Newsletter No. 178
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"Helping 71,000 people use the Web for their work"
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ISSN 1460-7239 10th March 2005 No.178
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Fully-formatted full-colour edition available at:
<http://www.freepint.com/issues/100305.htm>
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IN THIS ISSUE
-------------
EDITORIAL
By William Hann
MY FAVOURITE TIPPLES
By Veronica Yates
FREEPINT BAR
In Association with Factiva
a Dow Jones & Reuters Company
JINFO :: JOBS IN INFORMATION
Researcher
Part Time Internet Research Analyst
Business Researcher (Human Resources)
Regional Sales Manager
Performance & Research Officer
TIPS ARTICLE
"Health Information Sources for Non-Health Professionals"
By Zena Woodley
BOOKSHELF
"Leveraging Corporate Knowledge"
Reviewed by Patricia Daze
FEATURE ARTICLE
"Tracking Youth Trends On The Web"
By Tim Houghton
EVENTS, GOLD AND FORTHCOMING ARTICLES
CONTACT INFORMATION
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EDITORIAL
By William Hann
We thrive on feedback from FreePinters, and following our redesign of
the navigation menus on the FreePint Web site (which I announced last
time) we received this nice comment from a long-time supporter:
"Congratulations on an excellent drop-down navigation system.
I know how hard these are to get right, so I appreciate your
achievement of getting the right balance of speed and subtlety."
However, it's the way that we 'push' information to members through
email and content feeds that really keeps the community alive. We
don't expect users to remember to regularly visit our Web site and
'pull' the information they need.
A good example of a free tool that's really taken off recently is the
weekly email digest for the VIP Wire. The Wire is where organisations
post press announcements about business information products and
services, and the weekly email digest has become a very useful free
current-awareness tool <http://www.vivavip.com/>.
Where we've seen the biggest growth in 'push' usage however is through
the content feeds (also called 'RSS'). Although this requires special
software to use, it does mean that you can collect and monitor content
from multiple Web sites automatically:
FreePint feeds: http://www.freepint.com/feed/
VIP feeds: http://www.vivavip.com/feed/
Our most popular 'push' service is undoubtedly the email digest of
postings from the FreePint Bar. The Bar Digest is now sent to 14,000
FreePinters (what I call our 'core membership') and is available in
plain text or HTML format <http://www.freepint.com/subs/>.
Sending HTML emails is growing in popularity because of the ability to
do simple (but invaluable) things like activate links in the table of
contents. That's why we're starting to offer it as an option.
Offering 'push' content in various formats like this is crucial. This
newsletter, for instance, is available as plain text or as a fully-
formatted printable edition with photos of authors and full-colour,
full-page advertisements <http://www.freepint.com/issues/>.
Although we've learnt a lot about 'push' and 'pull' content in the
last eight years, I do feel like we're still very much at the
beginning of learning what's best to do.
To us, the most important thing is to have a good dialogue with our
members. So, keep sending us your feedback and suggestions, either at
the FreePint Bar <http://www.freepint.com/bar/> or via the Suggestion
Box <http://www.freepint.com/contact.htm>.
Please also forward a copy of this newsletter to any of your
colleagues who might find it interesting.
Best regards
William Hann
Managing Editor and Founder, FreePint
e: william.hann@freepint.com
t: 0870 141 7474
i: +44 870 141 7474
FreePint is a Registered Trademark of Free Pint Limited (R) 1997-2005
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MY FAVOURITE TIPPLES
By Veronica Yates
* <http://www.alertnet.org> - from Reuters Foundation, has extensive,
up to date information and analysis on humanitarian issues. Plus, a
weekly quiz to test your knowledge.
* <http://hdr.undp.org/statistics/> - The United Nations Development
Programme publishes a yearly report that monitors progress of human
development across the globe. This particular area of the site
offers data and statistics on all areas of human development.
* <http://www.newsahead.com/> - The NewsAhead World News Forecast is a
news calendar and fund of story ideas for media professionals, a
look ahead for all organizations that bank on foresight.
* <http://www.globalgang.org.uk/games/gamezone/> - Games to learn
about development issues. Try the landmine challenge game, or
learn how to milk a goat online. Set up by the British Charity
Christian Aid.
* <http://www.acronymfinder.com> - We always come across acronyms we
are too embarrassed to ask others what they are. Whatever your
sector or interests, this website has them all.
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Veronica Yates is Information and Communications Officer for the Child
Rights Information Network <http://www.crin.org>, and has previously
worked in several information and media-based roles for various NGOs.
Submit your top five favourite Web sites. See the guidelines at
<http://www.freepint.com/author.htm>.
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Go to <http://www.factiva.com/infopro/register> and sign up today!
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Although information professionals are generally in the business of
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There have been a number of responses to a seasoned info pro
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March's edition of the excellent Internet Resources Newsletter is out
<http://www.freepint.com/go/b31555> and the Jinfo Newsletter has an
article entitled "Taking time out"
<http://www.freepint.com/go/b31549>.
The latest issue of VIP has the first of a three-part comparative
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<http://www.freepint.com/go/b31501>.
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<http://www.freepint.com/go/b31560>. What about a list of preferred
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William Hann <william.hann@freepint.com>
Founder and Managing Editor, FreePint
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JINFO :: JOBS IN INFORMATION
<http://www.jinfo.com/>
Jinfo is a database of information-related job vacancies.
The Jinfo Newsletter is published free every two weeks, and contains
a list of the latest vacancies along with job seeking advice. The
latest editorial is entitled "Taking time out".
To read the latest Jinfo Newsletter and to subscribe to receive it
twice-monthly by email, visit <http://www.jinfo.com/newsletter/>.
Here are some of the latest featured jobs:
Researcher
Financial research skills in demand again; this temp to perm role
and other online research roles avail now-good online essential
Recruiter: Sue Hill Recruitment
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Part Time Internet Research Analyst
Determine information sources for markets
Recruiter: Magus Research Ltd
<http://www.freepint.com/go/j3886>
Business Researcher (Human Resources)
Involved financial research work combined with face-to-face contact
with very senior level clients for confident Researcher.
Recruiter: Glen Recruitment
<http://www.freepint.com/go/j3894>
Regional Sales Manager
EBSCO recruiting 2 Regional Sales Managers for SW of England & N of
England. Salary GBP22-25000pa, OTE GBP33,000 for 1st yr.
Recruiter: EBSCO Information Services
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Performance & Research Officer
You will lead on research and performance initiatives including
developing and implementing a performance management framework.
Recruiter: First Choice Homes Oldham
<http://www.freepint.com/go/j3905>
NB: There are 49 other jobs in the current edition of the Jinfo
Newsletter <http://www.jinfo.com/newsletter/> and over 70 in the
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TIPS ARTICLE
<http://www.freepint.com/issues/100305.htm#tips>
"Health Information Sources for Non-Health Professionals"
By Zena Woodley
Searching the internet for health information can be a tricky
business, especially if you're not sure where to start. Perhaps you
know a friend or a neighbour who has recently been told by their GP
that further tests will be undertaken ... Where do you start looking
for pertinent answers or just simple reassurance if you're not
familiar with this field?
If the illness isn't yours, it may be someone close to you. Here,
support groups can be critical. As well as providing emotional and
personal support, (often from people who have had individual
experience of the condition and so understand), support groups can put
you in contact with other people with the same condition. Most support
groups provide information of good quality, which is well written and
readily available. They may also act as a link between the patient and
the professional. In extreme cases, they may even fight the patient's
corner.
Starting off - The standard rules apply to all web sites found via,
say, Google. Check the date of the web site. Is there a contact
address? Is the organisation reputable?
There is a Code of Practice - HONcode - and sites adhering to this
will put up the HONcode marker. You can search for these accredited
sites through <http://www.hon.ch/HONcode/Hunt/>, a Swiss site which is
in English and French, and which is easy to navigate. The principles
are at <http://www.hon.ch/HONcode/Conduct.html>.
<http://www.antibioticresistance.org.uk/> is a good example of a site
directed for public consumption which is well laid out, has clear
ownership, and states when it was last updated.
Google "breast cancer" and even if you click on UK pages only, you
return 930,000 hits. Most of these, especially on the first page or
so, are trustworthy, reputable, and safe organisations to contact. One
I would recommend, which may be less well known, is
<http://www.cancerbacup.org.uk/>. But that's because I know two of the
information people who work there: energetic and talented
professionals.
For a generic starting point, try <http://www.patient.co.uk/>. This is
a joint venture between two general practioners (previously Patient
Information Publications, or PiP) and EMIS (Egton Medical Information
Systems). This website offers help on nearly 2,000 illnesses and they
provide leaflets - many of which have been translated into Urdu,
Gujarati, Bengali, Somali, Punjabi, Cantonese, and Spanish. There's a
section on tests and investigations - excellent explanations of what's
going to happen, and why - plus links to investigative centres. The
directory of UK websites is so comprehensive - it's my guess that if
you didn't find any information on a given topic, it would be worth
contacting them.
For any illness involving children, the following web site is
astonishingly comprehensive, and such an excellent starting point, I
cannot imagine the need to go elsewhere
<http://www.cafamily.org.uk/index.html>.
Gateways <http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/> has lots of sensible advice,
including the ability to "Ask a Nurse" - though you have to accept
that information is stored for 5 years (and, as no system is utterly
inviolate, this 'may be read by someone other than yourself'). It also
only applies to England. The Welsh site <http://www.wales.nhs.uk/> was
not functioning when I wrote this, so I cannot comment on their web
facilities. Northern Ireland accesses <http://www.n-i.nhs.uk/> and
Scots can access <http://www.show.scot.nhs.uk/>. Both sites are
clearly and logically laid out, with most of the information
accessible after three or four mouse clicks.
<http://omni.ac.uk/> is a useful gateway, but the average person, told
that they have a life-threatening disease, would not, I suspect, find
its front page especially welcoming or user-friendly. One looks for
information either by National Library of Medicine or MeSH 2005
subject headings - the latter are very detailed. One for the
librarians ...?
Those who work in the field of medical librarianship will know that
developments are coming at us thick and fast, and not always
coherently. Last autumn saw the launch of the National Library for
Health <http://www.library.nhs.uk/> - but at the time, this was rather
like buying the promise of information, as the site contained very
little that was useful. The original NHS site, launched a couple of
years ago, gives more information immediately. It's at
<http://www.nelh.nhs.uk/>. The front page is packed with Know-How,
Knowledge, Specialist Libraries, headline items, and news. While the
front page of NLH is 'cleaner' in appearance, it's also - for the
uninitiated - much less helpful - and without a log-in, the search box
only refers to any free resources on the site. These are the same as
NeLH, incidentally. There is, for example, a question answering
service available, at
<http://www.clinicalanswers.nhs.uk/index.cfm?action=about> - but
you'd have a job to find it from the home page!
If a hospital stay is necessary,
<http://patientexperience.nhsestates.gov.uk/content/home/home.asp>
aims to improve the patient's experience. All hospitals have to
collect statistics on patient satisfaction on a range of issues - from
treatment, to food, to cleanliness: the lists are endless. The site
has sections giving guidelines on what should be happening -
forewarned, one will at least know what to look out for.
Finally, it's worth saying that although many hospitals will have a
Patient Information Centre, many still don't. If you're one of the
unlucky ones in this respect, it's worth asking if the site has a
medical library. I've not met anyone who works in medical information
who wouldn't help. My workplace is the site of a leading Burns &
Plastics Unit, and we have someone who uses the Warner reference
facilities regularly.
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Zena Woodley lives in London, and is currently Library Resources
Manager for Mid Essex Health Trust, in Broomfield Hospital, at
Chelmsford. She has enjoyed a varied career within the information
field, and - with twenty years' experience - finds it evident that
some professional problems transcend sector boundaries. She is
currently grappling with the interesting structures of NHS IT, against
those of commercial companies. Her real delight, even after this
double decade in information provision, is happy enquirers - and new
knowledge. Her work-life balance is satisfied by attending as many
concerts and operas as her overdraft will allow, and ringing tower
bells.
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Related FreePint links:
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* Read this article online, with activated hyperlinks
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<http://www.freepint.com/portal/content/>
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What is ResourceShelf?
<http://www.resourceshelf.com>
ResourceShelf is a free daily update containing news of interest
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Topics include the latest news with web search engines, research
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FREEPINT BOOKSHELF
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"Leveraging Corporate Knowledge"
Edited by Edward Truch
Reviewed by Patricia Daze
As Knowledge Management becomes mature in many organizations,
practical strategies and best practice initiatives are subject to
investigation and validation by research. Leveraging Corporate
Knowledge provides a broad examination of KM approached from a variety
of disciplines, including social theory, philosophy, psychology, as
well as business strategy.
This collection of papers is the work of the KM Forum at Henley
Management College over three years, 2000-2003. It presents actionable
advice to business practitioners at all points on the KM
implementation spectrum, from mature to initiate; and it does so in
the context of rigorous academic literature. The model behind the
work is "participatory action research". The collaboration of
academics from the College with business members of the KM Forum works
well to marry theory with reality, providing a "living lab"
environment to discuss and evaluate KM ideas.
The volume is comprised of fifteen papers divided into four general
areas: Strategy and Organization; Management of Change; Below the
Surface; and Technology-Based Enablement. It can be read sequentially
or one can skip to the areas of most interest. The majority of the
papers follow a common format describing the theory and relevant past
research, the study methodology and results, and often include a
practical matrix or checklist for practitioners. The first section
contains five papers examining organizational structures and explores
KM practices and dimensions demonstrated by the most successful
companies. They focus on business strategy, project strategy, use of
e-collaboration space, and communities of practice.
Two key papers on business strategy together conclude that KM is
complex and that not all best practices bring out the most business
value for every company, so it is important to focus on those that
will bring the best results. There are different approaches and best
practices required for successful KM based on type and maturity of the
firm and the firm's strategy priorities.
The next section, Management of Change, examines cultural factors
affecting commitment to KM. It explores differences between individual
and organizational perception and behaviours, virtual unstructured
teams, tacit knowledge sharing, and replicating excellence to
encourage best KM practices within organizations. Each of these papers
includes practical matrices or checklists to enable one to make
comparisons with their own organization.
The third section delves into even softer aspects of KM, including KM
success within organizational tribal structures, KM and personality,
and even Integral Theory!
The last section on technology enablement seemed a miscellaneous
catch-all rather than a cohesive section, and could have been
eliminated from the volume without great loss. There is a case study
of data mining, although the results were not used in practice. There
is a very out-of-place item on dealing with e-mail overload. The
information is dated and written in language for a generic magazine,
not a scholarly text. The final paper on KM technologies also suffers
from datedness as a view of current technologies would be more usable.
The volume also features a summary list of all the papers, a list of
contributors with their bios, and an index.
Overall, I found the volume an excellent overview of the research
around KM, broadly approached from various disciplines. Make no
mistake, despite the practical link to business, it's a scholarly
read, but fascinating.
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Patricia Daze is a Business Systems Analyst with a network
communications company in Canada. Her previous experience includes
implementing knowledge management technology within the organization,
and work as a corporate librarian. An avid reader of non-fiction, she
can be contacted at <pgdaze@yahoo.com>.
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Related FreePint links:
* Find out more about this book online at the FreePint Bookshelf
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FEATURE ARTICLE
<http://www.freepint.com/issues/100305.htm#feature>
"Tracking Youth Trends On The Web"
By Tim Houghton
Introduction
------------
Recently a large consumer electronics firm came to us and asked if we
could help them monitor trends amongst their target audience on the
web. Their key market was young men and women aged 15-25. This article
sets out what we discovered as we pursued this objective and the
methodology we adopted. It is hoped that this is a useful case study
for others undertaking similar work or looking for an overview of
sources in this area. It would also be interesting to hear from others
in this field who have tried alternative approaches.
Definition & Methodology
------------------------
What exactly do we mean by a trend? Well a dictionary definition
is as follows:
1. The general direction in which something tends to move.
2. A general tendency or inclination.
3. Current style; vogue: the latest trend in fashion.
Our focus was number 3, what web users thought was "hot" right now.
But this general definition was too broad for us and we chose to
narrow our focus to particular aspects of youth culture. We selected
gadgets and technology, music, and travel and lifestyle. The client
wished to gain insight into these areas and also to identify potential
sponsorship and partnership opportunities. For example they could
identify an up and coming band whose tour they could then sponsor.
Within these broad topic areas a two-stage research process was
adopted. Stage One was to identify what trends were emerging. It was a
qualitative trawl of sources. Step Two was an attempt to quantify
support for each topic and therefore to rank their order.
Market Research Data
--------------------
The most obvious source of data is of course that already provided by
the numerous market research organisations. A quick search at a
research portal like Mind Branch <http://www.mindbranch.com/> reveals
lots of youth marketing reports. Or a well known UK provider like
Mintel <http://reports.mintel.com/> can be consulted direct. But this
wasn't appropriate for us. The client already purchases data of this
sort, and secondly they wanted to identify trends as they emerged,
not afterwards. It was this real-time reporting that web monitoring
is ideally suited to.
Trend Watching Sites
--------------------
The next category of sources were the trend watching sites themselves.
There are quite a number of these and many trend predictors or trend
gurus now also run their own blogs (more on blogs later). A couple of
the best ones are PSFK <http://www.psfk.com/> and TrendWatching.com
<http://www.trendwatching.com/newsletter/newsletter.html>. Both are
interesting as they are not just one individual's take on what's
happening but a collaborative international effort. Open Source trend
identification, if you like. TrendWatching.com goes further than PSFK
in this regard in that it invites contributions from anyone. Ideas are
paid for if they are used. Clearly web-based models of open
participation are affecting this space just as they have impacted more
conventional research environments. An honourable mention also to
leading fashion news website WGSN
<http://www.wgsn.com/public/home/html/base.html>, a very strong site
for trend watchers, but one which requires an expensive subscription.
Media Sites
-----------
The client operates in the consumer electronics area and so has an
especial interest in trends in technology and gadgets generally. Hence
we identified popular and influential technology news sites. These
included Wired News <http://www.wired.com/wired/>, Slashdot
<http://slashdot.org/>, The Register <http://www.theregister.co.uk/>
and ZDNet <http://www.zdnet.co.uk/>. It would be a relatively simple
task to identify leading titles for another sector.
But along side this sector-specific news we also wanted to get a feel
for what the media were saying in terms of more lifestyle based
issues. Hence we also added music, travel and lifestyle titles to our
sources. Music sites included popular portal based content like Yahoo!
Music <http://launch.yahoo.com/> but also quirkier independent sites
like the US based Pitchfork <http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/>.
Lifestyle and travel included such sources as Wallpaper
<http://www.wallpaper.com/> (a sister site to the print title) and
the Rough Guide's <http://www.roughguides.com/> web site.
Weblogs
-------
Developing alongside conventional online media sites are weblogs or
blogs. The classic definition of these sites is that they are personal
online journals, often including links and commentary relating to
other websites. But these experiments in online self-publishing are
fast morphing into media properties in their own right. Accurate
audience is hard to come by for most blogs but it seems a reasonable
assumption that they will appeal to a young and savvy crowd. Hence
their role as tastemakers is important. There are blogs on just about
any subject you can think of but we wanted to use them as a useful
complement to the subject areas we were already monitoring; that is
technology, music, travel and lifestyle. Useful sites in this regard
include Engadget <http://www.engadget.com/> and Travelblog
<http://www.travelblog.org/>.
Quantifying the Topics
----------------------
Analysing the media content gave us a list of "hot topics", it showed
which bands were being mentioned (for example Kasabian and Bloc
Party), which gadgets were being reviewed most (anything vaguely
associated with Apple's iPod) and where people wanted to travel to.
Having defined the various topics we now attempted to rank them by
their popularity amongst consumers. Newsgroups were selected which
were likely to contain a high proportion of the 18-25 demographic.
These included rec.travel and alt.music (plus their associated sub-
groups). Each topic was refined into a search string and its
popularity in terms of citation volume was measured for each source.
Search Engine Behaviour
-----------------------
Another quantitative measure of consumer likes and dislikes online is
the number of searches performed. Fortunately for us most web search
engines provide at least a Top 10 most popular search terms. Google
provides its Zeitgeist <http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html>
page and it is also very instructive to look at what it costs to link
keywords to particular search terms via Google's keyword advertising
service .
Yahoo! has what it calls its Buzz Index <http://buzz.yahoo.com/>.
These provide useful objective data on what Net users are interested
in. Now clearly these searches are for the whole of the web
demographic, not the 15-25 age range, but matching them against the
specific topics identified above does provide useful information.
Results
-------
Based on all the above we were able to create top 10 "buzz" charts
across several areas including Gadgets, Travel, Music and Celebrities.
These were useful to the brand both in terms of gaining an insight
into its demographic and in identifying brands with which they might
partner.
The Future
----------
One obvious future development is to look at what happens to topics
over time. How long does the buzz about a new band last? Is it longer
than the buzz about a new gadget? But more sophisticated types of
analysis are also possible. One type of analysis that would be
interesting to undertake involves the use of an emerging type of
software known as Natural Language Processing or NLP. This is software
that automatically extracts meaning from text. It enables huge volumes
of data to be processed and the most significant topics automatically
identified. The other additional data component that would be nice to
have is audience data so that not only the number of mentions but also
their weight can be factored into rankings.
I hope that by setting out the process that we used, others will
be encouraged to develop and refine more sophisticated approaches to
identifying trends both within the youth market and more broadly amid
the myriad conversations occurring online.
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Tim Houghton is the founder and MD of New Media Intelligence, a web
clipping firm. New Media Intelligence monitors thousands of websites
for news; allowing clients to keep up with the latest media
developments online. The firm prides itself on its tailored approach,
its willingness to be flexible in the face of client needs. Read more
at <http://www.NewMediaIntelligence.com>.
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