BlogBridge Feed Library: a shop window for feeds

BlogBridge, publisher of a most excellent aggregator (I moved to it a couple of weeks ago after two years with NewsGator) has another very interesting product for information professionals: its Feed Library. This is a place where specialists can share their links and feeds to key information sources in a very friendly and non-techie way.

Here's a partial screenshot - click on it to visit my own evolving experimental Feed Library:

As you may be able to see from the above, each feed shows a miniature representation of the feed source. Each segment can contain a maximum of sixteen feeds (optionally shown four at a time) and any of these can be sub-folders, although I've not shown any in the above image.

On each orange folder bar, you might be able to discern a blue OPML icon. This provides users with a link to the whole folder. And, underneath each individual feed, you might be able to see the orange RSS feed icon. Both make it so easy for users to transfer interesting links into their own aggregators.

Users can click on a page icon to visit its source. If they get in the habit of picking up their RSS feeds from the Feed Library page, this automatically increases the popularity rating of the feed which is then reflected in the top ten (or top 100) feeds shown in the right sidebar.

Multiple authors can contribute to the Feed Library and it's possible to control access by organisational membership. Different pricing models exist, starting at free. And you can either self-host or let BlogBridge do the hosting.

As a footnote, I should mention that Pito Salas, the man behind BlogBridge, has a long history in
professional software development and this really shows in the way Feed
Library and BlogBridge itself are being put together.

Countdown to 2007: 1

Another key question as we head into the new year…

1: Does Microsoft hold the IM key?

The past year saw some serious consolidation in the enterprise content management market - Stellent was bought by Oracle earlier this month, Filenet by IBM in August, OpenText merged with Hummingbird, and Interwoven has been cosying up to Microsoft (though there's no talk of marriage there yet). But as the IT giants come lumbering into the information management industry, can anyone hear the sound of a culture clash? The information industry (in which content is king) is being forced into alliances with technology and communications companies (for whom data delivery is king). The two do not make easy partners. In 2007, the information industry will have to come to terms with the fact that most users want easier, cheaper access to information, while the IT industry will need to better understand new groups of users – information professionals, content managers, compliance officers and many others – who want to control and regulate information. The two are opposing forces, and for most people involved in the information industry, the next year will be another of change, pain and agonising compromise. Whoever comes up with a solution that can satisfy both parties will be a winner – and the only company I can see with the DNA and track record to do so, is in fact Microsoft. It has satisfied both consumer and corporate marketplaces in the past with Windows; will it be able to do that double-edged trick for information users and information managers in future?

Countdown to 2007: 2

Another topic for discussion in 2007, as we count down to the new year

2. Will Wikiasari heat up the search wars?

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has set his sights on giving Google a run for its money, with his planned community-based search engine – Wikiasari ("wiki" meaning "quick" in Hawaiian, and "asari" meaning "rummaging search" in Japanese). He told the Times newspaper that he plans to launch a commercial version of Wikiasari early in 2007. But unlike Wikipedia, a not-for-profit project, this will be run by Wikia Inc, Wales' private company, which has secured backing from Amazon and other financiers. The big question is whether Wales can marry the energy and enthusiasm of his dedicated band of followers with a for-profit enterprise. Little has yet been revealed about how the project will generate cash, or how it will reward the specialists who will make the search results more compelling. The Amazon connection is interesting, as Amazon pulled back from its A9.com search engine project in September 2006. Will there be technology link-ups with A9? Wales has certainly picked a ripe target – many Google search results are increasingly failing to match up to those of rivals MSN and Yahoo. Could 2007 be the year that the shine goes off Google?

Countdown to 2007: 3

Another hot topic for discussion next year...

3: What new directions for Thomson Corporation?

Next year is going to be a big transformational year for the Thomson Corporation. Its Learning group of companies, which accounts for over a quarter of its $8.4bn revenues (in 2005), is up for sale. Bidding starts in January, and the company will clearly want a quick exit. The marketplace is currently in turmoil, with Thomson Gale's arch-rival ProQuest having sold its Information & Learning operation earlier this month to Cambridge Information Group, which also owns Cambridge Scientific Abstracts and RR Bowker. So what will happen with all the cash released by the sale of these operations? What direction will Thomson turn in, given that it's had such an adventurous past (dabbling in oil and gas, travel and newspapers along the way). Will it break out in unexpected directions, or stick to the information industry? Maybe it would be interested in an alliance with Germany's Springer Science+Business – that would give arch-rival Elsevier something to think about in its quest for global domination.

Countdown to 2007: 4

Another hot topic for discussion next year...

4: Is on-demand book printing a threat?

Librarians prepare for the future! Your users may soon be able to print a copy of a book at an ATM style machine in less than 10 minutes – and what will that do to your jobs? Will it have the same effect as the mass closure of bank branch networks in the 1980s as hole in the wall machines displaced humans? During 2007, OnDemandBooks plans to globally deploy the Espresso Book Machine, a $50,000 device that can produce 15-20 library quality paperbacks in less than an hour. The New York Public Library is said to be ready to receive its first machine in February 2007, and OnDemand is careful to point out that it will "fully respect licences and copyrights". Content will come from Google and the Open Content Alliance. But there's no need to panic just yet. Think of how you took the photocopier in your stride - and figure out ways to leash this beast.

Countdown to 2007: 5

As we count down to the new year, we get the ball rolling with some topics for discussion in 2007…

5: Too many UK professional organisations?

Belt tightening has been ongoing at Cilip and Aslib for some years now, with both organisations having had to cut back staffing or cut overheads. Cilip's subgroups had a pre-Christmas decapitation of allowances. On Aslib's website, no new press release has been posted since October 2005; the Aslib/Managing Information Forum has been closed down "due to the irresponsible postings of some users"; and after mass resignations from sub-group ASSIGN in 2005, it still lists incorrect contact details. The European chapter of the SLA, meanwhile, has appeared to thrive – mainly because it’s a relatively "virtual" network of likeminded professionals with little in the way of overheads to worry about. Can the UK's IP community really continue to support three major organisations in 2007? Or does the profession need a single strong voice in these challenging times?

A Christmas Present from FAST

Last weekend a new blog burst on the scene. No ordinary blog though. This one is truly useful for anyone who is interested in how organisational cultures are adjusting to the new realities brought about by social computing and other liberating technologies.

Astonishingly (for me anyway), the blog is being hosted by leading search company, FAST. But, rather than some corporate blowhard spouting off, the contributors are all thinkers and practitioners in the, erm, Enterprise 2.0 space. You can read these people all in one place. At the moment there are just 14 public blog posts and a few pre-launch posts, so very easy to get up to speed.

The latest one has Euan Semple expressing his reservations about Enterprise 2.0. To paraphrase horribly, he's concerned that "business as usual" is trying to hijack the new disruptive technologies. Other posts are summaries of good stuff the authors have been discussing on their own blogs. It's a great distillation and talks about fears and problems as well as opportunities and case studies.

The blog also has sidebar links to what's hot in the Enterprise 2.0 space and to a number of useful blogs. It really is a good one-stop-shop. Once the initial burst of enthusiasm is over, I hope that the quality and interest of the posts are sustained.

The blog is called FASTforward and it is a prelude to a conference of the same name in San Diego in February. Sadly, it clashes with something else in my diary and I won't be able to go. But, if the blog lives up to its promise and if the conference organiser allows a healthy audience participation, the sessions could get pretty lively.

Happy reading over the Christmas break. If I'm in a fit state, I'll be back next Thursday or Saturday.

Social networking tops 2006 search rankings

Google's newly released Year End Zeitgeist for 2006 shows that social networking is top of the search lists.

After monitoring the most searched for terms on Google.com for the whole year, the search giant has revealed that social networking has dominated web searches.

'Bebo' took the crown as the most searched for term throughout the year, followed by 'MySpace'.

Fifth and sixth spots were 'radioblog' and 'wikipedia', which also got a mention in tenth as 'wiki'. Eighth and ninth positions went to 'rebelde' and 'mininova'.

Current events were outlined by the leading search query 'who is Borat' and 'what is Hezbollah', while the Duke University Lacrosse rape scandal topped the scandal searches.

Cilip cuts capitation by 50%

Cilip will pay its local branches and special interest groups 50% less capitation in 2007 as part of a new business plan voted in by its Council.

Cilip members are assigned a branch according to their locality and can join two special interest groups for free as part of their membership, but are free to join as many groups as they wish. Each branch and special interest group receives a capitation sum of money from Cilip based on the number of members it has, these groups also receive a lump sum from Cilip.

For 2007 the capitation amount per-member will reduce by 50% following a vote by the Cilip Council. "Every member of the Council voted to do this," said Bob McKee, Cilip chief executive.

Some groups may be concerned, Karen Blakeman, Cilip UKeiG Councillor said UKeiG is not concerned. It doesn't worry us, but there may be groups that will be in financial trouble," she said. Blakeman said one option open to Council was to reduce capitation by 80%, which she believes would have put a number of groups into difficulty.

"The capitation is a derisory amount, it doesn't even cover admin costs," Blakeman said.

Cilip Council voted in the new figure as part of its decision to adopt a new working model, devised by the New Business Model Working Group. "This will stop the nonsense that Cilip is in financial difficulties," McKee told IWR. Adding, "The 50% saved will be used to balance the budget as part of the new business model, which comes into force immediately."

Overall Blakeman agrees, "The branches and groups will have to have business model, react to market forces, be economically viable and do what the members want them to do."

Analytics firm Datops acquired by LexisNexis

LexisNexis has acquired Datops, which provides analytical services for financial services and public organisations. 

LexisNexis believe the purchase of Datops technology will allow it to offer clients to search news services like Financial Times, Le Monde, The Guardian, The New York Times and The Economist faster and to identify market trends, financial risks and the effectiveness of research and development initiatives. The text analytics software of Datops will be combined with LexisNexis current product offerings.

The technology Datops uses can scan and analyse unstructured information from multiple formats such as audio and video as well as multiple languages. The data itself can be assessed by the Datops software for tone, origin and source credibility, presented through a customisable dashboard interface.

“The addition of Datops to LexisNexis analytics enables information-driven organisations to derive actionable intelligence,” said Rob Veneboer, Managing Director of LexisNexis Europe for Corporate and Public Markets.

ProQuest I&L acquired for $222m

Academic database provider ProQuest Information and Learning has been acquired by Cambridge Information Group (CIG), which will merge the beleaguered ProQuest with Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA).

ProQuest and CIG have signed a definitive agreement for the deal, said to be worth $222 million which will see CIG take control. The two companies will be combined into a new privately held company, a statement said.

ProQuest has had a poor end to 2006 after an SEC investigation and having to restate its financials for the fiscal years 1999 to 2004.  A separate statement will come from ProQuest soon clarifying its restatements.

Martin Kahn will serve as CEO, relocating to Ann Arbor, home of ProQuest, while David "Skip" Prichard, current president of ProQuest will lead the company until the deal is closed.

IBM OmniFind Yahoo! Edition: is it any good?

IBM's OmniFind Yahoo Edition, mentioned in IWR a couple of days ago, has to be worth a try although don't expect instant results. There's the small matter of indexing to take care of first. I decided to let its crawlers loose on the IWR blog and website and my own hard drive.

It took a few hours to index around 35,000 documents and build an index of almost 2.5 gigabytes. It works on specific file types, which means that some proprietary format files don't get indexed. And there's a size limit on the files it will index. I don't know what it is, but the first file it baulked at was about 1 gigabyte. [Update: maximum file size is 51.2MB.]

Web crawling is continuous after a delay following the initial session but the hard drive crawling has to be sanctioned by the search administrator.

The search splash screen comes up with all the usual IBM/Yahoo branding, copyright and search destination stuff. You can replace all the elements with your own. I elected for spartan simplicity:

And here's a glimpse of the start of the results:

Set up is dead easy, although it baulked at indexing my machine from the C:\ drive. I settled for making my username folder the root of the search.

Searching is snappy. At the moment (after only half a dozen searches), the average response time is 881 milliseconds. But then you'd expect this if the index is inside your own machine.

If you want to fine-tune the search experience you can import (or key in) synonyms. You can also add featured links which appear at the top of the search results in response to certain keywords being entered. For example you could associate a support URL with the words 'help', 'problem', 'helpdesk', 'faq' and 'support'.

And there's an API for the technically-minded which delivers results as Atom feeds or HTML snippets to embed into your web pages as you wish.

Best of all, it's free. As long as you don't exceed half a million documents and you stick to the local drives in your own system [Update: and network drives mapped/mounted on the search server.]

Warning (added 16/12): You have probably realised that this version does not take account of user access policies. It's for the administrator to ensure that restricted material is not indexed, or to restrict access to the search and its cache.

Journal editors get guidelines

Blackwell Publishing, a major publisher of medical, academic and professional society journals with more than 800 titles, has launched guidelines covering the ethical principals of the sector.

The guidelines, Best Practice Guidelines on Publication Ethics: A Publisher’s Perspective, provide advice to editors on the major ethical principles of academic publishing.

Topics covered include transparency, disclosure, research integrity, peer review, conflicts of interest and plagiarism while a best practice resource is included to help editors develop their own approaches to issues.

Dr Andrew Robinson, director of medical publishing at Blackwell’s, said: "Today’s editors confront a vast range of ethical dilemmas, and as a leading publisher for societies…we have a duty of care to provide them with the tools to deal with these issues. We hope the guide will be a useful tool for editors looking to develop or refine their ethical frameworks."

Reading lists with OPML

Do you, or your colleagues, need to share up-to-date reading lists with others? And are those lists a mix of online and offline resources? If you do, then you might want to investigate the Outline Processor Markup Language (OPML) as your means of sharing.

Mark Chillingworth blogged a bit about it from the Online Information conference session, "Strategies for using rss to deliver content". Here are some more details.

As the name suggests, OPML content can be arranged as an outline. Each entry can be text, an HTML link, an RSS feed or another OPML file. This last function has real power - include links to the reading lists of all the people you respect. Aggregators, such as NewsGator, give the option of publishing RSS subscription lists as an OPML file. Then you can see, in real time, what a person's interests are.

Of course, you'll never have time to do your job if you spend your life browsing this stuff, but it's great to have it on tap.

Because it's XML, an OPML file can be read and edited. It's best to build it with other programs though - several offer OPML output. And there's always the free OPML Editor which works on both Macs and PCs. This can also be used to read the resulting files, but my favourite is Grazr, which is also free.

Here's a snap of a Grazr three-pane view. On the left you can see an HTML link, folders revealing the outline structure, text only entries, some RSS feeds and an OPML include (the blue icon). On the right, one of Andrew McAfee's RSS feed items is selected and its content displayed.

If you want more, search for tebbutt opml screencast in Google.

Strategies for using rss to deliver content, track 1, Online Information Conference 2006

This is a re-posting of one of our stories from the Online Information Conference, we had to make some ammendments from the original text due to accidently confusing some of the facts.  We've also included Peter Griffiths slides.  Download 20061129_blogs_wikis_and_feeds_slides_only.ppt

IWR columnist David Tebbutt chairs this discussion at the Online Information Conference 2006 in London on using Really Simple Syndication (RSS) technology.  The session is packing out, no wonder, this technology is important to all three spectrums of the information community: users, information services departments and information publishers.

Peter Griffiths, Head, Information Services Unit, Home Office, UK joins the debate, he’s an author as well.

“Reputation is an issue for every business”, he starts, “Some companies like Sun openly encourage blogging but there can be problems, such as when disgruntled employees have a grudge or overenthusiastic people give away trade secrets.  In the public sector we could inadvertently breach security or Freedom of Information rules.”  Matthew Taylor, outgoing political advisor at No 10, spoke at a recent conference on e-Democracy about political blogs.  Political commentators and groups increasingly use blogs as a campaign tool.  “Blogs were influential in the recent US mid-term elections and will no doubt be important in next year’s French presidential elections” says Griffiths.  The most visited political blog is as popular as Private Eye magazine.  He publishes server statistics on his site to show the range of users who visit, like politicians and the media. “Bloggers are now a serious political force in the UK.
“Government uses traditional media monitoring services like cuttings agencies but these don’t pick up bloggers comments or news stories from the Internet that don’t reach the national press or tv news bulletins, so we built on our existing current awareness service to close the gap.”
Karen George, head of the Home Office Library, has come on to present how the monitoring is done.  In July 2005 they set up a service on a trial basis for six months.  By Christmas 2005 they were providing information to lawyers, IT and a range of policy makers and services.  There was a rise in 2005 when a number of issues like ID cards happened at the same time and the number of current awareness alerts rose from 408 in November 2005 to a total of 1462 in November 2006.
There are two librarians part of whose job is monitoring internet based information each day.  Feeds are coming in 24/7 from a wide range of sources – websites, blogs, newsgroups – these feeds are processed through an increasing number of filters which select relevant information matching the key terms in the filters but although these tools make the job easier they cannot replace the skills of information professionals.  The professionals make it possible for example to highlight different aspects of the same story for different users.  The fundamental info pro skills of knowing your audience really come to the fore.

In just over a year this has become an essential part of the library’s current awareness portfolio.  The Office’s public enquiry service can be made aware of what callers are likely to be asking about, so they can be better prepared, and the library staff themselves are also well informed which helps them deal better with enquiries.  All this helps the Office to have a better relationship with its stakeholders.
“We add value and context to what we find, and the librarians are developing new skills like political sensitivity – knowing when a story is likely to develop into something big.”
Peter is back on : “The sheer volume of information means that we need high speed access and the ability to read a variety of file formats – for example our stakeholders like West Midlands Police are using advanced features such as mp3 for their Plodcast podcast.”  He concludes, “it’s unlikely we will ever be able to go back to providing just a conventional current awareness service, and this is likely to be the same for any corporate organisation.”

Patent Office reform urged by Gowers report

The UK Patent Office should be reformed as the UK Intellectual Property Office and an independent Strategic Advisory Board on IP Policy should advise the government, according to the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property.

"In today's global economy, knowledge capital, more than physical capital will drive the success of the economy. Against this backdrop, IP rights, which protect the value of creative ideas, are more vital than ever," Gowers said as he delivered the report to the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown  and the Secretaries of state for Trade and Industry and Culture, Media and Sport.

Gowers, a former editor of the Financial Times, has identified three areas for reform, including increased strength for enforcing IP, extra support for British businesses using IP abroad and a balance to the law to encourage innovation. "The ideal IP system creates incentives for innovation, without unduly limiting access for consumers and follow-on innovators," he said.

Gowers suggests restructuring the patent office to provide better support for British businesses and to improve support, especially when dealaing with India and China.

UK IP laws should enable private copying for personal use and libraries will be allowed to copy material for preservation. 

Full analysis of the paper will be in the next issue of IWR, click here to receive a copy.

Microsoft book search engine goes Live

Live Search Books from software giants Microsoft has gone live as a Beta version. The search engine includes content from the British Library which has received significant funding from Microsoft to digitise 25 million pages of out-of-copyright material.

Live Search Books, a rival to Google Book Search which has courted so much controversy, will feature collections from the University of California and Toronto alongside the British Library (BL) archives. A set of new collections are likely to join the service in January 2007. 

Unlike Google Book Search, Live Search Books will only feature non-copyrighted material at launch. In-copyright material that publishers have chosen to add to the service will join next year.

Microsoft has made sure the publishing and information industry is clear about its good intentions towards copyright and cites its own experiences with copyright as a software producer constantly fighting against pirates.

Book search results will not be available on the Windows Live Search page initially, but will be integrated next year.

Chancellor Gordon Brown announces copyright reforms today

Gordon Brown is set to announce radical changes to the intellectual property and copyright laws in the UK this afternoon as he delivers his Pre-Budget Report.  The Treasury has confirmed to IWR that the report will be available at 1.15pm today.

Reports in today's newspapers expect Brown adopt the majority of the proposals set down by former Financial Times editor Andrew Gowers in his report. Brown commissioned Gowers exactly a year ago to review Britain's copyright and intellectual copyright laws.  It is known that the British Library and search giants Google were amongst those that sent submissions of evidence to Gowers.

According to the Times newspaper Brown will be tougher on copyright criminals, appeasing the music industry which has tried to dominate the copyright debate, but will also liberalise the law to promote new business models and make it easier for the information industry to archive and preserve material.

The Trading Standards agency will an extra £5m to police copyright infringements and the penalty for online copyright infringement is expected to be increased from a two year jail terms to 10 years.   Gowers is believed to argue in his report that effective enforcement of copyright law is crucial.

The Chancellor may also announce that the law will be modified to include "transformative works", allowing copyright protected work to be used in new ways as long as it does not detract from the original material.

Snippets from Online Information 2006

Here's an utterly warped and biased take on the Online Information Conference. Biased because I only attended seven out of the thirty one sessions. Warped because I'm only plucking out a few bits that interested, amused or surprised me.

Let's start with Tom Stewart from Harvard Business Review. He was talking about knowledge and where it resides. He gave the example of a company that installed a comprehensive customer solution programme and then ran a test to see who knew most about its products and services. Carlos scored highest, which was puzzling because he refused to use the system. He relied on his own knowledge. The second most highly placed operative was also surprising, until the company realised that she sat next to Carlos.

Nic Newman from the BBC's Search Futures showed a great example of pictures sized by the number of people currently connected to them. (Incidentally, during his 11:30 slot, he referred to Michael Grade as the "ex-chairman of the BBC" and the man had only resigned that morning.)

Stuart Kauder, of Accoona, made the interesting observation that, "good content works against the advertisers' interests - people read that instead of the ads". Oh dear.

Geoffrey Bilder, of Scholarly Information Strategies, was commenting on Web 2.0 hype. He showed a graph - red is perceived risks, blue is perceived benefits. The letters A, B and C refer to Venture capitalists/Management, Helpdesk/IT people and Gurus/Alpha geeks, respectively. When industry hype is peaking, the As only talk to the Cs, missing out the people who really understand the issues. Benefits get exaggerated and risks get minimised.

PodTech's, Robert Scoble thought that, because word of mouth is so rapid in the blogosphere, bloggers are becoming as powerful as the BBC.

At the end of the 'Future of Social Software and Web 2.0' session, audience member Steve Gibson of Cranfield University asked, "How does what you do relate to organisational objectives?" Good question and only one of the speakers (Ewan McIntosh from Learning and Teaching, Scotland) even referred to value. Mainly, the focus was on direct communication with customers and disintermediation of anyone who gets in the way (bosses, PR, marketing, journalists...).

John Sergeant

Former BBC journalist John Sergeant was the host of last night's International Information Industry Awards and the IWR editorial team was privileged to spend some time with him.

It would be easy to imagine that a reporter that was in the Vietnam war, has interviewed world leaders like Maggie Thatcher and broken major stories day in, day out would look on the recent past of the news and information sector with rose tinted glasses, not a jot. Sergeant spoke passionately to IWR about the possibilities for information gathering, the exciting possibilities for presenting news online and in broadcast and the incredible skills that information workers today acquire.

Throughout our conversation Sergeant expressed a passionate loyalty to the BBC and a sense of anticipation about the new ways of delivering news and information that are being developed at the Beeb. Information users of all types will be re-assured that Sergeant, a keen user of premium information services, believes paper and broadcast services have a long future ahead in unison with online.

Many who attended the awards told IWR he was the best host yet and it was certainly an entertaining night listening to his tales of life in the front line of national broadcasting.

International Information Industry Awards 2006

Last night the great and the good, the big and the small, the international and the local of the information industry gathered together at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, London for the International Information Industry Awards.
Hosted by venerable former BBC journalist John Sergeant the awards were a rollercoaster ride of emotions and all sides of the industry either went home pleased and punch, surprised or determined to come back and sweep up all the awards.
Sergeant was the star of the show with witty stories of the BBC and his life in broadcasting and light entertainment. He revealed a passion for information that a journalist of his stature has developed and that he has account with a certain LexisNexis. No doubt the other vendors present at the awards will all be offering him favourable rates to switch accounts.
Amongst the winners were Rachael Kolsky, IWR info pro of the year, SiteKit, Eugene Garfield picked up a life time achievement award and promised to carry on for many more years to come. MPS Technologies and Trexy also picked up a gong. Full details will appear in the January issue of IWR.

David Tebbutt on OPML

"Its a complete mine field, its not the best document area. OPML comes from all sorts of sources, mind mappers, organisers, these squirt out OPML.
"OPML is a plain text file of, Outline Processor Markup Language, you can see its an outline, its based on RSS. You can output links to HTML pages, text, RSS, there is also a feature called Incluide that allows you to include other OPML files.
"What can you do with OPML, you can share outlines, bookmarks, subscription lists and reading lists. I'd hate to share my bookmarks with anyone, there are yards and yards of them! You can use it as a super aggreagtor so everything I want to see is in one lujmp. Becasue it is RSS you can receive continual updates and it is a one stop shop for your world of information.
Our man then goes into the main OPML tools that he uses.
"Grazer is my favourite way of looking at information. I have a file, who I watch and there are a list of blogs form lots ofr clever people. Megite is another way sharing feeds and it tells me other feeds that may be of interest to me."

Some stand-out highlights from OI 2006 at Olympia

If you're making your way to the Main Hall at Olympia for the Online Information Show this week, here's a few of the big new launches that caught my eye while hiking around the miles of aisles.

• IET/Inspec (Stand 346): The Institution of Engineering & Technology has launched an online archive of Digitised Journal Backfiles, with back issues of some journals dating back to 1872. The Electronics Letters backfrile from 1965-1993 is available now, with the remaining content set for early 2007. IET is also launching two new journals in 2007 that express the zeitgeist: Synthetic Biology and Renewable Power Generation.


• Proquest (Stand 316): To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Literature Online, its academic full-text and reference resource for English language literature, Proquest has hooked up with Oxford University Press to include search results from reference titles in its ORO (Oxford Reference Online) collections. It has also signed a deal with JISC to make House of Commons Parliamentary Papers available to FE and HE institutions.


• Blackwell Publishing (Stand 406): Despite its imminent merger with John Wiley, Blackwell was showing the fruits of its latest development efforts – the launch of Blackwell Reference Online, an online book service covering scholarship across six major disciplines: Business & Economics, History, Language & Linguistics, Literature & Cultural Studies, Philosophy & Religion, and Sociology & Psychology. A link to the website here is not yet operational.


• Chemical Abstract Services (Stand 512): CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society, has announced enhancements to its chemical substance nomenclature, available to users from mid-December. Previously, CAS made changes to nomenclature at the end of 5-year collective index periods, but now makes changes "as appropriate to ensure the CAS Registry has the most current, usable information".


• Taylor & Francis (Stand 430): T&F used the show to lift the veils on its new online collection management system, informaworld, which will give access to over 1,100 journals, 10,000 ebooks and 5,000 encyclopedia articles when it comes onstream. Informaworld will allow online access to a library's subscriptions using IP, proxy server and Athens authentication policies, and will include COUNTER-compliant usage stats.


• Wolters Kluwer (Stand 518): WK Health has announced PubFusion 2.0, the latest iteration of its online content management system specifically engineered for commercial publishers, self-publishing societies, research institutions and pharmaceutical companies in the healthcare sector. Enhanced features include version control, collaboration tools, global management and real-time audits.

Blog tracking expters on the IWR stand at Online Information

Information professionals and users looking to sharpen up their usage and tracking of blogs should make thier way to the IWR stand at Online Information today and tomorrow.
Expters from Thomson Scientific and Factiva will be on the stand to offer their expert advice on why information users should track blogs and how best to do it.
The IWR stand (Stand number 200) also features the last two issues, so please pop along and get the latest information.

Online Information 2006 – first view from Olympia

The first thing that strikes you about this year's Online Information Show at Olympia is just how big the brand new IMS Show is. Taking up over a quarter of the floor space in the main hall, this "sister" show has put down a solid marker and looks destined to grow rapidly in future years.

The biggest stands have been taken by some well-known names in content management, EDRMS and enterprise search. These include EMC, Immediacy, Vyre, Contensis, Goss, EIBS and Magpie. Click on the image at left to see a fullsize photo of the hall.

The OI Show's big hitters were all here again – Springer, Elsevier, Wolters Kluwer, Thomson and Proquest making among the strongest impressions. But there was little in the way of excitement on the stands – have the marketing departments in these firms really got no new ideas?

Both Blackwell Publishing and John Wiley were here, but on separate stands – maybe next year the fact that their impending merger will create a much more significant force in the market will be more visually evident.

The show – the biggest for information professionals outside the US - continues through Wednesday and Thursday this week.

Futurology panel sparks lively conference debate

The Online Information 2006 conference, which got off to a very business-oriented start this morning with a keynote speech by Thomas A Stewart, editor of The Harvard Business Review, got into its stride this afternoon with a lively audience-pleasing panel discussion on "Futurology: The Information Agenda in 2010".

Moderated by outgoing conference chairman Martin White, the panel was today's highlight of the Managing Enterprise Information track at the conference. And one of the first points to be made was that the 2010 timeframe in the session's title was a bit misleading.

"That's just a few years away, and that's just short-term planning for most people," said panellist Matt Locke, head of innovation at BBC New Media. "Some companies are looking much further afield, at 2050 and beyond, and looking for signals as to behaviours and trends that could affect organisations by then."

"It's a bit like predicting weather systems, and company 'game changers' are the people who are trying to build umbrellas to protect organisations from the possible storms ahead."

Locke said some events that will affect information professionals were predictable, though the majority are difficult to see in advance. "The year 2012 will be a huge challenge for media firms, as it will be the first truly digital Olympics. Analogue will be switched off, mobiles will have vastly different capabilities and broadband, with much more bandwidth, will reach around 80% of the population. We have been creating business narratives within the BBC to help us respond to that challenge."

Some trends are heading in uncomfortable directions. Clive Holtham, professor of information management at Cass Business School, pointed out that as information becomes more immediate and easily available, users are increasingly getting only part of the picture, and not the "complete perspective" that longer timeframes give.

Globalisation was another key theme. Adrian Dale, editor of the Journal of Information Science at Wiley, said the volume of papers submitted was increasing by 50% per annum, and 75% of the growth was coming from the Far East. "It's a dramatic shift and doesn't bode well for UK or Europe".

Locke said wider cultural changes trends should be watched. "Search is now a mode of behaviour for many and a part of our culture, where once it was the preserve of  information professionals." The BBC had picked up on this trend – 2 of its most successful shows recently were Who Do You Think You Are? and Balderdash and Piffle – both of which asked ordinary people to take part in search-based activities.

Dale said there has been a fundamental shift in "mental models of information". "Previously, people saw it as page-based, but now younger generations are imagining information in their minds in multi-dimensional inter-relational web-based models". That will have effects on how information is accessed and used.

This theme was taken up by audience members who said visualisation of information is likely to be a big area of development, as people learn to get more from information through such things as "ambient" technologies (which allow information to be absorbed and processed in less conscious ways, in much the same way as car drivers process many different sensory data inputs). "We are very much limited by eyes and mice for processing information through computers," noted Locke.

Holtham said he was concerned about the growing lack of awareness of library skills and the importance of archives among students; but Locke felt students were developing new skillsets in accessing information – the importance is developing their critical facilities, and ability to judge and assess information, and check validity by, for example, multi-sourcing.

The quality of this session bodes well for the conference this year – and there's two more days to go, with equally inviting sessions in all three tracks.

Web 2.0 Geoffrey Bilder

Geoffrey is a consultant at Scholarly Information Strategies and former techy at Ingenta. He aims to convince us of some deep trends in Web 2.0 and how to utilise them.
Bilder describes the deployment of tech as having to pass through processes that includes a hype, failure and then re-emergence phase. The trouble with this, he says, is that we focus on one instance of a technology during the hype time. Pointcast, a screensaver news aggregator is the example he uses. "There are some instances of web 2.0 tech out there, some of which are hair brained, others are very good and examples of deep trends."
Describes Web 2.0 affect as "the edge is the new centre", content is being generated around the edges, ie blogs, whcih he describes as the poster child of web 2.0. Reminds the audience that in the first browser allowed you to edit as well as view sites.
Blogging lends itself well to publishing news and for aggregating information, "it is a good infromation architecture".
Wikis, allow users to edit the content, he says as he moves the discussion on. "Wikis should not be confused with Wikipedia, it is an interesting application of wiki technology. Multiple people working on the same document, a very useful technology."
He is demonstrating some wonderful examples of scientists and research groups using wiki technology, and blogs, to communicate.
Contrasts using social bookmarking sites with emailing links, for examplke CiteULike for academia. You can form research groups within these sites
RSS, allows you to see a synthesized version of all the latest content in one place. "These technologies allow you to subscribe to people's brains, that is a useful function. It is a tremondously powerful way for people to share, for the information industry it means you are providing a continuing commentary on topics. It is a new way of asserting yourself into the researcher's lives."
During the questions sessions, Bilder backs up points made by Larry Sanger about experts, talking of people conflating the term expert as academic and authorative as being being authoritarian. Bilder infers the same tone as Sanger, there are many different types of expert and authority.

IWR Blog at Online Information 2006

The IWR team is at the Online Information Conference and show in London this week. No other show and conference has so much in common with Information World Review.
For those of you who can't get into London for the two events we will be blogging from as many of the conference sessions as possible. You will notice that we've already posted three reports on the opening keynote speech by Thomas A Stewart of the Harvard Business Review and Nic Newman of the BBC discussing Web 2.0.
We can't promise to cover every aspect, and we do have a number of interviews and meetings to do for the next issue of Information World Review, but we will put as much information as we can up and we hope its usefuk. Please use the comment functions to let us know.

Web 2.0 Stuart Kauder, CEO, Accoona, France

New business models in a Web 2.0 world is the title of Kauder's presentation. He opens by discussing the growth rates of online advertising, with relevancy the key and the different advertising models that exist online.
Advertising is business model number one, membership is the second bsuiness model. He's using old dot.com era stories, Salon.com which charged readers from the outset and bombed, but has since re-emerged as a major technology information site. He is describing the model US sports channel uses where magazine subscribers get access to a online channel called the Insider. Revenue is generated by the subscription and ad sales within the magazine.

Web 2.0 Nic Newman of the BBC

Search and Web 2.0 Nic Newman, Project Lead BBC Search opens the debate. Web 2.0 is useful for the BBC for where we need to get to with our services, he says to open his speech, talking of the cross media future of the broadcaster.
BBC calls search find and is becoming more and more important in the digital age. Newman connects find to play and share, which is the BBC strategy for Web 2.0.
"our whole business is being changed by the deluge of digital content. It used to be that people could always find BBC content, it was number one or two on the dial, but now with so many channel, and the ways people find content has come under strain," he says.
The on-demand wave of media is really going to make search struggle. "Huge amounts of user generated content is being hosted on the BBC website, where do we list that material. The next big thing is to open up the archives, 70-80 years worth of content, how on earth are we going to list all that, search is a key part of that future."
The deluge of digital media content is driving the need for more effective tagging and searching, hs slide states. Technology will be needed to automate indexing adn unlock value of media archives, human's just can't keep up.
"We need to come up with better ways for tagging content, and using some of the users of our content to help with that process. On toip of that we can build fantastic new interfaces to help people find content they are looking for, but also serendipity for discovering other material.
"We are the bigest content site in the UK, 50% of UK online users come to a BBC site every week. There will be many different routes in to content, tv, radio programmes will need to have appropriate luggage tags to help people find it.
"A sopecific example of this is out podcast, only 20% of people using the Today programme podcast find it through the BBC interface, 80% come from another interface, mainly Apple iTunes."
"Once you have great content, all episodes, all assets, transcripts, images must be tied together with tagging to bring it all together. In the play part, the appropriate device and how do we allow people to share, so they can post on blogs and create links. The central image is that we have to think of a programme like The Power of Nightmare, in the new world that programme has the potential to be enjoyed for decades to come."
Demonstrates an example of NHS Direct being integrated into a folksonomic search on the BBC site. His examples use a lot of community ideas, young mothers creating areas of baby related shows and content that would be useful to other mothers.
"The push side of recommending side of this is very important to the BBC and there is a huge overlap with search navigation, we expect our search interfaces to push content in the future. In the future there will be overlays to add personal preferred sites on top of BBC content you are looking at. We can expose other experiences. We want to combine our own editorial skills with the wisdom of the crowds. We also want to take into account what people are doing. We can make sure the right types of sites are reaching them."
Newman is also looking to use ratings by users for film ratings for example.
Currently piloting an anotatable audio project, this will enable users to tag elements of an interview on the Today programme for example. That information will then put back into the search results.
"We are going to have spend a lot more time thinking about how we tag our content and join up process right back in the production process.
"Search will become crucial in the fabric of our interfaces. We want to re-use all the user generated information we generate to enable people to have richer and more relevant experiences going forward."

Knowledge management

Stewart has now moved onto knowledge management (km). He's using a case study from a copier machine company that had a knowledge competition to answer questions.
The second placed person is the most interesting, a single mum that sat next to the winner, a rebel. An example of tacit knowledge, the most difficult problem for KM is how you manage tacit knowledge, he says. The work of km has gine into explicit knowledge and not people with tacit knowledge. This has created databases and information centres that no one goes to.
Managing explicit knowledge leaves you unprepared for a world of change, as you are looking at the information of the past.
Challenge for the next five years is the latest slide, the challenges are:
1 speed - "the world never slows down, your email fills, and markets are now 24/7. As things speed up you are more likely to make a mistake". The business challenges of speed is really interesting, he says and is inferring this is a role for information professionals
2 Customer power - "every insustry I know is being taken over by its customers, how do you manage that?" "Customers know more and mopre, the price game of poker has gone away. French cement company LeFarge has a great KM enviroment using councils, but the backbone is the customer visit that involves interviews, sales people are amazed that price is never mentioned."
3 Low cost competition - the threat of low price start ups or just good enough challengers
4 decision making under uncertainty and management without supervision: management has been about controlling risk, but there are risks that you cannot control, you cannot put odds on it, he says. "Most of what we know about management doesn't help us, increasingly this is the world we live in." Tech means we are more powerful individuals at work.
He has gone back to what creates the knowledge and then you can use to support your organisation, his opening theme.

Thomas A Stewart

The second pillar of the knowledge econmomy, knowledge assets. How do you go to market, an asset is something that transforms inputs, water goes into a hydro electricity plant, electricity comes out. Knowledge assets include lawyers taking facts of a case and "distorts them" to win the case.
You have to think of what are we selling as an info pro. "I recomment you talk to people about why do they buy from you, there are rivals and then look for attributes, such as whether you are fast, innovative and reliable."
Ask the whole organisation he says, especially sales people, and try to get some understanding for what the attributes are aqnd then you can ask what makes you innovative.
You can then get to the intellectual capital model and then you can respond.
There are three basic forms of intellectual capital:
1 human capital
2 structural capital
3 customer capital
Customer capital is where they know everything about you, all of these can be applied to an organisation, every company has all three of these.
A few people have left, he doesn't have them as riverted as last year's keynote on the Cluetrain Manifesto by David Weinberger.

Online Information Keynote

We have to follow the money in the knowledge economy, opens the Editor of the Havard Business Review Thomas A Stewart. Knowledge is as fundimental as electricity.
He talks of knowledge as something we buy and sell, it is all sounding very American and capitalist, but the auditorium is full and listening attentivly.
His slide breaks information down into three strategies:
1 instilled knowledge (smart products)
2 distilled knowledge (knowledge as a product)
3 Black box strategies (knowledge services)
Discusses how different sectors have become knowledge/information suppliers through re-sellling the information they create in their main business, "selling what they know" for examp[le shipping insurers, bankers and office suppliers who have all become information vendors.
Mastercard used anti-fraud department providing information from knowledge collected as "you know this [in one department], why don't we".
Instilled knowledge, is information you "stick into something", ie a mobile phone collects data on numbers, times of calls, mobiles are knowledge products, companies can stick more and more knowledge into the devices they sell.
Every company needs to have an explicit conversation about its information.

Campaigners continue to target Government

Today's Guardian newspaper reports that veteren Freedom of Information Act campaigner Maurice Frankel has writter to MPs calling on them not to dilute the the Freedom of Information Act.

Frankel is director of the Campaign for Freedom of Information, he told the newspaper, "We are particularly alarmed at the speed with which the proposals appear to be moving towards implementation... there is no reason why the issue should be dealt with in such haste."

As reported in the November issue of IWR, ministers are seeking to rush the proposals which will drastically dilute the law and allow the Labour government to cover up its blunders. Lord Falconer said last month he was "minded to accept the proposals" and is now seeking early parliamentary approval. Frankel points out that Baroness Ashton, a minister at the Department of Constitutional Affairs promised full public consultation before any reforms to the act before changes were made. "This is an important commitment which would normally be regarded as binding. We urge you to ensure that it is honoured," Frankel said in his letter to MPs.

It is proposed that the time it takes to read, consider and consult on requests would be added to the cost, so more requests are likely to be refused for exceeding their limit.

The other change would be to treat all requests made by an organisation or individual over a three-month period as one request and count the combined cost against the limits. This would mean that an organisation such as the BBC could make only one request every three months.

The changes were recommended in a report for the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) by Frontier Economics, a consultancy where former cabinet secretary Lord Turnbull is a non-executive director.

Are you going to Online Information?

Are you going to Online Information next week? As a one-stop-shop to catch up on all the important developments in the information industry, the conference is pretty unbeatable. Every year brings fresh insights and clues to where our jobs and our industry are heading.

Rather than just taking sessions at face value, serendipitous encounters with strangers are often a great opportunity to exchange views on what you just heard. So much better than just going along with a colleague and following the same old thought patterns. You can do that back at the office.

With three streams running much of the time, it's difficult to know which to attend. Do you go for career development or social software? The conference organisers have done a great job of trying to avoid conflict but, sometimes, the choices are tough. Maybe it's an idea to look in the proceedings and see which session has the best documentation, then go for the other one.

It's worth spending time on the conference guide and mapping your best route through the sessions. Sometimes you'll find that a speaker in a session is also involved in a round table or a Q&A, which is one way of partially overcoming the overlapping sessions problem. It does create a new problem though. It diminishes still further the time you have for the main exhibition.

If you go, do have a good time. And, if you're following Web 2.0, search/discovery, social software or career development, keep your eyes peeled. You may want to meet/avoid me.

Collaboration creates new German chemistry portal

Through the collaborative efforts of three Germanic based organisations a new chemistry information and knowledge platform www.chem.de has been launched, writes Daniel Griffin.

The partnership consists of the German chemical society - Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh), Europe’s largest chemical society with 27,000 members; the German National Library of Science and Technology (TIB) Hannover and Fiz Chemie, a non profit making entity that provides chemistry information services in the fields of science, education and technology. The initiative received funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

The jointly operated resource will siphon information from each of the partners own digital content repositories and is intended to be used by those operating in the German and European professional education, training, research and conference fields. Users will be able to view both German and English language versions and there is free basic access for non subscribers.

The data will range from chemistry-based information on research projects, e-learning courses to conference data and meeting activities in chemistry. Other features will include a discussion forum for the community with search and information updates also present.

The service will be running at next weeks Online Information 2006 exhibition at Kensington Olympia.

JISC invests in capital

The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) has announced the successful bids for their capital programme funding initiative. The pot of £5.5 million has now been allocated to 27 projects for e-learning, e-infrastructure and repositories and preservation programmes. JISC is a committee organisation for the UK Higher (HE) and Further Education (FE) funding bodies that delivers Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

JISC’s head of development, Sarah Porter said, “These projects, the first to be funded through the capital programme will enhance our core activities as well as further supporting the education and research community’s engagement with ICT.”

The repositories and preservation programme received funding for 11 projects and will be managed by the Securing a Hybrid Environment for Research Preservation and Access (SHERPA) partnership at the University of Nottingham. The project will support and advise all HE and FE institutions in England and Wales for developing and implementing digital repositories.

Other initiatives aim to enhance the national e-infrastructure of access management and build upon the foundations laid out by previously funded JISC programmes. Focus will be on security and identity management. This initiative will be led by Cardiff and Leeds Universities respectively and partnered by the London School of Economics (LSE).

In the e-learning field 13 projects will receive investment for linking with the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s (HEFCE) Lifelong Learning Network, with particular attention spent on the exploration of technological potential in enhancing learning and teaching by linking FE and HE institutions together.

December date likely for Gowers report

Experts on the Intellectual Property (IP) law debate gathered today at the British Library to consider the implications and position the Gowers Review will take, writes Daniel Griffin.

However the first question on everyone’s lips was just when is the report by the former Financial Times editor going to be published? As the initial consultation period has been fairly open, the Government have been keeping their cards close to their chest on an announcement.

General consensus amongst the specialists was it will be no later than December 13 and likely to be mentioned in Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown’s pre-budget report, especially if there are significant financial implications.

The experts attending the British Library round table discussion ranged from a patent lawyer, inventor Roland Hill and assorted press as well as those from the British Library. The national library maintained its consistent approach of “honest broker” between commercial gain and public needs. Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive of the library highlighted the differences in culture and approach between the “born digital” and “digital immigrant” generations to the wider Intellectual Property (IP) debate.

A lively discussion on the wider implications of IP highlighted that it’s hoped Gowers will address. The business community was criticised for its lack of imagination in realising the entrepreneurial potential in the digital arena. Similarly European governments and IP owners themselves didn’t fair better with several voices advocating the Chancellor could position himself as a potential champion of fair IP rights and lead the UK’s example with wider international trade issues at the centre.

All agreed that the current state is greatly in need of an overhaul, and review, let’s hope that Gower’s delivers and sets a precedent for how to truly deal with IP effectively that pleases all sides.   

Happy families following Blackwell sell off

The saga of the Blackwell family’s quarrel on how best to use their business assets seems to have ended with a degree of harmony, following the successful bid of £572m by John Wiley & Sons for Blackwell Publishing.

The long-running feud between controlling family members of Blackwell Publishing it would seem have at least now been calmed. Financial newspaper the FT reports that after initial moves by Taylor & Francis to buy the organisation in 2002 for £300m backed by Blackwell’s then group chairman, Toby Blackwell, were originally scuppered by other major shareholders in the family, including Nigel Blackwell, the group’s current chairman.

Difficulties also arose when a deal to sell the Blackwell book shop chain, a separate company, to Blackwell Publishing, saw several family members in key share ownership positions incite another rebellion to keep control of the chain in 2004. Toby Blackwell’s now stands to make £95m to Nigel Blackwell’s £100m. Electronic Publishing Services (EPS) pointing out that the current deal has vindicated his original position in its latest report.

After the official announcement of the acquisition, market commentators are looking with interest into the implications for both companies with EPS, stating “Blackwell will provide Wiley with higher exposure in the higher education market with its textbooks and course materials; add some weight in professional publishing and make Wiley a much bigger stake holder in STM and the journals market.”

The deal which is due for completion in early 2007 will ensure that Wiley becomes an even bigger player in scientific publishing circles, second only to Reed Elsevier. 

Wiley acquires Blackwell in major scientific information market consolidation

Scientific publisher John Wiley & Sons has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire rival Blackwell Publishing. The shock announcement will see the two publishing houses join forces in a deal said to be worth £572 million.

Wiley will acquire the outstanding shares in Blackwell Publishing, a separate company from the Blackwell book shop chain, although Blackwell family members serve on both company boards.

Wiley said in a statement that it has received "irrevocable commitments from principal shareholders to sell their shares to Wiley". The deal is expected to close by the beginning of 2007. 

Blackwell revenues were approximately £210 million in 2005, on a par with Wiley's scientific, technical and medical business. William J Pesce, president and chief exec of Wiley described the deal as: "a rare opportunity with highly favourable, long term strategic implications".  Nigel Blackwell, chairman of Blackwell Publishing said: "Wiley and Blackwell are two great firms sharing the same cultural value." 

The combined publishing business will produce around 1,250 peer reviewed journals, as well as books and a strong online presence.

In May of this year Blackwell CEO Rene Olivieri denied rumours of a sell off to IWR following reports of discussions with major banks.

Are we really smarter than me?

Are you a member of the elite? You're about to find out. Starting this week Pearson Education (whose own website is strangely silent on the subject) is sending messages to more than a million business professionals and scholars "inviting them to collectively write
and edit a book, tentatively titled We Are Smarter Than Me."

The initiative started in October when the blogosphere was cranked up to talk about it. The idea is that all these contributors would bang their ideas into a wiki and this would be turned into a book on "how Web 2.0 technologies such as social networks,
wikis and blogs can benefit the business enterprise."

It's to be published in the Autumn of 2007. Hohoho. Be easier to nip over to O'Reilly and download its Web 2.0 report then spend the next year making things happen at your workplace.

This looks like a horrible clash of the old and the new. Old publishing with its long lead-times and new media which just gets on with it. But, hey, it's all being done in a wiki, so that makes it okay.

The premise of the book, according to the publisher, comes from James Surowiecki's 2005 book, The Wisdom of Crowds. In it, claims Pearson, he "explored the idea that large groups of people working together can be “smarter” than an elite few".

Hmmm. I'm not sure that's what he claimed. I thought it was that the crowd could be smarter than the elite few. The phrase "working together" rather spoils things. The whole point of a crowd's smartness is that it is the aggregate of the differing views that delivers a result. Consensus - implied by "working together" - will deliver mush. The penny dropped for Kathy Sierra when she listened to Surowiecki's own explanation.

Williams Lea snaps up TSO

Williams Lea is set to dominate the UK public sector publishing market after acquiring The Stationery Office (TSO) in a deal worth around £120m.

TSO is the UK’s largest publisher by volume and is currently owned by venture capital group Apax Partners. It is the leading public sector document and publishing services brand, and has trade titles such as the Highway Code.

Williams Lea, founded in London in 1820 as a printing business, now supplies information management and business process services to investment banks, legal firms, telecoms and car manufacturers. It is majority owned by DHL parent Deutsche Post.

The deal, expected to be completed within two months subject to competition clearance, launches Williams Lea into the public sector outsourcing market, covering publishing and wider business processes.

Williams Lea chief marketing officer Melanie Fitzpatrick said TSO would remain as a separate organisation and retain its own branding and identity.

“The main reason we have bought it is to extend our proposition to the public sector. It’s very complementary and a good fit with Williams Lea.”

TSO will trade as the public sector division of Williams Lea, headed up by existing chief executive Richard Dell. “It’s business as usual,” Fitzpatrick said.

OI Show signals time to think business

The Online Information show is now less than a fortnight away, and while media attention is likely to be focused on the launch of the adjacent IMS show, don't forget there's still a big contingent of business information suppliers to be found among the throng of STM and academic publishers.

Perhaps the most well-known of all the company and business information suppliers on the floor of the show is LexisNexis. It will be showing a range of own-brands - MarketImpact, Know Your Customer, and Company Dossier among them – that will be of interest to anyone looking for business information on potential customers and new clients.

Companies House will also have a stand. It is the agency entrusted to examine and hold all documents under relevant Companies Act legislation – provisions of the 1985 Act are set to be expanded by the Companies Act 2006, which was passed a week ago today.

Hemscott will be showing an add-in module for Company Guru, its online database of UK companies. The Boardroom Guru module is a flip-sounding name that promises to "enable clients to dig even deeper into the board structure of UK companies". Hemscott's offering a 10% discount to any existing or new customers who sign-up after a demo of the module at the show. Also look out for the Bigdough Capital Markets database, which has contact details, investment strategies and shareholdings of over 40,000 fund managers.

RM Group, which specialises in UK business data, company formation documents and European trademark registration through its Armadillo range, will be busy on the floor showing its Irish Company Document Downloads service and an expanded version of its Anti-Money Laundering package.

RM's free search tool for Armadillo is also a finalist in the Best Business Information Product at the International Information Industry Awards on the Wednesday evening of the show.

Bureau van Dijk Electronic Publishing will be showing Spanish and Dutch extensions to Mint, its range of company information services aimed at sales and marketing professionals. Mint Portal will also be unveiled, giving users business news feeds and access to some free company data.

Just notice how that word "free" keeps creeping back into the equation for so many business information companies, many of whom have never lived down the trauma of Hoover's, which originally took a shot at an advertiser supported revenue model for free business information online, before being acquired by and absorbed into D&B's paid-for online operations.

Growth has been difficult in recent years in a highly competitive sector, with many of the big players going global to find new business. D&B announced earlier this year it was betting on a big expansion in China, while InfoUSA (parent company of OneSource) said it is expanding its presence in Mexico, India, the Asia-Pacific region, and Brazil.

By the way, BvD will be sponsoring the IWR Information Professional of the Year award at the III show, alongside UK and Irish business information supplier ICC, which is sponsoring the Best Team in a Business Environment award.

Open Access resources could mean journal subscriptions cancelled

A recent study conducted by consultants Scholarly Information Strategies which was commissioned by the Publishing Research Consortium (PRC) has examined library purchasing preferences. The study has exposed a flaw in previous claims that librarians would continue to subscribe to journals even if content became freely available from non-publisher based sources such as institutional archives. In fact, the results show a tendency that libraries may switch to open free resources and dump their traditional journal subscriptions, writes Daniel Griffin.

Of the 400 librarians who took part in the international study. Key factors in library decision making is based on the length of time an embargo period lasts on a research paper, and whether the information is peer-reviewed. According to the survey, these two key points are the major influences in library decision making and will be the reference points on whether a journal subscription is renewed or cancelled.

Chris Beckett, Director, Scholarly Information Strategies commented “Overall, librarians are very sensitive to quality, how quickly the content is made available, the version of the content and the content cost”.

A full analysis of this report will feature in the December issue of IWR out November 27, click here to register for your copy.

Why was Microsoft at the Web 2.0 Summit?

The Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco sounded like the last place Microsoft's Ray Ozzie would want to be this week. After all, the company made the big announcement that its next two cash cows, Vista and Office 2007, have been herded into manufacturing.

I was interested to read what Ray Ozzie had to say to the delegates because, sticking with farmyard analogies, it struck me he was like a visitor to a free range chicken farm trailing a fox on a leash.

Surrounded by pushers of the Web 2.0 vision of a future of cuddly, sharing, always-on, collaborative and cooperative software, built on open standards and with as much 'free' as possible, he must have a) felt out of it or b) known he was part of it but couldn't admit it. How could he? Microsoft will spend the next eighteen months or so on a sales/upgrade spree offering a "safe environment" for internet users. Not to mention something else for "half a billion users in the Office market."

He talked of moving to online, rather than DVD, software delivery. More a commercial statement than a Web 2.0 one. He pointed out that a good browser-based word processor shouldn't just be a clone of a desktop application. True. He talked of the collaborative aspects of web applications. True. He talked of the importance of web-connected mobile devices. Erm, true. There was more, but you get the flavour. Largely platitudinous, designed not to rock any boats nor give anything much away.

For all we know, Microsoft may have a Web 2.0 skunkworks all ready to unleash itself as soon as the company senses resistance to traditional application purchases.

I wonder if it will be called Microsoft 2.0?

BiBC revolutionises broadcast archive access

The British Internet Broadcasting Company (BiBC) has announced plans to launch an online digital distribution service for content owners such as libraries and universities, writes Daniel Griffin.

Currently it is still standard practice for libraries to circulate their content material in hard copy formats, including video tape or DVD. This process can be costly and time consuming for both the organisation and the users but until recently they have had little choice.

Demand for more audio and visual resources in addition to traditional forms of paper-based information is on the increase, as modern students and researchers look to use video archives as original source material. 

Paul Hague, Managing Director of BiBC told IWR “it astonishes me that in the digital age in which we live, content owners are still distributing broadcast material manually, spending a fortune on transport costs, when the process lends itself to digitisation.”

ReelMaster, based on BiBC’s MediaMaster technology is intended to be a managed service solution; the service provides the process of digitising content as well as the web-based delivery and payment method. For researchers the relevant information is immediately accessible and searchable through the website without depending on the postal service. Content can then be accessed through a variety of hardware ranging from a fixed multi-media base or mobile devices.

Gates Foundation donates $1.2 million to OCLC to promote value of libraries

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have this week pledged a $1.2 million grant to the OCLC to promote the value of libraries in a national campaign throughout the U.S, which could be seen as another snub to the US government, writes Daniel Griffin.

Gates has been showing increasing interest in the library sector of late. Last year he agreed a major digitisation deal with the British Library and now his charitable arm is looking to improve public access to libraries, IWR would like to know, just what is driving the sudden passion for libraries in the world of Bill Gates.

The funds will be used by OCLC, a library automation and database specialist that is strong in academic circles, in conducting research and development strategies to enhance user perceptions of library value and the necessity of supporting new initiatives to meet user expectations and ever changing demands.

Studies in the U.S. indicate that over the next five years libraries will struggle to provide improvements to facilities, deliver electronic collections and internet services. But the U.S. public share a nostalgic perception of library services viewing them as predominately book-based, even though 99 % of libraries provide free internet access and other online services.   

Jill Nishi, Manager of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said “Libraries provide opportunities for education and advancement, especially for those in rural or otherwise underserved areas in this country”.

Informa reject Springer bid

Informa, parent company of the academic publisher Taylor & Francis group, have announced their rejection of Springer Science Business Media’s (SSBM) acquisition offer of 630 pence per share in recent takeover talks which according to FT.com today was because it "significantly undervalues Informa and its future prospects".

Springer, the scientific, technical and medical (STM) and business publishing group made the offer last month in an attempt to create a powerful organisation to rival the likes of market leader Reed Elsevier, the world’s principal STM publisher and would have been worth around £4bn. The takeover bid is believed to have been launched by Springer’s chief shareholders, the private equity groups Candover and Cinven who had confirmed they were working with UBS the investment bank with debt financing in place with Barclays Bank.

The initial bid raised eyebrows in the industry as it was expected Informa would move to take over Springer after making a number of acquisitions since 2005 – the largest being events company IIR Holdings for £784m paid in cash to its owner Lord Laidlaw, the Conservative Party Peer.

Frivolous use damages Freedom of Information Act

Today's November issue front page story on the Labour government planning to reduce access to public information, is a sad tale of a government out of touch and the mis-use of the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act.

The box text on Frivolous Requests is both funny and saddening. Using FoI to trace bachelors within the Hampshire constabulary, or the number of times people have been charged with having sex with animals in Wale,  merely adds fuel to the argument of this government that it is correct in reducing our free rights to information.  There could be a genuine reason behind researching how much is spent on a particular brand of chocolate, but why was it narrowed down to one brand?

If there are to be changes made to FoI we need to see a much wider range of statistics on how the act is being used, not just a set of hand picked queries bound to anger the readership of the Daily Mail. 

This government has no respect for the public and their right to information, that was clearly seen in the watered down nature of the original FoI, and now they plan to reduce our rights even further. Information professionals need to be front line fighters to ensure the information they manage is freely available to the public and not abused by the Labour party.