Subject: Free Pint No.53 - Online Industry, Law and Web Collectives Free Pint "Helping 27,000 people use the Web for their work" http://www.freepint.co.uk/ ISSN 1460-7239 6th January 2000 No.53 > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = IN THIS ISSUE EDITORIAL TIPS AND TECHNIQUES "PanEris: a model for the virtual establishment" By Simon Collery BOOKSHELF "Researching the legal web: a guide to legal resources on the Internet" Reviewed by Sarah Carter FEATURE ARTICLE "Online Information - The past and the future" By Martin White FREE PINT BAR FREE PINT FORTHCOMING ARTICLES CONTACT INFORMATION ONLINE VERSION WITH ACTIVATED HYPERLINKS http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/060100.htm > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = ERETAILING 2000 15-16 FEBRUARY 2000 NOVOTEL LONDON WEST Hear proven online retail success stories from executives at: Barnesandnoble.com Boo.com CDNow Dixons Dressmart eToys Handbag.com Iceland Kingfisher Lastminute.com NetGrocer Pizza Hut QXL Saga Sports.com 800.com Featuring shop.org and sponsored by IMRG. The only conference created by ONLINE retailers for ONLINE retailers. Build your brand for online success - register online at www.eretailing.co.uk or call +44(0)1865 388000 for further details. > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = [li531] >>> 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 Just as you thought you might be hearing less about the dreaded MM word, I'm getting more and more messages about how it isn't actually the new MM until the end of this year. Well, whether we are in the 21st Century or not, I hope you had a good holiday season. I have to admit to logging on to the Free Pint Web site at 12:30am that night to see if the Free Pint community had disappeared. Thankfully there were only small glitches, like the homepage welcoming visitors to January 1st 19100, and the Bar dating new postings as 1/1/0. It seems the Web site was suffering from the 'flu virus which has affected most of the UK population over Christmas, but it's better now. We start today's cosmopolitan issue with an interesting look at a company which is using the Web to run an "open source" collective. This is followed by an analysis of the Online Information industry - where we are now, and predictions for the future. For the lawyers amongst you we have an interesting book review with related links, and this is then followed by the regular run-down of what's been happening at the Bar. If you enjoy this issue then please do pass it on to your colleagues and friends. Also, remember to join us at the Free Pint Bar with your comments and Internet research questions. It's free and easy to use, you just have to visit . 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 > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = EVERYTHING YOU EVER NEEDED TO KNOW ABOUT DOING BUSINESS IN EUROPE BUT DIDN'T HAVE TIME TO ASK. For the latest developments and detailed reference information on doing business in Europe then look no further than http://www.eubusiness.com. Our ground-breaking EUBusiness Alert service offers subscribers vital information customised according to your business profile. You won't have to wade through piles of irrelevant documents and grapple with heaps of Euro-jargon. We will deliver exactly what you need direct to your PC. > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = [si532] >>> WANT TO ADVERTISE HERE OR ON THE WEB SITE? <<< Find out more today. Full details at http://www.freepint.co.uk/advert.htm > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = TIPS AND TECHNIQUES "PanEris: a model for the virtual establishment" By Simon Collery The Internet is an odd phenomenon and its growth has given rise to all sorts of challenges to working practices, economic patterns, modes of production and service provision. PanEris is a collective of Web developers and programmers who work from home, but operate through their website, . PanEris itself does not designate a legal entity. It is a framework designed to allow proper communication and project management where those involved in the project operate at some distance from each other. In short, they are a 'virtual corporation'. They take on Web related projects outsourced by companies such as Bloomsbury Publishing, The Press Complaints Commission, The Corps of Commissionaires, Finsbury and Iglu.com. (The full list of their projects is at ). Their organization seems to provide a template for exploiting the benefits of technical and communicative advances arising from the Internet, while retaining the same spirit of openness and cooperation that has served the Internet so well. At a time when there is much talk about virtual offices, telecommuting and e-lancers, it is interesting to examine these issues in practice. Many companies are exploring the values of employing people who work from home. All PanEris people work from home. All their projects are managed by project management systems that they themselves have developed. Whereas a project would traditionally be run from some base, an office or some such facility, PanEris projects are events that occur online, from discussions about how to tackle a particular problem, to invoicing, budgeting and documentation. Communication can be by phone, fax, or email, but the favoured mode of communication is through the site's set of sophisticated message boards. There are high level, general message boards and message boards for specific projects, personal message boards and message boards for sales leads. This form of communication means that any discussions and decisions made can be read by those concerned, and archived for future use. A well thought out framework of project management and communication is needed to enable substantial numbers of people to work for most or all of their time at home. PanEris are developing the structures that are necessary to make this kind of establishment feasible. PanEris facilitates a particular way of life. Members are able to choose their working conditions. They choose what work they do and when they do it and they are not subject to the usual controls and rules found in more traditional establishments. One of the aims of the collective is for people to be able to gain satisfaction from such a way of life, not the pursuit of profit as an end in itself. PanEris is overtly utopian. It serves its members, not the other way around. Their philosophy, aims, organization and rules (very few) are stated at . Homeworking does not suit every type of project, every employee or every manager. Keeping one's finger on the pulse, and more serious issues of control and discipline might worry more traditional managers where they are not in the same office as the people they manage. The lack of face to face contact means one must depend on other cues, other communicational structures. No doubt such structures will develop over time, but hopefully the sort of human interaction necessary will also develop. The PanEris philosophy may be brief, but it underlines the fact that if the right sort of human interaction isn't there, no technological solution will take its place. So if you want to judge the success of organizations such as PanEris, it would be inappropriate to use the single dimension of profit, as that is not one of its stated aims. After all, it would be rash to use the single dimension of profit to judge the success of the Web, too, though some may be attracted by the large amounts of money flowing as a result of its success. One could use survival as a measure, and PanEris has been around for three years, a long time in the history of the Web and longer than most of the establishments listed below. One could observe how many people join PanEris and similar establishments over time, and one could find out if it's members feel that their quality of life has been enhanced. It is notable that nobody has ever left PanEris. If unsatisfied with these considerations, one could examine their work, and the extent to which companies show confidence in their services. Many companies examine the feasibility of telecommuting because of the cost benefits. It can save them a lot of money. But it is the quality of life aspect of telecommuting that PanEris esteems. Rigid working practices do not give rise to the best working environment and PanEris aims to give the worker some choice. However they can sell their services to clients knowing that they supply a number of cost advantages. If telecommuting and outsourcing is here to stay, then establishments similar to PanEris are going to become more prevalent. The Web was developed, to a large extent, by people collaborating and freely exchanging ideas. This resulted in openness on a huge scale and the free availability of certain programming languages, mark-up languages and software. In fact, the Web too, like PanEris, is overtly utopian. Much of the work carried out to develop the Web is done for the direct benefit of the Web itself. Of course, many have become very rich in the process, but in general we have all benefitted. A movement has developed called the Open Source Initiative , which takes a radical approach to tools and software used for Web development. Open Source software is freely available. The user has access to the source code and the explicit right to change or modify it in any way, as long as the result is made available to all under the same terms. This is not the same as freeware or shareware. Shareware is usually available free for trial purposes and freeware is free to the user, but the copyright remains with the original owner. Open Source software is beta-tested, debugged, peer-reviewed, elaborated and improved on constantly. One of the advantages of this initiative is the fact that any suitably skilled developer can work with Open Source software. Freelance developers may work on a project, but they probably won't be with the company throughout. Employers using Open Source software can be assured of getting developers who can continue the work when required. Another advantage is that off the peg software can become obsolete, or the producer can go out of business. Organizations using such software may need to replace everything, at great cost. But Open Source software can be modified, developed or replaced under such circumstances. This gives much greater freedom in the choice of software and the ongoing cost is lower and more predictable. Even people with little familiarity with the Web will have come across some Open Source facility: Perl, PHP, Apache, Lynx, Linux, and Webmacro are some of the familiar names. PanEris uses Open Source software; therefore they don't make money out of software. They feel that making money from software is not feasible in the long term. They design and develop what their clients want, and software that is developed during their projects is then made available for others. They sell consultancy and solutions, and participation in the Open Source Initiative represents another cost advantage that can be used to attract clients. Indeed, Open Source material is developers' territory. While many of us have used numerous pieces of off the peg software, far fewer of us know much programming. While more of us could design a basic site, the big sites that are making money now are anything but basic. Developers and Open Source facilities are of mutual benefit to each other. But developers are not the only ones who gain from the Open Source movement. Everyone who uses Web technology gains and shares in the benefits. This may sound worrying for people who produce off the peg software, but it is an open question as to whether there is really a conflict here. It may be the case that some developers can only work effectively with material for which they have access to the source code. After all, you don't need to be in opposition to off the peg software to find the idea of Open Source material appealing. Non technical people will continue to use off the peg software. Producers of off the peg software will have to be aware when equivalents of what they produce are available free elsewhere, but that's nothing new. On the other hand, in the future, more people may be able to use Open Source facilities as the population becomes more Web literate. This sounds like more of a challenge to software producers who sell a (to a greater or lesser extent) finished product. But it might point to the need to look at software in a different way. The Open Source Initiative invites the question 'Is software a product, or is it a service'? There are cogent arguments that it is not acceptable for it to be seen as a straightforward product, and the widespread availability of freeware, shareware, adware and Open Source software may change people's perception of software as product or service. Software producers may argue that they are working towards a time when their products will serve every need. Whether software production and the Open Source Initiative can both survive, or whether one of them is a passing phase in the technological revolution, is a provocative question. But Open Source software can claim the benefits of good quality, reliability, low cost and increased choice. This is a time when some people want to change their environment and way of life by working from home, and many have done so already. People whose job depends on technology, either through using it or developing it, want to have some influence on the technology market now that their lives are so much affected by it. Companies want to outsource projects or persuade some of their employees to work from home in order to reduce costs and would welcome the further reduction in costs gained from the Open Source Initiative. These aims seem achievable with the rapidly developing new technologies and communicational structures, primarily those provided by the Internet. What has been lacking is serious thought on how to provide a framework inside which the problems and day to day running of virtual projects can be handled. Attitudes towards management issues and working relationships need to be nurtured. People need to learn how to work on virtual projects, and this will take time. The openness and cooperation found in Web projects and mirrored at PanEris, and the new business establishments being wrought, would seem to be vital elements in this endeavour. Further Information ------------------- Other sites which host Open Source projects. provide similar facilities to PanEris, such as Concurrent Versions System (CVS), message boards for communication, Web space, etc. The only condition you need to meet is that your project is an Open Source one. is a community most suitable for highly technical people. It's a very busy site and it's difficult to tell what's going on, but they are advocates of Open Source software. hosts a large number of Open Source projects. It provides the same sort of facilities as xnot.com. lists a number of sites related to Open Source software. This is a good starting point for further research. is a site where buyers and sellers of Open Source development can find each other. Further reading --------------- . An interesting discussion of the Open Source concept, this is a chapter from The Cathedral and the Bazaar, by Eric S Raymond. I have not had the opportunity to read the book yet. More information on Open Source software and issues: Other interesting sites are: > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 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: * Respond to this article and chat to the author now at the Bar * Read this article online, with activated hyperlinks * "Electronic Communities" article in Free Pint No.50 > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Low Cost Web Hosting on Unix, NT, Mac http://www.globalgold.co.uk/ Global Gold offers Web site hosting and domain name registration at affordable prices. Instant name registration starts at just 24.99 pounds for .uk and 39.99 pounds for .com, .net and .org. Hosting packages start at just 6.00 pounds a month for our basic accounts. Check your domain or find out more at http://www.globalgold.co.uk/ > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = [gg533] >>> HAVE WE COVERED YOUR TOPIC BEFORE? <<< Search the entire Free Pint Web site, including 106 articles and over 1500 Bar postings. Simply visit http://www.freepint.co.uk/search > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = FREE PINT BOOKSHELF http://www.freepint.co.uk/bookshelf "Researching the legal web: a guide to legal resources on the Internet" Reviewed by Sarah Carter In the two years since the first edition of this useful handbook was published there has been an enormous growth both in the information available for lawyers on the web and, most significantly, in the Internet-awareness of the legal profession. Nick Holmes and Delia Venables have made themselves household names to the Internet-aware legal community, and their book is designed as an introduction for the (pretty much) novice. Concise enough to be read on the daily commute into London, it is a valuable resource to have by the PC as you try to make sense of what's out there. The book thankfully avoids listing URLs, preferring to describe the material available, and leaves the user to find the sites on the authors' own websites. The main sections of the book include Who's On The Legal Web - official government sites, courts, solicitors and barristers and professional associations, etc.. What's On The Legal Web treads the sometimes difficult path around the available free legal information services. Law Publishers On The Web looks at the subscription services currently available. Further chapters range across information on legal topics, e-commerce, doing business, knowledge management, legal education, etc., in many cases using legal practitioners' web sites as exemplars of the topic under discussion. The book therefore provides a valuable short cut to seeing some of innovative work that lawyers are doing on the web. The section on international legal resources is inevitably somewhat rudimentary - it merits a whole book on its own, and the European Union could do with rather more than the page which it is given. It is the earlier chapters, however, which I would think give the book its value to the practitioner. Inevitably, the book is out of date before it appears - the government web site is pictured in its previous incarnation, new resources have become available on subscription, but this doesn't really matter, since the book is designed as a kick start, and anyone using it will rapidly learn to keep up to date by using sites such as Delia Venables' own portal. > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Sarah Carter is Law Librarian at the University of Kent. She maintains a website of legal information on the web known as LAWLINKS . This was originally developed as a resource for students at the University of Kent but has since become widely known, and she receives comments on it from all over the world. She can be contacted at S.H.Carter@ukc.ac.uk > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Related Free Pint links: * "Legal Resources on the Web" article in Free Pint No.21 * Read customer comments and buy this book at Amazon.co.uk * Buy this book at the UK Internet Book Shop * Delia Venables' "Portal to Legal Sites and Resources in the UK" * Law newsfeed from Moreover.com * Read this book review online at the Free Pint Bookshelf * Other Internet searching Bookshelf reviews > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >>> KNOW OF A GOOD BUSINESS WEB-RELATED BOOK WE SHOULD REVIEW? <<< Send details to > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = FEATURE ARTICLE "Online Information - The past and the future" By Martin White I've been in the information business one way or another for nearly three decades, but never has the pace of change been so rapid, or the future both so enticing but also so uncertain. There may be some readers of Free Pint who, like me, attended the very first Online Information Conference and Exhibition in 1977. Since then I have only missed out on two of the events! Coming as they always have done in December, for me Online Information is a summation of events during the year, and also an indication of what is to come in the year ahead. The 1999 event was a classic example, and a few weeks after the event I am still working my way through my notes, business cards, product flyers and memories of overheard conversations. In this article I have outlined how Online Information highlighted for me some key trends and developments in the information business, and offer my predictions for the coming year. The information industry is alive and well ------------------------------------------ Market data on the information industry is notoriously suspect, but the development of the industry over the last two decades is such that the total exhibition space at that first event was less than a third of the floor area of the Reed Elsevier stand in 1999! Although some of the original exhibitors have stayed the course (notably Dialog, Gale Group, Inspec and CABI) there were 43 new exhibitors in 1999. Probably the best indication of the rate of growth of the industry is that according to Katherine Allen, the Event Director of Online Information for Learned Information, over a third of exhibitors want more space next year. A significant development this year was the sponsorship by Northern Light, Autonomy and the Gale Group, three very disparate companies with common objectives, brand loyalty! It is all about Customer Relationship Management (CRM) ------------------------------------------------------ In the past the vast majority of information vendors would have worked on an annual cycle for new product releases, but now almost continuous product enhancements are the order of the day. This requires vendors to keep in close contact with their current customers, and increasingly the exhibition stands are designed in such a way that good customers and prospects have an opportunity to discuss issues and requirements away from the busy "walk on" areas of the stand. Stand investment is high, notably by the major players such as Dun & Bradstreet, Reed Elsevier, Thomson, Dialog and Factiva (the Reuters/Dow Jones joint venture). Indeed the scale of the Factiva stand, when the company still has yet to release its new services, is an indication of the importance given by most companies in the industry to creating and maintaining a dialogue with their customers, and undoubtedly lies behind the requirement for more space in 2000. Information on markets and companies is now widely available from many different suppliers, and the need to provide added value functionality as well as reliable content is at last being recognised by the industry. The Online Information exhibition represents a unique opportunity for visitors to compare products, and the way in which sales and marketing staff present a business case. I was however quite surprised the number of times I was not asked some pre-qualification questions before being given the standard sales pitch. At least we have got away from the freebies. All the exhibitors I spoke to recognised that the level of visitor was now such that pens and plastic bags were counter-productive. My forecast for 2000 - companies are going to get smarter and more aggressive at marketing, making more effort to provide customers with product feedback channels, meeting the needs for global contracts and enabling each customer to tailor the service delivery to their specific requirements. They are also going to have to pay much more attention to competitive intelligence as new companies come into the market, especially through the enterprise portal door. (See below) Together we stand, divided we fall ---------------------------------- The science, technology and medical (STM) publishing sector has had a very difficult year as established publishers cope with many new initiatives on the part of authors to retain electronic copyright and self-publish (or at least self-archive) their papers, a movement that is especially strong in the USA. Another important issue in the STM industry is that no publisher has total market domination in any scientific discipline. As a result most publishers are having to cross-link their titles with others, on the basis that some click through is better than no clicks at all. The almost bewildering array of alliances was well demonstrated by Anne Barker in Free Pint No.52. My sense is that Online Information is now seen as a very important event for the STM primary publishers, whereas a few years ago the event had more of a business focus, and it was the major secondary services which represented STM. Indeed there were probably more STM exhibitors than any other category in the exhibition. A further indication of change is the extent of the consolidation within the subscription agency business with RoweCom acquiring the subscription interests of Dawsons in mid-1999, followed by the Swets/Blackwells merger. My forecast for 2000 - the dust has not settled yet in STM. All these cross-alliances are fine on a bilateral basis but make life very difficult for both the library community and their academic/research users. There will be more consolidation. The door opens on portals ------------------------- The concept of the portal site, providing structured access to information, often facilitating extensive customisation and access to virtual communities, was invented in consumer Web space by Yahoo!. The last year has seen the portal concept being adopted by the business-to-business sector, with companies strong on content offering integration services for intranet delivery, and companies coming from the software/services sector doing deals with content providers. This produced a number of lively sessions in the conference, but also some aggressive marketing in the exhibition area. Autonomy had a very well orchestrated example of the power of their intelligent agent software, which is also used by Insight Technologies . Dataware were offering to build free portals for the first fifty people to respond to a direct mail shot, and Mediapps, a first-time exhibitor from Paris, had run out of brochures for their Net.Portal software within the first day. Another newcomer to the event was Powerize, which provides vertical information portals for a number of industry sectors with an interesting (if complex to explain) business model with a mixture of free, pay-on-use and subscription services. The company also showed that all you need to exhibit is a lap-top, a good product and two very hard-working directors, one of whom, Steve Wooley, told me that they would definitely be back next year. I bet they will find a few more competitors about the place by then! My forecast for 2000 - we are not just talking about information portals. There is clear evidence of the rapid emergence of what are called Corporate Portals, or Enterprise Information Portals, and indeed there have already been Corporate Portal conferences in the USA. I see these as Next Generation Intranets, and they will provide a platform for the integration of external and internal information on a desktop that is configured by the individual user to meet their particular requirements. (There is a briefing paper on portals on the Intranet Focus web site at ). Major mergers ahead ------------------- A number of the mergers and acquisitions that have already taken place in 1999 were much in evidence, including Swets/Blackwells, Bertelsmann/Springer, Bell & Howell/Chadwyck-Healey and Thomson/Macmillan Reference. Then on the very eve of the conference came the news of the acquisition of NewsEdge by RoweCom. There were also visible signs of corporate reorganisation, such as the merging of Butterworths Direct into Lexis-Nexis and the merging of The Investext Group, CDA/Spectrum/Technimetrics, and IFR Securities Data into Thomson Financial Securities Data who launched ThomsonDirect.com at the show. Throughout the business sector companies are starting to look carefully at just what information assets they have, and whether to invest or sell. My forecast for 2000 - now that the business dynamics of web publishing are becoming better understood, and the links between e- information and e-commerce are beginning to emerge, I sense that there will be considerable M&A activity during 2000, stimulated by the desire to build up the information components for portal sites. However some of the publishing companies now looking opportunistically at floating off their Internet-based activities in what are often referred to as Dot.Com companies may find it much more difficult than they envisaged. Just as you thought the technology was stable --------------------------------------------- At first sight there might not have seemed to be much in the way of new technology on the stands at Online Information, but in fact that is far from the case. Much of the effort of the information industry over the last few years has been focused on database design, and the incorporation of XML to offer quicker product development and easier customisation by users. More visible has been the development in search engine technology, a major theme of the conference sessions, with David Seuss of Northern Light presenting a case for offering users a range of search options, and Steve Arnold and Phil Bradley suggesting that there was still a way to go just yet. My award for technological innovation of the 1999 Online Information Exhibition goes to Manning and Napier with their CINDOR multi-lingual search software which maps terms and concepts from both queries and documents onto a central glossary, and even manages to search Japanese patents databases with English, French and Spanish search terms. Missing from the technologies on display were any of the emerging approaches to the visual presentation of search results, and the fast- developing area of mobile access to the Internet, but there has to be something to look forward to in 2000. My forecast for 2000 - I am certain that we are going to see major advances in the mobile access to the Internet. Although there are some issues with standards developments in this area the market demand for access to information in trains, boats, planes, cars (when stationary) and other people's offices is huge, and I am sure that there will be a number of companies demonstrating these technologies at Online Information 2000. Maybe I will see you there on the Free Pint stand. > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Martin White is Managing Director of Intranet Focus Ltd, a company providing consulting services both to intranet managers and to information industry companies providing intranet-accessible services. Current areas of interest include enterprise information portal applications, the design of trans-national intranets and the impact of data protection legislation. Briefing papers on these and other subjects can be found on the company's intranet portal site at . > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Related Free Pint links: * Respond to this article and chat to the author now at the Bar * Read this article online, with activated hyperlinks * Anne Barker's "Review of Online Information 99" in Free Pint No.52 * "UK Library and Information Science Information Resources" article in Free Pint No.49 * "Finding information products and services via the Net" article in Free Pint No.17 > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = >>> WOULD YOU LIKE TO INTRODUCE A FRIEND TO FREE PINT? <<< Allow us to send a courteous note on your behalf We'll include the latest issue and a note from you Simply complete the short form on this page http://www.freepint.co.uk/reco.htm > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = FREE PINT BAR http://www.freepint.co.uk/bar Here is your summary of what's been happening at the Free Pint Bar over the last couple of weeks. To read a discussion thread you can: - Just visit the Bar. It's free to use and easy to access at: http://www.freepint.co.uk/bar - Read this summary online where all the links are activated: http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/060100.htm#bar - Add the message number (no brackets) to the end of this address: http://www.freepint.co.uk/cgi-bin/webbbs/config.pl?read= For example, to read message 1432 you would visit: http://www.freepint.co.uk/cgi-bin/webbbs/config.pl?read=1432 The last issue of Free Pint came out shortly after Online Information 99 and visitors to the Bar were asked for their reactions and experiences (1432). Please feel free to add to this discussion. Did you find out about new products and services? Did you attend conferences or presentations, and were they useful? Would you like to add to a wish list for the next Online Information exhibition? Something that won't be repeated for a very long time is the subject of another posting; the Millennium (1481). Apparently, large amounts of data are being collected on the December/January rollover. No doubt we will look fondly through these archives in millennia to come. Anything good about this infrequent occasion? Well, the Millennium issue of Searcher is available free of charge (1544). Free nibbles to go with your free pint. There have been several job related requests posted. One is for homeworkers to do some mystery shopping (1493). Another is for German speaking IT experts (1535). A freelance medical researcher is sought (1538) and Information World Review would like somebody to review a new service (1545). A number of replies list sites, which would be of interest to both employers and job seekers. There are lots of cool things out there. One Bar client lists a few useful applications which are available without charge (online wake-up calls and an online fax service) and asks if anyone knows of others (1438), especially where these are usable worldwide. This results in a discussion of free web based fax facilities. A request for help with email archives gives rise to some useful advice on choosing an email package (1449). Do you have views on the relative merits of CGI, XML and Java? Don't be shy (1459). And if you know about one handed typing tutors (1477), please add it to this posting. On the subject of cool things, Free Pint now has a site map which shows at a glance what's on offer and how to get there. It's at . Everyone is interested in search engines, aren't they? One regular drinker asks which search engine brings in the most traffic (1463). Which one does it for you, pray tell? Does submitting your URL to a directory more than the recommended number of times constitute spamming (1482)? It seems that Excite is particularly sensitive about this matter. But don't worry. A posting asking for advice on improving one's ranking with search engines (1502) gave rise to a flurry of responses. This is a very popular topic and there are lots of ways to improve one's ranking. We had a lot of requests for information on both general and specific topics in the Bar recently. The one for song lyrics (1501) received the most replies. There's also plenty of information on share prices (1516) to be found on the Web. The same is true of healthcare information (1460) and photographs (1530). The person posting the request is especially interested in images of working people in the UK. Finally, one thirsty reader wants to know about facilities similar to the Free Pint Bar (1500) and the WWW's most valuable Web site (1499). Is value measured purely in monetary terms? Simon Collery, Business Development, Free Pint Remember, to read this summary with activated hyperlinks visit ... > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Bar: Do you have a research question or Web-related comment? 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