I had a meeting yesterday morning with AMI Software, creators of a rather interesting Enterprise Intelligence / predictive intelligence software suite.

Without going too deep into the mechanics of how the product works, its functionality includes:
1. Information collection (via RSS, page indexing, document 'indexing') across internal sources and external Web sources (subscription based as well as free sites, aggregators, blogs, news services and so on).
2. The ability to 'understand' documents and rather interestingly to support comparisons in 'meaning' between two different sources (an interesting one in terms of plagiarism detection)

What might you use it for? Well, essentially anything that is enriched by the provision of any forward intelligence. Some that immediately spring to mind:

1. You could bolt on the semantic search capability in front of a traditional document management solution with a potential improvement in overall search utility
2. Web Intelligence screams reputation protection especially for large brands engaged in Social Media Marketing. I also like the potential to scan for information and IPR leakage
3. Horizon scanning - trend spotting, searching for weak signals, finding emerging patterns ahead of the competition
4. Competitor analysis
5. Collation of knowledge bases, a good example being in medical research
6. Plagiarism detection
7. 'Finger on the pulse' polling - e.g. customer feedback, political sentiment
8. Improving bidding processes through competitor analysis, quickly understanding sector issues and researching key stakeholders in the procurement process

In terms of alternatives, configuring a feed reader, or doing something with mashups might get you part of the way, but the major issue of finding quality information that you didn't necessarily understand was there (the proverbial needle in the haystack) is not facilitated. Using nifty search technology and AI (neural nets) below the bonnet, AMI provides much much deeper layers of post-collection intelligence in terms of presentation of content to the searcher. You could certainly argue that procuring bespoke reports from one of the big tech analyst companies would be viable, but this might not extend across every sector in the way individual companies would either require or could afford.

I like the idea of augmenting the system with an internal voting mechanism, where wisdom of crowds could feedback into training of the respective algorithms.

Interesting product, I definitely recommend reading more details on the AMI site and kicking the tyres to see where this might be of use...

I was reading through a list of Drupal modules and spotted one that supported tipjoy integration. This brought me back to thinking about tipjoy and its potential.

The service launched in Feb 2008, so is a relatively new venture. The simple idea is that a virtual tip jar is added to your site / blog to help monetise the content. A tip is added by a happy consumer that wants to reward the author with 10 cents (for example) made as a micro-payment.

Tipjoy sees some of its benefit and differentiation in terms of streamlining the micro-payment to 'one click' donation (this is quicker than PayPal Donate for example).

I think I am still correct in saying that tipjoy still uses Paypal accounts as the primary payment method.

So from my perspective is this service useful?

Well, question 1 is "will I install the module and create an account" - answer is 'no' and that is a decision I have taken about supporting monetisation in a wider context.

Do I think others will use this service to drop tips? Um, I'm skeptical. I did look at the tipjoy transaction throughputs and there is certainly some money changing hands. I personally think a Digg, blog comment, or recommendation through Twitter or one of my social accounts is sufficient, and I do not envisage wishing to tip content. I have on occasion used PayPal Donate, but this is for very specific community sites that I wish to actively support in terms of hosting costs.

Data collected by tipjoy will be of most interest. I think interesting mashups will emerge as analysis of successful content gets spliced with tipping as a voting mechanism. Will it scale into a viable commercial enterprise? In the spirit of not wishing to see anything fail, I would hope for the creators that it is successful. The problem is, if there are enough people in the world like me, then no amount of bells or whistles will induce adequate tipping volume.

Keep an eye on the tipjoy site, and certainly check it out from both content production and consumption perspectives. If you have success stories I'd be happy to receive them...

Starting to type this post I'm thinking that it is about as wise as trying to paint your house with a flame thrower! But some things need to get said, even when it is the metaphorical equivalent of rubbing mustard on the unmentionable bits of a savage dog.

I follow quite a bit of the Social Media chatter and I notice an arrogance and self-righteousness creeping into some commentary that I do not think is constructive.

There is a sense of "I will teach you the new way, the right way, the way you didn't think of yourself and can barely comprehend without my years (cough!) of insight". Well - newsflash folks...

Some of the advice is really badly disguised 'egg sucking' courses. Some of the 'teachers' are very 'content light' - especially when trying to sell into a techie community.

I'm advocating common sense and some restraint. Ideas need to go beyond - "Let's do Facebook inside the firewall" - and if you're planning to build a career on anything quite as fleeting, I'd suggest also getting 'a trade'.

Remember as well that there are old stalwarts and academics that have been around collaboration and communications for many years and whereas Social Media does have some interesting attributes, we are not really seeing an unprecedented social revolution.

In my youth it was CB Radios, chat rooms were over radio waves, and the meet-ups were organised by the local CB clubs :-)

So, let's drop the Social Media arrogance, recognise that such expertise is pretty much common sense, and all get back to showing off in more appropriate ways - like doing handstands on our skateboards.

Popular gadgets really turn me off, but nothing has me hurtling towards brain calcifying boredom quicker than an iPhone 3G owner.

Yes, it's reasonably attractive, it does some fairly neat things, but it's too big, too buggy and too expensive.

I've also lived through decades of must have gadgets, and believe me this one isn't even in the top 20 of all time coolness. Every time one is produced I fantasise about skimming it across a murky piranha infested lake. You would need to rub butter all over one just to grease it up enough to drop it into a pint of beer!

I'm at a complete loss as to why this seems to be the pocket version of a 'a new numberplate'. So just for the record:

1. No I don't want to see it, put it back in with your pocket mulch
2. I don't care what app you just downloaded unless it turns the iPhone into a stun gun I can use to give you electro-convulsive therapy
3. Stop staring at the phone and asking it why it hasn't switched to WiFi

If you love Firefox and blogging, you need to check out ScribeFire. In a nutshell this little beauty is an add-on that allows you to blog content without ever leaving Firefox.

I'm addicted, it's very light weight, and adds some neat little tools so you can quickly and easily blog snippets and pages. The editor does all the usual text based editing as well as Flickr pics and YouTube vids.

Here's the link...

ScribeFire - Fire Up Your Blogging!