Speaker of the week - Mary Ellen Bates

Mary Ellen Bates, Owner, Bates Information Services, USA
Day 1: Track 2 - Breathing new life into search
Mary is speaking on - Building and customising search engines: how you can out Google Google
Q: Which are the most important topics, for you personally, due to be discussed at the Online Information Conference 2008 and why?
Mary: Probably all the Web 2.0 topics. What's challenging for me is keeping up with all the interesting applications people have come up with to leverage the communities and networks in the collaborative web. Web 2.0 feels as game-changing now as the web did 10 years ago - we're just in the early stages of this evolution, and we're going to be seeing a lot of flashes in the pan as well as solid innovations. What I appreciate so much about the Online Information conference is that I have a chance to hear a lot of speakers with many different perspectives on how to Web 2.0-ify ourselves.
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Q: Which tracks would you recommend to delegates attending the conference?
Mary: It really depends on why you're at the conference. As I said, Web 2.0 topics are in my radar right now, so the "Web 2.0 After the Buzz" track is one I'd highly recommend, as a way to get a lot of new ideas on how to find and use Web 2.0 content most effectively. I'm particularly intrigued with the "ROI 2.0 - the evolution of the bottom line" sessions. I'm seeing a lot more attention being paid to R.O.P. - return on participation. Particularly among digital natives, the concern isn't just "what can I get out of this resource " but "what will I get back if I participate?" That means that we're starting to assume that we will be interacting with information resources, not just using them. That's a really exciting prospect.
And, as an information professional in an "alternative" career, I'm looking forward to hearing the presentations in the "Information Professionals Surviving and Thriving in the New Age". It's more and more critical that we info pros continually redefine ourselves, as the information environment changes. Thinking about this in the context of this conference means that we'll be integrating new technologies into our vision of what our roles are.
Q: What are you looking forward to most about participating in Online Information 2008?
Mary: That's a hard question! I always find the sessions thought-provoking, and the exhibit hall always has a lot of the vendors I have wanted to talk with. But what I look forward to most are the random conversations outside the conference session rooms. It's exciting to see a crowd of people all talking about information, and I always come away with new ideas and new contacts.
Q: If you had to choose only one - which social network would you recommend to colleagues?
Mary: Probably LinkedIn, but only because that is where most of my contacts hang out. I have found that it's a lot easier to find the contact I'm looking for on LinkedIn than other social network. If that's what a colleague is looking for, then LinkedIn may have the best features. If, on the other hand, I was talking with someone who wanted to create communities on a network, I would probably recommend Facebook or even a build-your-own network like Ning.
Q: And finally, just out of interest - where are you planning to spend Christmas this year?
Mary: I'm not much of a Christmas person; my main holiday is Thanksgiving here in the US. My partner and I are having both sets of families over, which will mean somewhere between 20 and 25 people. Plus two dogs. And a turkey cooked by a vegetarian. It's a wonderful holiday that focuses on family and food, and I really enjoy opening my house to lots of people I love.
About Mary Ellen Bates
Mary Ellen is the owner of Bates Information Services, providing business research to business professionals, and consulting and training services services to the information industry. She has been an online researcher since the days of keypunch cards.
Firm principal and founder Mary Ellen Bates is widely known as one of the nation's leading business researchers, with more than 25 years of experience in this discipline.
She has written hundreds of articles and white papers, conducted hundreds of speaking engagements related to research, and has provided expert comment on research topics to many media outlets including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Business Week, Forbes, National Public Radio, Wired, Computerworld, and more. Bates also routinely conducts workshops and training programs on various aspects of online and Internet research.
www.batesinfo.com
For more information, or to view the conference programme in full, please visit:
www.online-information.co.uk/conference