I received a press release from LexisNexis in this morning's email on a new AlaCarte Service, targeted at individuals and small institutions. It's a Web browser interface, and in that way somewhat similar to Factiva's service, but with several tabs of focused services. Payment appears to be strictly "by the drink" - no base fee required. Registration is quick and painless - no charge card info required up front - at which point you may choose to locate content from the following areas: News, Business Research, Legal, Business Research, Legal, Business Public Records, Hot Topics and Additional Search Sources. Searches were pretty slow - presumably because of an initial rush of use? - and don't return much beyond the article title and price for most searches. News search was kind of silly - am I really going to pay three US dollars for a press release that I can get for free on Google News? - though results were pretty well targeted. Business Research results are far more promising, providing a selection of company profiles, related news and patents; same grouse on news, though the sources are well selected, but the company profiles at USD 9.00 from Hoovers, Datamonitor and other premium sources are an interesting option, as are patent filings. Legal searches are not available just yet. Business Public Records returns judgments and Secretary of State filings, but with not enough summary to determine relevance and inadequate filtering. Hot topics so far offers three VERY broad buckets - Iraq War, Terrorism and Taxes 2005. Search Additional Sources promises a "deep dive for historical records" but appears to be a tool for searching specific sources or sections of specific sources and seems to allow only one source search at a time and the sources need to be typed in (guessed at) by the user. Quite honestly I am mystified by this feature and how it may be of any real use.

There are some nice things about this tool - simplicity has its advantages and the ability to hone in on truly premium sources for some very specific purposes at pretty reasonable prices has its advantages - but overall the first impression is one of a very tentative step towards an on-demand offering that lacks the well-designed interfaces and features of the Factiva "by the drink" interface and little thought as to how people actually use information or what's required to make an intelligent choice about a per-item content purchase. For those wanting to get at key premium sources at reasonable prices this is an intriguing option, but as a research tool it's in sore need of some more careful product design and conceptualization, which will hopefully come in future installments. Successful implementations in The New Aggregation require a lot more than figuring out how to disgorge the contents of a database for individuals in a second-class manner. With first-class tools like Google and institutional search engines around the corner making it easy for people to determine which content is worth selecting it's important to assume the most of one's audience and not lean too heavily on the prestige of one's database.

ProQuest provides muscle for Serials Solutions assault
Google's Orkut puzzles experts Internet watchers ponder reason for social network site
Libel Case Could Chill Speech Online
America's first Blog mogul: Interview with Nick Denton
Fighting for file-swapping on Capitol Hill
Autonomy, Mamma.com Join Desktop Search Ranks
Viyya Technologies -Pink Sheets: VYON- Announces Customer Service Infrastructure
Moreover Technologies Delivers Next Generation Aggregated Current Awareness Solution
IP.com Opens the Creative Registry, Enables Writers, Artists, and Inventors to Protect IP Rights
The Thomson Corporation Completes Acquisition of Information Holdings Inc.
Autonomy Included in Italian Government's E-Democracy Guidelines
Rocketinfo and CanWest Interactive Form Strategic Content Partnership
FAST Announces OEM Agreement with Clearstory Systems

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BBC news in crisis as axe hits 350 staff
Europe Stalls ContentGuard Deal
Thomson Announces New Pharma Research Tool
Hung Up on Gadgets With Subscription Services
OJC Reports: online editor calls multimedia essential
Libraries could use some noise and crumbs
Who Do You Trust?
We Have Met the Enemy, and They Will Be Us
Fire Up Your Search Engines:RocketNews remembers and builds on your past searches – and it's free
Intelligence Community Looks at Convera Software
Music Labels Back Online Service

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An announcement from CNET News on their new support for trackbacks caught my eye the other day. Trackbacks are notifications that webloggers and other publishers can send to a source via a "pingback" notification that lets the source know that their article has received a link from the notifying site. The receiver of the pingback is free to ignore this notification if it's not a site that they care to recognize but if they do it enables an online publisher to create an instant "press clippings" page for any individual piece of content. Trackbacks are nothing new, but it's significant that a major online news organization has taken the leap in this direction, something that CNET in its role as leading online news innovator is well positioned to manage. Trackbacks offer a great opportunity for major news organizations that are trying to get important sources to link to their content the ability to offer reciprocal links in an easily understood format that offers little downside exposure. It's sometimes surprising even for us how mainstream media outlets are storming towards the best practices of the open Web to ensure that their content remains as valuable as possible in the rapidly changing marketplace for vContent.

I was forwarding an article to a friend via the site's Clickability service and had the option to take a poll after sending it. The question: " Do you think visitors find a blog on a newspaper site vs. a blog site to be more credible, less credible or no difference in credibility?" The answer: 41 percent of respondents found them to be more credible, 22 percent less credible, 36 percent found no difference in credibility. This kind of polling is of course less than scientific, but here's the kicker: the site from which I launched the poll was Editor & Publisher, a site oriented heavily towards the newspaper industry. There could be other sites feeding into this Clickability poll, but assuming that it's mostly E&P vistors feeding into it it indicates that less than half of people concerned about "credible" online journalism would agree that a newspaper lends additional credibility to a weblog. One can only wonder what the stats would be for the general news-reading public. While the Shore maxim "good content is where you find it" seems to hold true more than ever, credibility is a value attribute for content that will factor into the development of weblogs and other forms of independent journalism. The question is, though, is it really necessary to have an established news organization to provide that credibility? To some degree the algorithm-driven credibility found in Google News and other automated services has established a new regimen for determining editorial relevance and credibility, amplified by webloggers and other sources of editorial opinion. As rating and ranking mechanisms work their way into the world of weblogs it will be as if the world has become its own editorial board. Let's see what this poll looks like a year from now...

For Net music, exclusives are king
Google Scholar Offers Access to Scholarly Publications Metadata, and Librarians Take Note
The 'blog' revolution sweeps across China
Newspaper Stocks: The Best of the Worst
Film Studios Win $24 Million Against Web Site
XBRL is good for the CEO
The corporate revolution
Simplified Prospectus will give fund investors clear information
Digitization of the Nature Archive Continues
WAN, IFRA Merger Would Benefit Online Publishing

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No headlines today - local holiday (U.S. Thanksgiving Day)

The Times of London notes that yes, we do still have unions in the publishing business. Reuters editorial staff has voted unanimously to consider a motion to take targeted job actions against Reuters global operations based on their unfolding strategy of using various global centres to specialize in specific editorial functions. It's a culture shift that will hit all news operations sooner rather than later, but it's doubtless one that cuts to the quick a little more quickly for this venerable news organization founded at the intersection of content and technology over a century ago. Reuters news operations have always been touted as the centre of their cultural mystique, yet have provided a relatively small portion of their revenues since the company opted for more lucrative content services for financial markets. In redefining the nature of the Reuters content business in this new era of distributed editorial development it's important for both sides in this dispute to respect both the realities of shifting requirements for content markets that require new kinds of editorial services and the unique talents that trained journalists bring to that equation. I have nothing but respect for journalists, having lurked with them for so many years, but the trade is changing radically whether they're ready for it or not. Instead of moaning in their beer about how bad things are going down at the blacksmith shop it's time for journalists to set aside pride in past accomplishments and to consider how they can define and position their skills far more effectively in this shifting landscape of content generation. This is a highly emotional issue, but those emotions need to be channeled into defining more effective new roles rather than into trying to hold on to roles that may no longer apply.

Thanks and a tip of the hat to Jeff Cutler, head of the SIIA Content Division for forwarding a link to a thought-provoking online multimedia presentation by an ex-Poynter denizen that lays out a theoretical picture of where content will be in the year 2014. Amongst the predictions: Google creates Google Grid, a contiguous fabric of content that allows one to receive and publish into this limitless ether; Google buys Amazon to create GoogleZon; in 2010 The New York Times sues Google for copyright infringement; by 2014 the NYT is a newsletter for the elderly and the rich and self-monetizing content on the Google Grid has brought opinion-driven reality media to the fore, whilst pushing out "serious" content. Like a lot of futurism, many of these predictions are more about the present than the future: with AdSense embedded in weblogs we already have self-monetizing content, and it's not likely that copyright wars over Google News are going to wait six years to come to the fore. And we already have a "Grid" in the Web as it exists, albeit not with central corporate control. But like George Orwell's timeless novel 1984 it sometimes takes a dramatic presentation of where current trends are leading us to take them more seriously in present times. In any event, this little presentation is certainly worth eight minutes of your time when you have it to spare.

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The Problem with Viral Branding
EU judge calls hearing after Microsoft rivals quit
Watered down copyright act
Google Scholar: Driving New Traffic to Libraries?
National Archives Opens Public Vaults
Dialog(R) NewsRoom Sources Top 10,000
Autonomy to Support Corporate Social Responsibility Rating
Vignette Recognizes Four Customers as 2004 Vignette Efficiency Award Winners
Context Media Joins IBM to Highlight Digital Media and Content Integration

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Google gets gruff over click fraud
In Pulitzer Guessing Game, Gannett Is Today's USA Favorite
Google Scholar Focuses on Research-Quality Content
EU Commission responds to calls for a new information society strategy
Reuters affirms may seek to sell broker Instinet
Study Finds Government Application of RFID Technology at the Crossroads
Wolters Kluwer Health Partners with Cerner to Enhance Decision Support at Point-of-Care
Law.com Launches Blog Network with Leading Independent Legal Experts
CyberAlert Launches Blog Monitoring Service
SunGard Enhances FAME and referencePoint
New service makes managing RSS feeds easy.
Rocketinfo Successfully Renews Contract With International Trade Canada

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As publishers squirm to find new ways to leverage value out of long-established databases, a coterie of young companies is harvesting new data from the Web and coming up with highly targeted content products that are more about publishing than they are about the leading-edge technology that drives them. New York-based Corzen is one of this new breed that has concentrated on statistical analyses of Web sites used for job postings and for selling autos. Inventing new kinds of content from the "thin air" of the Web is an increasingly attractive business model for companies with knowledge of specific sectors' needs and access to highly affordable content development tools. That's great for a small company like Corzen - and something to think about for the bigger folks in the electronic publishing world.

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So Much to Read, So Few Readers
Free or Paid? AOL Will Let Its Two Halves Duke It Out
How to Integrate Citizen Journalism Into Mainstream News Sites
SLA Faces Budget Crunch, Global Online University Moves Ahead
Music Industry Is Trying Out New Releases as Digital Only
Swets Information Services Embarks On Document Delivery Partnership
Wi-Fi shifts the goalposts for enterprises
wURLdBook Research Makes Managing RSS Feeds Easy
SuperPages.com Adds Shopping Tool
Internet Bar Code Service Sends People Direct to Web Pages by Entering Bar Code Numbers

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Blogs and the latest search technologies were hot topics at Internet Librarian 2004 in Monterey, November 15-17. But the approaches were decidedly practical, focusing on content management and library publishing, rather than social commentary. And the role of technology was linked to the mission of the library and the library context, including First Amendment rights and business policies.
Click here to view full report in Events Weblog.

Google Unveils Service for Academics
The Online Ad Surge
FAST Partners With Content Management Software Company
MPAA seeks Internet2 tests, P2P monitor role
Journal Subscription Price to Increase
Reuters: Not in Formal Instinet Talks
VIYYA Software Competes in a League of Its Own
W3C's workshop aims to improve handheld web access
AIIM: Enterprise Content Management Technologies Move to Center Stage Among User Organizations
Canada's Global Public Health Intelligence Network Uses Factiva to Monitor Global Health Issues
PubSub Now Tracking Over 6.5 Million Weblogs in Real Time, Pacing Explosive Growth of Blogosphere

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If level of press coverage is a reliable indicator, radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is poised to become the "next big thing."

What is RFID and why does it matter? RFID technology is deployed through tags that can be thought of like bar codes with little radio transmitters attached. More precisely, they are relatively inexpensive, paper-thin computer chips that can contain manufacturer codes, product codes and serial numbers and can broadcast this information to nearby receivers. RFID tags could revolutionize the tracking and counting of equipment and inventory, and therefore have potential applications in almost every industry. The first widespread rollouts of RFID are about to begin, and where there are products and inventory, there are (or should be) electronic buying guides and marketplaces.

It seems every industry has its own exciting ideas of how to take advantage of RFID technology. The pharmaceutical industry wants to label all prescription drugs with RFID tags containing individual product serial numbers as a way to combat theft and counterfeiting. Almost every industry seems to see inventory applications, as merchandise can broadcast its arrival at the warehouse door, and its departure at the store's main entrance, all without human intervention. Wal-Mart has already announced that it will mandate use of RFID tags by its largest suppliers beginning in January 2005.

Another important aspect of RFID tags is that the information on them has to be meaningful globally, and that means coordination, which means databases. The big winner to date is Verisign, which scooped up a contract to maintain the primary databases of companies and their products and ship that data rapidly around the world (RFID is designed to allow trading partners to exchange all sorts of product information on a real time basis). However, ICR believes that Verisign sees its biggest opportunity long-term in the movement of the data, not the data itself. That leaves manufacturers or their agents (industry database publishers, anyone?) to upload and maintain the product information.

Further, while the RFID specification provides for a globally standardized company numbering system, it anticipates that vertical industries will use existing product identification systems or create them. Thus, the book publishing industry will likely embed existing ISBN numbers into RFID tags, and the food industry will use UPC codes. Opportunities abound in those industries lacking such standard product identification schemes.

Another exciting introduction from Google today, Google Scholar provides a window into the world of scholarly publishing. Gary Price's ResourceShelf reviews the specialized search tool and adds some good context regarding how Google Scholar supplements resources that already exist to search for scholarly publications. In a nutshell, Google Scholar crawls Websites that it deems "scholarly" and also crawls some of the "invisible Web" through special arrangements with publishers and aggregators to deliver abstracts of premium content that was previously only available to registered users or paying subscribers. Results are ranked by number of citations. In most cases, when users click through on for-fee content, they find an abstract and offers for ordering the article or subscribing to the premium service.

At this early stage, Google Scholar's business model isn't apparent. However, Google does state in the FAQ that Google "does not receive compensation if you decide to buy a subscription to a journal or access a particular article." That leaves advertising as the source of revenue, which fits right in with Google's recent history and mission. The FAQ also humbly suggests that Google "recognize[s] the debt we owe to all those in academia whose work has made Google itself a reality...". Keep in mind, however, that there is a commercial goal, too. As more and more scholarly publications become available on an open access basis, Google is paving the way to include a huge collection of content in its network--content that can be monetized through search advertising and AdSense contextual advertising. With Google Scholar, Google has already done much of its homework in prepping for advances in open access.

Overture tests RSS ads
Online, people actually (gasp!) read
NASD Panel Recommends 'Soft-Dollar' Changes
Blogging grows by getting smaller
LiveDeal(TM) Unveils New Classifieds; Localized Online Marketplace for Buyers & Sellers Without Fees
Revere Taps Wolyner as CEO
CENTRIX Financial Chooses LexisNexis(R) RiskWise(R) for Identity & Loan Application Processes
The Wall Street Journal Online Launches Video Center; Sun Micro Will Be the Charter Advertiser
Spain's Tourism Information Agency (SEGITUR) Selects Bowne Global Solutions to Translate Web Site
WeatherBug(R) Launches Network of Backyard Weather Stations for Personalized Local Weather
SearchBug Engages FinancialContent for Financial Data and Tools

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This week the big news in the B2B segment was Dow Jones' bid to acquire MarketWatch. The online version of Dow Jones' pre-eminent publication, The Wall Street Journal, has been held up frequently as the exemplar of how the paid subscription model can work for certain established brands in the online news market. Now, Dow Jones appears to be acquiescing to the open access, ad-supported model to gain wider exposure and greater advertising dollars.

In the STM realm, publishers are faced with a similar trend toward open access for research articles that have historically been packaged into print journals for distribution. However, the response to the trend toward free access to previously premium content has been quite different in the STM environment. STM publishers like Reed Elsevier and Thomson are positioning themselves as providers of "solutions" to their constituent user groups in order to extract a premium. [Note, there is still an option for the open access content to be provided on an ad-supported basis.]

This week, Thomson Scientific announced Thomson Pharma, its new platform for accessing "premium patent, scientific, and financial content drawn from across the full range of Thomson-owned businesses". In its factsheet, Thomson Pharma is broadly described in three core elements:
Developing the complete pharmaceutical solution
Fuelling all stages of the drug development pipeline
Providing key functionality.

Overall, Thomson Pharma appears to be not much more than a collection of content with a specialized interface, but it is a step toward providing users with a "solution" that utilizes content to provide its answers--rather than a disconnected collection of content waiting to be sought out. Recent moves by Reed Elsevier also provide evidence of other STM publishing heavyweights' moving toward providing their content as part of an integrated package. Just last week, Reed Elsevier Ventures was the lead investor in a round of financing for Inpharmatica, a company that provides a drug discovery platform.

Professional publishing has always required knowledge of the target audience's business needs and applications. Now, more than ever, publishers of premium content need to move even closer to their ultimate users in order to provide services and solutions that merit premium prices.

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InfoCommerce Group Cites Exemplary Publishers of Rich Data in 'Models of Excellence' list
Thomson Announces Thomson Pharma, Powerful New Research Tool for Pharma and Biotechnology
Dow Jones is New Primary Source of Financial News, Providing Real-Time Content to Quote.Com Subs
Endeca Expands Search and Navigation Vision with New Enterprise Platform, Adds RSS, Web Services
LexisNexis(R) Market Intelligence to Help Marketers ID Growth Opportunities for Law Firms
A Whole New Way to Work: Open Text Revolutionizes Collaboration with First-Ever Unified Platform
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Fortifies Legal Strategy With Verity Technology

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Sarbanes-Oxley kicks in
Going Public: Corporate librarians are finding public libraries quite attractive
Marketers Need to Adapt to Personal Content
LexisNexis launches accounting software product
Wolters Kluwer Health Launches New Medication Order Management DB to Help Reduce Medical Errors
Factiva Offers New Search and Workflow Tools for the Microsoft Office System
New McGraw-Hill Online Service Delivers Immediate Answers for Physicians and Medical Students
KnowledgeStorm Reaches Government Technology Professionals via PostNewsweek Tech Media
In-Q-Tel Partners with Convera to Expedite Development of Distributed Indexing Capability
American Lawyer Media Increases Corporate Counsel Circulation

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