information with an SLA (Service Level Agreement). By definition a Managed Unit of Information must be "Enabled" by a Managed Unit of Technology. All the IDCs (Internet Data Centers) have to be doing this to survive. I would like to share some information I have about “unstructured” Information. First, a quick Operational Definition.
I use “Information” to refer to information that can produce revenue and “information” to refer to still combined data and Information using Walter A. Shewhart’s data presentation rules:
1. Data has no meaning apart from its context.
2. Data contains both signal and noise. To be able to extract Information,
one must separate the signal from the noise within the data.

Unstructured data has an unknown Information Context. The Information Content may be known but this is often meaningless out of the Context.
There are various ways of attempting to quickly determine Context. Ad hoc Information spaces seem to be the most popular.

How does this apply?
Quoting Ray Ozzie from an ACM interview at:
http://www.acmqueue.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=349&page=3

“But IT really needs to leave it to the line of business to understand what the key collaborative processes are. The line of business really has to understand the role of structured processes versus ad hoc projects, and it has to assist IT in defining what tools are best to enable its structured processes and ad hoc processes. The line of business must understand the skills of the people and how best to match the tools with those skills.
…[snip]…
For example, if somebody did all of his or her work totally in an ad hoc,
unstructured manner, there would be no artifacts that benefited the organization.”

This quote is from page 3 of a 5 page interview. I recommend reading the entire interview.

I have been a big fan of the concept of “Weaving the Pervasive Information Fabric using agents and multi-agents” since I first ran across it.
The closest thing to a home page is:
http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/3797/

The best write-up is the PDF at:
http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/3797/01/ohs6-weaving.pdf

A companion PDF is the “Hypermedia by coincidence” at:
http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/5901/01/ht01-coincidence.pdf

What does all this mean?
The “Pervasive Information Fabric” is required by the IoD (Information on
Demand) infrastructure. The IoD is necessary for the timely creation and rapid dispersal, with Persistence, of transient “ad hoc” Information spaces. The “ad hoc” Information spaces extract Information from “unstructured” data to satisfy User requests. Think of it as JIT (Just In Time) Information.

To deal with the “Fundamental Shift in the Information Paradigm” we need some new concepts. The two key ones are Information Centric and Technology Centric. To manage these two concepts we need the “Lower Metric” definitions of the Unit of Information and the Unit of “Enabling” Technology. The Unit of Information is the key element and the Managed Units of Information are the “Profit Center” of the enterprise.
A Managed Unit of Information is simply a Unit of Information with an SLA
(Service Level Agreement). By definition a Managed Unit of Information must be “Enabled” by a Managed Unit of Technology.

All the IDCs (Internet Data Centers) have to be doing this to survive.

]]> By: Kevin Closson http://storagemojo.com/2006/12/08/unstructured-information-management/#comment-11374 Kevin Closson Sat, 09 Dec 2006 02:35:13 +0000 http://storagemojo.com/?p=326#comment-11374 I had to pull out the Roget's Thesaurus for your comment on my blog post about unstructured data! :-) The bottom line in that post, and other messaging on the blog, is the significant forking away from structured data that is taking place. Storage vendors are not making storage that is optimized for the typical RDBMS (at least not OLTP) I/O profile. I'm just trying to get Oracle shops to consider the message. Thanks for your visit! And as I've said before, I love your blog. I had to pull out the Roget’s Thesaurus for your comment on my blog post about unstructured data! :-)

The bottom line in that post, and other messaging on the blog, is the significant forking away from structured data that is taking place. Storage vendors are not making storage that is optimized for the typical RDBMS (at least not OLTP) I/O profile. I’m just trying to get Oracle shops to consider the message.

Thanks for your visit! And as I’ve said before, I love your blog.

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