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Tales from the Terminal RoomDecember 2000 Issue No. 16 |
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Please Note: This is an archive copy of the newsletter. The information and links that it contains are not updated.
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Tales from the Terminal Room ISSN 1467-338X December 2000 Issue No. 16 Editor: Karen Blakeman Published by: RBA Information Services Tales from the Terminal Room (TFTTR) is a monthly newsletter, with the exception of July and August, which are published as a single issue. TFTTR includes reviews and comparisons of information sources and search tools; updates to the RBA Web site Business Sources and other useful resources; dealing with technical and access problems on the Net; and news of RBA's training courses and publications. In this issue:
Highlights of Online Information 2000National Hall & Olympia 2, London UK 5-7 December 2000This issue of TFTTR is given over to a summary of the highlights of Online Information 2000. (January's issue will revert to the usual TFTTR format). Some of the products and services that were launched at Online were previewed in the November Tales from the Terminal Room, issue number 15 and will not be repeated here. These were:
For this review, I have chosen just a few products from the 300-plus exhibitors that were at Online. Inevitably, this is a very personal selection and my apologies to those services I have omitted. Many of them offer excellent products but, as other visitors to the exhibition will confirm, it was impossible to investigate every stand in just three days! There seemed to a change in the show's emphasis this year: there were information providers aplenty but the percentage of companies offering services such as data conversion, content management and Intranet/portal development was significantly greater. Judging from some of the requests for help that came our way on the UK Online User Group (UKOLUG) help desk, this is just what many visitors were looking for. "I don't want any more content - I have got content coming out of my ears!" exclaimed one poor soul. "What I need is someone to help me consolidate and get the information across our Intranet". The Jacobs Company (http://www.jacobsnet.com/) had a stand dedicated to content management. There were several Intranet/Portal solutions:
For data conversion and Web publishing there was:
Before we move on to the information providers and publishers, we have news of two awards that were awarded at Online. IWR Information Professional of the YearCongratulations to Roddy Macleod on winning the Information World Review (IWR) award for Information Professional of the Year. Roddy is Senior Faculty Librarian at Heriot-Watt University but also finds time to be manager of EEVL (Edinburgh Engineering Virtual Library), editor of Internet Resources Newsletter- an excellent Web based current awareness service that I go through in great detail every month - and designer of the Pinakes Subject Launchpad. A deserving winner indeed. Best Stand AwardThe UK Online User Group (UKOLUG) judged the Best Stand Award. This year it was awarded to SkyMinder (http://www.skyminder.com/). SkyMinder is a data aggregator that allows the end-user to access an extensive range of global information sources from quality content providers, with the flexibility of pay-per-view pricing. The Best Stand Award was judged on the following criteria: attractive, innovative design; best use of space; welcoming to the visitor; and the presence of knowledgeable, helpful stand personnel. (I hope to be able to include a review of their service in the January edition of TFTTR). Now a look at some of the products on show at Online.... 2westmidlands.comThe aim of this site is to provide direct links to local business support agencies, environmental agencies and training centres in the UK West Midlands. 2WestMidlands (2WM) will offer companies in the same Industry sector the opportunity to trade with other businesses online. It will initially be focusing on eight business sectors: engineering, creative industries, medical technologies, engineering design, ceramics, automotive, food & drink and tourism & leisure. These have been chosen because they represent the major industry sectors and activities in the West Midlands. Within each sector, the Portal will develop clusters of virtual communities. Each cluster community will offer its members the opportunity to access chat forums, trade and tender rooms and job boards as well as providing the latest sector-specific news and events. "Membership" is free of charge. This seems to be a promising site, especially the links to industry sector directories. There are some serious design flaws, though. Your browser must accept cookies in order to access the site and you must register to view sector content or to enter the Chat Forum. The two are inextricably entwined. Your internal network may allow cookies to be set on individual PCs but I know that many IT departments have set up their systems to automatically delete all cookies at the end of the day. For the 2WM site, this means that you have to reregister every day. Not very user friendly. The other major problem is that the sites in the Links sections are opened up in pop-up browser windows. If, like us, your IT system filters out these windows - usually as a way of eliminating advertising or announcement windows - nothing happens. Verdict overall? Nice site as far as content goes but a shame about the techno-design flaws. P.S. Before anyone asks, no I don't know of similar initiatives for other regions of the UK. If you know of any - or of any that are in development - then please do let me know as I am sure this will become a frequently asked question. URL: http://www.2westmidlands.com/ Crawford's Directory of City ConnectionsAP Information Services have made Crawford's available via the Web. The
Quick Search is available to "non-members", (i.e. free). Options are limited,
though, to searching for company name and/or type of professional advisor.
The Quick Search results show company name, telephone number and Web site
address. Subscription rates for accessing the full Web site are GBP 385
and GBP 435 if you also wish to receive a hardcopy version of the directory.
The hardcopy on its own costs GBP 335. Mailing lists from AP Information Services As well as Crawford's, AP Information Services were previewing their
new mailing/marketing lists database (http://www.datanow.co.uk/). At the
time of writing, this service was not live (anticipated launch is January
2001). The lists will include professional sectors such as Personnel,
Training, Marketing, and the UK and International Pension Funds Industry.
Users will be able to view sample data, refine searches and pay for those
records that they download (there will be no minimum order). "Trade Statistics for the 21st Century"HM Customs & Excise and Databeuro launched a new trade portal combining
information and statistics from the UK, United States and the 29 member
countries of the OECD and their trading partners. The site "provides the
latest import and export statistics for thousands of commodities and services
between the UK, the USA and OECD countries". I was somewhat disappointed
with the site as I expected a little more than just a Web page with straightforward
links to the three sites and their separate subscriptions(money required!).
Serious statistics users will already know about these sources, but I
suppose the portal does at least provide you with a more memorable URL.
Best of BizLondon Business School have totally revamped their Business Information Services site, and very nice it looks too. I must admit to being a fan of LBS, having used their information brokerage services on and off for many years, but I was initially suspicious of the rather glitzy advertising blurb and the use of jargon such as "Concept Space". However, I was pleasantly surprised to discover how easy it was to move around the site and to find information. There are several new features on Best of Biz:
There are several ways of reaching the same information: an A-Z of resources,
clicking on points on the graphs (you'll understand what I mean if you
visit the site), clicking on the "buttons" or by using the Resource Reference.
A very useful and well thought out site. MarketResearch.comMarketResearch.com announced new and expanded relationships with 10 Information Technology and eBusiness Research Firms including IDC, META Group and Yankee Group. In addition, a new version of its Web site was launched. Enhancements include the ability to search the database with the AltaVista search engine, view your search terms within the context of the document with a new STAT feature(Search Term and Text). The big advantage of services such as Marketresearch.com over the big boys such as Profound is that you can pay-as-you-go and access your purchases immediately. The service gives access to over 13,000 market research reports from more than 350 content providers. In many cases, the information can be immediately purchased in electronic form and some reports give you the option to purchase data in discrete, segments for example by chapter (called "buy by the slice" in the results list). The advertising blurb states that you can even purchase individual charts and graphs but I was unable to find any such documents in my test results. Perhaps I was just unlucky in this respect. Watch out for significant differences in prices between the electronic
and hardcopy formats: for example a Reuters Business Insight on Strategies
in Nutraceuticals costs USD 795 in print and USD 1115 for the electronic
version. Mindbranch Like Marketresearch.com, MindBranch sells market research reports. They
currently have over 10,000 reports from 260 providers. Prices for the
full reports are similar to those charged by MarketResearch.com but they
do not appear to offer a "buy by the slice" option: you have to buy the
full report. The advanced search is more useful than that of MarketResearch.com
in that it includes a search by geographical region box. With MarketResearch
you have to take a chance and type in countries or continents as keywords.
Scirus for Scientific InformationThis is a new search tool from Elsevier Science developed specifically for finding both free Web and proprietary scientific information. "Scirus will enable you to chart and pinpoint data, locate University sites, and find reports and articles in a clutter- free, user-friendly and efficient manner." Scirus crawls and indexes scientific sites and adds a classification to them, which gives users the option of searching within subject related areas. The full version of Scirus will be launched in March, 2001 but there is a pilot version currently available at http://www.scirus.com/. As well as free Web sites, the service covers what it calls "restricted access" information; this is information from Elsevier subscription services such as Science Direct and Physics Direct. The name "Scirus" comes from a seer who came from Dodona at the time of the war between Eleusis and Athens. Elsevier chose the name Scirus for their scientific search engine "because science is a visionary discipline in which you are continuously working on new ideas and developments. The search engine will support you in a pro-active way and will support your role as seer." Enough of the hyperbole - how does it perform in real life? The default simple search provides a single box where you can enter your search terms, for example atmospheric chemistry. The default is to search for all of your words but you can change this to "any of the words" or "exact phrase" by using the pull down menu. The main problem I have with this service is that the results are dominated by US sources. Other countries are represented but you have to drill down through several pages of results to see them. If you want to restrict your search to a particular country, for example the UK, then you have to go into the Advanced Search screen and add an option to search for uk in the domain name. Simply typing UK into the ordinary search box appears to have little or no effect. The service is quite good at bringing up reliable, free background information on scientific subjects if you persevere with the Advanced Search options. Scirus's advantage over Google, which I found came up with broadly similar results, is that there is some level of quality control over what is included in the database. I found Scirus seriously wanting when it came to searching for scientists, for example their home pages and information on their current research activities and papers. In the examples I choose to look for - admittedly European, so that may have had some bearing on the poor results from Scirus - Google was miles ahead in terms of a)actually finding the home pages and research details b)relevance of results and c)ease of use. It is early days, though, and Scirus actively encourages feedback. So
if you are interested in locating scientific information, do give it a
try. Alternatives to ScirusIf you prefer to stick with tried and tested services for evaluated, scientific resources then your best bet is the Resource Discovery Network (RDN) at http://www.rdn.ac.uk/, which has links into services such as EEVL (http://www.eevl.ac.uk/) for engineering, OMNI (http://omni.ac.uk/) for health care. Agrifor (http://www.agrifor.ac.uk/) for agriculture, food and forestry. Another excellent starting point is Roddy Macleod's Pinakes (http://www.hw.ac.uk/libWWW/irn/pinakes/pinakes.html) with links to evaluated listings on a wider range of subjects. Factiva/FT.com announcementOn the final day of Online, Factiva announced a new agreement with FT.com, the Internet partner of the Financial Times. The complete content set of FT.com, which includes a three year rolling archive of the Financial Times plus content exclusive to the Web site, will be indexed and included in the Factiva service. The press announcement was worded very carefully but there was, nevertheless, some confusion over what was to be made available to Factiva subscribers. The key to understanding what is on offer is the name "FT.com". FT.com is not a Web version of the old FT Profile service (now owned by Lexis-Nexis). There is some content common to both but, apart from the availability of the full text of the current Financial Times, FT.com is limited in what it offers users. The Global Archive, which is for me the most useful part of the service, only goes back three years and several business sources were recently removed from the service (see Tales From the Terminal Room, September 2000, Issue 13 - http://www.rba.co.uk/tfttr/archives/sep2000.htm). Bearing in mind that FT.com is free of charge, the only benefit to Factiva users is that they no longer have to access FT.com separately. The full press release can be found at http://www.facitiva.com/. And finally ... the freebiesNo review of Online is complete without some comment on the quality of the freebies. Westlaw had a nice selection in their press pack (champagne truffles, pen and small clock) and the HSE (UK Health and Safety Executive) had a very popular "Magic Ball" that lights up when bounced. Bloomberg, though, seemed to have the widest range of both fun and useful give-aways - an umbrella (it was chucking down with rain for most of the show), a stop watch and a reversible soft toy which you could have as a bull or a bear depending on the state of the stock market! BizInt, though, deserves a special mention again this year. Last year, many of us found its jig-saw cubes to be a therapeutic distraction during the show, but their usefulness extended into Christmas itself as several of us discovered that the puzzles kept the children occupied and quiet for hours. Full sets of the puzzle were, therefore, much sought after this year. Many thanks to BizInt for helping us retain our sanity over the Festive Season. More information about BizInt and their Smart Charts products, together with Puzzle Hints for those of you lucky enough to be in possession of them, can be found at http://www.bizcharts.com/ TFTTR Contact InformationKaren Blakeman, RBA Information Services ArchivesTFTTR archives: http://www.rba.co.uk/tfttr/archives/index.shtml Subscribe and UnsubscribeTo subscribe to the newsletter fill in the online registration form at http://www.rba.co.uk/tfttr/index.shtml To unsubscribe, use the registration form at http://www.rba.co.uk/tfttr/index.shtml and check the unsubscribe radio button. Privacy StatementSubscribers' details are used only to enable distribution of the newsletter Tales from the Terminal Room. The subscriber list is not used for any other purpose, nor will it be disclosed by RBA or made available in any form to any other individual, organisation or company.
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| This page was last updated on 30th December 2000 | 2000 |
