Melody Smith

Understanding Taxonomies

By Melody Smith | October 19, 2011

Just the word taxonomy can confuse people, let alone the application. First they ask, “oh is that where you preserve dead animals?” Then they think it has something to do with the IRS. When you finally get them to understand it is a classification system, they have flashbacks to high school biology class. Taxonomy unfortunately has that effect on many, and that is sad. It is just bringing order to a group of items and identifying relationships. It’s not rocket science.

Start-up Technologies Get Some Recognition

By Melody Smith | October 19, 2011

A list of start-up categories most admired was released and it is no surprise that content management made the top spot. A majority of the start-ups are into IT or mobile space, as these are the hottest selling regions.

New Partnership Targets Findability

By Melody Smith | October 19, 2011

Jaspersoft BI Suite has combined their commercial open source data-to-dashboards solution with Red Hat’s data virtualization technology. This new combination will offer a simple way to visualize data by integrating multiple data sources into a single entry point. This also makes analyzing much easier.

ICD-10 Compliance In Time

By Melody Smith | October 18, 2011

Verisk Health has expanded the DxCG Risk Solutions suite to include greater predictive power and reporting capabilities. Now the product is compliant with the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) system. This comes in time to meet the October 2013 deadline to switch from the ICD- 9 classification system to the new ICD-10-CM.

Taxonomy Takes to the Air

By Melody Smith | October 18, 2011 |

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the European Commission (EC) have agreed on the use of a single repository and common categorization taxonomy to report all aviation accidents and incidents worldwide in order to improve aviation safety.

Keeping Up With Mobile Search Technology

By Melody Smith | October 18, 2011

Longtime provider of semantic search and advertising solutions, VSW has announced that it has launched its VS4Food(TM) search app for mobile phones running on the Android(TM) operating system.

Semantic Risks

By Melody Smith | October 17, 2011 |

In a recent issue focusing on risk one article in Bloomberg Businessweek made the statement, “Such semantics may feel like distinctions without a difference. For underwriters in the specialty market of political-violence insurance, though, they’re crucial.” The semantic distinctions had to do with the labeling of political “protests” in Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab world. I put “protests” in quotes to draw attention to the issue of semantics and its impact on insurance and risk assessment.

New Medical Coding Changes the Rules of the Playground

By Melody Smith | October 17, 2011

Few areas of healthcare are exempt from staring at a deadline that though two years away, isn’t feeling way too close for comfort. To prepare for the change from ICD-9 to ICD-10 providers aren’t the only ones impacted by the coding switch. Vendors and payers are also feeling the crunch.

Labeling or Profiling?

By Melody Smith | October 17, 2011

Labeling people based on behaviors is not a new technology or even behavior. This has been done since the beginning of time. However, with the advancement of semantic technology and the flood of data available, it has become overwhelming to discern a simplified approach to organization.

Chocolate as a Teaching Tool

By Melody Smith | October 14, 2011 |

Fast Company’s Co.Design shared their Infographic of the Day, “A Visual Taxonomy Of Every Chocolate Candy, Ever”, and it made me smile. Not just for the chocolate and food aspect, though I freely admit both of those categories make me smile, but for the nostalgia it brings to mind.