FreePint Newsletter 242 - Conference Previews + Publishing
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FreePint
"Helping 79,000 people find, use, manage
and share work-related information"
ISSN 1460-7239 29th November 2007 No.242
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ONLINE FORMATTED HTML VERSION
IN THIS ISSUE
-------------
EDITORIAL
By Monique Cuvelier, Editor, FreePint
MY FAVOURITE TIPPLES
By William Hann
FREEPINT BAR
In Association with Factiva, from Dow Jones
JINFO :: JOBS IN INFORMATION
Researcher
Information Officer (maternity cover)
Researcher
Legal Information Officer
Legal Researcher
Strategy Research Associate
Manager of World Class e-Content Publisher
Prospect Research Manager
Assistant Records Manager
Global Knowledge Analyst - WEYBRIDGE, Surrey
Director Information Policy and Planning
TIPS ARTICLE
"Practice What You Preach:
Building and Gaining Credibility with Clients"
By Lesley Robinson
REVIEW
"The New Publisher: Rosenfeld's Top Books and Websites"
By Louis Rosenfeld
FEATURE ARTICLE
"Enterprise Search: Rethinking it in a Web 2.0 World"
By Jayne Dutra
EVENTS, GOLD AND FORTHCOMING ARTICLES
CONTACT INFORMATION
ONLINE FORMATTED HTML VERSION
FULLY FORMATTED PDF VERSION
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Islamic Finance Information Service:
The No. 1 reference resource for the global Islamic financial system
* Global coverage of Sukuk markets, Islamic funds
* Islamic finance projects and infrastructure database
* Exclusive online Sharia supervisory database
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Regional Research Series:
Jump-Start Your Project with an Insider's View
FUMSI Regional Research Reports will help research projects get off to
the right start, by highlighting quality sources -- free and paid --
for research in key regions.
Now available: European Union and Middle East/North Africa.
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*** 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 .
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EDITORIAL
By Monique Cuvelier, Editor, FreePint
So much for chestnuts roasting and cozy fires. This December, I'm
giddy about Online Information. Over the last few weeks, FreePint has
been expressing its excitement by giving previews to some of the most
noteworthy presentations at the conference, held 4-6 December in
London.
In this issue, we give you a glimpse into two topics that are bound to
resonate many times during the event: enterprise search 2.0 and
becoming a better independent professional.
Jayne Dutra, the lead enterprise information architect for the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in California (yes, the same place that sends
high-profile missions to Mars and Saturn), talks about the new
frontier of enterprise search in a Web 2.0 world. Compare her piece
with Judith Koren's feature in our last issue about global
collaborative search
. Both
Koren and Dutra will be presenting at Online, if you want to
learn more.
Lesley Robinson gives practical tips on how to create better
relationships with clients, which she'll expand upon during her
presentation at Online. For more information about working
independently, turn back to Joanna Ptolomey's feature in our last
issue about how to create a methodology for building business
.
This issue's Tipples come from another person who will be at Online
Information - at the Free Pint Limited stand, in fact. William Hann
founded FreePint 10 years ago. Today he shares some of the tools he
keeps on his desktop.
I'm also extremely happy to feature a list of favourite resources on
publishing from Louis Rosenfeld, co-author of the "Polar Bear Book",
otherwise known as the best-selling title "Information Architecture
for the World Wide Web" from O'Reilly. Rosenfeld has recently launched
an innovative new publishing company.
Please make sure to check in with FreePint at Stand #122 if you'll be
at Online Information in December. We'd love to meet you.
Sincerely,
Monique Cuvelier
Editor, FreePint
e: monique.cuvelier@freepint.com
w:
FreePint is a Registered Trademark of Free Pint Limited (R) 1997-2007
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Online Information Exhibition
4-6 December 2007, Grand Hall Olympia, London
Discover how to find, create, manage and share information for
competitive advantage at Online Information, the world's
no.1 event for online content and information solutions.
Register for free entry at
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* FUMSI Events at Online Information *
FUMSI is emerging with the New Year. Find out what it means for
information work during our briefings during Online Information. Daily
at 11:15 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Plus:
+ FreePint's 10th Birthday - take our quiz to see how much you know
about FreePint
+ FUMSI Award announcement
Let us know you'll be there:
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MY FAVOURITE TIPPLES
By William Hann
Looking in my Windows system tray, the following always-on
applications would be the first I would load, should I ever need to
replace my computer:
* Logmein gives me secure virtual access to
my computer from anywhere in the world. Indispensable.
* The Firefox browser is slower to start than Internet Explorer (IE),
because IE remains partially resident in memory even when closed;
behaviour mimicked by the Firefox Preloader
.
* Fax Machine receives faxes and can
email them as a PDF attachment.
* The latest version of Skype finally has a
typing indicator. Upgrade if you're using an older version.
* Freemeter shows my RAM and CPU
usage, telling me why my PC has frozen or why the fan is whirring to
cool the CPU.
* Clockx displays a simple always-on-top
analogue clock.
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William Hann is the founder and publisher of FreePint
.
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Bureau van Dijk Electronic Publishing (BVDEP) specialises in
private company information
We have products covering the UK, Europe, and the globe
Our products include MINT, FAME, ORBIS, AMADEUS and QIN
Register for your free trial:
020 7549 5000 uk@bvdep.com bvdep.com
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New! FUMSI Report: Information Auditing Report and Tool Kit
Sue Henczel provides in-depth, practical guidance -- plus a tool kit
of hands-on activities -- for conducting information audits.
Get the benefits:
* Understand the audit process * Build a business case for auditing
* Develop a custom methodology * Create recommendations and reports
* Overcome the challenges
Download a sample and order now:
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FREEPINT BAR
By Monique Cuvelier, Editor, FreePint
The FreePint Bar is abuzz with a range of research projects, ranging
from finding criminal records to finding alternatives to The Big
Three. Read summaries below, and then join in the fray at
.
* Every worker is priceless, but how do you put that in terms of
money? One Bar member wants to attach a value to the average worker
in relation to the UK economy. How might you go about creating such
a figure: profit to the economy or straight sales? Lend your opinion
.
* Companies House lists a large number of companies that are trading,
but not all. One researcher is wondering what happens if a firm
she's in charge of researching falls between the cracks. Chip in if
you have a definitive way of knowing if a company is trading or not
.
* One 'Pinter is wondering if there is life beyond The Big Three:
LexisNexis, Factiva and Thomson. Let him know if you have ideas
. Or, if you're looking to
choose from the top three, tune into VIP for its annual comparative
review of news products from Factiva, LexisNexis and Thomson
.
* Freelancers undoubtedly have freedom that staffers don't, but it
doesn't mean they're available to take any contract that comes to
them. One Bar member is faced with a lucrative contract that is
requiring him to become a company rather than a solo artist. Lend
him a hand in finding the easiest and cheapest way of meeting
qualifications . Also look at
Lesley Robinson's article in this issue on how to build credibility
with clients.
* As it turns out, it may be as easy to find a criminal as it is to
find a doctor. At least for research purposes. This discussion
features a helpful list of
databases of articles and abstracts for criminology research as well
as other industry search tools.
** Will you be at Online Information this December? RSVP to let us
know you'll be there - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Monique Cuvelier is editor of the FreePint Newsletter. She has edited,
launched and written for many magazines, newspapers and websites in
the US and UK. Learn more about her at
.
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The FreePint Bar is where you can get free help with your tricky
research and information 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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The Big Three Reviewed in November's VIP
In-depth comparative review of news products from Factiva, LexisNexis
and Thomson: Get VIP's View before you renew your contract! Find out
which product(s) offer:
+ The most sources in different regions
+ The most functional interface
+ Best power-search options
+ Ways to search, save, forward and track projects
Order your copy today (GBP 54), or start your subscription now:
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JINFO :: JOBS IN INFORMATION
The Jinfo service enables you to search and advertise information-
related job vacancies.
The Jinfo Newsletter now features CV Makeovers, in which a job
seeker's CV is critiqued and revised by specialists in the field as
well as career tips for all experience levels. Read the latest edition
and subscribe free at .
Jinfo Jobs in the FreePint Newsletter are supported through our
partnership with Quantum2, an innovative skills development programme
offered by Thomson Scientific. Learn more at
Here is a selection of the latest featured entries in the Jinfo
database:
Researcher
You will need first class research skills and are able to think
creatively as well as analytically.
Recruiter: Universities UK
Information Officer (maternity cover)
This is a maternity cover post offering a varied portfolio of
professional experience and development opportunities.
Recruiter: ASH Scotland
Country: United Kingdom
Researcher
Researcher required to work as part of a legal information team
based in Sheffield.
Recruiter: Weekes Gray Recruitment
Country: United Kingdom
Legal Information Officer
Permanent role for an experienced legal information professional.
Recruiter: Aslib, The Association for Information Management
Country: United Kingdom
Legal Researcher
You will be an experienced legal information professional or a
law graduate seeking experience in a legal research environment.
Recruiter: TFPL
Country: United Kingdom
Strategy Research Associate
To contribute to the quality and professionalism of the Strategy
Research function & its ability to add value to the organisation.
Recruiter: Sodexho
Country: United Kingdom
Manager of World Class e-Content Publisher
Initiate and negotiate new opportunities to grow the use of
Polymerlibrary.com.
Recruiter: Smithers Rapra Technology
Country: United Kingdom
Prospect Research Manager
Lead a programme of research to support the work of the fundraising
and alumni relations teams.
Recruiter: University of Exeter
Country: United Kingdom
Assistant Records Manager
Role to assist Records Manager with developing and implementing records
management plan, 3 months initially, may go longer.
Recruiter: Sue Hill Recruitment and Services Limited
Country: United Kingdom
Global Knowledge Analyst - WEYBRIDGE, Surrey
Knowledge management vacancy based near Weybridge, Surrey.
Newly created position for expanding global organisation.
Recruiter: Glen Recruitment
Country: United Kingdom
Director Information Policy and Planning
Lead on the development of a new information strategy
fit for the 21st century.
Recruiter: The British Council
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
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*** Line Up a New Challenge for the New Year ***
Jobs for professionals who Find, Use, Manage and Share Information:
find them at Jinfo. Search the database at:
Subscribe to the free weekly update of the latest jobs,
plus the monthly newsletter with career tips:
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TIPS ARTICLE
"Practice What You Preach:
Building and Gaining Credibility with Clients"
By Lesley Robinson
I would love to say that I set out on my independent consultancy
career fully equipped with a 5-year strategic plan, divided into
short-, medium- and long-term achievable goals. To be fair to myself,
I had written a makeshift business plan, but on reflection, not much
of it was grounded in reality. I left my final, permanent full-time
post knowing that I had a short-term contract offer on the table and
that was enough to help me make the decision to jump from payee to
... full insecurity.
This contract was going to occupy me for three days per week for at
least six months. This allowed me to achieve three key goals:
* Make the leap from secure employment
* Get myself up and running in my home office
* Give me two days per week to focus on marketing myself and trying
to secure further clients.
One aspect I was clear about from day one was that I wanted to be a
'true' consultant and hunt for my own food. A significant part of my
background is grounded in management consultancy and so my own
business model was to go out and build my own client base rather than
work through agencies. I had won my initial contract from my own
contacts and that set me off on the right foot. There is nothing as
motivating or exhilarating as winning a contract through your own
efforts.
Building expertise
------------------
There are many ways to build expertise. The key ways I have done this
are by: taking on challenging projects, ensuring I keep up with
industry trends, keeping abreast of developments in business
management more generally, joining relevant committees and getting
involved with conferences. It is true that you learn something from
every project, whether it is an ideal project or not. You could be
improving your project management skills, learning how to present
ideas, refining the proposal process, managing clients better or
trying out a new way to negotiate your fees. There are so many aspects
to finding, winning and delivering projects that it has to be a
continuous learning process.
Early in my independent career, I was keen to push the boundaries and
take on projects that were slightly out of my comfort zone. This
approach really helped me to build expertise. As an example, an early
project I took on was for a firm of architects. It was a review of
their national information service, which was spread across their
seven UK offices. The project involved working with the information
teams, running workshops with the service users, interviewing the
board of directors and other senior managers, and carrying out some
benchmarking with other architect firms. Apart from having a
microscopic knowledge of architecture, I hadn't run that many
workshops before, was working with information staff who didn't want
the review and was asked to make recommendations that would
effectively rewrite some of the core business processes.
I tried to position myself as an external business advisor who could
see issues from different angles and who would consult widely within
the business to deliver the best outcome. This inclusive approach
helped to get a range of stakeholders to buy into the final solutions
and also taught me a vast amount about how to manage a whole range of
people with different expectations.
Staying ahead
-------------
As your experience in consulting grows, it is vital to keep up to date
with industry trends. An effective way of doing this is by attending
conferences and seminars. This helps you to discover the best speakers
in your specialist area and hear them in action. Conferences are also
great places to network with people; not only your peers but potential
clients.
Cost can be a prohibitive factor in attending conferences, and a way
to conquer this is to become a speaker yourself. You can start small
by facilitating a workshop session which may run alongside the main
conference, offering a master class in a topic you are passionate
about and then build up to chairing a panel debate or giving a full
paper to the main conference. This pushes the boundaries of your
comfort zone further, but it is an excellent marketing tool, an
effective way of being seen and heard, adds credibility to your brand
and positions you as an expert.
Joining relevant committees is also a useful way of staying ahead and
getting involved in your industry and beyond. I am a member of the
Central London Branch Committee of the Institute of Directors, which
is the biggest branch in the UK with 10,000 members. This is
invaluable for meeting a much wider range of people and really
understanding broader business issues. As part of this committee, I
organise several events and seminars each year, which brings me into
contact with politicians, chief executive officers of the FTSE 100
organisations, entrepreneurs and a whole host of people who run their
own small businesses like me. You can't beat that for networking,
exposure and excitement.
Committee involvement takes time and energy, but it is a hugely
rewarding experience. It also teaches you how to interact with
different kinds of people. On a consulting assignment, I will be
talking to a cross-section of people in the organisation such as those
in IT, marketing and finance, as well as the core staff, support
staff, the CEO and the board. Meeting and talking to such a wide range
of people at a non-threatening industry association event can really
help you to understand and be aware of the different perspectives
people take and the issues that executives face.
Recognition
-----------
'Oh yes, I have heard of her.' They may not be sure how they have
heard of you or when, but if your name rings a bell with someone, your
marketing has worked. The most powerful marketing tool is being seen
and heard. There is nothing like experiencing the real thing -
apparently. If people see me speak or run a workshop and they like
what they hear, they are more likely to keep me in mind for when they
need consultancy help. Of course, this can work the opposite way if
someone does not like what they hear. It's a gamble but it mostly
works in my favour. After all, people buy people. We are all more
likely to buy something from a person we have seen and heard and like,
rather than someone who may look good on paper but is an unknown
quantity. It is very subjective but it gets the doors open.
Once you are through that door, of course, the client now expects you
to live up to your reputation. Your hard work in making yourself
known, seen and heard has paid off, but clients are now very
sophisticated buyers. There used to be a certain aura around
consultancy, but that has now faded and clients want much more input
from their external advisors. In such a competitive world, clients
want you to be able to help them benchmark themselves against their
immediate competitors. For example, a medium-sized law firm hired me
to review both their information and library services and their
records management processes. In both projects, they asked questions
like:
* How are we doing against our competitors?
* How far behind or ahead are we in current best practice?
* What is the most widely used technology or software out there
that can help us to deliver our information more efficiently?
These questions take us beyond 'How is my information service doing?'
and focus on how the vital information and records functions
contribute to an efficient business.
Alongside this, clients want to understand how new technologies can
impact their businesses. Web 2.0 tools are a good example. Corporate
clients are struggling with the value of using blogs, wikis, RSS feeds
and other communication tools and want to understand how these 'risky'
new tools can help them. Clients want case studies, reference sites
and first-hand knowledge of the value of these tools to mitigate their
own risk in experimenting with them.
Therefore it is essential for me to do the experimenting and gain
first-hand experience. I need to evaluate blogs and wikis, find ones
to recommend as good examples and also assess how they can work for
me. I have helped a client to set up a wiki around capturing their
organisation's best practice, which was an invaluable experience.
Working with them to build this, I was able to see the process,
overcome any problems and realise the value it could bring to sharing
knowledge. I have also contributed to other wikis and experimented
with my own blog, which have been important steps for learning about
these tools.
Building a network of trusted experts
-------------------------------------
A fast way to keep up to date with developing technologies is to have
trusted colleagues who are experts in the area. For example, I work
with other consultants who are experts in intranet design and
deployment, customer relationship management systems, records
management, social networking tools and content management. If am
working on an assignment and this expertise is needed, I will bring in
other specialists to help me. Or indeed, we will bid for a project
together at the outset. If you have the position of trusted advisor
with a client, they are generally very open to you recommending
another expert who can help them. This reinforces their trust in you
but it is also a low-risk option for them to find other recommended
consultants.
As well as introducing other trusted experts to clients, I will also
introduce clients to clients. This is particularly valuable during
benchmarking exercises. If a client of mine can demonstrate best
practice in an area of relevance to another client, I will often
connect them to share their experiences and knowledge. This has worked
extremely well with an accountancy firm client and a law firm client
who now collaborate in several areas where they share expertise and
learning and even rotate their information staff between them to
develop their research and analytical skills.
Connecting clients in this way puts you in the position of being seen
as a powerful networker. Rather than diminishing your role - now they
have connected they might not need you - it deepens their
relationship with you and raises your credibility to a higher level.
Once this level of trust has been built up with clients, it makes it
easier to take some calculated risks and maybe test out a few
techniques and ideas during projects that will not only extend your
own skills but could also lead to innovative new ideas and approaches
for the client.
Strengthen your consulting
--------------------------
To continue to be an effective consultant and maintain your
reputation, it is essential to be constantly learning, embedding and
extending your skills. This approach gives you the flexibility you
need to survive. There are two mechanisms I have used to underpin this
approach. The first is through learning how to coach people, and the
second is by devising and delivering my own training courses.
Coaching: As I worked on projects that involved change management - a
change in business processes or people's roles - I realised that not
everyone found it easy to cope with that change. I would work closely
with those who found change difficult and tried to give them the
support they needed. I enjoyed this aspect of an assignment but wasn't
sure I was doing this to the best of my ability. So, I signed up for a
diploma in coaching at City University and studied 'Performance
Coaching for Business'. The course gave me a deeper insight into
coaching techniques and how to get the best out of people as well as
the opportunity to practice these techniques in a safe environment.
This new learning gave me a much more confident approach to bring to
some of the more complex consulting assignments.
Training: As coaching helped to add to my portfolio of skills and
work, so does developing my own training courses. I have pulled
together half-day courses on topics such as how to network
effectively, communications and presentation skills, through to a 1-
day course on the basics of knowledge management and a 5-day course on
information excellence. Training gives you the platform to showcase
and market your skills but it is also an excellent way to practice
what you preach and gain fresh insights and feedback from the
participants. It is also the case that some participants on the
training courses often become consultancy clients, having seen and
heard me in action.
Being a consultant often feels like being in a circus: keeping the
pace and energy high, juggling at least six things at once, multi-
tasking and helping out other team members, keeping the audience happy
and delivering a fabulous overall experience. As with a circus act,
underlying the overall performance is constant practice; the honing of
skills and taking calculated risks to make it all look easy.
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Lesley Robinson set up Lesley Robinson Consultancy Services Ltd in
1999, specialising in advising organisations on information, knowledge
and records management strategies, the marketing and development of
information services and the coaching and development of information
teams. She works in both the public and private sectors helping
clients to run their information services more efficiently and
effectively and maximise their value to the organisation.
Lesley speaks regularly at conferences, runs training courses and
writes articles about information management issues. Her website is at
.
Visit the Online Information Conference on Thursday 6th December at
14.00 to hear Lesley speak in a panel debate about 'Transferable
Skills for Independent Consultants'.
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Related FreePint links:
* "Blown to Bits: how the new economics of information transforms
strategy" Reviewed by Lesley Robinson
* "Net future: the 7 cyber trends that will drive your business,
create new wealth and define your future" Written by Chuck Martin
Reviewed by Lesley Robinson
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ResourceShelf Resource of the Week: Consumer Guides for Getting and
Keeping Health Insurance
Explore the latest posts in mobile search, search engine news,
podcasting and more.
Latest Searcher's Guide features outstanding collections in industry
information, webcams, election resources and social issues.
Visit
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REVIEW
"The New Publisher: Rosenfeld's Top Books and Websites"
By Louis Rosenfeld
The traditional publishing industry has always employed scads of
information professionals. But in an era of digital design, print-on-
demand, viral marketing, and Web-based direct sales, just about anyone
can be a publisher. This change has opened up a great new opportunity
to information professionals: instead of working within the
traditional industry's confines, we can publish *our* way. We can
create publishing houses built around what we know about how
information can be best organised, distributed, and consumed.
For the past two years, I've morphed from an information architecture
consultant - focused on solving large companies' information problems
- to a publisher. (Needless to say, I find my own problems a bit more
interesting!) My company, Rosenfeld Media ,
is about to publish its first book, "Mental Models: Aligning Design
Strategy with Human Behavior"
. Despite the long
hours and financial risk, it's been a fantastic experience, full of
opportunities to engage with and truly understand our readers in ways
that weren't possible before. And fortunately, there are some
excellent resources on the Web to guide and inspire us along the road
to publishing nirvana. Here are six of my favourites:
* Beneath the Cover is a true
diamond in the rough among publishing industry sites. It manages to
balance broad, industry-wide coverage with a healthy dose of cutting
edge topics, the advice is actually quite helpful, and the writing
is excellent (Michael Drew and Bryan Eisenberg's especially).
* I also enjoy scanning the Book Marketing Expert Newsletter
, produced by Penny Sansevieri of
Author Marketing Experts, Inc. OK, it comes from a publicity firm,
but it really does provide a good, free, and regular dose of tips
and links that make sure I think about book marketing at least once
a week.
* Dan Poynter's "The Self-Publishing Manual" (Para Publishing, 2007),
now in its 16th edition (!), is the most useful guide to printing,
getting ISBNs and bar codes, pricing out shipping options, and all
the other sausage-making that goes into publishing and selling your
own books.
* Poynter also maintains the Para Publishing site
. Like his book, the site is a trove
of nuts-and-bolts content, though be forewarned: much of it isn't
free. Still, it's as close to being a Swiss Army Knife for DIY
publishing as I've found.
* If you're a joiner, the Small Publishers Association of North
America (SPAN) is the association for you.
But even if you don't become a member, you'll want to bookmark
SPAN's site; like Para, it contains loads of practical content, like
an excellent glossary of industry terms.
* As you'd expect, discussion lists are wonderful resources in this
rapidly-changing corner of the industry. I suggest subscribing to
two:
and
. The former,
sponsored by SPAN, runs at about 1,000 postings per month, so set it
to digest; the latter is closer to 100 per month. (It's interesting
to note that the small publisher community needed to establish a
'civil' list; and you thought that librarians like to argue!)
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Louis Rosenfeld is founder of Rosenfeld Media, a new publishing house
focused on short, practical books on user experience design. As an
information architecture consultant, he has helped numerous Fortune
500s and other large, messy, political enterprises make their
information easier to find. Lou is co-author of "Information
Architecture for the World Wide Web" (O'Reilly & Associates; 3rd
edition, 2006), and has been instrumental in helping establish the
field of information architecture and in articulating the role of
librarianship within that field. Lou co-founded the Information
Architecture Institute and UXnet, the User Experience Network, and
blogs regularly at .
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Related FreePint links:
* "2001 to 2006: Five Years of Information Architecture" By Karen
Loasby
* "Poor Richard's Creating eBooks: How Authors, Publishers, and
Corporations Get into Digital Print" Written by Chris Van Buren,
Jeff Cogswell, Christopher Van Buren, Matt Wagner Reviewed by Caryn
Wesner-Early
* Louis Rosenfeld's blog
* Rosenfeld Media's RSS feed
* Rosenfeld Media's forthcoming books
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FEATURE ARTICLE
"Enterprise Search: Rethinking it in a Web 2.0 World"
By Jayne Dutra
In the Land of Web 1.0, we would search by looking for a small box in
the top corner of a website. The user would be expected to know a
magical keyword or some other bit of information that would unlock the
door to a cascade of results ready to be winnowed by hand into piles
of carefully hoarded treasure. Publishing to the Web was controlled by
a few individuals called 'webmasters' and data was carefully guarded
behind moats and firewalls in castles called database stores. Search
engines were composed of spiders that crawled the Web to find pages
rendered in HTML, which made them understandable only to advanced
human intellect and not re-use friendly. Search had to 'stink', which
always seemed a bit unsanitary.
Today in a Web 2.0 world
------------------------
Today things are different. Ordinary people publish blogs and have
passionate electronic conversations in wikis. Data is out and about,
turning up on iPhones, navigational devices in your auto and podcasts.
Bits of content recombine and transform themselves into altered beings
with new formats and sexy, fashionable looks. The Web is a movable
feast with Twitter parties materialising
spontaneously as individuals find each other in both virtual and
physical space. New connections from rich social interactions on
YouTube and Facebook
create vibrant energy that renews human
discourse. Wisdom is collected, syndicated and documented in Wikipedia
and Wikimedia. Rich media, photos, screencasts and other
visualisations are tagged for sharing on Flickr
and del.icio.us .
Where is it all going and how do we, as the Web's virtual
cartographers, help others find their way at a time when fellow
travellers are empowered beyond our wildest expectations of only a few
years ago? How can we add value to information retrieval systems
within our organisations that enhances user experience and meets the
increased pace of daily activity and multi-tasking? Web 2.0 has
raised the bar for those of us involved in enterprise search.
Search is complex
-----------------
More than ever, search developers are required to understand the core
foundation of the organisation's business models. Individual aspects
of services, products and processes are needed in formats that can be
recombined to report past performance, current status and future 'what
if' scenarios. 'Business Intelligence' was once confined to
statistics on last quarter's sales, but now corporations want to
understand why the business performed as it did, what was successful,
what didn't work and how they can develop strategies to capture and
retain market share.
Enterprise search is no longer a one-size-fits-all problem.
Information retrieval is a complex area that is being increasingly
seen as task dependent. In other words, how and why a user searches is
directly related to what type of activity he is engaged in. Therefore
search solutions must be designed around specific business problems
that provide meaningful value to the enterprise. Users have been
trained by Google to expect search results with lightning speed. They
also want high precision without a personal investment in lengthy
exploratory research. In other words, they want information to come to
them no matter where they are or how they are connected to both the
intranet and the world outside the firewall. Indeed, these differences
are blurring more rapidly every day.
There is a cornucopia of new technologies available to help us reach
these goals. IT departments and system developers can choose to
implement company-wide authentication for seamless access to multiple
repositories, enterprise messaging busses for information services,
Semantic Web technologies for embedding relationships and
collaborative portals with personalisation designed by the user alone
or in teams as a natural outgrowth of work activities.
Capturing and leveraging user-generated metadata
------------------------------------------------
Successful enterprise search today doesn't mean making keywords work
well. It means creating a holistic information architecture designed
for the enterprise that allows input and evolution by the users
themselves. Ironically, this usually relies on the time honored and
humble practice of generating metadata and controlled vocabularies
that enable data connectedness and intuitive recall. For years, we've
heard that users won't fill out metadata fields. Then how does one
account for the phenomenal success of Flickr? If one enters a set of
bookmarks in del.icio.us, doesn't that tell us something about the
person's interests and background? New Web 2.0 technologies generate
metadata in the wild that can be domesticated if we are wily enough to
recognise the opportunity.
A revitalised corporate IT environment should provide a common entry
point to multiple repositories with single sign-on capability, user
qualification awareness, and a simplified interface. Metadata about
people can be reconciled with metadata about objects and process to
facilitate personalised content delivery. Knowing an employee's
department and role implies something about the tasks associated with
that employee. Relevant applications, syndicated feeds and better
portlet integration enable customisation of activities and
transactions needed by employees. Data should be available without
regard to device or location thereby setting the stage for recall in
handheld devices or mobile units.
The corporate information environment should be available to access by
machines as well as individuals and utilise a common data reference
model for improved data consistency. Federated searches, contextual
results and composite data sets are all possible. Using new tools,
users can enter metadata right into the browser which can be displayed
by tag clouds and saved in a personal portlet. Search can be saved for
individual or team use and subscribed to as an ongoing service.
Graphical representations of results in charts or plots are a personal
choice. Browsing by image, video clips or text are now interrelated
and can be presented together for wider access by the user.
Foundation pieces and strategic approaches
------------------------------------------
In order to achieve the seamless integration of data to build our
brave new world, a semantic layer that handles data reconciliation and
unification of content sources is needed. Most experts recommend
starting by understanding the business uses of content and creating a
semantic representation of the target data that allows for
recombination and presentation in a variety of outlets. The
representation of enterprise data is expressed by the enterprise
metadata specification and its associated taxonomy. One of the
foundation pieces of the search team is to work with engineering
system owners to see that the metadata core specification is
incorporated into the searchable index. Working with system owners to
coordinate data values can be phased over time. Early phases include
mapping data fields to the enterprise standard in order to give
systems time to adopt standards. Opportunities for systems to
incorporate the standards arise when there is a major upgrade of the
system or replacement of the system's technology.
Content resides in many places and in many formats. Unstructured data
may be appropriate for natural language processing and entity data
extraction that facilitate automated tagging. Folksonomies and tag
clouds are examples of human tagging. The proposed solution set for an
enterprise search task should encompass both these approaches. Objects
will be tagged over time through both automated and human actions
using the concepts around the Unstructured Information Management
Architecture (UIMA).
Instead of implementing a Web crawler to randomly generate search
results on arbitrary key- words, the approach of the modern enterprise
search team is to leverage a strong information architecture
infrastructure resulting in a unification layer for enterprise
content. By utilising enterprise metadata standards, deploying
reconciliation strategies with gold source vocabularies and building a
clearinghouse for data collection, order can be brought to a chaotic
information environment.
The ultimate goal is an information environment enhanced by metadata
and served up through a number of rich user interactions facilitated
by role based access. Unified enterprise search at my organisation is
conceived of as a set of integrated systems utilising different types
of technologies to provide information quickly and represented with a
variety of visualisation techniques including charts, sliders for
query definition, and thumbnails of engineering drawing families.
There are numerous benefits for the enterprise, from better
information re-use including a higher percentage of winning proposals,
shorter product development time, more effective resource management,
better decision making and improved business agility. These benefits
combine to make a stronger competitor in the marketplace and generate
more success in the long run. That's a business case our managers
can't afford to ignore.
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Jayne Dutra has worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the last
10 years, managing software development tasks in the areas of Web
content management, search and portals. Her experience led her to
believe that no enterprise search effort would be truly successful
without a foundation layer of information architecture and
standardised metadata, and she became interested in taxonomies. She
subsequently worked on a Project Engineering Taxonomy for JPL space
exploration teams and the development of the JPL Business Domain
Taxonomy. Jayne currently serves as the Lead Enterprise Information
Architect for JPL.
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Related FreePint links:
* Catch Jayne Dutra's presentation at Online Information 2007
* Enterprise Search Guidebook
* "Specifying and Implementing Enterprise Search" By Martin White
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FORTHCOMING EVENTS
It is free to search and advertise information-related gatherings
in FreePint Events .
Premium listings
----------------
These events are hosted by our partner organisations and/or
advertisers:
** "SIIA Information Industry Summit"
30 - 31 January 2008
Tom Glocer, CEO of Reuters; Gordon Crovitz, Publisher of The Wall
Street Journal; and author Andrew Keen headline the digital
information industry's 7th annual flagship conference. Register by
Dec 14 to save $400 with early-bird registration and to join more
than 400 business leaders representing publishers, aggregators,
and content technology companies leading the transformation of the
digital world. For complete details, visit
.
Organised by SIIA
Location: New York City
** "INSOURCE 2008: Conference on Professional Information Resources
for Business, Management, Marketing and Research"
5 - 6 February 2008
The first INSOURCE 2008 conference will focus on professional
information resources in electronic form used in business,
knowledge management, marketing, market research, competitive
intelligence etc. Unlike many other events the INSOURCE will put
stress on the information contents available via the Internet
rather than information technologies.
The programme includes the following issues: "Marketing reports "
Export and import of trade data" Sources for Competitive
Intelligence " Company and financial information "Country, region
and market risk reports" Monitoring of domestic and foreign media
Organised by Albertina icome Prague
Free listings
-------------
United Kingdom:
* "Making Your Case - BIALL Study Seminar 2007" 6 - 7 December
Australia:
* "Securing Your Organisation's Information in the Digital Age"
6 - 7 December
* "Communicating in Times of Change" 11 - 12 December
* "Virtualisation" 12 - 13 December
Germany:
* "Analysis of Competitor's Strategies (ICI-21)" 6 December
* "Decision, Risk and Bayes' Analysis" 7 December
NB: This is just a selection of information-related event listings
in the FreePint Events database .
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*** Submit your event for free promotion ***
New upgrade option for premium event coverage
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FREEPINT GOLD
A look back at what FreePint covered at this time in previous years:
* FreePint No. 218 23rd November 2006. "Leveraging the Power of White
Papers: How to Create White Papers That Persuade" and "Understanding
Today's Capital: Thomas Stewart Delves Into His Keynote at Online
Information 2006"
* 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. 125, 28th November 2002. "Health Informatics on the
Web" and "Ping, touch, head, tail: or, how to become a systems
librarian"
* FreePint No. 100, 15th November 2001. "Digital Content on the Web"
and "Untangling The Web For Health Professionals"
* FreePint No. 75, 16th November 2000. "Music and the Internet
Revolution" and "Business Information for Small and Medium Sized
Enterprises"
* FreePint No. 50, 18th November 1999. "Information on tap - Web
resources on the water industry" and "Electronic Communities"
* FreePint No. 26, 26th November 1998. "Business Management Case
Studies" and "Online Information 98 Preview"
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FREEPINT FORTHCOMING ARTICLES
[Provisional]
* Ethical Acquisitions *
* Special Collections * Corporate IT convergence *
* Collaborative Search Strategies * Find, Use, Manage, Share *
* Managing a Team of Researchers * The Leaving Employee *
* Taking Enterprise from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 *
* Prospect Research * RSS on the Go *
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
.
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Contributors to this issue:
Lesley Robinson, Louis Rosenfeld, Jayne Dutra, Monique Cuvelier
(Editor, FreePint), Robin Neidorf (General Manager, FreePint), Shirl
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Recruitment and Services Limited, Glen Recruitment, TFPL, Aslib, The
Association for Information Management, VIP, ResourceShelf,
Researcha, DocuTicker, Jinfo.
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