[Sigia-l] Product for "automated information qualification"?!

[Louis Rosenfeld]

On 9/6/02 9:39 AM, "Locatelli at aol.com" <Locatelli at aol.com> wrote:

> The most important thing to note about this tool is the information at the
> bottom of the home page: "iq-server contains a range of freely definable
> determinants, such as synonyms, antonyms, abbreviations, terminology or
> translations. The client provides the content of these thesauri. The iq-server
> then structures and adapts them to suit individual requirements."
> 
> Translation: you have to do the hard intellectual work of defining
> parent/child relationships, related terms, and variant terms by constructing
> thesauri. Then we will run it through our various algorithms so we can do the
> fuzzy logic part. The process still requires significant intellectual effort
> from human brains in constructing the thesauri.
> 
> It's another example of a tool making great claims and then glossing over the
> need for human input.

...as well as another foot in the door for IAs, whether by working for this
company to consult for its clients, or doing the consulting independently,
or providing this customization as part of the customer's in-house
implementation team.

I'm with Fred:  these sort of claims annoy the hell out of me.  But in the
long run, tool vendors are actually helping IAs by investing marketing
dollars in the same problem space that we are trying to reach.  The rising
tide of information overload awareness should raise our boat, especially if
we can combine our human input with these cool new tools.


Louis Rosenfeld
www.louisrosenfeld.com
information architecture consulting