Speed matters – or does it?
Jinfo Blog
6th June 2008
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Now hereâs an interesting conundrum. Youâd expect one of the most economically successful countries on earth to be top of the heap when it came to broadband penetration â yet, as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development reported recently â http://digbig.com/4xamt â the United States barely scrapes into the top ten. Reviewing the Organisationâs latest report on Broadband Growth and Policies in OECD Countries â http://digbig.com/4xams â the Economist made an intriguing observation: âThere is simply not good data to show that broadband mattersâ and, especially, little notion that faster is inherently better. âCan the Japanese and Koreans (who finish at the top of OECD's charts) do something at 100Mb/s that the Americans, British and Germans (in the middle tier) can't at 20Mb/s?â it challenges. This may offer some comfort to corporate information managers currently struggling to do more with less. According to Outsellâs new 2007 Information Management Benchmark: State of the Function â details at http://www.outsellinc.com/store/products/733 price $895 â they are still tied to the traditional services they have always provided: a physical library, client enquiries, document delivery. True, its findings do also show that they are âjumping on the Web 2.0 bandwagonâ, providing information to their users via intranet postings, collaboration, RSS feeds and blogs. But, âwith slow-growing budgets and few new hires on the horizon, IM functions will not be able to remain relevant in the Web 2.0 world and still serve up a full plate of traditional services,â Outsell believes. Consequently, it advises, information managers must make user needs research a priority before they decide what to do with these new tools. For example, although their perception of their most valuable services correlates tolerably closely with that of their users, there are some surprises â such as users ranking âlocating expertsâ second from the top, while the information managers put it way down at the bottom. Which may make them sit up at news from Jigsaw, a provider of business information and data services that leverage user-generated content â the âwisdom of crowdsâ combining to provide valuable applications for sales & marketing departments among others. Jigsawâs new Open Data Initiative â http://digbig.com/4xamw â claims to set the price for gaining easy access to and open usage of company information at zero, because its own members provide all the data. Declaring 4 June Data Independence Day, Jigsawâs co-founder Jim Fowler said: âThe days of the multi-billion dollar data industry being under the rule of the few, and accessible only by the few with deep pockets, are over.â Well, maybe. The point, though, is that you donât need a Korean internet speed to run or access innovative collaborative services such as this; good olâ British or American speeds are quite fast enough.About this article
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