Introducing the FreePint Topic Series "All About Usage"
Jinfo Blog

By Andrew Lucas

Abstract

Co-producer of the new FreePint Topic Series "All About Usage", Andrew Lucas, looks ahead to some of the articles that will appear in the series, which explores the changes to the way that content can be used and the opportunities and the risks faced by information managers and their organisations.

Item

As the range of content and data available to us in our professional and private lives seems to grow exponentially, understanding how we can use that information and the restriction on its use has becomes increasingly important.

For business the data created by the internet has provided a rich seam which can be mined to turbocharge the marketing of products and services, as well as to create new business opportunities. In the field of life science the potential of text and data mining is unlocking exciting new discoveries.

FreePint's Topic Series "All About Usage", running from July to September of this year, will explore many of these themes. The series producers are Anja Chemnitz Thygesen and Andrew Lucas, and you can learn more about them in the blog item "Introducing the Series Producers".

New Skills Needed for a Brave New World

Knowledge workers are a core part of these developments and they want to interact with information on their own terms. They want to incorporate content into their workflow, analyse it, mine it and visualise the results, as well as sharing it with colleagues at the next desk or perhaps a client on the other side of the world.

For information managers in this in this brave new world it means making sure they have the expertise required to understand the technology and how it is applied. They also need to balance (sometimes conflicting) demands between the way that knowledge users want to use content and the risks, be they from copyright restrictions or from lack of understanding of the provenance of the information.

Meanwhile information vendors and publishers are facing similar question about the evolution of usage, albeit from a different perspective.

New Topic Series Examines Usage from Many Perspectives

Among the articles and reviews in the series we will be taking a look at:

• Compliance and how to open discussions about usage violation when this is necessary

• The controversial topic of "deep linking"

• The competing demands of usability vs complexity in information services - there has been a lot of focus on usability in product design, but is this at the expense of more complex functionality?

• Information vendors' perceptions of customers want to be able to do with content... and whether the vendors are able to meet with those expectations, or are restrained by the content licences they have with publishers

• Market research firms and how they handle content sharing and text mining of their content

• Digital and copyright management systems

• The "information journey" where we will explore the many and diverse places from which content now originates, how it gets to the users and how they can use that content.

Regular Updates and More

The "All About Usage" Topic Series will provide both practical guidance and some fascinating insights into the fast-changing world of information usage.

Register now to receive: 

• A free preview PDF report, framing the themes for the Series (July 2015)       

• Email notification of new resources added to the Series (starting July 2015)

• Calls to participate in FreePint Research associated with this Series, including surveys on authentication methods and usage policies

• Access to practical Blog items

• A free PDF report with selected premium articles from the Series (publication September 2015).

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