A Search for Relevance collects previously published essays by Rob Barnard, a modern potter, that chronicle the thoughts, feelings and beliefs that helped confirm his perception that pottery is capable of expressing the same kind of serious thoughts and feelings found in all other forms of art. These articles act as a public diary of Barnard's search for relevance as a potter in contemporary Western society. The analyses and opinions contained in these essays are not theoretical. They are a direct consequence of Barnard's material struggle to understand the ability of pottery to profoundly address the human condition. Barnard argues that the making of any kind of serious art, whether it is painting, sculpture, photography or pottery, can only be sustained if this kind of powerful experience is at the core of the motivation for its creation. In exploring how pottery, and other so-called traditional crafts, might still be relevant in modern culture Barnard asks; Where should contemporary craftspeople look for influence? What is in the basic nature of all crafts throughout history that makes it so important to us as human beings? By what standards should we judge contemporary crafts? For serious artists searching for relevancy these essays highlight one path towards living on the frontiers of your art.

Summary Relevant Search demystifies relevance work. Using Elasticsearch, it teaches you how to return engaging search results to your users, helping you understand and leverage the internals of Lucene-based search engines. Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications. About the Technology Users are accustomed to and expect instant, relevant search results. To achieve this, you must master the search engine. Yet for many developers, relevance ranking is mysterious or confusing. About the Book Relevant Search demystifies the subject and shows you that a search engine is a programmable relevance framework. You'll learn how to apply Elasticsearch or Solr to your business's unique ranking problems. The book demonstrates how to program relevance and how to incorporate secondary data sources, taxonomies, text analytics, and personalization. In practice, a relevance framework requires softer skills as well, such as collaborating with stakeholders to discover the right relevance requirements for your business. By the end, you'll be able to achieve a virtuous cycle of provable, measurable relevance improvements over a search product's lifetime. What's Inside Techniques for debugging relevance? Applying search engine features to real problems? Using the user interface to guide searchers? A systematic approach to relevance? A business culture focused on improving search About the Reader For developers trying to build smarter search with Elasticsearch or Solr. About the Authors Doug Turnbull is lead relevance consultant at OpenSource Connections, where he frequently speaks and blogs. John Berryman is a data engineer at Eventbrite, where he specializes in recommendations and search. Foreword author, Trey Grainger, is a director of engineering at CareerBuilder and author of Solr in Action. Table of Contents The search relevance problem Search under the hood Debugging your first relevance problem Taming tokens Basic multifield search Term-centric search Shaping the relevance function Providing relevance feedback Designing a relevance-focused search application The relevance-centered enterprise Semantic and personalized search

Race for Relevance provides a no-nonsense look at today's realities and how associations operate and what they need to do to remain relevant in the future. Based on more than 40 years of combined experience working with more than 1,000 organizations, the authors examine 5 key areas where the traditional approach that organizations have taken in the past needs to be altered. The 5 key areas of change are: Overhaul the governance model and committee operations (and get the right people focused on the right things). Empower the CEO and leverage staff expertise. Zero in on your member market. Rationalize programs and services--and focus where you can have an effect. Get the supporting technology framework right. The book includes worksheets, checklists, and case studies all geared towards helping association leaders--staff and volunteers alike--to kick off the thought-provoking discussions that are generally at the forefront of change, be prepared for those fighting for the status quo, and to implement change without sacrificing your influence. Order a copy today for all of your association leaders and start your drive to thrive.

When people speak, their words never fully encode what they mean, and the context is always compatible with a variety of interpretations. How can comprehension ever be achieved? Wilson and Sperber argue that comprehension is a process of inference guided by precise expectations of relevance. What are the relations between the linguistically encoded meanings studied in semantics and the thoughts that humans are capable of entertaining and conveying? How should we analyse literal meaning, approximations, metaphors and ironies? Is the ability to understand speakers' meanings rooted in a more general human ability to understand other minds? How do these abilities interact in evolution and in cognitive development? Meaning and Relevance sets out to answer these and other questions, enriching and updating relevance theory and exploring its implications for linguistics, philosophy, cognitive science and literary studies.

Digital Relevance teaches readers the knowledge, strategies, and skills need to create content, instantly engage customers, and compel them to action by sharing ideas so seamlessly matched to each audience's context that they can't help but take next steps toward purchase.

What do the London Science Museum, California Shakespeare Theater, and ShaNaNa have in common? They are all fighting for relevance in an often indifferent world. The Art of Relevance is your guide to mattering more to more people. You'll find inspiring examples, rags-to-relevance case studies, research-based frameworks, and practical advice on how your work can be more vital to your community. Whether you work in museums or libraries, parks or theaters, churches or afterschool programs, relevance can work for you. Break through shallow connection. Unlock meaning for yourself and others. Find true relevance and shine.

The definitive introduction to relevance theory, starting from the basics and covering all its key ideas.

Branding guru Aaker shows how to eliminate the competition and become the lead brand in your market This ground-breaking book defines the concept of brand relevance using dozens of case studies-Prius, Whole Foods, Westin, iPad and more-and explains how brand relevance drives market dynamics, which generates opportunities for your brand and threats for the competition. Aaker reveals how these companies have made other brands in their categories irrelevant. Key points: When managing a new category of product, treat it as if it were a brand; By failing to produce what customers want or losing momentum and visibility, your brand becomes irrelevant; and create barriers to competitors by supporting innovation at every level of the organization. Using dozens of case studies, shows how to create or dominate new categories or subcategories, making competitors irrelevant Shows how to manage the new category or subcategory as if it were a brand and how to create barriers to competitors Describes the threat of becoming irrelevant by failing to make what customer are buying or losing energy David Aaker, the author of four brand books, has been called the father of branding This book offers insight for creating and/or owning a new business arena. Instead of being the best, the goal is to be the only brand around-making competitors irrelevant.

This concise introduction to Sphinx shows you how to use this free software to index an enormous number of documents and provide fast results to both simple and complex searches. Written by the creator of Sphinx, this authoritative book is short and to the point. Understand the particular way Sphinx conducts searches Install and configure Sphinx, and run a few basic tests Issue basic queries to Sphinx at the application level Learn the syntax of search text and the effects of various search options Get strategies for dealing with large data sets, such as multi-index searching Apply relevance and ranking guidelines for presenting best results to the user

Real solutions to the Internet search challenges that Web marketers and content professionals struggle with every day! Take search optimization to the next level by providing the right content to the right user at the right time Up-to-the-minute guidance on "writing for Google" that reflects the latest changes to Google's algorithms New techniques for defining keywords more effectively Authored by IBM web pioneers with 45+ years of content and search optimization experience