FreePint Newsletter 218 - White Papers + Knowledge Assets > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = * Visit us on stand #122 at Online Information in London this month * > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = FreePint "Helping 79,000 people find, use, manage and share work-related information" ISSN 1460-7239 23rd November 2006 No.218 > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = ONLINE FORMATTED HTML VERSION IN THIS ISSUE ------------- EDITORIAL By Monique Cuvelier, Editor, FreePint MY FAVOURITE TIPPLES By Zena Woodley FREEPINT BAR In Association with Factiva a Dow Jones & Reuters Company JINFO :: JOBS IN INFORMATION Researcher Corporate Finance Researchers Information Services Manager Librarian Fundraising Researcher Records Manager Researcher TIPS ARTICLE "Leveraging the Power of White Papers: How to Create White Papers That Persuade" By Michael A. Stelzner REVIEW "Solving Management Problems in Information Services" Written by Christine Urquhart Reviewed by Diana Nutting FEATURE ARTICLE "Understanding Today's Capital: Thomas Stewart Delves Into His Keynote at Online Information 2006" By Monique Cuvelier EVENTS, GOLD AND FORTHCOMING ARTICLES CONTACT INFORMATION ONLINE FORMATTED HTML VERSION FULLY FORMATTED PDF VERSION > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > = = = = = = = = = = = = = ADVERTISEMENT = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Need to source, manage and exploit information for business advantage? Visit the Online Information Exhibition 28-30 November 2006 - Olympia Grand Hall, London Meet over 250 leading suppliers of the latest information content and information management solutions. Plus attend free seminars led by independent specialists and practitioners. * Register for free entrance at http://www.online-information.co.uk * > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = [VNU2181] > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = *** Opinions and perspectives in VIP *** Experts in the field review top issues from 2006 and forecast 2007 in the first of VIP's annual Industry Overviews. See what the likes of Janice Lachance, Leigh Watson Healy, Jonathan Gordon-Till, Leigh Dodds, Gary Price and Pam Foster are predicting for the sector. > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = *** ABOUT FREEPINT *** FreePint is a global network of people who find, use, manage and share work-related information. Members receive this free twice-monthly newsletter, which is packed with tips, features and resources. Joining FreePint is free at and connects information practitioners around the world with resources, events and answers to their tricky research and information questions at the FreePint Bar, our free online forum: . Please share FreePint with others by forwarding this message. The FreePint Newsletter is available online in several formats and can be read, saved and forwarded at . > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = EDITORIAL By Monique Cuvelier, Editor, FreePint Hoarding knowledge will only get you so far in business -- just ask anyone trying to earn a living with an art history degree. But once you figure out how to evaluate and apply what you know, then you stand to make some progress. For that you can ask just about any CEO around. That sounds like the simplest logic; after all 'it's not what you know but who you know' has been an overused cliche for donkey's years. But it took a stretch of brainpower and a shift in our very economy to figure out how to turn knowledge into power. In 1991 Thomas Stewart (the main keynote speaker at Online Information 2006, in London) made that leap. Then a writer for the magazine Fortune, he wrote a groundbreaking article that explained that, with few exceptions, this world no longer barters goods for money any more than you pay your GP in chickens. No -- what we buy, sell and do, so he says, is knowledge. The value in a product isn't so much the product, but the innovation that went into making it. The key to exploiting that knowledge is understanding how to shape it into something more than facts and digits. Since that economic discovery was unearthed, the subsequent years have given us all a chance to refine and process what's happening. Online Information is the ideal place to stand back and see where our industry has become, through exhibitors, Stewart's keynote and our interview with him below (read more about the state of the industry with the guest contributions in November's issue of our sister publication VIP ). Use this issue of FreePint to learn more about your place in the new economy, as well as pick up a few practical tips, and then stop by to talk about it with us at the event from 28-30 November. We'll be at stand 122 waiting to meet you. Sincerely, Monique Cuvelier Editor, FreePint e: monique.cuvelier@freepint.com w: FreePint is a Registered Trademark of Free Pint Limited (R) 1997-2006 > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > = = = = = = = = = = = = = ADVERTISEMENT = = = = = = = = = = = = = = *** Connecting People and Information *** Take a closer look at SLA Is information at the centre of your organisation or job? SLA should be at the centre of your professional memberships. Online/offline professional development, networking, resources Learn more visit our stand at Online Information > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = [SLA2182] > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = *** What VIPs Need to Know in Information *** Analysis of industry news, plus in-depth product reviews In December's issue: Latest at the Big Three: Enhancements introduced in Thomson, LexisNexis and Factiva offerings in 2006. Coming Soon: Reviews of FactSet and Capital IQ Read more, request a sample issue and purchase: > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = MY FAVOURITE TIPPLES By Zena Woodley Working as I currently do -- for a hard-pressed trust -- my most heavily used sites are inevitably health-oriented. The collection below offers some health-related and more general Tipples: * Eduserv Athens is a password-protected site with in-depth searches of medical databases, some of which offer full-text articles. * If you're outside the NHS, the National Library for Health is worth a trawl for their specialist libraries and encapsulated focuses on such topics as genetics and women's health. * When I'm looking for a break, I look to Ryanair . If you can be flexible with dates, they offer a low-budget means to get away. Tip: Every flight sells onboard lottery tickets. Under a certain prize value, (should you win) your reward will be -- hmm -- more lottery tickets. * Whether you're flying a short distance or going for the long haul, getting a good seat is a bonus. But where? Seat Guru lists plusses and minuses of every seat on the plane. * Still on the transport theme, Transport for London is excellent at showing both occasional visitors and regular travellers ways to get around the city. > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Zena Woodley has worked in information for an eternity and still thoroughly enjoys the enquiry side of her work. She is Information Resources Manager for Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford. > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > = = = = = = = = = = = = = ADVERTISEMENT = = = = = = = = = = = = = = *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. Download your copy at > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =[FA2183] > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = *** Now Weekly -- The Jinfo Update with Info Jobs *** The latest jobs in information now come to you weekly, with the Jinfo Update, while the monthly Jinfo Newsletter provides tips and a CV makeover to help you put your best foot forward. Subscribe to the *free* Update and Newsletter. Or search the online database at any time for great jobs at all levels of experience: > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = FREEPINT BAR By Monique Cuvelier, Editor, FreePint In Association with Factiva a Dow Jones & Reuters Company The nuts and bolts of the casket manufacturing industry and automotive statistics are hot topics in the FreePint Bar -- we're sure there's no relation between the two. Read on to preview these and more conversations in the forums and then log on to contribute . * Cars may be considered boy's toys, but more women are buying them. In fact, women are possibly 10 per cent more likely to have bought cars in the last 12 months than their counterparts. So says one Bar participant, who has been compiling data on male/female car-purchasing behaviour. Another member wonders how many cars are owned by women in the UK. Help him out: . * Nearly every state in America has a university programme for training librarians, one Bar member recently discovered. She's looking for an exact number of North American programmes. A few have offered tips on compiling such a list . More information on students and the information profession is in the Student Bar . * The UK is lagging with internet connectivity -- literally. But by how much? The co-founder of the Access to Broadband Campaign is conducting a survey to compile research on access issues. Read more on the campaign , and look for future coverage in FreePint on this issue. * VIP is planning an end-of-the-year special issue comparing the three biggest news services: Factiva, LexisNexis and Thomson Business Intelligence. If you use these services, read about how you can help with this issue , and then tell us about your product wish-list in the VIP Lounge . * The 'weird and interesting' -- according to one Bar member -- world of casket manufacturing is being unearthed (or is it 'exhumed'?) on FreePint. If you have special insight, lend your expertise, or simply learn more about the coffin industry . A reminder: Come by stand 122 at Online Information to meet FreePint staff and tell us what you think of what you read in these pages. Testimonials always welcome. > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Monique Cuvelier is Editor of the FreePint Newsletter. She has served as editor of several publications and her writing has appeared in Publish, USA Today, Bankrate and many others. Meet Monique at Online Information 2006 in London ; she and the rest of the FreePint team will be at stand 122. > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 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 . > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > = = = = = = = = = = = = = ADVERTISEMENT = = = = = = = = = = = = = = ** Bureau van Dijk Electronic Publishing ** Company information in an instant Catch up with BvDEP on stand 624 at Online Information 2006 Come and discuss our extended product range Meet the global team, see product demonstrations and book a free trial W: Tel: 020 7549 5000 E: > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = [BVD2184] > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Resource of the Week: One of the ResourceShelf Gems Get a weekly recommendation for quality, full-text, free web-based resources to add to your online reference collection. Ranging from economics to religion to job seeking to regulations, Resource of the Week always delivers something of value. Visit to subscribe to the free weekly newsletter, capture the RSS feeds and search the database. > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = JINFO :: JOBS IN INFORMATION The Jinfo service enables you to search and advertise information- related job vacancies. The newly redesigned Jinfo Newsletter now features a CV makeover, in which a job seeker's CV is critiqued and revised by specialists in the field. Read the latest edition and learn how to submit your CV for review. Subscribe free at . Here is a selection of the latest featured entries in the Jinfo database: Researcher An investment bank is looking for a temporary researcher to provide in-depth research mainly covering the TMT and Health sectors. Recruiter: TFPL Ltd. Country: United Kingdom Corporate Finance Researchers We have excellent career development moves for proficient Financial Market researchers into leading top tier Investment Banks. Recruiter: City Professionals Country: United Kingdom Information Services Manager Legal Librarian needed - Salary neg. Recruiter: Instant Library Recruitment (Tribal Group Plc) Country: United Kingdom Librarian Manage a corporate library's book and journal collection and circulation, based along M3 corridor. Recruiter: Sue Hill Recruitment and Services Limited Country: United Kingdom Fundraising Researcher A great opportunity to work in prospect research for a major children's charity. Recruiter: Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity Country: United Kingdom Records Manager Manage & develop all aspects of the records management service, providing specialist advice & corporate guidance to ODA teams. Recruiter: The Olympic Delivery Authority Country: United Kingdom Researcher Senior Researcher with strong numerical, analysis and online database skills to work from 9 - 5 for top Investment Bank. Recruiter: Glen Recruitment Country: United Kingdom [The above jobs are paid listings] NB: These are just a selection of information-related jobs in the Jinfo database . Receive the latest job listings weekly with the free Jinfo Update. Free to subscribe at 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 GBP 195 -- 10% discount for agencies -- 50% discount for registered charities. Find out more today at > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = TIPS ARTICLE "Leveraging the Power of White Papers: How to Create White Papers That Persuade" By Michael A. Stelzner The world is flooded with messages that are competing for the attention of readers. Recently, the white paper has emerged as a compelling tool that attracts and persuades people like no other resource. Sought-after to aid customers in the decision-making process, used to persuade key executives within a company or simply presented to summarise a suggested course of action, white papers are unmatched in their ability to attract readers. Should producing white papers be on your radar? If you are focused on business-to-business interactions or need to persuade key individuals, the answer is an unequivocal yes. What is a white paper? ---------------------- White papers are crossbreeds of magazine articles and corporate brochures. They blend the informative and authoritative content of an article with the persuasive elements of a company brochure. White papers are used to help educate and influence business prospects. They prevail in the technology world and are rapidly catching on in the financial services, healthcare, insurance and other business-to-business marketplaces. What makes white papers so attractive? -------------------------------------- In 2001, a Google search on the phrase 'white papers' returned a healthy 1 million responses. Only five years later, the same search resulted in more than 335 million listings! This enormous growth demonstrates the popularity of white papers. White papers help people make decisions, especially in the information technology world. Consider recent research that found an astonishing 70 percent of information technology professionals rely on white papers to make purchasing decisions in the U.S. (ITtoolbox, July 19, 2006). Because they are pulled into the company by prospective customers, white papers have the ability to linger and travel around the business, persuading along the way. It's not uncommon for a well- written white paper to travel across the desks of dozens of people in a single company. If you are not leveraging the power of these documents, you are missing an incredible opportunity. If you are using white papers, are they being read? The following are seven actionable tips to help you produce compelling white papers: Tip 1: Identify your ideal reader Are you writing to a project manager within your company, a prospective customer's chief technical officer or an engineer? Identify your ideal reader with precision. Pinpointing the ideal reader will help you develop an outline, mature your writing and guide discussions when things get off track. Some questions to answer before you write include: * In what industry does this person work? * What is the title of this person? * How technical is the reader? * What are his or her job responsibilities? * How familiar is the topic to the ideal reader? Tip 2: Focus on your reader's needs There are really only two ways to write white papers: by focusing on your self-interests or by concentrating on the interests of your readers. The self-interest approach focuses exclusively on a product, service or solution by expounding on its benefits, features and implications. While effective in some circumstances, this approach is best left for something other than a white paper. Alternatively, focusing on your readers can be effectively accomplished by leading with the problems your solution overcomes, rather than the actual solution itself. To many people, this seems counterintuitive, but it really is just the opposite. By focusing on the challenges, or pain points, experienced by the reader and talking about the problems caused by those pains, you are establishing credibility with the reader. Tip 3: Adopt a soft-sell approach White papers are usually written to help sell a product, service or idea. However, unlike other sales tools, such as brochures and datasheets, white papers should avoid the hard-sell. White papers are the longest documents in the sales arsenal. Reading them is a time-consuming process for prospects. Thus, it is important to provide readers a valid reason to stay with your documents. The first hint of 'salesmanship' will trigger most people to abandon a white paper. Alternatively, if you adopt a softer sales approach, it is more likely readers will stick around. Leading with problems or needs faced by your readers is a great way to adopt a soft-sell approach. Tip 4: Discuss problems before solutions Your natural instinct might be to immediately begin writing about your product or process. However, think about your reader. Why should he or she give your document the time it demands? Are you addressing something your reader can immediately relate to? Try starting with a discussion of problems or needs that currently exist when your solution is absent. Concentrating on your readers and their pain points is an excellent way to draw them into your white paper. Why? First, people do not like to be sold to. Discussing challenges helps your white paper appear to be something useful. Secondly, if the reader can relate to the issues you identify in your white paper, they might think, 'These guys understand what I am going through'. The result is often greater credibility. When talking about problems, think about how they impact people, processes and quality. Tip 5: Talk about your solution generically To avoid the impression of salesmanship, try introducing the solution generically. For example, rather than 'FedEx Express', how about 'overnight air transit'? Talking about generic solutions is a way to educate readers. If your product or idea is so new or unique that a generic category does not exist, craft a new category. A real-world example is electronic paper. Briefly, e-paper is a new display technology that simply produces black and white output. Some smart folks decided to call it 'e-paper' because it is very thin and does not require a constant stream of power. Even though the technology was first developed in the 1970s, it was not until Sony introduced an e-paper reader in 2006 that the 'category' has been defined as 'new'. Tip 6: You have only three seconds. Use them wisely Have you ever come across a white paper that bores you? Did you read the entire piece? The reality is that you have a lot less time to get your points across then you realise. Readers generally live up to a marketing rule known as the '3-30-3 rule'. It goes like this. You have three seconds to draw in any given reader. If you tickle the interest of readers in the first three seconds, they will allocate another 30 seconds to read further. If your message is very relevant and interesting, the reader will spend three more minutes with your white paper. The title takes up the first three seconds. The opening paragraphs occupy the next 30 seconds. Thus, the first few words of your paper will make or break its success. Get to the point quickly and focus on the ideal reader. Remember that most people are skim readers. You can make the paper more readable by including many shorter subsections, callouts, tables and illustrations. Tip 7: Conclude with a call to action The result of a well-written white paper is often a persuaded reader. However, most white papers fall short of their ultimate goal because they lack an actionable concluding suggestion -- known as a 'call to action' -- that can guide the reader toward the goal. The very last words of your white paper should ask a reader to take a well-thought-out and intentional action. Providing a clear next step will help the reader enter into your sales cycle, provide him or her more information or accomplish just about any other task you wish. The call must be clear, provide an advantage for acting and explicitly state how the reader should take the next step. The possible action suggestions are many, including: * Scheduling an appointment * Visiting a website * Calling a sales representative * Offering access to special content * Providing a coupon or discount Be sure to give your readers clear instructions on the very last line of your white paper. Keep these tips handy for when you write your own white papers. Once you've mastered them, you'll be able to communicate your business goals and reward customers with a valuable resource. > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Michael A. Stelzner is the author of "Writing White Papers: How to Capture Readers and Keep Them Engaged" , has written nearly 100 white papers for big names such as Microsoft, HP, Factiva, SAP, FedEx and Monster and is the executive editor of the 20,000-reader WhitePaperSource Newsletter. Check out Michael's blog at . > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Related links: * WhitePaperSource * KnowledgeStorm > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = ** Tell Us about It - FreePint Testimonials ** Supply your words to help us grow FreePinters provide us with testimonials that help us grow. If you enjoy FreePint, please consider supplying a testimonial at: . Your words are the best communication of the value of FreePint -- whether we're talking to new subscribers or potential and current advertisers. Thank you! > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = *** Researcha :: Immediate pay-as-you-go company data *** Access hard-to-find data on UK company directors, original company filing images and company data for Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. Researcha is free to search and view basic details, with convenient report delivery . > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = REVIEW "Solving Management Problems in Information Services" Written by Christine Urquhart Reviewed by Diana Nutting This book is aimed directly at the information services practitioner and addresses a subject that is becoming increasingly important: methods that library and information managers can use to evaluate and measure their services. In a world where we are under increasing pressure to prove our worth, this is a timely resource. The book provides an accessible introduction to some of the techniques that can be used to review services and plan for the future. In this it is largely successful. In each chapter, the book explores a number of techniques around a theme, which include: performance; standards; electronic information; impact and value information. Christine Urquhart argues that libraries traditionally collect large amounts of data, such as numbers of loans, numbers of visitors, etc., but these data need to be analysed and presented in order to be meaningful as performance measures. She makes useful suggestions for the less than highly numerate library manager in presenting the data, for example drawing charts so that the correlation patterns can be easily seen. I was particularly interested in the chapter on co-operation and collaboration, which discusses the application of game theory and social network analysis to the problem of people not sharing information in knowledge management systems. We all know that the culture of knowledge management is more important than the software used to capture the data, but finding ways to encourage that culture of knowledge sharing can be difficult to achieve. The author examines network models, using the rise of Google as an example and then attempts to apply the lessons learned from this work to planning and developing library and information services. She gives examples of where they have been successfully applied. She also sets out to model the value of information, explains how to use probability matrices and conduct risk analysis. The book concludes with a section on forecasting and simulation. I found the section on impact evaluation very useful, as this is a problem I am currently grappling with. The author emphasises the relationship between costing and impact evaluation, as there is little point in assessing the impact of a service that cannot be justified economically in the first place. After a short section on costing, the book moves on to conducting an impact study as an aid to planning, and techniques to help in the allocation of finite resources; these include: cost benefit analysis, immediate impact assessment, and time saved analysis. You need to understand a certain level of mathematics to use this book to the full. The author explains well why you might correlate two sets of data and the importance of picking the appropriate data to compare, but she does assume that the reader understands how to use the correlation function in Microsoft Excel. While the book rarely goes into enough detail about a particular technique to immediately apply it, it does provide some useful examples from libraries and information units, and it provides references to further reading on each one. It has certainly provided me with food for thought in structuring my reporting, planning and preparation of business cases. Whether or not the techniques are fun to use, as the author hopes, is a matter of one's personal inclination and engagement with numbers. They are certainly useful and gave me some useful tools to take forward. > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Diana Nutting is Head of Information Strategy and Development at Business Link for London, responsible for market intelligence, website content, customer research and knowledge management. She specialises in company and market information and runs an almost completely paperless information unit. Diana started her career as an academic librarian, before moving into market intelligence at, among others, Unilever and Parcelforce, where she started the first market intelligence function. For six years before joining Business Link For London in July 2003 she ran her own market intelligence consultancy. > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Related FreePint links: * "Solving Management Problems in Information Services" ISBN 1843341360, published by Chandos Publishing Oxford Ltd * Find out more about this book online at the FreePint Bookshelf * Search for and purchase any book from Amazon via the FreePint Bookshelf at * My Favourite Tipples by Diana Nutting Related links: * Articles from Christine Urquhart * "Assessing impact: let us count the ways?" By Christine Urquhart * Costing an Evaluation, University of Tasmania * Read customer comments and buy this book at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com To propose an information-related book for review, send details to . > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = On the Ticker: Use DocuTicker for Full-Text Resources There's a wealth of full-text reports put out by government agencies, NGOs, charities and other public interest organisations. DocuTicker's editors find and post them, putting them at your fingertips. Subscribe to the weekly ResourceShelf Newsletter for highlights, capture the DocuTicker RSS feed, or visit daily to learn about the latest full-text resources . > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = *** Use DigBig to shorten long Web addresses *** DigBig is a fast and free way to shorten long URLs, so that they're easy to include in newsletters and other communications. "I'm grateful for the ease and availability of your timesaving service. Shorter links do make for less headaches, and your process for shortening them was effortless!" Group moderator, Seattle (September 2006) > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = FEATURE ARTICLE "Understanding Today's Capital: Thomas Stewart Delves into His Keynote at Online Information 2006" By Monique Cuvelier Think for a minute: what did you buy yesterday? A newspaper? A tank of petrol? Online advertising space? A local area connection? If you're like most people in the Western hemisphere, most of the things you spend your money on are less about the materials than the thought that went into making them. The value in a newspaper isn't the printed pulp, but the team of people that researched and wrote the news. More than ever, today's world values knowledge over materials, and knowledge workers have become valuable commodities. As knowledge assets, or intellectual capital, become the cornerstone of a global market economy, the only way for companies to compete is to become smarter about managing those assets. For information professionals, this means becoming better at anticipating what's of value and how to disseminate their knowledge. Such has been the mantra of Thomas Stewart, who pioneered the field of knowledge management and intellectual capital, and who will be presenting his ideas at Online Information 2006 in London as the main keynote speaker. The editor-in-chief of the magazine the Harvard Business Review recently spoke with FreePint to expand on his theories and identify how information professionals can use them in their own work. Stewart helped to start the world-wide focus on knowledge management in 1991 with a seminal article in Fortune magazine titled "Brainpower: How Intellectual Capital is Becoming America's Most Important Asset". A few years later, he helped to expand his theories with his influential book "Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth of Organizations". This showed that knowledge is one of the most important assets developed in the modern economy. In "The Wealth of Knowledge: Intellectual Capital and the Twenty-first Century Organization" (2001), Stewart built upon his ideas, giving practical strategies to companies who could use KM to achieve competitive advantage. On Tuesday, 28 November, he will be presenting 'Ideas, Creativity and Knowledge Are Capital: Everything Else Is Just Money'. This speech outlines the theories in his books, in particular what he calls 'the three pillars of the knowledge economy': * Knowledge is what we buy and sell * Knowledge assets separate winners from the also-rans * Knowledge defines our work and describes what we do. Stewart's mastery is in spotting a complicated idea and slicing it into these easily understood pieces. These slices add up to the revolutionary idea that the value of our economy isn't the stuff you can hold in your hand, but the people and processes that make it up. In his book "The Wealth of Knowledge: Intellectual Capital and the Twenty-first Century Organization" Stewart explains the pillars: 'The knowledge economy stands on three pillars. The first: Knowledge has become what we buy, sell, and do. It is the most important factor of production. The second pillar is a mate, a corollary to the first: Knowledge assets -- that is, intellectual capital -- have become more important to companies than financial and physical assets. The third pillar is this: To prosper in this new economy and exploit these newly vital assets, we need new vocabularies, new management techniques, new technologies, and new strategies. On these three pillars rest all the new economy's laws and its profits'. 'Knowledge is what we buy and sell' ----------------------------------- The first of the pillars Stewart identifies has to do with collateral in our economy, which is to say the product of our minds. 'If you ask [a knowledge worker] what it is they sell, they're not selling keystrokes, not any physical product. A remarkable number of things you buy are actually knowledge or information or equipment that helps you manage it', Stewart explains from his office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 'What they are paid for is for some kind of expertise they add to the raw materials other people buy'. People do buy things they can touch and hold, such as computers and cars, but such purchases are no longer the primary driver of our economy. Information professionals, on the other hand, keep the economy running but don't trade in the tangible. Their value -- and the basis of the economy -- lies in what they know. The difference between this and past economies is that there are more people dealing in information now and fewer auto workers and butchers and weavers and people who produce tangible items. Stewart says in his book "Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth of Organizations" that ' ... between 1979 and 1994, the number of people employed by America's biggest industrial corporations fell by nearly a third, from 16.2 million to 11.6 million'. In their places are companies such as the Finnish electronics company Nokia, which has a subsidiary employing only five people but annual sales of around $160 million. 'Knowledge assets separate winners from the also-rans' ------------------------------------------------------ After Stewart's 1991 article in Fortune magazine first started making ripples, firms began hiring Chief Knowledge Officers and deploying knowledge management task forces to help their companies succeed. They neglected, however, to define what kind of knowledge their company was producing and how they could leverage it. "Five years ago an analyst at Forrester Research reported that six out of seven knowledge-management projects were being undertaken without anybody ever having asked for, or anyone offering, a promised return on investment', Stewart said in an earlier interview. 'My urgent message: if you don't know why you're doing knowledge management, you shouldn't be doing it'. This gives rise to his second pillar: know what your knowledge assets are so you can deploy them in a strategic context. A knowledge asset is something that transfers raw materials into something more valuable, such as the formula for Coca-Cola. 'Knowledge assets explain more and more of the added value in the economy', Stewart says. 'This behoves us to define what those assets are. That's part of the job that knowledge workers have to do. We can all get caught up in the daily flow of data, but we need to understand how to leverage it create value'. Knowledge defines our work and describes what we do --------------------------------------------------- Once a company determines what kind of knowledge assets it has, it can start to apply those to the company's workings. The trick is to look beyond the flow of data and see the big picture. 'It's like the old story about the three brick layers', Stewart says. 'They're all working and asked what they're doing. One says, "I'm laying bricks". The other says, "I'm building a wall". The last says, "I'm building a cathedral"'. In a company like Reuters, he says, in comes a perishable stream of data, in other words the 'bricks'. Above that is the 'wall', or the company's step of making sure the data is reliable and the flow is constant. The 'cathedral' is seeing what all the data and how it's arranged adds up to. 'How does Reuters compete with Thomson compete with Bloomberg?' Stewart asks. 'If I'm the CEO of Bloomberg, I might say, "I've got a solid wall, it's reliable. How do I arrange this into something better?"'. Why it matters to the information worker ---------------------------------------- Leaders of businesses can see the impact of understanding intellectual capital in terms of monetary gain. But as the stewards of knowledge, information professionals also need to gain a better understanding, Stewart says. 'Information workers tend to take a view from the customer in, rather than from the industry out', he says. 'Information and knowledge management need to start with demand, not supply. If you start with that, you get something much more useful. Imagine a librarian building a library without thinking how a reader would look for stuff'. His apt example: the original manuscript of Beowulf. It was hidden for years under an obscure codex (Cotton Vitellius A. xv, or the Nowell Codex), named after the nobleman Robert Cotton who owned it. The books in his library were noted by their shelf position, which were all named for the busts of the roman emperors who topped the shelves. The Vitellius A.xv was the 15th book on the first shelf under the Vitellius bust. That was his Dewey decimal system. 'Too much knowledge stuff has been set up that way', Stewart says. 'Cotton was thinking only of supply, not of demand. We're not asking, "Who's using this? Why? How do we decide how people do this? What's the business use of this knowledge?". 'This has happened in every office I've ever worked. There are two ways to get ahead, and they're interrelated. You can get only so far by being the world's best brick layer: you'll only become the A-number-one brick layer. If you want to make the jump to wall maker, you have to start understanding the wall and expressing the wall. Cathedral designers don't need to know much about bricks'. > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Thomas Stewart, editor-in-chief of Harvard Business Review, is among the founding fathers of the fields of intellectual capital and knowledge management, with a 13-year career at FORTUNE and Business 2.0. He shows executives how the new realities of the Information Age demand creative approaches to designing, managing and running organizations. Visionary in scope, his indispensable books, Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth of Organizations and The Wealth of Knowledge: Intellectual Capital and the Twenty-First Century Organization, serve up specific capabilities leaders and organizations need to cope with pressing universal challenges. > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Related FreePint links: * Excerpt in VIP Insider * "Routes into Knowledge Management" By Steve D'Arcy * "Knowledge Management Does Not Grow on Bonsai Trees" By Sheena Thompson Related links: * Harvard Business Review Online > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = FORTHCOMING EVENTS It is free to search and advertise information-related gatherings in FreePint Events . United Kingdom: * "Online Information" 28 - 30 November * "Information Governance Update 2006" 28 November - 7 December * "SLA Europe's Annual Breakfast at Online Information 2006" 29 November * "Conducting an Information and Records Audit to ensure Good Governance 1 December * "Association of Information Managers (AIM) 5 December Australia and Territories: * "Strategic Intranet Management for the Public Sector Conference" 27 - 29 November * "Business Intelligence Masterclass" 30 November - 1 December * "Best Practice Library & Knowledge Management" 1 December * "Driving Performance in Contact Centres" 4 - 5 December * "Information Online 2007" 30 January - 1 February Germany: * "Online Educa Berlin 2006" 29 November - 1 December * "Competitive Intelligence Basics Workshop (ICI-1) 4 - 5 December NB: These are just a selection of information-related event listings in the FreePint Events database . > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - *** Submit your event for free promotion *** New upgrade option for enhanced listing coverage > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = FREEPINT GOLD A look back at what FreePint covered at this time in previous years: * FreePint No.195 24th November 2005. "You need to know about what industry? Paintball & extreme sports industry sources" and "Knowledge management for development: an international organisation's perspective" * FreePint No.172 25th November 2004. "Advanced Search Techniques using Natural Language Processing" and "Ephemera: the stuff of history" * FreePint No.149 20th November 2003. "Re-Entry Shock or Reverse Culture Shock" and "Data Protection for Websites and Intranets" * FreePint No.126, 28th November 2002. "Health Informatics on the Web" and "Ping, touch, head, tail: or, how to become a systems librarian" * FreePint No.101, 29th November 2001. "Picture This: 'Free' Photos on the Web" and "Communities of Practice" * FreePint No.76, 30th November 2000. "Britain's Railway Industry Web Sites" and "Web Sources for Film and Television Information" * FreePint No.51, 2nd December 1999. "UK Help and Welfare Information on the Web" and "Homepages: Househunting on the Internet" * FreePint No.27, 26th November 1998. "Business Management Case Studies" and "Online Information 98 Preview" > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = FREEPINT FORTHCOMING ARTICLES [Provisional] * Wikipedia: To Use Or Not To Use * * Impressions of Online Information 2006 * * Matapihi, National Digital Forum * IT-IS Mergers * * What's Changed in Information Architecture Since 2001 * * Linking Real-World Local Communities With Online Communities * * Myth of the Paperless Office * RAST Web V & D software * * Selecting and Working with Subscription Agent * * Finding People in the Digital Age * * Digital Music * Value Networks * If you have a suggestion for an article topic, or would like to write for FreePint, then please contact FreePint's Editor Monique Cuvelier, or read the notes for authors at . > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = CONTACT INFORMATION Address: Free Pint Limited 4-6 Station Approach Ashford, Middlesex TW15 2QN, United Kingdom Telephone: UK: 0870 141 7474 International: +44 870 141 7474 Directions and maps: Contributors to this issue: Monique Cuvelier (Editor, FreePint), Michael Stelzner, Zena Woodley, Diana Nutting, Thomas Stewart, Robin Neidorf (General Manager, FreePint), Pam Foster (Editor, VIP), Shirl Kennedy (Senior Editor, ResourceShelf and DocuTicker), William Hann (Managing Editor, FreePint), Penny Hann (Production Editor, FreePint), Plain Text (proofreading). 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