Watson actually leverages open source technology, the Apache
Unstructured Information Management Architecture. Read our 2011 review
on an IBM presentation...
Watson at Digital Plant
(December 2011)
‘Massively
parallel probabilistic evidence-based’ system heralds move from
‘descriptive’ to ‘prescriptive’ analytics. Target
applications include knowledge preservation of graying workforce.
Katherine
Frase, VP research, IBM, provided the keynote to this month’s Digital
Plant event in Houston.
Frase noted the massive amount of data ‘at rest’ in databases along
with the exploding amount of data ‘in motion’ from sensors and real
time feeds. Such ‘big data’ can fuel three types of analysis:
descriptive (rear view mirror stuff), predictive (what if) and prescriptive
(control). IBM’s conventional toolset (SPSS, Cognos, Maximo, and Ilog)
already provides ‘stochastic process optimization in the face of noisy data.’
Examples include equipment failure prediction, truck route optimization and
minimizing unplanned maintenance of offshore platforms.
But the next
frontier is the 80% of information that is ‘unstructured,’ i.e.
text. Enter natural language processing (NLP) and IBM’s Jeopardy-winning
‘Watson’ with its (DeepQA) software. Watson is a ‘massively parallel
probabilistic evidence-based architecture.’ The system was primed with
multiple information sources including old Jeopardy questions and answers.
Watson builds multiple possible answers which are evaluated when all processing
is complete.
Watson uses
the Apache Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA) as a
‘standardized approach to handling information.’ Actually the
version that played the game was below the skill level of top Jeopardy players.
The tie at the end of the first round was considered a good result by
IBM’s researchers.
IBM has tried
Watson on healthcare, replacing Shakespeare and the Bible with Gray’s
Anatomy and the Merck Index. Early attempts to play the American College
of Physicians’ Doctor’s Dilemma challenge were not successful. But IBM
has tweaked the system and demonstrated Watson’s merit as an aid to
diagnostics.
Frase made a
rather soft sales pitch to oil and gas. In the future, Watson may help in ingesting
and preserving knowledge of operating procedures from a retiring workforce. Oil
and gas, with its multiple information sources such as seismics, well data and
real time should be a good candidate for big data analytics.
Comment—UIMA apart, Frase failed
to make clear the contribution of open source software to Watson. According to Heaton Research,
Watson runs on Linux and Hadoop. IBM reported a $1 billon/year
investment in open source back in 2000 and produces the excellent IBM Developer Works
resource.
Neil McNaughton
Editor, Oil IT Journal (www.oilit.com)
-----Original Message-----
From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Ron Wheeler
Sent: 22 November 2013 00:34
To: ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Watson going mass market - jobs for ontologists
I would suspect that there will not be a lot of open source
applications
except in areas funded by governments and produced by clusters of
academics (research support systems).
The big need will be in the commercial area where the application will
be regarded as a competitive advantage not to be shared with anyone.
Ron
On 21/11/2013 5:09 PM, Jack Park wrote:
> That's certainly one lens on this context.
>
> On Thu, Nov 21, 2013 at 2:07 PM, Kingsley Idehen
<kidehen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> On 11/21/13 4:49 PM, Jack Park wrote:
>>> So, let me ask this:
>>> what about open source Watson-like platforms?
>>
>> Watson is going to expose Web Services using RESTful
interaction patterns.
>> The issue of "Open Source" is one that's going to be
more relevant to the
>> services built atop and around what Watson exposes.
>>
>>
>> Kingsley
>>
>>> On Thu, Nov 21, 2013 at 12:54 PM, Kingsley Idehen
>>> <kidehen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>> On 11/21/13 3:37 PM, Ron Wheeler wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-14/ibm-to-offer-jeopardy-winner-watson-as-cloud-app-tool.html
>>>> A more superficial look at Watson but with examples.
>>>>
>>>> Will this make ontology a more mainstream application
development
>>>> technology?
>>>>
>>>> Yes!
>>>>
>>>>> Job opportunities?
>>>>>
>>>>> Yes!
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Kingsley
>>>>>
>>>>> Ron
>>>>>
>>>>> On 21/11/2013 3:07 PM, Jack Park wrote:
>>>>>> This article
>>>>>>
http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/42451.wss
>>>>>> refers to:
>>>>>> IBM Watson Developers Cloud
>>>>>>
>>>>>> It will be interesting to see links to that.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Thu, Nov 21, 2013 at 9:52 AM, Ron Wheeler
>>>>>> <rwheeler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> IBM is ready to push Watson out to the
application development
>>>>>> community.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Is this going to be the big breakthrough that
makes ontology a big
>>>>>> deal?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Is it going to create a demand for
ontologists?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Ron
>>>>>>
--
Ron Wheeler
President
Artifact Software Inc
email: rwheeler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
skype: ronaldmwheeler
phone: 866-970-2435, ext 102
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