~ Contributed by Mary Grace Crissey ~
With SAS analytics; many of you are breaking ground as you strive to deliver more value from textual data. Data mining has matured into an accepted practice for Customer Relationship Management teams in Telco, Finance and Marketing. I'd go as far to say that its become essential to survival for most large companies across the globe. Text Mining, as you readers are well aware, is not yet as popular, with many employers assigning just one or two of you with responsibility for text mining.
It can be a burden to struggle alone in a silo without anyone to bounce ideas or brainstorm with. To make it easier for you to connect with peers who share a passion for these technologies – we set up a discussion forum on the topic of SAS Enterprise Miner and SAS Text Miner, two months ago. While SAS employees may participate on these discussions, this forum is not meant to replace the SAS Technical Support help center. 
Another excellent way for you to get feedback on your work is to respond to the SGF Call for presentations 2010 (Seattle).
Honestly, one of my favorite things about SAS is
- You - ,
our innovative customer implementing software on your real world challenges.
Only a few text related topics have surfaced in the discussion forum to date, so I’m writing this blog to encourage more of you to join in and set up your profile. Please accept my invitation to post questions, experiences, and thoughts on best practices.
Welcome to the SAS text mining blog, where my friends, colleagues and I discuss unstructured text, and understanding the voice of the customer. Plus a few more things. I'm Fiona McNeill, SAS Text Analytics Product Marketing Manager.