Online Information 2005 Blog

VNU have launched a blog as part of Online Information 2005 at http://vnuuk.typepad.com/online_information_2005/. This has been developed to provide a dedicated forum for discussion on information industry issues. Speakers and presenters will be posting to the blog in the run up to the event and during the exhibition and conference.

Online 2005 - International Information Awards

There is still time to submit nominations for the International Information Awards to be presented at Online 2005.

The categories are as follows:

Project Awards

These awards recognise excellence in projects which have been implemented in any type of organisational environment anywhere in the world. In each category the judges were looking for examples of clearly defined benefits to the organisation, as well as examples of an innovative approach to problem-solving:

1. Innovation in Knowledge Management
2. Innovation in Content Management
3. Best Intranet or Extranet Project - Sponsored by Wolters Kluwer
4. Best implementation of a business blog - Sponsored by VNUnet.com

Product/Vendor Awards

Entries can be made on behalf of commercially available products (eg fee-based information services), free-to-user products (eg web sites or web-based communities), internal projects (eg an intranet or extranet) or products and services which enhance usability (eg search and retrieval tools).

5. Best User Experience
6. FreePint Award for Best Customer Service Team. For more information and to make a nomination click here.
7. Best Business Information Product
8. Best STM Information Product
9. Best Specialist Search Product

Best Information / Knowledge Team Awards

The judges will be looking for examples of strong team spirit, an innovative approach to collaboration and team-working; and illustrations of the specific contribution made by the teams to their respective organisations.

10. Best team in an Academic Environment - Sponsored by Ovid
11. Best team in a Business Environment - Sponsored by ISI Emerging Markets
12. Best team in a Public Sector Environment
13. Best team in a Scientific Environment

Individual Awards

14. CILIP / Online Information Personal Development Award - this award recognises newly-chartered information professionals who have taken a proactive approach to their own personal development.
15. IWR Information Professional of the Year - Sponsored by LexisNexis Butterworths. The judges are looking for an individual from any type of organisational environment who has made an outstanding contribution as an information professional.
16. Lifetime Achievement - Sponsored by Dialog. This award recognises an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the international information industry.
17. The CILIP Jason Farradane Award (supported by UKeiG and ICLG) - Sponsored by Kompass. The award is made to an individual or a group of people in recognition of outstanding work in the information field.

The closing date for nominations is Monday 3 October, 2005.

Further information can be found at: http://www.online-information.co.uk/ol05/awards.html

Focus on wikis and blogs

This year's Online Information Conference will dedicate an entire day to examining blogs, wikis and RSS with contributions from some of the leading experts from around the world including Jimmy Wales, the Founder of Wikipedia.

The dedicated track will run on day two of the conference (Wednesday 30 November), and will be split into four focus areas: the evolution of wikis; wikis and blogs in corporate and academic institutions; content syndication - supply and demand; and monitoring and mining the blogosphere. Jimmy Wales, President of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc, USA, will open the programme with a keynote address focusing on his creation Wikipedia, and the future of the web community.

Presentations include:

• Wikis as online information sources - collective intelligence or collective idiocy? L. Anne Clyde, Professor, The University of Iceland,
  
  
• Blogging in the corporate world. Adriana Cronin Lukas, Partner, Big Blog Company, UK
  
  
• Blogging protocol - how to create an effective blogging policy. Philippe Borremans, Public Relations Manager, IBM Belgium and Luxembourg.
  
  
• The impact of blogs in creating new relationships - a publishers' perspective. Neil McIntosh, Associate Editor, The Guardian, UK
  
  
• Academics using blogs to teach students based on the experience of Warwick University.
  
  
• Latest developments in content syndication with RSS. Peter Scott, Internet Consultant, RSS Compendium, Canada
  
  
• How to create you own RSS feed - demonstration and questions from Fergus Burns, CEO, Nooked, USA

More information on the conference is available at
http://www.online-information.co.uk/conference.html , and a reminder that UKeiG members will receive a 25% discount on the full conference delegate rate up to November 1st.

Jason Farradane Award Sponsored by Kompass

Nominations invited for top award

Nominations are invited for the Jason Farradane Award, sponsored by Kompass and supported by UKeiG and the Industrial and Commercial Libraries Group (ICLG). It is made to an individual or a group of people in recognition of outstanding work in the information field. Examples of such work include:

• the development of an innovative product or service
• activities that have raised awareness of the value of information and the information profession within the workplace
• work that has raised the profile of the information profession amongst a wider community, and which can or has become a role model for others
  

This winner for 2004 was Julia Chandler, the Internet and Intranet Manager at the Department for International Development.

Previous years' winners include the London Metropolitan University and the TUC for the web site 'The Union Makes Strong", William Hann for FreePint, and Sandra Ward for her work in raising the profile of industrial information services

The award was first made to Jason Farradane in 1979. Farradane was the founder of the Institute of Information Scientists and a cornerstone of information science teaching and research.

It is an international award open to all.

Nomination
To make a nomination visit www.online-information.co.uk/awards. Nominations may also be submitted to w.k.reid@livjm.ac.uk

Closing date: 18th October 2005

About the Jason Farradane Award sponsor

Kompass Publishers is one of the world's leading providers of business information. It supplies data on international markets and some 1.8 million companies in 75 countries via its directories, CDs and web site www.kompass.co.uk.

Kompass was launched in the UK in 1962, but its roots go back nearly 60 years. The original concept was dreamed-up shortly after the Second World War by a Swiss businesswoman called Irma Neuenschwander. She recognised the need for up-to-date information on products and services in order to rebuild the devastated European economies.

Since 1944, Kompass has grown from a single directory into a global information giant, used by thousands of buyers, marketeers and business people to find suppliers, research markets and launch new products.

UKeiG free presentations at Online

The programme for this year looks excellent. There is the usual selection of pre- and post-conference workshops, roundtable sessions and free talks in the exhibition hall. Members of the UKeiG management committee will be delivering some useful, thought-provoking (and free) presentations around the themes of information retrieval and management, and you are all encouraged to come along and support them. Karen Blakeman will be providing expert search hints and tips in a master class on Tuesday 29th at 11.45. On Thursday 1st December at 11 o’clock she’ll also present on ‘web search tools you might have missed.’ You can also catch her at the conference on Tuesday 29th November comparing the new breed of desktop tools. Tracy Kent will be advising on information retrieval strategies for statistical data considering fee and free based statistical resources on Tuesday 29th at 3 o’clock. Shaida Dorabjee will present on ‘Pharmaceutical information - traditional and not-so-traditional sources’ on Thursday 1st December at 12 o’clock.

Discounted conference rates for UKeiG members

A reminder to all UKeiG members that you will receive a 25% discount on the full conference delegate rate if you book up to November 1st. If you register after 2nd November you will receive a 15% discount. A full conference programme and booking form will be going out with the next mailing to members and you can also find details and a registration form at http://www.online-information.co.uk/

Welcome to the UKeiG Online 2005 blog.

Online 2005 is the major online event of the year and this year is being held at Olympia, London between November 29th and December 1st. Throughout the run-up to and during the event, UKeiG will be reporting on key industry issues, the conference and the exhibition.

UKeiG will be attending the exhibition and you will find us on stand 139.

Details of the exhibition and the conference can be found on the Online 2005 web site at http://www.online-information.co.uk/.