Newsletter No. 53
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Free Pint
"Helping 27,000 people use the Web for their work"
http://www.freepint.co.uk/
ISSN 1460-7239 6th January 2000 No.53
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IN THIS ISSUE
EDITORIAL
TIPS AND TECHNIQUES
"PanEris: a model for the virtual establishment"
By Simon Collery
BOOKSHELF
"Researching the legal web:
a guide to legal resources on the Internet"
Reviewed by Sarah Carter
FEATURE ARTICLE
"Online Information - The past and the future"
By Martin White
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EDITORIAL
Just as you thought you might be hearing less about the dreaded MM
word, I'm getting more and more messages about how it isn't actually
the new MM until the end of this year. Well, whether we are in the
21st Century or not, I hope you had a good holiday season.
I have to admit to logging on to the Free Pint Web site at 12:30am
that night to see if the Free Pint community had disappeared.
Thankfully there were only small glitches, like the homepage
welcoming visitors to January 1st 19100, and the Bar dating new
postings as 1/1/0. It seems the Web site was suffering from the
'flu virus which has affected most of the UK population over
Christmas, but it's better now.
We start today's cosmopolitan issue with an interesting look at a
company which is using the Web to run an "open source" collective.
This is followed by an analysis of the Online Information industry -
where we are now, and predictions for the future. For the lawyers
amongst you we have an interesting book review with related links,
and this is then followed by the regular run-down of what's been
happening at the Bar.
If you enjoy this issue then please do pass it on to your colleagues
and friends. Also, remember to join us at the Free Pint Bar with your
comments and Internet research questions. It's free and easy to use,
you just have to visit <http://www.freepint.co.uk/bar>.
Kind regards,
William
William Hann BSc MIInfSc
Founder and Managing Editor, Free Pint
e: william@freepint.co.uk
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f: +44 (0)1784 455436
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TIPS AND TECHNIQUES
"PanEris: a model for the virtual establishment"
By Simon Collery
The Internet is an odd phenomenon and its growth has given rise to all
sorts of challenges to working practices, economic patterns, modes of
production and service provision. PanEris is a collective of Web
developers and programmers who work from home, but operate through
their website, <http://www.paneris.co.uk>. PanEris itself does not
designate a legal entity. It is a framework designed to allow proper
communication and project management where those involved in the
project operate at some distance from each other. In short, they are a
'virtual corporation'. They take on Web related projects outsourced by
companies such as Bloomsbury Publishing, The Press Complaints
Commission, The Corps of Commissionaires, Finsbury and Iglu.com.
(The full list of their projects is at
<http://www.paneris.co.uk/partners/index.html>). Their organization
seems to provide a template for exploiting the benefits of technical
and communicative advances arising from the Internet, while retaining
the same spirit of openness and cooperation that has served the
Internet so well.
At a time when there is much talk about virtual offices, telecommuting
and e-lancers, it is interesting to examine these issues in practice.
Many companies are exploring the values of employing people who work
from home. All PanEris people work from home. All their projects are
managed by project management systems that they themselves have
developed. Whereas a project would traditionally be run from some
base, an office or some such facility, PanEris projects are events
that occur online, from discussions about how to tackle a particular
problem, to invoicing, budgeting and documentation. Communication can
be by phone, fax, or email, but the favoured mode of communication is
through the site's set of sophisticated message boards. There are high
level, general message boards and message boards for specific
projects, personal message boards and message boards for sales leads.
This form of communication means that any discussions and decisions
made can be read by those concerned, and archived for future use. A
well thought out framework of project management and communication is
needed to enable substantial numbers of people to work for most or all
of their time at home. PanEris are developing the structures that are
necessary to make this kind of establishment feasible.
PanEris facilitates a particular way of life. Members are able to
choose their working conditions. They choose what work they do and
when they do it and they are not subject to the usual controls and
rules found in more traditional establishments. One of the aims of the
collective is for people to be able to gain satisfaction from such a
way of life, not the pursuit of profit as an end in itself. PanEris is
overtly utopian. It serves its members, not the other way around.
Their philosophy, aims, organization and rules (very few) are stated
at <http://www.paneris.co.uk/philosophy/>. Homeworking does not suit
every type of project, every employee or every manager. Keeping one's
finger on the pulse, and more serious issues of control and discipline
might worry more traditional managers where they are not in the same
office as the people they manage. The lack of face to face contact
means one must depend on other cues, other communicational structures.
No doubt such structures will develop over time, but hopefully the
sort of human interaction necessary will also develop. The PanEris
philosophy may be brief, but it underlines the fact that if the right
sort of human interaction isn't there, no technological solution will
take its place.
So if you want to judge the success of organizations such as PanEris,
it would be inappropriate to use the single dimension of profit, as
that is not one of its stated aims. After all, it would be rash to use
the single dimension of profit to judge the success of the Web, too,
though some may be attracted by the large amounts of money flowing as
a result of its success. One could use survival as a measure, and
PanEris has been around for three years, a long time in the history of
the Web and longer than most of the establishments listed below. One
could observe how many people join PanEris and similar establishments
over time, and one could find out if it's members feel that their
quality of life has been enhanced. It is notable that nobody has ever
left PanEris. If unsatisfied with these considerations, one could
examine their work, and the extent to which companies show confidence
in their services. Many companies examine the feasibility of
telecommuting because of the cost benefits. It can save them a lot of
money. But it is the quality of life aspect of telecommuting that
PanEris esteems. Rigid working practices do not give rise to the best
working environment and PanEris aims to give the worker some choice.
However they can sell their services to clients knowing that they
supply a number of cost advantages. If telecommuting and outsourcing
is here to stay, then establishments similar to PanEris are going to
become more prevalent.
The Web was developed, to a large extent, by people collaborating and
freely exchanging ideas. This resulted in openness on a huge scale and
the free availability of certain programming languages, mark-up
languages and software. In fact, the Web too, like PanEris, is overtly
utopian. Much of the work carried out to develop the Web is done for
the direct benefit of the Web itself. Of course, many have become very
rich in the process, but in general we have all benefitted. A movement
has developed called the Open Source Initiative
<http://www.opensource.org/>, which takes a radical approach to tools
and software used for Web development. Open Source software is freely
available. The user has access to the source code and the explicit
right to change or modify it in any way, as long as the result is made
available to all under the same terms. This is not the same as
freeware or shareware. Shareware is usually available free for trial
purposes and freeware is free to the user, but the copyright remains
with the original owner. Open Source software is beta-tested,
debugged, peer-reviewed, elaborated and improved on constantly. One of
the advantages of this initiative is the fact that any suitably
skilled developer can work with Open Source software. Freelance
developers may work on a project, but they probably won't be with the
company throughout. Employers using Open Source software can be
assured of getting developers who can continue the work when required.
Another advantage is that off the peg software can become obsolete, or
the producer can go out of business. Organizations using such software
may need to replace everything, at great cost. But Open Source
software can be modified, developed or replaced under such
circumstances. This gives much greater freedom in the choice of
software and the ongoing cost is lower and more predictable. Even
people with little familiarity with the Web will have come across some
Open Source facility: Perl, PHP, Apache, Lynx, Linux, and Webmacro are
some of the familiar names.
PanEris uses Open Source software; therefore they don't make money out
of software. They feel that making money from software is not feasible
in the long term. They design and develop what their clients want, and
software that is developed during their projects is then made
available for others. They sell consultancy and solutions, and
participation in the Open Source Initiative represents another cost
advantage that can be used to attract clients. Indeed, Open Source
material is developers' territory. While many of us have used numerous
pieces of off the peg software, far fewer of us know much programming.
While more of us could design a basic site, the big sites that are
making money now are anything but basic. Developers and Open Source
facilities are of mutual benefit to each other. But developers are not
the only ones who gain from the Open Source movement. Everyone who
uses Web technology gains and shares in the benefits.
This may sound worrying for people who produce off the peg software,
but it is an open question as to whether there is really a conflict
here. It may be the case that some developers can only work
effectively with material for which they have access to the source
code. After all, you don't need to be in opposition to off the peg
software to find the idea of Open Source material appealing. Non
technical people will continue to use off the peg software. Producers
of off the peg software will have to be aware when equivalents of what
they produce are available free elsewhere, but that's nothing new. On
the other hand, in the future, more people may be able to use Open
Source facilities as the population becomes more Web literate. This
sounds like more of a challenge to software producers who sell a (to a
greater or lesser extent) finished product. But it might point to the
need to look at software in a different way. The Open Source
Initiative invites the question 'Is software a product, or is it a
service'? There are cogent arguments that it is not acceptable for it
to be seen as a straightforward product, and the widespread
availability of freeware, shareware, adware and Open Source software
may change people's perception of software as product or service.
Software producers may argue that they are working towards a time when
their products will serve every need. Whether software production and
the Open Source Initiative can both survive, or whether one of them is
a passing phase in the technological revolution, is a provocative
question. But Open Source software can claim the benefits of good
quality, reliability, low cost and increased choice.
This is a time when some people want to change their environment and
way of life by working from home, and many have done so already.
People whose job depends on technology, either through using it or
developing it, want to have some influence on the technology market
now that their lives are so much affected by it. Companies want to
outsource projects or persuade some of their employees to work from
home in order to reduce costs and would welcome the further reduction
in costs gained from the Open Source Initiative. These aims seem
achievable with the rapidly developing new technologies and
communicational structures, primarily those provided by the Internet.
What has been lacking is serious thought on how to provide a framework
inside which the problems and day to day running of virtual projects
can be handled. Attitudes towards management issues and working
relationships need to be nurtured. People need to learn how to work on
virtual projects, and this will take time. The openness and
cooperation found in Web projects and mirrored at PanEris, and the new
business establishments being wrought, would seem to be vital elements
in this endeavour.
Further Information
-------------------
Other sites which host Open Source projects.
<http://www.xnot.com> provide similar facilities to PanEris, such as
Concurrent Versions System (CVS), message boards for communication,
Web space, etc. The only condition you need to meet is that your
project is an Open Source one.
<http://www.slashdot.org> is a community most suitable for highly
technical people. It's a very busy site and it's difficult to tell
what's going on, but they are advocates of Open Source software.
<http://www.sourceforge.net/> hosts a large number of Open Source
projects. It provides the same sort of facilities as xnot.com.
<http://www.andover.net/> lists a number of sites related to Open
Source software. This is a good starting point for further research.
<http://www.sourcexchange.com/> is a site where buyers and sellers of
Open Source development can find each other.
Further reading
---------------
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/cb/chapter/magic-cauldron.html#magic-
cauldron-1>. An interesting discussion of the Open Source concept,
this is a chapter from The Cathedral and the Bazaar, by Eric S
Raymond. I have not had the opportunity to read the book yet.
More information on Open Source software and issues:
<http://www.opensource.org/>
<http://www.opensourceit.com/>
Other interesting sites are:
<http://www.apache.org/>
<http://www.perl.com/>
<http://www.linux.com/>
<http://www.webmacro.org>
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Simon Collery has been involved in editorial and research work for
the electronic media for a number of years, working for AND Data
Solutions, Oxford, and the Oxford English Dictionary Project. One of
his primary interests is the use of the Internet as a serious
research tool and a source of free, reliable information and software.
He works for Free Pint Limited on the business development team.
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* "Electronic Communities" article in Free Pint No.50
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FREE PINT BOOKSHELF
http://www.freepint.co.uk/bookshelf
"Researching the legal web:
a guide to legal resources on the Internet"
Reviewed by Sarah Carter
In the two years since the first edition of this useful handbook was
published there has been an enormous growth both in the information
available for lawyers on the web and, most significantly, in the
Internet-awareness of the legal profession. Nick Holmes and Delia
Venables have made themselves household names to the Internet-aware
legal community, and their book is designed as an introduction for
the (pretty much) novice. Concise enough to be read on the daily
commute into London, it is a valuable resource to have by the PC as
you try to make sense of what's out there. The book thankfully avoids
listing URLs, preferring to describe the material available, and
leaves the user to find the sites on the authors' own websites.
The main sections of the book include Who's On The Legal
Web - official government sites, courts, solicitors and barristers
and professional associations, etc.. What's On The Legal Web treads
the sometimes difficult path around the available free legal
information services. Law Publishers On The Web looks at the
subscription services currently available. Further chapters range
across information on legal topics, e-commerce, doing business,
knowledge management, legal education, etc., in many cases using
legal practitioners' web sites as exemplars of the topic under
discussion. The book therefore provides a valuable short cut to
seeing some of innovative work that lawyers are doing on the web.
The section on international legal resources is inevitably somewhat
rudimentary - it merits a whole book on its own, and the European
Union could do with rather more than the page which it is given. It
is the earlier chapters, however, which I would think give the book
its value to the practitioner. Inevitably, the book is out of date
before it appears - the government web site is pictured in its
previous incarnation, new resources have become available on
subscription, but this doesn't really matter, since the book is
designed as a kick start, and anyone using it will rapidly learn to
keep up to date by using sites such as Delia Venables' own portal.
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Sarah Carter is Law Librarian at the University of Kent. She
maintains a website of legal information on the web known as LAWLINKS
<http://library.ukc.ac.uk/library/netinfo/intnsubg/lawlinks.htm>.
This was originally developed as a resource for students at the
University of Kent but has since become widely known, and she
receives comments on it from all over the world. She can be
contacted at S.H.Carter@ukc.ac.uk
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Related Free Pint links:
* "Legal Resources on the Web" article in Free Pint No.21
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/030998.htm>
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* Buy this book at the UK Internet Book Shop
<http://www.bookshop.co.uk/ser/serdsp.asp?shop=5736&isbn=0406921806>
* Delia Venables' "Portal to Legal Sites and Resources in the UK"
<http://www.venables.co.uk/legal/sites.htm>
* Law newsfeed from Moreover.com
<http://www.moreover.com/law/>
* Read this book review online at the Free Pint Bookshelf
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/bookshelf/legalweb.htm>
* Other Internet searching Bookshelf reviews
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/bookshelf/searching.htm>
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FEATURE ARTICLE
"Online Information - The past and the future"
By Martin White
I've been in the information business one way or another for nearly
three decades, but never has the pace of change been so rapid, or
the future both so enticing but also so uncertain. There may be
some readers of Free Pint who, like me, attended the very first
Online Information Conference and Exhibition in 1977. Since then I
have only missed out on two of the events! Coming as they always
have done in December, for me Online Information is a summation of
events during the year, and also an indication of what is to come
in the year ahead.
The 1999 event was a classic example, and a few weeks after the
event I am still working my way through my notes, business cards,
product flyers and memories of overheard conversations. In this
article I have outlined how Online Information highlighted for me
some key trends and developments in the information business, and
offer my predictions for the coming year.
The information industry is alive and well
------------------------------------------
Market data on the information industry is notoriously suspect,
but the development of the industry over the last two decades is
such that the total exhibition space at that first event was less
than a third of the floor area of the Reed Elsevier stand in 1999!
Although some of the original exhibitors have stayed the course
(notably Dialog, Gale Group, Inspec and CABI) there were 43 new
exhibitors in 1999. Probably the best indication of the rate of
growth of the industry is that according to Katherine Allen, the
Event Director of Online Information for Learned Information, over
a third of exhibitors want more space next year. A significant
development this year was the sponsorship by Northern Light,
Autonomy and the Gale Group, three very disparate companies with
common objectives, brand loyalty!
It is all about Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
------------------------------------------------------
In the past the vast majority of information vendors would have
worked on an annual cycle for new product releases, but now almost
continuous product enhancements are the order of the day. This
requires vendors to keep in close contact with their current
customers, and increasingly the exhibition stands are designed in
such a way that good customers and prospects have an opportunity to
discuss issues and requirements away from the busy "walk on" areas
of the stand. Stand investment is high, notably by the major players
such as Dun & Bradstreet, Reed Elsevier, Thomson, Dialog and Factiva
(the Reuters/Dow Jones joint venture). Indeed the scale of the
Factiva stand, when the company still has yet to release its new
services, is an indication of the importance given by most companies
in the industry to creating and maintaining a dialogue with their
customers, and undoubtedly lies behind the requirement for more space
in 2000. Information on markets and companies is now widely available
from many different suppliers, and the need to provide added value
functionality as well as reliable content is at last being recognised
by the industry. The Online Information exhibition represents a
unique opportunity for visitors to compare products, and the way in
which sales and marketing staff present a business case. I was
however quite surprised the number of times I was not asked some
pre-qualification questions before being given the standard sales
pitch. At least we have got away from the freebies. All the
exhibitors I spoke to recognised that the level of visitor was now
such that pens and plastic bags were counter-productive.
My forecast for 2000 - companies are going to get smarter and more
aggressive at marketing, making more effort to provide customers with
product feedback channels, meeting the needs for global contracts and
enabling each customer to tailor the service delivery to their
specific requirements. They are also going to have to pay much more
attention to competitive intelligence as new companies come into the
market, especially through the enterprise portal door. (See below)
Together we stand, divided we fall
----------------------------------
The science, technology and medical (STM) publishing sector has had
a very difficult year as established publishers cope with many new
initiatives on the part of authors to retain electronic copyright and
self-publish (or at least self-archive) their papers, a movement that
is especially strong in the USA. Another important issue in the STM
industry is that no publisher has total market domination in any
scientific discipline. As a result most publishers are having to
cross-link their titles with others, on the basis that some click
through is better than no clicks at all. The almost bewildering array
of alliances was well demonstrated by Anne Barker in Free Pint No.52.
My sense is that Online Information is now seen as a very important
event for the STM primary publishers, whereas a few years ago the
event had more of a business focus, and it was the major secondary
services which represented STM. Indeed there were probably more STM
exhibitors than any other category in the exhibition. A further
indication of change is the extent of the consolidation within the
subscription agency business with RoweCom <http://www.rowecom.co.uk>
acquiring the subscription interests of Dawsons in mid-1999, followed
by the Swets/Blackwells merger.
My forecast for 2000 - the dust has not settled yet in STM. All
these cross-alliances are fine on a bilateral basis but make life
very difficult for both the library community and their
academic/research users. There will be more consolidation.
The door opens on portals
-------------------------
The concept of the portal site, providing structured access to
information, often facilitating extensive customisation and access to
virtual communities, was invented in consumer Web space by Yahoo!.
The last year has seen the portal concept being adopted by the
business-to-business sector, with companies strong on content
offering integration services for intranet delivery, and companies
coming from the software/services sector doing deals with content
providers. This produced a number of lively sessions in the
conference, but also some aggressive marketing in the exhibition
area. Autonomy <http://www.autonomy.com> had a very well orchestrated
example of the power of their intelligent agent software, which is
also used by Insight Technologies <http://www.insighttechnologies.com>.
Dataware <http://www.dataware.com> were offering to build free portals
for the first fifty people to respond to a direct mail shot, and
Mediapps, a first-time exhibitor from Paris, had run out of brochures
for their Net.Portal software <http://www.mediapps.com> within the
first day.
Another newcomer to the event was Powerize, >
which provides vertical information portals for a number of industry
sectors with an interesting (if complex to explain) business model
with a mixture of free, pay-on-use and subscription services. The
company also showed that all you need to exhibit is a lap-top, a good
product and two very hard-working directors, one of whom, Steve
Wooley, told me that they would definitely be back next year. I bet
they will find a few more competitors about the place by then!
My forecast for 2000 - we are not just talking about information
portals. There is clear evidence of the rapid emergence of what are
called Corporate Portals, or Enterprise Information Portals, and
indeed there have already been Corporate Portal conferences in the
USA. I see these as Next Generation Intranets, and they will provide
a platform for the integration of external and internal information on
a desktop that is configured by the individual user to meet their
particular requirements. (There is a briefing paper on portals on the
Intranet Focus web site at <http://www.intranetfocus.com>).
Major mergers ahead
-------------------
A number of the mergers and acquisitions that have already taken place
in 1999 were much in evidence, including Swets/Blackwells,
Bertelsmann/Springer, Bell & Howell/Chadwyck-Healey and
Thomson/Macmillan Reference. Then on the very eve of the conference
came the news of the acquisition of NewsEdge <http://www.newsedge.com>
by RoweCom. There were also visible signs of corporate reorganisation,
such as the merging of Butterworths Direct into Lexis-Nexis and the
merging of The Investext Group, CDA/Spectrum/Technimetrics, and IFR
Securities Data into Thomson Financial Securities Data
<http://www.tfsd.com/> who launched ThomsonDirect.com
<http://www.thomsondirect.com/> at the show. Throughout the business
sector companies are starting to look carefully at just what
information assets they have, and whether to invest or sell.
My forecast for 2000 - now that the business dynamics of web
publishing are becoming better understood, and the links between e-
information and e-commerce are beginning to emerge, I sense that there
will be considerable M&A activity during 2000, stimulated by the
desire to build up the information components for portal sites.
However some of the publishing companies now looking opportunistically
at floating off their Internet-based activities in what are often
referred to as Dot.Com companies may find it much more difficult than
they envisaged.
Just as you thought the technology was stable
---------------------------------------------
At first sight there might not have seemed to be much in the way of new
technology on the stands at Online Information, but in fact that is
far from the case. Much of the effort of the information industry
over the last few years has been focused on database design, and the
incorporation of XML to offer quicker product development and easier
customisation by users. More visible has been the development in
search engine technology, a major theme of the conference sessions,
with David Seuss of Northern Light <http://www.NorthernLight.com>
presenting a case for offering users a range of search options, and
Steve Arnold <http://www.Arnoldit.com> and Phil Bradley
<http://www.philb.com> suggesting that there was still a way to go
just yet. My award for technological innovation of the 1999 Online
Information Exhibition goes to Manning and Napier
<http://www.textwise.com> with their CINDOR multi-lingual search
software which maps terms and concepts from both queries and documents
onto a central glossary, and even manages to search Japanese patents
databases with English, French and Spanish search terms.
Missing from the technologies on display were any of the emerging
approaches to the visual presentation of search results, and the fast-
developing area of mobile access to the Internet, but there has to be
something to look forward to in 2000.
My forecast for 2000 - I am certain that we are going to see major
advances in the mobile access to the Internet. Although there are some
issues with standards developments in this area the market demand for
access to information in trains, boats, planes, cars (when stationary)
and other people's offices is huge, and I am sure that there will be a
number of companies demonstrating these technologies at Online
Information 2000. Maybe I will see you there on the Free Pint stand.
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Martin White is Managing Director of Intranet Focus Ltd, a company
providing consulting services both to intranet managers and to
information industry companies providing intranet-accessible services.
Current areas of interest include enterprise information portal
applications, the design of trans-national intranets and the impact of
data protection legislation. Briefing papers on these and other
subjects can be found on the company's intranet portal site at
<http://www.intranetfocus.com>.
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Related Free Pint links:
* Respond to this article and chat to the author now at the Bar
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/bar>
* Read this article online, with activated hyperlinks
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/060100.htm#feature>
* Anne Barker's "Review of Online Information 99" in Free Pint No.52
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/161299.htm>
* "UK Library and Information Science Information Resources" article
in Free Pint No.49 <http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/041199.htm>
* "Finding information products and services via the Net" article
in Free Pint No.17 <http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/250698.htm>
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FREE PINT BAR
http://www.freepint.co.uk/bar
Here is your summary of what's been happening at the Free Pint Bar
over the last couple of weeks. To read a discussion thread you can:
- Just visit the Bar. It's free to use and easy to access at:
http://www.freepint.co.uk/bar
- Read this summary online where all the links are activated:
http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/060100.htm#bar
- Add the message number (no brackets) to the end of this address:
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For example, to read message 1432 you would visit:
http://www.freepint.co.uk/cgi-bin/webbbs/config.pl?read=1432
The last issue of Free Pint came out shortly after Online
Information 99 and visitors to the Bar were asked for their reactions
and experiences (1432). Please feel free to add to this discussion.
Did you find out about new products and services? Did you attend
conferences or presentations, and were they useful? Would you like
to add to a wish list for the next Online Information exhibition?
Something that won't be repeated for a very long time is the subject
of another posting; the Millennium (1481). Apparently, large amounts
of data are being collected on the December/January rollover. No
doubt we will look fondly through these archives in millennia to
come. Anything good about this infrequent occasion? Well, the
Millennium issue of Searcher is available free of charge (1544).
Free nibbles to go with your free pint.
There have been several job related requests posted. One is for
homeworkers to do some mystery shopping (1493). Another is for
German speaking IT experts (1535). A freelance medical researcher
is sought (1538) and Information World Review would like somebody to
review a new service (1545). A number of replies list sites, which
would be of interest to both employers and job seekers.
There are lots of cool things out there. One Bar client lists a few
useful applications which are available without charge (online
wake-up calls and an online fax service) and asks if anyone knows of
others (1438), especially where these are usable worldwide. This
results in a discussion of free web based fax facilities. A request
for help with email archives gives rise to some useful advice on
choosing an email package (1449). Do you have views on the relative
merits of CGI, XML and Java? Don't be shy (1459). And if you know
about one handed typing tutors (1477), please add it to this posting.
On the subject of cool things, Free Pint now has a site map which
shows at a glance what's on offer and how to get there. It's at
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/help.htm>.
Everyone is interested in search engines, aren't they? One regular
drinker asks which search engine brings in the most traffic (1463).
Which one does it for you, pray tell? Does submitting your URL to a
directory more than the recommended number of times constitute
spamming (1482)? It seems that Excite is particularly sensitive
about this matter. But don't worry. A posting asking for advice on
improving one's ranking with search engines (1502) gave rise to a
flurry of responses. This is a very popular topic and there are lots
of ways to improve one's ranking.
We had a lot of requests for information on both general and specific
topics in the Bar recently. The one for song lyrics (1501) received
the most replies. There's also plenty of information on share
prices (1516) to be found on the Web. The same is true of healthcare
information (1460) and photographs (1530). The person posting the
request is especially interested in images of working people in the
UK. Finally, one thirsty reader wants to know about facilities
similar to the Free Pint Bar (1500) and the WWW's most valuable Web
site (1499). Is value measured purely in monetary terms?
Simon Collery, Business Development, Free Pint
Remember, to read this summary with activated hyperlinks visit ...
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/060100.htm#bar>
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Email: To write to the Free Pint team, please send your email to
<feedback@freepint.co.uk>
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FREE PINT FORTHCOMING ARTICLES
* Classical Music Sites * Media Sites * Researching the Researchers *
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[Provisional]
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We hope you picked up some new Web sites and tips from this edition
of Free Pint. Why not visit the Web site now to search all the past
issues, reviews and postings <http://www.freepint.co.uk/search> or
join us at the Bar to help other Free Pint subscribers and post your
own Web-related research questions <http://www.freepint.co.uk/bar>.
Free Pint is a free resource entirely dedicated to helping *you* use
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spreading the word to people you know, responding to advertising, and
giving us your comments and thoughts. Here's to yet another fun year.
See you in two weeks!
Kind regards,
William Hann, Managing Editor
william@freepint.co.uk
(c) Free Pint Limited 1997-2000
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CONTACT INFORMATION
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Free Pint (ISSN 1460-7239) is a free newsletter written by information
professionals who share how they find quality and reliable information
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About this Newsletter
- Publication Date: 6th January 2000
- Plain text
- Link: https://www.jinfo.com/go/newsletter/53
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