It will be interesting if this approach aids in better searches, and how well it makes up for the current ‘gap’ between Bing and Google.  fastcompany: Today Bing is announcing a revamp of its front end, to make its search results more useful for users. But what’s much more interesting is what’s happening on the back end, underneath the hood, as Microsoft re-architects how the data used for search results is collected, stored, and repurposed. “We decided we needed to reinvent search,” Bing director Stefan Weitz tells Fast Company.  Is that all? Google, Alert: Bing Wants “To Model Every Object On The Planet,” Reinvent Search
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It will be interesting if this approach aids in better searches, and how well it makes up for the current ‘gap’ between Bing and Google. 

fastcompany:

Today Bing is announcing a revamp of its front end, to make its search results more useful for users. But what’s much more interesting is what’s happening on the back end, underneath the hood, as Microsoft re-architects how the data used for search results is collected, stored, and repurposed.

“We decided we needed to reinvent search,” Bing director Stefan Weitz tells Fast Company. 

Is that all?

Google, Alert: Bing Wants “To Model Every Object On The Planet,” Reinvent Search

Impact of readily available information on learning and cognitive development

The article is a good reflection on some of the current press around the impact of Google search on the ability for people to recall. Most people are equating that to intellect. I would disagree by stating that it is just a component of it.

In fact, as information becomes readily available and accessible (i.e., author talks about looking up trivia facts using his smartphone), the challenge will be discerning the authoritative sources, the relevant information and then the actual synthesis.

For let’s talk about distilling the sources. Apart from historical facts that one can validate from multiple sources, more commercial and valuable insights are more difficult to vet. In fact the more valuable the information nugget, the propensity of uniqueness is high enough that one has to indirectly vouch for its validity (e.g., validate the source versus the fact). One may argue that there is a premium associated with that. Ironically, in an age where raw data is plentiful, actual nuggets of insight will become more valuable and fewer in between.

Speaking of relevance, to determine what is worth the premium, it has become become incumbent on organizations and thus people to think evermore critically. In fact, the neurons freed up from the need to memorize factoids need to be put to use on more creative tasks. The pace of change is accelerating and the feedback loop for situational awareness is shortening rapidly. The challenge is that learning institutions have yet to consider the shifts that technology is imposing on society. Curricula focused on rote have to be revised to focus more on logic and critical thinking. In addition, adoption of technology has to go beyond the delivery mechanism that is being embraced. Kids and for that matter adults have to be taught in a manner where ready information is leveraged to gain higher level understanding and analysis.

The last point is around the synthesis. As is oft said, ‘practice makes perfect’. There has been a fair amount of research and discussion on this topic (ergo, ‘Outliers’) and it is important to note that there is a notable lag as society adopts new concepts. Having said that, most don’t appreciate that the period can span a generation or two, and in the interim state, there is an inherent advantage to those on ahead of the curve.

Society is truly at the start of some radical transformation - the impact of how humans learn and interact are just beginning to feel the impact of technology…

Ever Increasing Expectations for Corporate Anti-Bribery / Anti-Corruption Programs

Corruption Perception Index (2010)

This article in The Lawyer is a great read. Shell has learnt from its past experiences on the need to conduct due diligence with third parties and this has resulting in what appears to be a leading anti-bribery and anti-corruption program. 

By virtue of its corporate mandate (i.e., natural resources), Shell has to do business in states where ethical business standards may deemed less than stellar and has a supply chain that consists of tens of thousands of vendors. 

So it seems prudential that Shell is expanding its due diligence activities to include third parties such as law firms that are involved in joint ventures. Undoubtedly, it probably is mitigating some of the risks that its competitor, BP, encountered in Russia.

As the scope of what constitutes a third party by the British Bribery Act Section 8 is ambiguous (‘those who perform services’), large companies would need to leverage risk based approach and potentially technology to ensure the appropriate level of diligence. 

In terms of technology helping in the process, some considerations include:

  1. Third-Party Anti-Bribery Program Questionnaire: Use self-service portals for third parties to submit details on their Anti-Bribery programs and for independent assessors submit their examination results. For high risk situations, this may include use of outside counsel ensuring that the entities have sound and viable programs.
  2. Federated Search: Leveraging enterprise class search engines to trawl enterprise disparate enterprise data assets to glean any prior information with a third party. This would be a preemptive measure should the company in question be subject to a discovery action.
  3. Integrated Case Management Tools: Large organizations may need to use case management tools to facilitate investigations across multiple locations and geographies. In most cases, the internal group such as a FIU (Financial Investigative Unit) would use this to capture all the work products and outcomes of such investigations. Integration with systems storing third party information as well as financial GL systems facilitates in tagging relevant transactions, while allowing easy application of legal holds. 
  4. Transaction Monitoring Systems: Though traditionally used by financial institutions to monitor credit and debit card transactions for sign of fraud or money laundering, these may be just as applicable to organizations employing hundreds of thousands of employees. With the appropriate rules and filters, these systems can automatically sift through disbursements to filter anomalies for further scrutiny. Furthermore, this can be a part of a leading edge program, demonstrating senior leadership’s intent of impeding bribery (and for that matter, facilitation) behavior.

In addition to the above considerations, organizations committed to ethical behavior such as Apple will augment such programs with in person visits / audits to vendor sites and critical evaluation of their employee /worker relationships.

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