Subject: Free Pint No.51 - Welfare, Househunting and Creating Value Free Pint "Helping 26,000 people use the Web for their work" http://www.freepint.co.uk/ ISSN 1460-7239 2nd December 1999 No.51 > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = IN THIS ISSUE EDITORIAL TIPS AND TECHNIQUES "UK Help and Welfare Information on the Web" By Alan Humphreys BOOKSHELF "Creating Value in the Network Economy" Reviewed by Simon Collery FEATURE ARTICLE "Homepages: Househunting on the Internet" By Tom Hartley FREE PINT BAR http://www.freepint.co.uk/bar FREE PINT FORTHCOMING ARTICLES CONTACT INFORMATION ONLINE VERSION WITH ACTIVATED HYPERLINKS http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/021299.htm > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = THOMSON FINANCIAL SECURITIES DATA IS LAUNCHING THOMSONDIRECT.COM, at Online Information '99. Combining the expertise of 13 premier information sources covering over 600,000 public, private & joint venture companies, ThomsonDirect.com is the definitive source for global financial information. Access all of our in-depth data covering share ownership, M&A, new issues, broker & market research, & much more all on one platform! Visit stands 190/191, 7-9 December, National Hall & Olympia 2. For more information call (+44) (0) 171 369 7622. > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = [tf511] >>> ABOUT FREE PINT <<< Free Pint is a free newsletter with tips on using the Web for your work. It is published by email every two weeks and your regular free copy can be reserved at . The site also gives free access to the substantial archive of articles, book reviews, and discussions at the Free Pint Bar. Please do distribute the newsletter to colleagues, and view it using a font like Courier. > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = EDITORIAL I mentioned in the last edition that I would shortly be introducing two more members of the Free Pint team who are helping to raise finance and developing new services for Free Pint subscribers. Lesley Robinson has an impressive track record in information and business management. She has held senior positions at the Financial Times, KPMG and Bain & Co., and has an MBA from Cranfield. As well as helping me manage the company, Lesley is guiding Free Pint in talks with financiers about investing in its future. Lesley can be contacted by email to or by telephone on +44 (0)20 8871 4284. Simon Collery many of you will know from his invaluable input to the Free Pint Bar. Simon knows a lot about the Internet and online information, having previously worked for, among others, the Oxford English Dictionary Project. Simon is managing a number of new initiatives for us, details of which will follow over the coming months. Simon's direct email address is . If you're in London next week then do head for Olympia as we have a large stand, number 30, at the Online Information 99 show. You can get free tickets from and find out about the "Working the Web" seminars we are running. It would be great to meet you face-to-face so please do come if you can. This week we bring you the usual broad range of business-Web-related content, including reviews of welfare and househunting sites (not in the same article, of course), a book review and summary of the latest happenings at the Bar. As always, if you have an idea for an article then contact our Editor, Rex Cooke , or if you'd like to see a book reviewed then email . If you enjoy this issue then please join us at the Bar to let us know , and I hope you can pass it on to colleagues and friends. Your support is really appreciated. Kind regards, William William Hann BSc MIInfSc Founder and Managing Editor, Free Pint e: william@freepint.co.uk w: http://www.freepint.co.uk/ t: +44 (0)1784 455435 f: +44 (0)1784 455436 Free Pint is a trademark of Free Pint Limited > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = FREE UK COMPANY REPORTS WHEN YOU BUY YOUR CHRISTMAS WINE FROM THE ACCOUNTINGWEB GIFT STORE. We are opening the AccountingWEB gift store with a great offer for the festive season. Buy your wine or champagne from AccountingWEB and not only enjoy savings of up to 15% off retail prices but also qualify for 20 pounds worth of ICC UK Company Reports of your choice free of charge. To take advantage of this unique offer, contact giftstore@accountingweb.co.uk or visit http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/mall > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = [si512] >>> FREE PINT IS READ, SPREAD, DEBATED AND COGITATED <<< Your company can be a part of it by advertising here http://www.freepint.co.uk/advert.htm > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = TIPS AND TECHNIQUES "UK Help and Welfare Information on the Web" By Alan Humphreys Introduction ------------ I have long felt that despite the impressive content and success of Free Pint, the field of welfare information has been sadly under-represented in articles. Hopefully mine will address this, stimulate debate and maybe even create a network of like-minded workers! Furthermore, there is no single comprehensive web site dealing with this field hence the need for an article such as this to bring together the primary sites and suggest subject specific sites. Who is this article directed towards? ------------------------------------- Primarily it will be of interest and use to workers in the public and voluntary sectors; people working in the subjects covered in this article; welfare workers (e.g. advice workers, counsellors, solicitors); and information workers and librarians. Of course all readers as individuals will find the information in this article useful at some time, for themselves or for someone who needs help. Because most of the information is based upon UK legislation, the geographical limit of this article is UK only. What exactly is this information? --------------------------------- A useful definition would be: "Accessible recorded and available knowledge and information to enable individuals to assert their rights and deal with their everyday problems". More specifically the following subjects: education, health, housing, money and work. The "type" of information is threefold: firstly, contact details of appropriate help organisations; secondly, brief guides to the law; and thirdly, what to do practically. Why is welfare information important? ------------------------------------- The traditional welfare information networks (extended families, neighbours, churches, etc.) have been eroding for a long time. Welfare information providers such as advice agencies and libraries are under great economic pressure combined with less priority given to such information, leading to a diminishing service. Other sources (e.g. personnel departments, unions, professional associations, etc.) are not as well equipped informationally as they should be. Society has become much more complex and its rate of change is increasing. With this complexity has come a plethora of information of which most is, ironically, relatively inaccessible - either because it is hard to find or jargonistic. Inaccessibility or ignorance of rights leads to a longer "waiting time" which is directly related to mental and physical health. Rights are interdependent e.g. lack of money reduces the opportunity to exercise other rights like legal protection, so, without this information, other rights are worth little. Common knowledge about basic aspects of life (and thus how to deal with problems) is still generally poor. If laws are to be effective and for citizens to recognize their reciprocal obligations that they have to society, people must understand their rights as well as their obligations. On a societal level, the prevention of problems can bring about end benefits, for example, health education can prevent later expensive in-patient health care. It can help eradicate poverty and ameliorate the quality of life. Deprivation of such information causes exclusion from essential services e.g. take-up of benefits is directly related to the accessibility of information on them. Warning! -------- Knowing this information and indeed using it is not always enough. Because there are numerous exceptions to every rule and the effects of mistakes can be costly, so think about seeking advice also! Where from? Citizens Advice Bureaux , advice agencies that are part of the Federation of Independent Advice Centres (no Web page so contact via: 4 Dean's Court, London EC4V 5AA or (020) 7489 1800), law centres that are members of the Law Centres Federation or solicitors that are members of the Law Society The experiences of friends, relatives, colleagues and others in a similar position as you or your client are invaluable, but remember that no two individuals' situations are exactly the same. Information simply guides, inspires, promotes confidence, empowers and saves time and effort. Primary Sites ------------- As with any field there are certain web sites that contain information on most or all of these aspects. Although they do not tell the full story or always present the information in the best way, they are important first stops. UK Central Government . The amount of information on this award-winning Web site is staggering though sometimes hard to find using its own search tool. However, there are many indispensable guides to various subjects which are all useful and sometimes the best available. It does have to be remembered that for instance benefits information although good on this site does not go as far as some independent organisations' benefit take-up campaigns. It also contains a database of virtually all government (at all tiers) and related Web sites via its organisation and topic indexes. The Site . This is a Web site designed for young people and the language and situations within it reflect this. Much of the information on the site is applicable to all, not just young people - but do read carefully to make sure! It provides both "types" of information mentioned above: searchable databases of 1,000 national help organisations and 12,000 local help organisations; plus guides in the form of "factsheets". It also contains "features" (true stories, interviews and stories by their users). National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux (NACAB) Adviceguide . For many years, help organisations have used NACAB's "Basic Information Pack" (or the extended version) as the plain English guide of choice to an individual's rights. NACAB is the largest and one of the most credible advice co-ordinating organisations. Currently the basic version is being piloted on the Web and is updated at least monthly, which is so crucial in matters of law as the breadth of legislation in the guide can be affected by a significant amount of changes in a short time. Importantly, it tells you at what stage to take advice. Subject Specific Pages ---------------------- A selection of some web sites within each welfare subject follow. They show the range of types of information available on the web but what they all have in common is that each one is one of the best sources of information on a particular aspect in its subject. Education: Advisory Centre for Education Higher Education Student Support Access To Education [schools] Distance, Open & Flexible Learning Health: Women's Health Personal Safety Telephone Helplines Directory Patients' Rights [Click on "information for England and Wales" or "information for Scotland"; "health"; "View - Patients' rights] Housing: Shelterline [homelessness] Buying A Home [Click on "information for England and Wales" or "information for Scotland"; "housing"; "View - Buying a home"] Housing Factsheets [for the elderly] Housing and the Disability Discrimination Act Money: Benefits Calculator Leaflets & Booklets for Personal Tax Payers In debt Trading Standards Net [consumer rights] Work: Government Schemes For Unemployed People [Click on "information for England and Wales" or "information for Scotland"; "employment"; "View - Government schemes for unemployed people"] Interviews Race Relations Act Complaints and Remedies Apologies! ---------- There are of course, many subjects and aspects that are also important in this field but could simply not be included here for the sake of brevity. Apologies therefore to those also expecting information on Legal Aid, the environment, lesbian/gay rights, travel, community care, insurance, immigration, relationships, etc.! If you do seek these, the primary sites aforementioned will guide you or do feel free to e-mail me! > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Alan Humphreys is Senior Information & Access Officer with the London Borough of Islington (alan.humphreys@islington.gov.uk) running a team of front-line information workers and leading borough-wide information projects. Previously he worked for five years as Information Officer at an Advice Centre. Alan has also set up two Youth Information Centres. His interest in the Web began in 1994 and he has used it constantly since in work and leisure. Recently he trained staff in efficient searching on the web and use of a self-created web interface for use by front-line staff to answer the public's enquiries. Alan is planning to launch a consultancy (purposealan@hotmail.com) in community, social & public information. > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Related Free Pint links: * Post your response to this article now at the Bar * Read this article online, with activated hyperlinks > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = ***** WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT? ***** Available from the Trident On Line Technology Store at is a full range of NEC and Samsung LCD and plasma monitors as well as lap and palm top PC's, boardroom presentation equipment and home entertainment products. LCD monitors range from 15.1" to 20.1" and plasma multimedia monitors from 33" to 50". FREE UP THAT SPACE ON YOUR DESK AND GIVE YOUR EYES A BREAK Tel: 01737 856125 Home Page: > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = [tr513] >>> NEW FREE PINT SEARCH FACILITY <<< http://www.freepint.co.uk/search Site search now includes all Bar postings (including the archive) and you can see your keywords in context in the results. Other features include using plus and minus signs, as well as field searching (e.g. title:engineer). Why not give it a go today to find all those relevant articles, book reviews and Bar discussions you've missed. > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = FREE PINT BOOKSHELF "Creating Value in the Network Economy" Reviewed by Simon Collery This book is very like Managing in the New Economy, by Joan Magretta, which I reviewed in the last issue of Free Pint. Both share two articles and much of their subject matter. More strikingly, the contributors for both are drawn from a very small list of institutions. So much for breadth of coverage. The articles in both are good, but one needn't read both. The articles in Tapscott's book are divided into three parts: The Changing Nature of Value, how the prominence of information affects notions of value and strategy; Whither the Firm?, which compares traditional forms of business organization with emerging ones; and The Customer in a Network Economy, the emerging role of the customer in shaping the product. Tapscott's introduction is itself an article, or perhaps a set of articles, gasping to get out. Few of his comments are focussed on the contributors' articles and the ones that are seem to draw heavily on the executive summaries at the end. There are a lot of 'I's and 'me's and 'my's and a number of references to Tapscott's own publications. Tapscott mentions several terms of his own making (EBC, prosumer) and interprets the theses of contributors using these terms. These terms don't appear again throughout the book. EBC is 'e-business community' and it is such a valuable word, Tapscott uses it 19 times in the space of seven pages. How did twenty contributors get by without it? Both Magretta and Tapscott start their introductions with a question about the newness of the new economy and Tapscott finds it to be very new. Well, as new as his well plugged book, which is four years old. I'm left with three questions. Does the series editor read all the books in the series? Did Tapscott read the articles he purports to introduce? If he did, why didn't he write about them? Find out more about this book on the Free Pint Bookshelf at http://www.freepint.co.uk/bookshelf/value.htm > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Simon Collery has been involved in editorial and research work for the electronic media for a number of years, working for AND Data Solutions, Oxford, and the Oxford English Dictionary Project. One of his primary interests is the use of the Internet as a serious research tool and a source of free, reliable information and software. He works for Free Pint Limited on the business development team. > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Related Free Pint links: * Free Pint book review of "Managing in the New Economy" by Magretta * Internet strategy books on the Free Pint Bookshelf * Read customer comments and buy this book at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >>> KNOW OF A GOOD WEB-RELATED BOOK WE SHOULD REVIEW? <<< Send details to > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = ACCESS KEY INFORMATION ON THOUSANDS OF SOFTWARE PROVIDERS - FAST Finding reliable data quickly is now made easy with Computer Software & Services Online(CSSOnline). CSSOnline is a fully searchable, web-based database service, containing details of over 13,000 software products, 7,500 IT companies and 4,500 IT service providers. For more details, subscription information and to conduct free test searches visit http://www.cssonline.co.uk/ See us at Online Information next week. > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = [li514] FEATURE ARTICLE "Homepages: Househunting on the Internet" By Tom Hartley Slowly but surely the UK estate agency marketplace is waking up to the Internet. Ask the average estate agent down an average High Street and he or she will tell you that they receive information about getting themselves onto the Internet at least once a week, if not daily. Estate agents are obvious candidates to get on-line. Historically they tend to have heavy information dissemination costs. An agent will typically send out large numbers of property particulars by post, but not quite enough to be able to do it efficiently via mailing houses. On top of this, they have to bear reasonably heavy costs advertising in local newspapers, often around 4-500 pounds per page each week. Whilst many in the High Street believe that these prices are kept up by cartel type arrangements, the truth is that vast majority of the cost of these local newspapers is in the printing, the physical paper and the distribution. The Internet offers near zero dissemination costs by comparison. Once a homebuyer has found a home that they like the look of, the agents are very polished at showing people round and performing the complex and bridge building job of negotiating between the vendor and the purchaser. However, it is this first stage that is the least efficient for today's estate agents; that of giving out details on properties to enough people to find a suitable buyer for each property on their books. For the homebuyer, the house-hunter or flat-hunter, finding their ideal property seems to take the longest amount of time, trawling through property newspapers and up and down High Streets. By comparison, the process between finding that perfect property and having the offer accepted passes only too quickly, although until the Government's new legislation on Seller's Packs come into force there is often still a long wait between having the offer accepted and actually moving in. What homebuyers want is a simple straightforward way to find their ideal property without extra cost or effort. There are a number of property websites that have sprung up aiming to provide just this service. They vary from standalone websites built by the Saturday boy in a few afternoons through professionally designed multi-office sites to the large UK-wide property websites such as Homepages , Property Finder or Property Live . Homepages is currently the largest UK property website with between 17,000 and 20,000 properties which is around 7-10% of the total numbers of properties on the market (around 200-250,000 currently). The site has been innovative by offering email listings, local information such as schools, map and text based searching and a metasearch to search other property websites should you not find the property you are after. One of the few sites to do a freeform search, rather than asking you to navigate down to a predefined region. Internet Property Finder is the longest running of the property websites, and has some impressive trophy names behind it, including FPDSavills and many of the more prestigious London estate agents. This belies the historical position the Internet had for estate agents: it was predominantly for the Country Life type properties. This particular niche looks to have found itself a very competent tenant. Property Live is backed by the National Association of Estate Agents in co-operation with Intergraph, a major software house to the Government. They started well, with many member agents joining the system, but a lack of marketing by the NAEA both to homebuyers and their agents has resulted in many agents drifting away. With its National Association backing, this site should be giving the other sites a much better run for their money, but the quirky (if powerful) search interface may be behind their problems. UK Property Gold has cornered the market in new and development properties. Indeed, if you count the number of potential properties on their books instead of the number of different homes that a homebuyer could look at, they have between 25 and 40,000 properties. This is a slick site, but produces its output in a table like a gazetteer, rather than an entry per property, which is presumably done to be able to handle these developments where some properties may not even be started yet. A couple of recent entrants onto the UK-wide scene are Home Directory and Property Chain who both have set out to be among the two or three sites that will eventually dominate the property website arena. Home Directory have a polished site that also offers some of the innovative features developed by Homepages, such as their 'megasearch'. Property Chain appear to have taken a slightly different approach - they are aiming at producing an umbrella listing by bringing together any property information that they can find in an existing electronic format. This information, however, is only a partner to providing homebuyers with information, and by inference products, as a vertical portal on the complete homebuying lifecycle. Some groups of agents have got together to produce powerful websites. A good example is the Guild of Professional Estate Agents' website, Property Platform that lists the properties from this very well marketed group. Another is the Team website that lists the details from these successful groups of multi-listing agents dotted across the UK. On top of these, and besides the vast numbers of websites that are built for individual estate agencies, there are a few which have been built for other reasons. These include Property Sight , Property File and Home2View each of which were built by the company who provides the estate agents with software to manage their property portfolio. Rumoured to be in development are websites from the major national chains, but the mixture of corporate inertia and a lack of coherent systems across the organisations looks likely to slow these up, and their partisan listings may affect their take-up by the homebuying public. Looking to the future, the estate agency market is due to have its focus shifted considerably towards their people and property skills: negotiating, showing people round and valuing properties, and away from their information processing roles. Ultimately, virtual estate agents may emerge to carry on where Real Estate Direct left off , but it will be some time before these are successful. (It's not just the lack of numbers of people online to make these successful; there will always be a requirement for these property and people skills in person). Well before then, with the simplification of the buying process, many estate agents will be well poised to compete with solicitors and move in to handle the more straightforward conveyancing jobs. The estate agent that isn't able to streamline their business by the benefits that the Internet bring will just not have the time to be able to keep up with their competitors two doors down the High Street. > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Tom Hartley is a founder and the technical director of Homepages , the property website. Homepages specialises in providing homebuyers with residential property information and estate agents with websites, which it has been doing since early 1996. The Homepages site is now at least 50% larger than its nearest competitors and is well placed to capture that critical mass to cement its position as the UK's number one. Last month around 13,000 separate faxes or emails with enquiries by homebuyers for specific properties were forwarded to estate agents. Enquiries on Homepages should be addressed to - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Related Free Pint links: * Post your response to this article now at the Bar * Read this article online, with activated hyperlinks > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = OUR HEALTHIER NATION WEBSITE Supports the White Paper, Saving lives - Our Healthier Nation with comprehensive coverage of the developing government-wide health strategy which aims to improve health and reduce health inequalities. A collection of links, contacts and resources including a dynamic glossary. Regular Updates on new initiatives and resources & a mailing list news service . > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = [he515] >>> WANT TO CONTRIBUTE TO FREE PINT? <<< http://www.freepint.co.uk/author.htm > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = FREE PINT BAR http://www.freepint.co.uk/bar I'm taking a slightly different tack this issue with my summarisation of what's been happening at the Bar over the last two weeks. Rather than just listing the subjects, I've brought them together below, indicating the message number in brackets. To read the discussion thread, simply add the number to the end of this address: http://www.freepint.co.uk/cgi-bin/webbbs/config.pl?read= For example, to read item 1277 you would visit the address: http://www.freepint.co.uk/cgi-bin/webbbs/config.pl?read=1277 If it's easier, then just visit the Bar and pick the message(s) you're interested in . Well, I don't know what it says about Webmasters, but they certainly seem to have a propensity to propping up the Bar. For Web site designers, issues covered over the last two weeks include how to automatically check all the links on your site (1264), and find out what it looks like in various browsers (1222). Also whether anyone is producing design standards for Web sites (1205). For actual builders of sites there was a whole thread on adding a search facility (1211). More technically, discussion focused on the advantages or otherwise of using Flash and DHTML on your pages (1236). Also, the accuracy of cookies versus IP addressing (1197) and how to FTP via the Web (1164). Other Webmaster topics include how to promote a forum like the Bar (1213) and the tricky subject of moderating the postings (1284). Also, what happens if your domain host goes bust (1202) and where can you find cheap Web site hosting (1242). Also, which are the most popular sites in the UK (1221) and how much is being spent on Internet advertising internationally (1267). Recruiters were asked about the average recruitment cost for "e-executives" (1154). On the job-seeking front, does anyone have experience of CV Builder sites (1277) or UK freelance job boards similar to guru.com (1226)? Researchers had a wide variety of specific requests as usual. Do you have experience of Infogreffe or finding other French private company information (1260). How about information on student trends (1262) or youth lifestyle research (1261)? There were suggestions of sites for travel (1214), Catholic news (1163), and where to download photos (1209) or find automotive mailing lists (1254). Finally, I don't know if you were listening to the radio at 5.50am on Monday, but I was interviewed about Free Pint and the forthcoming Online Information 99 show. You can read a transcript online (1255). Remember, if you want to read a discussion thread then simply add the message number to the end of this address ... http://www.freepint.co.uk/cgi-bin/webbbs/config.pl?read= Otherwise, simply visit the Bar and see what is of interest. The address is William Hann, Managing Editor > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Bar: Do you have a research question or Web-related comment? It's easy to post a message at Digest: To have the latest Free Pint Bar postings sent to you every other day, send a blank email to Archive: Dormant postings older than 45 days are moved to Email: To write to the Free Pint team, please send your email to > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = SUE HILL RECRUITMENT - Can you match our clients' requirements? We are very lucky to count some of the world's top investment banks and management consultancies amongst our clients. Their requirements are exacting - for permanent & temporary roles. We need candidates now who can rise to that challenge. Sue Hill Recruitment & Services Ltd: Call by Stand 440 Online '99 Tel 020 7732 6671 www.suehill.com jobs@suehill.com > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = [sh516] FREE PINT FORTHCOMING ARTICLES * Researching for TV * Internet Surveys * Legal Information * * Travel Industry Resources * Portals * Architectural Sources * * Review of Online Information 99 * Classical Music Sites * * Knowledge Management * Researching the Researchers * [Provisional] > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = >>> CAN WE TELL SOMEONE ABOUT FREE PINT ON YOUR BEHALF? <<< Allow us to send your friends and colleagues a courteous introduction to Free Pint, with the latest issue, by entering their details at > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Exciting times are ahead for Free Pint, and I thank you for your continued interest and loyalty. If you can try to visit the Web site on a regular basis (perhaps to visit the Bar or check out the archive) then that will help us to build an even more influential community. See you in two weeks! Kind regards, William Hann, Managing Editor william@freepint.co.uk (c) Free Pint Limited 1999 http://www.freepint.co.uk/ > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = CONTACT INFORMATION William Hann BSc MIInfSc, Founder and Managing Editor e: william@freepint.co.uk t: +44 (0)1784 455435 f: +44 (0)1784 455436 Rex Cooke FIInfSc FRSA, Editor e: rex@freepint.co.uk t: +44 (0)1784 455466 f: +44 (0)1784 455436 Lesley Robinson BA MBA, Business Development e: lesley@freepint.co.uk t: +44 (0)20 8871 4284 f: +44 (0)20 8875 9165 Simon Collery BA, Business Development e: simon@freepint.co.uk t: +44 (0)1685 434143 f: +44 (0)1784 455436 Jane, Administrator e: jane@freepint.co.uk Address (no stamp needed) Free Pint Limited, FREEPOST (SEA3901), Staines Middlesex, TW18 3BR, United Kingdom Web - http://www.freepint.co.uk Advertising - ads@freepint.co.uk Subscriptions - subs@freepint.co.uk Letters & Comments - feedback@freepint.co.uk Authors - http://www.freepint.co.uk/author.htm Latest Issue Autoresponder - auto@freepint.co.uk > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Free Pint (ISSN 1460-7239) is a free newsletter written by information professionals who share how they find quality and reliable information on the Internet. Useful to anyone who uses the Web for their work, it is published every two weeks by email. To subscribe, unsubscribe, find details about contributing, advertising or to see past issues, please visit the Web site at http://www.freepint.co.uk/ or call +44 (0)1784 455 466. Please note: Free Pint is a trademark of, and published by, Free Pint Limited . The publishers will NEVER make the subscriber list available to any other company or organisation. The opinions, advice, products and services offered herein are the sole responsibility of the contributors. Whilst all reasonable care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the publication, the publishers cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions. This publication may be freely copied and/or distributed in its entirety. However, individual sections MAY NOT be copied and/or distributed without the prior written agreement of the publishers. Product names used in Free Pint are for identification purposes only, and may be trademarks of their respective owners. Free Pint disclaims any and all rights in those marks. All rights reserved. > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =