A major influence in our data-driven, discovery-oriented, enterprise search world is Big Data. The phenomenon might be understood by technologists, but how can the ordinary person visualize Big Data? Rick Smolan to the rescue! In The Human Face of Big Data, former Time, Life, and National Geographic photographer Smolan explored what Big Data means to real people. Today, Smolan is the CEO of Against All Odds Productions, which orchestrates global photography projects that combine creative storytelling with state-of-the-art technology. From his presentation, you will be able to better explain the data you work with to non-technical people in your enterprise and learn how others conceptualize Big Data.

DLA Piper, the world’s largest law firm, has created an innovative search application built on top of SharePoint. Called iSearch, this search-driven application incorporates business content from seven different systems to provide a consolidated view of the firm’s content that significantly improves its competitiveness. Take a tour through the technology and learn about organizational factors as well.

With corporate data doubling every 3 years, the amount being generated is staggering. The ideal system would store structured and unstructured information in a central repository, allowing access at many levels. Features should include drag and drop, text extraction, security, and a robust search indexing system. The benefits of using a NoSQL database for Big Data include improved efficiency, better control, and reduced costs. When it comes to Big Data, content management, searchability, and discovery are key to gaining a competitive edge.

Search is integral to discovery, and discovery needs search. Both rely on the other and are often indistinguishable in the workplace. Newer iterations of search can reveal new dimensions within existing data, leading to innovative new products and services. As the amount of information available for search and discovery expands exponentially, technology must scale to make information management possible. Who benefits from this? You and your organization.

Traditionally, enterprises have looked to text files when engaged in discovery and search activities. Today, however, people expect to uncover information through hearing audio and watching videos, sometimes in addition to—and some- times in place of—reading. Carner explores the effects of WebVTT video metadata, demonstrating how the WebVTT standard builds the latest in closed captioning into a video and synchronizes with tablets and apps. Berkowitz considers multiplatform tools for making video more discoverable and actionable in an enterprise “YouTube” environment.

Drawing on his experiences with SAP, Carlow provides numerous tips, tricks, and ideas to help you build a business case for your search and discovery initiatives. Knowing how to prepare for implementations, designing with users in mind, and convincing management of the importance of projects are necessary. Sinequa's VP of Sales introduces two use cases, one from a pharmaceutical company and the other a telecommunications company that highlight Solution to Search and gaining a 360 view of customers calling a contact center. What’s in your business case?

Although it’s less sexy than actual search and discovery projects, the governance aspects are critically important. Burns gives a case study of one corporation’s approach to information governance, including its assessment and readiness level, its road map for change, and its selection and prioritization processes. Simek tells how to get buy-in from application owners while developing a search governance process. She calls it going from chaos to order.