Structure the Unstructured  By Frank Brown  |  Posted 2010-01-22
How to Mine Scientific Business Intelligence in the Cloud
Before the rise of the mammoth database, before e-mail,
electronic laboratory notebooks (ELNs), and global Centers of
Excellence, R&D innovation was centered on personal
communication at the company lunch table. It was here that
project team leaders-such as the head chemist, pharmacologist,
biologist and other select stakeholders-would gather to share
their knowledge. The rich insights that resulted led to a
significant number of discoveries in areas ranging from
pharmaceuticals and consumer packaged goods, to specialty
chemicals and heavy manufacturing.  Thanks to the swift pace of
technological change, our ability to generate data has increased
exponentially. The problem is that there is too much content and
not enough context. Raw information dumped into data warehouses
has replaced the knowledge-driven categorization and
intelligence capabilities that dominated the lunch table.  Dis