Jinfo: Newsletter No. 15

Newsletter No. 15

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                             Free Pint
              "Helping you make the most of the Web"

ISSN 1460-7239                                        28 May 1998 #15
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                           IN THIS ISSUE

                             EDITORIAL

                        TIPS AND TECHNIQUES
         "Web Slavery -  Automating Information Retrieval"
                    by Dr. Pita Enriquez Harris

                          FEATURE ARTICLE
              "Food Industry Information on the Web"
                           by Geoff Ford

                        FREE PINT FEEDBACK

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                             EDITORIAL

Following our coverage of the Internet World UK exhibition in the 
last issue of Free Pint, I took a day trip yesterday to Internet
World Berlin. The exhibition was held in two large halls, with the
conference taking place close by in a third hall.  I estimated it
to be about twice the size of the UK show and it was certainly 
brighter and more colourful. We did parade our Free Pint T-shirts 
once again but this was certainly not the norm - we understand from
the crew on the Web Promote stand that suits are de rigueur for
exhibitions in Germany.  Needless to say, unlike the UK exhibition 
there were no men in Tarzan outfits or jungle style stands ... the 
only vaguely outlandish offering was from the "Beans Industry" stand
which was pushing "Cappuccino - der intelligente Shop in Java". Many
thanks go to Tim Dunton and Global Gold Internet Services for funding
a terrific day.

Back to London and in this issue we have a great introduction to 
slavery - how you can make use of "Bots". This is followed by a 
thorough look at food industry resources on the Web. The feedback
section then takes a quick look at the recent report into the 
effectiveness of advertising in email newsletters.

As always, I need to know what you think of Free Pint and so please
do email me william@freepint.co.uk to let me know your likes and 
dislikes.  We still strongly rely on you telling other people about
Free Pint and so why not forward this copy to a colleague or friend?

May I now invite you to read on and enjoy your fifteenth Free Pint!

Kind regards,
William Hann
Managing Editor
william@freepint.co.uk
http://www.freepint.co.uk/

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          "Your message seen by 8500 information workers"
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                or call now on +44 (0)1784 455 435

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                        TIPS AND TECHNIQUES
         "Web Slavery -  Automating Information Retrieval"
                    by Dr. Pita Enriquez Harris

A frequently asked question - what is a' bot'? These old favourites
of the serious netter of yore are little programs that are sent out
to perform repetitive tasks.  The range of available Bots has now
mushroomed into a bulging supermarket trolley full of goodies - some
which you need to pay for, some which you can use for free.

Bots now incorporate 'search agents', some armed with artificial
intelligence, which can search for, retrieve and filter information,
according to a personalised profile.  What the latter means, in
practical terms, is a reasonable effort on the part of the researcher,
to train something with an inability to distinguish between 'orange'
the colour and 'orange' the fruit, to retrieve relevant information on
your behalf.  It is for this sort of reason that one should be wary of
headlines which herald 'intelligent agents' as the Great White Hope of
information overload.  This is not to say that they can't be of great
service.  But they are dumb animals and must be whipped into shape.

BotSpot (http://www.botspot.com/) is "The Spot for All Bots on the Web".
Helpfully enough, the Team Botspot also produce a free monthly
newsletter which alerts subscribers to updates on the site (subscribe
at http://www.botspot.com/newsletter).

In this article I will review three desktop search 'bots' - Autonomy's
Agentware, Agent Technologies Copernic 98 and Intelliseek's Bullseye
(still in beta) and also give my tip for getting free news alerts.

Agentware, Copernic 98 and Bullseye all promise to help you find,
store and share relevant information.  Agentware differs from the
other two in that it does not make use of the existing search engines
but uses it's own spider to crawl the Web.

Autonomy's Agentware Suite sent me running to my PC, mouth watering
with anticipation at it's promises.  By training cute doggie 'Agents'
with sentences like "Press releases or announcements from
biotechnology or biomedical companies in the UK" I hoped to retrieve a
list of highly relevant pages.

Sadly, this was to no avail - icons revolved in a promising fashion
and painstakingly, summaries from pages of scant relevance began to
scroll into the viewer.  It was like being forced to view your
Altavista search results one at a time whilst being slowly read a
summary, with no way to skip irrelevant entries.

Undeterred, I tried out Line One, the ISP which allows you to use
Autonomy Agents on their server.  The same agent went off to the
Internet and twenty minutes later had found nothing.  Awesome
technology it may well be but: how useful is this?  Meanwhile a
search on "UK biotechnology press releases" at Webcrawler found
within the top 25, a site devoted to publishing every UK biotech
press release. If anyone has found Autonomy's Web researcher to be
any better than an online search engine, please tell me.  Maybe I am
doing something wrong?
http://www.agentware.com/main/agent/index.html

Next, Bullseye (http://www.intelliseek.com/be/bespec.htm) vs Copernic 
98plus (http://www.copernic.com/product98.html)  - two desktop 
meta-search tools.

Later this year, Agent Technology's Copernic 98 and Intelliseek's
Bullseye will go head-to-head for the sophisticated, desktop
meta-search market.  Bullseye is the fancier tool but Copernic is
sooner to market, being available right now.  I have been beta-testing
Bullseye and trialing Copernic 98's free, 'lite' version of the more
powerful Copernic 98plus.

Both applications allow you to construct queries and choose to which
search engines the query is submitted, all whilst offline.  When the
results are returned the duplicates are removed, the results ranked in
order of relevance.  You can then rapidly verify that the links
actually exist and download any links that seem interesting.  Both the
searches and the resulting downloads are stored locally and can be
scheduled for regular runs.

Verity's Search '97 technology underlies Bullseye, which although
still riddled with bugs, when it takes off should give Copernic a run
for its money.  Generally more flexible in configuring the searches,
it offers powerful help constructing queries (sounds-like dictionary,
conversion into Boolean).  You can refine your query and when the
chosen pages are downloaded it generates a summary on-the-fly. All 
this and much more.

Copernic 98plus costs $29.95 and offers ninety more search engines
than the free version, as well as other enhanced features, including
the ability to add more search engines - a feature so far lacking in
Bullseye (but I asked then to work on it!). Bullseye has yet to be
priced, but will probably be more costly, being a more substantial
program.

One annoying feature is that both tools assume you have a leased line
and do not include an embedded dialler.  Even so, both beat the 
online meta-search engines for speed and flexibility, as well as
saving and organisation of queries and results.

In summary, my tip for today: use Copernic 98 (freeware) whilst 
waiting for Bullseye.

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Dr. Pita Enriquez Harris abandoned a career in research molecular
biology to co-found The Oxford Knowledge Company Ltd, a company which
exists to assist businesses and individuals to extract relevant
information from external sources. In the past year Pita has devoted
her time to cracking the secrets of finding information on the
Internet and to helping design the database technology which powers
OKSYS (Oxford Knowledge System), the flagship knowledge-discovery
service from The Oxford Knowledge Company.

Dr. Pita Enriquez Harris
Director, The Oxford Knowledge Company Limited
Website: www.oxford-knowledge.co.uk
Tel +44 (0) 1865 251566

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           Do you have a Web related query or question?
               Post a message on the Free Pint Forum
                http://www.freepint.co.uk/eforum.htm

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                          FEATURE ARTICLE
              "Food Industry Information on the Web"
                           by Geoff Ford

Anyone attempting to find a starting point for accessing useful food
resources on the Web should try one of the numerous "umbrella" sites
that have come to the fore in the last few years. These sites contain
direct connections to such topics as professional organisations,
universities and food research centres, food law, nutritional data,
company information, government resources, etc. Prime examples
include the CSIRO Internet Resources
(http://www.dfst.csiro.au/fdnet20a.htm), Oregon State University's
Food Resource (http://www.orst.edu/food-resource/food.html), the Food
and Nutrition Internet Index (http://www.fnii.ifis.org/), the
German-based DAINet (http://www.dainet.de/dain/dain-e.htm), and the
IFST - Institute of Food Science and Technology site
(http://www.easynet.co.uk/ifst/resource.htm).

Most of the leading manufacturers, suppliers and retailers maintain
informative sites on the Web. Sites obviously vary in range and
quality, but the best contain corporate information, financial
reports, new product information, press releases, acquisitions,
recipes, annual reports, etc. Useful examples of manufacturer sites
include Hershey Foods (http://www.hersheys.com/~hershey) and Groupe
Danone (http://www.groupedanone.fr). An excellent supplier site is
McCormick & Company (http://www.mccormick.com). Typical retailer
sites include Sainsbury (http://www.sainsburys.co.uk) and the
Netherlands retailer Ahold (http://www.ahold.nl). In addition to
individual sites, there is a limited number of directories/databases
of food companies, e.g. Thomas Food Industry Register
(http://www.tfir.com) and Food Industry Suppliers Net
(http://www.danweb.dk/).

Nutrition is a subject of interest right across the industry, and
there are several excellent sites worth investigating. The USDA Food 
and Nutrition Information Centre site (http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/)
contains a wealth of information, including the US dietary guidelines
and USDA food composition data. Dietary guidelines for several
countries can be found at the International Union of Nutritional
Sciences site (http://www.monash.edu.au/IUNS/). It also contains
invaluable recommended dietary intakes for several countries. Another
excellent and unique site is the Tufts University Nutrition Navigator
(http://navigator.tufts.edu). Nutritionists there have evaluated over
200 nutrition Web sites for accuracy and depth of information, and
have allocated scores resulting in classifications ranging from
highly recommended to not recommended. Having read their evaluations
you can then move directly to the site you choose. Other sites of
interest include the Arbor Nutrition Guide (http://www.arborcom.com)
and the Blonz Guide to Nutrition and Food Science
(http://www.wenet.net/blonz/).

Equally important to the industry are food safety issues, especially
in the light of media exposure and consumer awareness. There are
several authoritative sites. The IFST site
(http://www.easynet.co.uk/ifst/) contains a useful "hot topics"
section, which takes the form of an up-to-date mini-review. Recent
issues covered include BSE, E.coli food poisoning, and Listeria in
cheese. The National Food Safety database (http://www.foodsafety.org)
contains comprehensive food safety information provided by numerous
academic, government and private organisations across the US. The FDA
Centre for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition site
(http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov) contains the "Bad Bug Book", which is a
particularly useful collection of facts on individual microorganisms
or their toxins, including food sources and recent outbreaks. Two
important government sites are the US Department of Agriculture
(http://www.usda.gov) and the UK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries
and Food (http://www.maff.gov.uk).

Another unavoidable issue for the industry is legislation. The
University of Reading-based site
(http://www.fst.rdg.ac.uk/people/ajukesdj/l-index.htm) contains
useful summaries of EC and UK food laws, including proposed
legislation. The University of Prince Edward Island
(http://www.upei.ca/~dkmackin/food/gov.html#gov_swe) maintains a site
providing links to numerous government resources in Canada and the
US, with international links to Japan and Sweden. The European Union
site (http://europa.eu.int/en/) contains comprehensive information on
the work and policies of the Union. Two vital US sites are the US
Code of Federal Regulations - CFR21
(http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr) and the accompanying US Federal
Register (http://www.mcw.edu/lib/fedreg.html). In combination, they
allow you to obtain up-to-date US food law information. From 1997,
all new UK Statutory Instruments have been published in full text on
the UK Stationery Office site (http://www.hmso.gov.uk/stat.htm).

For useful market information, try the US Foreign Agricultural
Service site (http://www.fas.usda.gov), which contains trends and
production overviews for over 100 countries. The FAO site
(http://www.fao.org) includes several databases with detailed
statistics for production, trade and commodity supply and demand.
Food trends and developments for several countries are also covered
by the Food Institute of Canada site (http://foodnet.fic.ca). The
Prepared Foods site (http://www.preparedfoods.com) contains useful
statistics on the top 250 global food and beverage companies. There
are also useful specific sector sites containing statistical
information, e.g. Federation of Bakers
(http://www.bakersfederation.org.uk), Dairy Foods
(http://www.dairyfoods.com), Beverage World
(http://www.beverageworld.com), Tea Council
(http://www.teacouncil.co.uk), Biscuit Cake Chocolate and
Confectionery Alliance - BCCCA (www.bccca.org.uk), Fish Info Service
(http://www.sea-world.com), and the National Confectioners
Association (http://www.candyusa.org).

Most of the key industry organisations and associations have Web
sites, and you will find listings and links to these on most of the
"umbrella" sites mentioned at the beginning. They will also include
links to relevant databases, examples of the numerous electronic food
journals, and various  research bodies. I will mention two useful
sites for packaging issues, namely Packaging Week
(http://www.dotpackaging.com/), and the incredibly informative INCPEN
- Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment
(http://www.incpen.org).

I hope that even this brief summary has given you some idea of the
breadth and types of information available to the food industry on
the Web. Happy hunting.

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Geoff Ford is Head of Library Services at Leatherhead Food Research
Association (http://www.lfra.co.uk).

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         Visit the Free Pint Web site for all past issues!
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                              ANAGRAM

                      This issue's anagram of
                         "Willco Free Pint"
                                 is
                      "Net frolic ... we slip!"

                                                  [Thank you John W.]
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                        FREE PINT FEEDBACK

Does email newsletter advertising work? We have reproduced here a 
press release we recently received from NUA Internet Surveys 
outlining the high response rate advertisers in newsletters like 
Free Pint receive.

We have also included a useful reminder of the benefits to small
businesses from access provided by local libraries to online
database services.

We would love to hear from you: do you like Free Pint? Do you find 
it useful? Let us know to feedback@freepint.co.uk or email the
Managing Editor directly to william@freepint.co.uk. Full contact
details can also be found at the end of the newsletter.

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              Internet News: Email Advertising Works

May 11 1998: A recent study showed that 44 percent of text-only
newsletter readers take some kind of action after seeing an ad in an
email newsletter and 40 percent of them go and visit the vendor's
website.

The study was conducted by Manhasset, the New York leg of CMP's
Information Week Daily and publishers of a newsletter which goes to
over 100,000 IT decision makers. The newsletter is delivered to
reputable IT buyers who have privately requested the service.

The survey was conducted using the 100,000 subscriber base of
Information Week Daily. 500 people responded.

Information Week's publishing director, Tony Uphoff, commented, "For
the advertiser, email offers a powerful vehicle that can draw in
highly-qualified buyers to a website . . .it's obvious from this
research that the business model for email-based advertising works."

As reported in Internet news, Uphoff said that so far this year 17
technology industry advertisers have bought weekly advertising spots
on the Information Week Daily email newsletter. These included
Digital, IBM and Intraware.

http://www.internetnews.com/IAR/1998/04/2402-informationweek.html

Source [reproduced with full permission]:

NUA INTERNET SURVEYS  NUA INTERNET SURVEYS  NUA INTERNET SURVEYS
Weekly free email on what's new in surveys on the Internet
By Nua   Email: surveys@nua.ie   Web: http://www.nua.ie/surveys/

May 20th 1998  Published By:  Nua Limited  Volume 3  No. 14

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Dear Free Pint

I enjoy your newsletter and in fact am recommending it in my 
upcoming book "Facts in a Flash."

Since you supplied subscription information to the IAC 
databases -- I hope you will also always remind your readers 
that such databases may be accessed from many libraries.  
Often this is an acceptable alternative -- especially to small 
business people.

Thanks,
Ellen Metter
Professional Studies Bibliographer
and Reference Librarian
Auraria Library
Denver, Colorado, USA

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                   William Hann, Managing Editor
                      william@freepint.co.uk

(c) Willco 1998
http://www.willco.co.uk/

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                        CONTACT INFORMATION

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Free Pint (ISSN 1460-7239) is a free email newsletter for anyone who
uses the Internet to get information for their work in any business
or organisation. The newsletter is written by professionals who share 
how they find quality and reliable information on the Internet.

More details about subscribing, contributing or advertising can be
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Please note: The newsletter is published by the information
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