FreePint Newsletter 196 - Online Information and Social Exclusion
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FreePint
"Helping 76,000 people use the Web for their work"
http://www.freepint.com/
ISSN 1460-7239 15th December 2005 No.196
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IN THIS ISSUE
-------------
GUEST EDITORIAL
By Olivia Freeman
MY FAVOURITE TIPPLES
By Rachel Singer Gordon
FREEPINT BAR
In Association with Factiva
a Dow Jones & Reuters Company
JINFO :: JOBS IN INFORMATION
Information Services Manager
Librarian with ICT Experience
Assistant Researcher
Intranet Manager
Information Specialist
Information Co-ordinator
TIPS ARTICLE
"Information Sources for Social Exclusion On The Web"
By David Renfree
REVIEW
"Yahoo! to the Max"
Written by Randolph Hock
Reviewed by Jean Roth
FEATURE ARTICLE
"Online Information Conference 2005"
By Allan Foster and Sarah Dillingham
EVENTS, GOLD AND FORTHCOMING ARTICLES
CONTACT INFORMATION
ONLINE VERSION WITH ACTIVATED HYPERLINKS
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Gain access to the most comprehensive and authoritative online
business and news information. With simple navigation, quick searching
and rapid results delivered directly to your desktop, LexisNexis
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Visit for further
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for a no obligation free trial.
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*** Compare pay-as-you-go services in VIP ***
The December issue of VIP compares pay-as-you-go services from four
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*** ABOUT FREEPINT ***
FreePint is an online network of information searchers. Members
receive this free newsletter twice a month: it is packed with tips
on finding quality and reliable business information on the Internet.
Joining is free at and provides access to
a substantial archive of articles, reviews, jobs and events, with
answers to research questions and networking at the FreePint Bar.
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GUEST EDITORIAL
By Olivia Freeman
As I write, the Online Exhibition is drawing to a close. I had the
pleasure of attending, moderating a panel discussion, and presenting
an award on behalf of FreePint at the gala dinner.
If you were not able to visit the exhibition, you can get a taste of
the proceedings in this issue of FreePint. Vendors of enterprise
search (the new buzzword) solutions were new exhibitors. Throughout
the event, Google and Yahoo! were on everyone's lips, and in this
issue you will find a review of 'Yahoo! to the Max'. Allan Foster
reviews the exhibition from an academic viewpoint, while Sarah
Dillingham reports from a legal perspective.
A comprehensive five-theme seminar programme complemented the
Exhibition. Sessions on career development, content management and
enterprise search proved very popular, and many sessions were
standing-room only. During a vendor panel I moderated in the business
information focus section, one of the participating vendors pointed
out that maintaining market share requires an ability to adapt and add
value for customers, offering niche but essential information not
available elsewhere. Members of the panel shared their thoughts on
customer service, highlighting differences in policy regarding levels
of customer support, regardless of size and location. My thoughts are
that there should be no difference in virtual support but there are
actual differences in levels of face-to-face support and, when
pricing, it would seem to be appropriate to reflect this.
Customer service was again the focal point for the FreePint Award for
the Best Vendor Customer Service Team, which I had the honour of
presenting at the third annual International Information Industry
Awards Dinner on 30 November at the elegant Royal Lancaster Hotel.
Bureau van Dijk Electronic Publishing (BvDEP) was the clear-cut
winner, despite competition among excellent nominations
. Sir Trevor
Macdonald hosted the evening and presented most of the eighteen
prestigious awards, in a range of categories, but he was particularly
impressed with the etched crystal pint glass we presented to BvDEP!
Throughout the week I attended a number of parties, starting with
drinks in the exhibition hall on the first day; all were great
opportunities to network, catch up with old friends and meet new
friends. The information industry seems to be particularly friendly -
we practice what we preach by sharing our knowledge and expertise, as
shown by the people who contribute to the conference and exhibition
seminars.
The festive season is in full swing, so it is very appropriate that
the tips article is on information sources for social exclusion.
Perhaps, between parties, we could pause a moment and do something for
people, who, for a variety of reasons, are unable to participate in
mainstream society.
Seasons Greetings to you all.
Olivia Freeman
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Our guest editor, Olivia Freeman, is an independent information
consultant, specialising in strategic research projects, training
and information management. Prior to this, she was Head of
Business Information at HSBC Bank. To contact her, email
FreePint is a Registered Trademark of Free Pint Limited (R) 1997-2005
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Searching, but not finding, costs your organisation time and money.
Download a copy of IDC's newest white paper, "The Hidden Costs of
Information Searching" and learn how Factiva can help you improve your
efficiency and make a real difference to the bottom line.
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"Enterprise Search Guidebook"
ISBN 1-904769-10-1 - September 2005
This report sets out the principles and practice of specifying
and selecting intranet or enterprise search software.
"Containing both search fundamentals and advanced topics, this report
should be on hand for every team looking for a new search solution."
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MY FAVOURITE TIPPLES
By Rachel Singer Gordon
* As a freelance writer/information professional, I find it useful to
keep an eye on the broader writing and publishing world.
WritersWeekly is a fantastic
one-stop-shop for new markets and writing/publishing advice; a free
weekly e-newsletter and RSS feed are available.
* We're all trying to do more in less time, while still keeping up
with the latest developments. Bloglines
lets me organize, clip, search, and utilize content from over 100
RSS feeds from various blogs, journals, and news sources, in one
manageable location. Even better, it's accessible from anywhere, so
I can get to my subscriptions on the road.
* Speaking of blogs, Michael Stephens' Tame The Web
is required reading for anyone
interested in the intersections between libraries and technology.
Always thoughtful and always mindful of how technology can best be
used to serve our patrons, Michael balances enthusiasm for where
tech can take us with realism about how best to implement it now.
* If you prefer a more collaborative approach to blogging, LISNews.com
employs multiple contributors to collect
library-related news stories from around the web -- and the world.
Readers can comment on any story and can create their own online
journals if they wish to write regularly or go more in-depth.
* Lastly, since we all could use a little levity, User Friendly
offers a daily comic that will
amuse anyone who has had to deal with recalcitrant technology.
Scroll down for an interesting, time-wasting, or amusing "Link of
the Day" at the bottom of the page.
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Freelance writer, speaker, and editor Rachel Singer Gordon
is Webmaster of the library careers site
Lisjobs.com and contract acquisitions editor for
Information Today, Inc.
Submit your top five favourite Web sites. See the guidelines at
.
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NEW from Bureau van Dijk Electronic Publishing
ORIANA
Public and private financial company information
for the Asia-Pacific region
To register for a FREE trial click on
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*** Do you use DigBig to shorten long Web addresses? ***
Then please supply a testimonial about DigBig:
Here's one we've just received:
"So quick and easy - I can't believe more people aren't using it"
Library Assistant, Manchester, UK (December 2005)
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FREEPINT BAR
In Association with Factiva
a Dow Jones & Reuters Company
I can't quite believe that this is the last bar summary I will be
writing in 2005. Where has the time gone? Online Information always
signifies to me that the end of the year is nigh and the latest issue
of VIP Eye, which has just been published, concentrates on the Online
Information event. It also looks at new product launches and comments
on the strategies of major information providers over the coming
months .
The Bar has been especially busy with a real 'mixed bag' of postings:
Do you know where the NHS dispose of their second-hand equipment?
. What about companies that make
lifts? . Where can this FreePinter
find information on the UK Housing Market?
. Do you know where to find
statistics and data for UK mobile phone usage?
.
I'm sure someone can help with this website usability posting
or how about giving some advice on
running website competitions? .
Also, can you give this gentleman a head start at his job interview?
He has to give a presentation as to why some urban regeneration
companies fail .
This student is doing a dissertation on search engine marketing/pay-
per-click versus traditional advertising but can't find any relevant
academic articles .
Perhaps you know of any continuous professional development resources
and also any institutes that offer CPD services?
.
This researcher is "looking for a list of computer science,
information technology or information management
organisations/associations" .
Finally, this Student Bar posting has yet to be answered, can you help:
A Romanian graduate has just completed a Library and Museum Studies
course in Romania and wants to start a career as a librarian in the
UK, but where does she start without a work permit or experience?
.
Thank you to everyone who has posted at the FreePint Bar and Student
Bar in 2005. See you in 2006.
Penny Hann
Production Editor, FreePint
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The FreePint Bar is where you can get free help with your tricky
research questions
Help with study for information-related courses is available at the
FreePint Student Bar .
Subscribe to the twice-weekly email digests at
.
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Now is the time to book your advertising with FreePint for
2006 as there are a limited number of advertising accounts.
We already have a number of confirmed bookings, so talk to us
now about *your* requirements for advertising across the
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JINFO :: JOBS IN INFORMATION
The Jinfo service enables you to search and advertise
information-related job vacancies.
The Jinfo Newsletter is published free every two weeks, and contains a
list of the latest vacancies along with job-seeking advice. The latest
article is entitled "Job searching under pressure". Read
it online and subscribe free at .
Here are some of the latest featured jobs:
Information Services Manager
Manage Vendor Contracts, review product usage trends, oversee
roll-outs, use your project management skills, 4/5 yrs exp. GBP exc.
Recruiter: Sue Hill Recruitment
Librarian with ICT Experience
Part-time staff with a public library background to work on
two exciting new courses on ICT in Libraries.
Recruiter: Millennium City Academy
Assistant Researcher
Library/Information graduate? Graduate with good research exp?
Bright person to be trained to develop research and K.M. skills.
Recruiter: Glen Recruitment
Intranet Manager
Manage and mentor a team of web authors, developing our Intranet to
its full potential as an information and communication tool.
Recruiter: The Security Service
Information Specialist
CIMA is recruiting an Information Specialist to join our technical
information team. For more info email .
Recruiter: CIMA
Information Co-ordinator
CIMA is recruiting a temporary Information Co-ordinator to
join our technical information services team.
Recruiter: CIMA
[The above jobs are paid listings]
NB: There are 17 other jobs in the current edition of the Jinfo
Newsletter and over 100 in the
Jinfo database .
Jinfo -- the best place for information-related job vacancies.
* JOB SEARCHING? -- Free search and sign up to the Jinfo Newsletter.
* RECRUITING? -- Complete the form and advertise a vacancy for
just GBP195 .
-- 10% discount for agencies.
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universities.
Find out more today at
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TIPS ARTICLE
"Information Sources for Social Exclusion On The Web"
By David Renfree
Introduction
------------
Social exclusion is a term that is used regularly by the media
and politicians, yet it is only in recent years that the concept has
gained widespread acceptance, particularly in the UK. Essentially, a
person who is socially excluded is someone who is, in some way, unable
to participate in what is regarded as mainstream society. Precise
definitions vary, but factors that may lead an individual to be a
victim of social exclusion include unemployment, poverty,
discrimination, poor education or ill health. The outcome is that
socially excluded people are often denied their civil or political
rights, and so cannot contribute to, or benefit from, the society around
them. This article will examine some of the resources on the internet
that provide detailed information on this subject.
Official Information
--------------------
A logical starting point for collecting information is the website of
the Social Exclusion Unit ,
which was set up by the Labour government in December 1997. The site
contains detailed explanations of the Unit's work, and full-text
access to the reports that it publishes. You may also make use of the
free subscription service, which allows you to receive email or postal
updates about the Unit's work.
There are several government-funded bodies that deal with individual
areas of social exclusion. Among the most prominent of these are the
Commission for Racial Equality , the Disability
Rights Commission , and the Equal Opportunities
Commission . Each one of the websites listed
here contains detailed information about the work of its parent
organisation, with links to relevant documents.
News stories / Features
-----------------------
For news stories or feature articles on social exclusion, it's
difficult to fault the Community Care website
, which is linked to the weekly
magazine of the same name. Styling itself as "The Website for Everyone
in Social Care", visitors are offered free full-text access to the
archives of the printed publication, as well as a range of additional
online services; these include selections of stories from the current
day's newspapers, blogs from recognised figures in the social care
world, and an impressive-looking database of job vacancies in this
field.
The acceptance of the term 'social exclusion' as a recognised term has
been acknowledged by the Guardian, who have designated a section of
their site as a social exclusion 'homepage'
. Here users can find
links to recent news stories on poverty, inequality and welfare
reform, as well as a resources section which lists other potential
sources of interest, and an article that outlines the issue.
Research Information
--------------------
If you intend to carry out a literature search, then you should
certainly take a look at the new Social Care Online database
, which was launched in
August as a successor to the Electronic Library for Social Care
(eLSC). Social Care Online focuses mainly on UK information, and its
content is drawn from many different sources; you can expect to find
the details of websites, journal articles, reports, books and other
media in your search results. Full-text links to results are also
provided if the material you have found is freely available online.
It would be virtually impossible to write about any kind of social
issue without drawing attention to the work of the Joseph Rowntree
Foundation . This organisation has been
carrying out research into overcoming social difficulties for almost
half a century, covering topics such as housing, poverty, drugs and
immigration. Many of the Foundation's reports can be accessed in full
as PDFs; where a report is not freely available, a four-page summary
gives readers a flavour of its content and conclusions.
Statisticians may like to take a look at the New Policy Institute's
website on poverty and social exclusion .
This site houses a huge range of statistics, charts and interactive
tables on all aspects of social exclusion. Also, since 1998 the New
Policy Institute and Joseph Rowntree Foundation have collaborated on a
lengthy annual report entitled 'Monitoring poverty and social
exclusion', which can be accessed, in full, through the site
. The link here is to
the 2004 edition, but a new version is due very shortly.
International Resources
-----------------------
Those looking for information on social exclusion outside the UK
will probably be interested in Strategies & Tools Against Social
Exclusion & Poverty (STEP)
. STEP is
an ILO programme which tackles social issues on a global scale by
carrying out projects, research and training at community, national
and international levels. The publications they produce can
usually be freely downloaded.
The Division for Social Policy and Development
is a United Nations organisation that
seeks to strengthen international co-operation for social development.
The website contains details of the various programmes that the
Division oversees, and provides links to conference papers or reports
arising from these projects.
For information on the European Commission's approach to social
affairs, it is necessary to visit the Employment, Social Affairs &
Equal Opportunities homepage
, which is
available in eleven different languages. Some of the material here is
more concerned with broader subjects than the specific question of
social inclusion, although that should not deter researchers who wish
to investigate EU policy in this area. Navigating the site is a little
difficult, although the search box provided should make the process a
little more simple.
Further Sources
---------------
Finally, to plug the inevitable gaps left by a brief article such as
this one, try looking at the website of the Social Policy and Social
Work Centre (SWAP) . The site forms part of the
Higher Education Academy, which aims to promote high quality learning
across all subject areas, and is a wonderful gateway to resources
which are freely available on the internet.
The ever-excellent SOSIG gateway also has a page devoted to social
exclusion
,
which features a selection of hand-picked resources. A visit to the
Centre for Social & Economic Inclusion is
also essential, as its database contains over 1000 reports, policy
papers and other types of documents.
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David Renfree is the Subject Librarian for the School of Childhood and
Education at the Birmingham College of Food, Tourism & Creative
Studies.
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Related FreePint links:
* 'Politics and Government' articles in the FreePint Portal
* Post a message to the author, David Renfree, or suggest further
resources at the FreePint Bar
* Read this article online, with activated hyperlinks
* Access the entire archive of FreePint content
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REVIEW
"Yahoo! to the Max"
Written by Randolph Hock
Reviewed by Jean Roth
Want to get more out of the internet using Yahoo!? 'Yahoo! to the Max'
by Randolph Hock is a very useful guide.
Hock suggests that "When you really want to know a site, click
everywhere! The catch is that few people have the time to really do
that". Hock has made the time, and we get the result: a slim book
with surprising breadth that makes it quick and easy to learn which
parts of Yahoo! are most interesting to you.
The book has nine chapters: (1) Overview/General; (2) Searching and
Browsing; (3) My Yahoo!; (4) Yahoo! Groups; (5) Yahoo! News; (6)
Communications (such as mail, messenger, chat, message boards,
building free websites, etc.); (7) Buying and Selling (shopping,
auctions, classifieds, etc.); (8) Finance; and my favorite for travel
and U.S. city guides: (9) Other, which also has Yahoo! international,
maps, weather, health, people search, photos, Yahooligans! (for kids),
music, and desktop search.
Chapter 3, My Yahoo!, is the longest and most important chapter of the
book. In it, Hock shows how to create a personalized web portal where
you can quickly get to a variety of useful information. Step-by-step,
he explains how to make a customized portal suitable for a personal
homepage. To begin, visit to see the default My
Yahoo! page. Then, click on 'Add Content' to begin customizing the
page. (You will be prompted to sign in or sign up if you don't have a
Yahoo ID).
To discover what content is available, you can browse the directory
categories, check the Editor's Picks ('Cooking for Engineers' gave me
a smile) or view the Most Popular ('Awful Plastic Surgery' made my jaw
drop both for the content and the number 5 rating). You can search
for RSS feeds in the find box, or add the URLs directly. The
advantage of using My Yahoo! to read RSS feeds over browser or
standalone software RSS readers is that the feeds are available from
any computer.
The same ease of accessibility is obviously true for bookmarks
and other Yahoo! services. Some features
like photos, calendar, and briefcase (which have URLs following the
same pattern as bookmarks), also permit sharing with other Yahoo!
users. The photos and calendar are self-explanatory. The briefcase
allows importing and uploading of up to 30 Mb of files, again,
accessible from any networked computer.
To make trip-planning for over 17,000 world cities easier and to make
trips more fun, try . The Trip Planner lets
you save your favorite links to create a custom travel guide.
lets you find businesses and services near
any address. Check out the Event Calendar at
to find out what's happening in
U.S. cities.
Yahoo! is always changing. So Hock provides
to keep you aware of changes since the
book was published.
Hock writes that the most important step in getting the most from
Yahoo! is learning which of the many parts particularly interest you.
This book is well-organized and well-written for helping race up that
learning curve.
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Jean Roth is the Data Scientist at the National Bureau of Economic
Research (NBER, ) in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. The NBER is the top non-profit economic research
organization the United States. She has an MS in Statistics, and she
helps researchers there find, analyze, and use economic data.
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Related FreePint links:
* Find out more about this book online at the FreePint Bookshelf
* Read customer comments and buy this book at Amazon.co.uk
or Amazon.com
* "Yahoo! to the Max: An Extreme Searchers Guide" ISBN 0910965692,
published by CyberAge Books.
* Search for and purchase any book from Amazon via the FreePint
Bookshelf at
* Read about other Internet Strategy books on the FreePint Bookshelf
To propose an information-related book for review, send details
to .
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*** Euromonitor double bill in VIP ***
The first ever in-depth review of Euromonitor's new Country Insight
product was published in the November issue of VIP. A second review
examines the new enhancements made to Euromonitor's flagship product
GMID (Global Market Information Database).
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FEATURE ARTICLE
"Online Information Conference 2005"
By Allan Foster and Sarah Dillingham
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"From Taxonomies to Folksomonies: Personal
Observations on Online Information 2005"
By Allan Foster
I'm an Online veteran having attended my first 'meeting', as it was
then called, in 1978. So I've seen many dimensions of the online
industry as it's developed over these years as manifested through this
midwinter event. Some 'Onlines' are exciting as yet another wave of
technical, human or business change crashes over the industry. Other
years seem fallow by comparison. In the early years of the 21st
Century, we've seen the dotcom boom turn so often to bust. We've
watched the frenzy over Knowledge Management become mainstreamed into
day-to-day organisational practice. And this year Online 2005 was
dominated by: social networking; the ubiquitous presence, actual or
imagined, of Google; and with a fair dose of content management thrown
in to the mix.
It was impossible to get away from the impact of social technologies
in the conference halls. From David Weinberger's barnstorming opening
keynote address 'The new shape of knowledge: everything is
miscellaneous', to Jane McConnell and Mark Esteve's final-day
presentation on making global collaboration work, the themes of
individual and group contributions to knowledge development and
sharing were everywhere. This is a world of blogs
, wikis
, tags
, tag clouds
and rss feeds
.
The key challenge to established dissemination media posed by social
software tools is to the notion of authority. Scientific communication
is based firmly on the principle of quality control through peer
review. Established and reputable journals filter articles submitted
to them by an extensive system of peer review in an attempt to publish
only valid science. The very nature of social and collaborative
technology tools is that authority is earned by the quality of the
contribution rather than by the status of the contributor or their
organisation.
This is a seductive and exciting line of argument. But just as
Wikipedia's founder, Jimmy Wales <
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Wales> was speaking to a 'full
house' audience at the Online Conference, a storm was about to engulf
him back in the
US. Wikipedia is based on the idea that anyone can anonymously author
or amend entries on the web. The downside of this openness was
illustrated by prominent US journalist John Seigenthaler who
challenged the accuracy of a biographical piece on him in which
he was implicated in the assassination of his old boss Robert Kennedy.
Seigenthaler, 78, claimed that only one sentence in his biography was
correct and that after Wales told him that it was impossible to track
down who had authored the piece, described Wikipedia as "a flawed and
irresponsible research tool". Wales has put in place a limited amount
of control in the authoring process as a result of this incident. It
turned out to be a wind-up but the
damage had been done.
One of David Weinberger's many insightful comments in his opening
address had a particular resonance for me. In the latter part of the
1990s there was much talk about 'information overload'. Reuters
carried out some research and came up with what seemed to me to be a
dubious proposition that executives were actually becoming seriously
stressed at the volume of information they had to handle. I did a
critique of this in Information World Review in 1999 referring to
sociologist Herbert Simon's concept of 'satisficing'
. On the same lines,
Weinberger talked about most peoples' information seeking behaviour as
being 'good enough'. 'Information anxiety' is a fallacy - it's
official!
He also came up with the best metaphor of the Conference. "Think of
knowledge not as trees with a formal, defined and linear structure but
as piles of leaves." He celebrated the messiness of knowledge and
argued that taxonomies had their place but not in singular terms.
Everyone could now help to classify knowledge by techniques such as
tagging. Read more about his ideas on Joho the Blog
.
In the same arena, Manchester-born US citizen Peter Morville
, information architect and
librarian, talked about folksonomies
, the ability of users to
assign free terms to pieces of information as illustrated in web
services such as the photosharing site Flickr ,
the bookmarking site Del.icio.us or the news site
Digg . Specifically, he described 'ambient
findability', the nexus of search, wayfinding, marketing, information
interaction, literacy, librarianship, authority and culture.
One of the most surprising and uplifting of the messages coming
through this collaborative, social technology is the willingness of
some corporations to encourage the use of these techniques both within
and outside the boundaries of the organisation. For instance, Phillipe
Borremans described the open and creative attitude of his company IBM
to the use of blogging. There is a well understood and explicit
corporate blogging policy and guidelines
to
assist IBM staff but this isn't stultifying. Staff use their blogs for
a variety of purposes - personal journals and musings, for sharing
items of interest, for evangelizing and for describing work in
progress. This is risky stuff and will stick in the craw of many
companies more concerned with image management than creative
communication and knowledge exchange.
Like all fashions, the profile of social networking will become less
prominent at future Online Information Conferences and Exhibitions.
These technologies and techniques will be absorbed into the rich
cocktail that is the online industry. And Online Information remains
as the world's biggest and most authoritative view of that industry.
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Allan Foster has had a 36-year
professional career which has taken him across public library,
polytechnic, university and special library sectors. Most recently he
has been Director of Information Services at Keele University
responsible for libraries, IT and media services. He is a frequent
speaker at conferences, seminars and professional meetings nationally
and internationally and a prolific author. He has been a consultant
to a number of companies and public sector organisations in the UK,
mainland Europe, Asia and South America, and is external examiner at
two UK universities. He has a degree in social sciences and is a
Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Library & Information
Professionals. From 1st November 2005 he's consulting, writing,
teaching and doing applied research in the information sector.
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"Online Information 2005"
By Sarah Dillingham
My first impression of Online Information 2005 was a good one, and it
came from the Online website .
This has several useful resources such as handy exhibitor visit- and
seminar program-planners , a product finder
and an education centre. The education centre
contains some interesting professional
development material including white papers, case studies, show-floor
presentations and expert opinions.
The hall was considerably more crowded than in previous years thanks
to the addition of areas for Content Management Europe, Enterprise
Search Solutions and Enterprise Document and Records Management - all
areas which overlap with the 'traditional' information management
topics. The result was a buzzy lively atmosphere with no empty space
in the hall. And of course, the greater the number of exhibitor
stands, the greater the chances to win an iPod with your business
card.
But it was really the free seminars that I had come for.
Unfortunately, I had to miss the 'business information in focus' strand
on Tuesday due to work commitments. I did, however, manage to attend a
stand-out session the next day called 'Adding value to Information
Services' by Liz Blankson-Hemans. Liz is a former legal information
manager who now works for Thomson and her presentation was sharp, to
the point and relevant.
As a standalone information manager in a City law firm, I am always
interested in picking up new tips to distinguish myself as a provider
of high-level research and analysis (as opposed to the 'librarian who
finds cases'). I am a great advocate of providing client research in
the most polished format possible as it is a good organisational
profile raiser.
Many of the suggestions are fairly straightforward but Liz proved her
own point about adding value by gathering them together, presenting
them well and offering tools such as a value added matrix to
graphically demonstrate the increase in complexity from 'raw' search
results to a formatted and analysed report.
Tips included:
* Exercise judgment to reduce information overload
* Understand the organisation
* Deliver what the client wants in the required format
* Manage expectations regarding timing and budget
* Build the information centre brand by moving from delivery to
analysis
* Use desktop tools creatively to present information cleanly and
clearly
* Write executive summaries to highlight key facts
* Predict new trends and shifts
* Draw conclusions and suggest next steps
The presentation concluded with some case studies
which put the theory
into practical context.
Liz later sent me a link to Dialog's Quantum website
- this contains materials from their
leadership program for information professionals. The site is very
practitioner focused with useful toolkits for marketing and management
skills, along with white papers.
Another session that provided a handy website link was RSS feeds by
Peter Scott. The session was aimed at the experienced RSS user - there
was little discussion of the basics. Peter gave a comprehensive tour
of his RSS compendium website . This is
a great starting point for anybody new to RSS feeds as it gives access
to a huge range of RSS feeds, readers, editors and parsers. It even
has a tool to enable you to build your own RSS feed for your website.
Another good feature is that it includes non-English language feeds.
Peter does not make editorial judgments or give recommendations about
any of the links, concentrating instead of providing an index of
comprehensive resources.
Minor criticisms? The downstairs theatres were quite small, with
standing room only for some sessions. Also, with such a busy timetable
most people will have missed some of the free seminars they would
otherwise have attended, so some more articles and slides up on the
website would be welcome.
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Sarah Dillingham is the Information Manager for Landwell, the
associated law firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers. She has over 10 years
experience in research and information management, with 5 years in the
legal sector.
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* FreePint No.127 12th December 2002. "Home Pages: Websites for the
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* FreePint No.77, 14th December 2000. "A Look at Online Auctions" and
"Horseracing on the Web"
* FreePint No.52, 16th December 1999. "Free Pint in 1999" and
"Review of Online Information 99"
* FreePint No.28, 17th December 1998. "Review of Online
Information 98" and "Free Pint in 1998"
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