You may want to go to: http://gerrit.visser.name/

- Business Week

The Online Information Conference is the world's no. 1 conference for the information industry. The 2007 conference attracted 900 delegates from over 43 countries, providing a forum dedicated to learning, debate, professional development, technology reviews and assessments, expert discussion as well as case-study presentations and the sharing of research results and opinion.

The Online Information Special includes an interview with keynote speaker Jimmy Wales (founder Wikipedia)

Conference Proceedings are available at the conference organization

Online Information 2007: Jane McConnell Netstrategy/JMC, France: Intranet 2.0 maturity: 2007 Global intranet Survey results. 2.0 tools are slowly entering the intranet landscape.

Many organisations are experimenting, but few feel they are currently using 2.0 tools in an optimised way, meaning fully integrated into the way of working.

The most widely spread tools are subscription services, wikis and internal blogs. However even the least widely used such as virtual worlds, podcasts, prediction markets and mashups are entering the enterprise internal landscape, says McConnell

The more the intranet becomes 'the way of working', the higher the integration of 2.0 tools. By far, the primary barrier is the lack of appropriate organisational culture.

Stephen Dale, dir. Semantix UK 'Collaboration and communities: communities of practice in local government' (presentation) 'Creating blogs is an obvious example of a way in which communications can be improved through social media, innovative use of online video and will surely follow as another means of getting the message across in a useful and interactive way. Citizens will be able to vote on online petitions to voice their views on important local issues"

Consultations should be run through wikis, enabling anyone with interest to have their say and to contribute. An important part of this culture change will be giving local government officers the responsibility for engaging with online social networks and becoming an integral part of the social network as opposed to being part of an unresponsive and faceless regulatory authority.

Also see Dale's profile http://tinyurl.com/yt9qek and his blog Dissident http://dissident.typepad.com/

(SrsiDynix is known as 'global leader in strategic technology solutions ; press releases also notice on SrsiDynix website link to NewsOnFeeds a review of 'Webbased-(news)aggregators')

* Striving to understand the power of the web 2.0 opportunities;

* Learning the major tools of web and Lib 2.0;

* Combining e-resources and print formats seamlessly; Is device independent and uses and delivers to everything from laptops to PDAs to iPods

* Develops targeted federated search and adopts the OpenURL standard; Connects people and technology and information in context;

* Doesn't shy away from non-traditional cataloguing and classification and chooses tagging, tag clouds, folksonomies and user-driven descr.and classifications whee appropriate;

* Embraces non-textual information and t power of pictures, moving images, sight and sound.

* Understands the 'long tail' and leverages power of old and new content. Sees t potential in using content sources like the Open Content Alliance, Google Book Search and OpenWorldCat.

* Connects users to expert discussions, conversations and communities of practice, and participates there as well. Uses t latest tools of communication (such as Skype) to connect content, expertise, information coaching and people.

A review of more articles and presentations by Stephen Abram http://tinyurl.com/2ndbjv Check Abram's presentation, titled: 'The Social Library 2.0' (nov. 2006)

Nicholas Bombourg, Benjamin Carpano and Christine Pellat of Ubiquick SAS, France "From open access content to quality business information: how web 3.0 will help information professionals to be more efficient"

"In a more and more competitive business environment, campanies need: to find precise, recent and validated industry information and to access it as quickly as possible".

"The amount of open access industry information published by public and authoritative sources has been exploding for serveral years. The paper of Bombour, Carpano and Pellat presents strategies and tools for easily identifying and accessing valuable open access content to serve business research needs"

Being a consultant is far from being a one-dimensional activity. It often feels like being in a circus: keeping the pace and energy high, juggling at least six things at once, helping out other team members, keeping the audience happy and delivering a fabulous overall experience. And, as with a circus act, practice is what underlies the overall performance. It is all about constantly honing skills & taking calculated risks to make it all look easy...."

"By constantly learning, adapting and growing, IPs from in-house employee to outside consultant can continue 2demonstrate the strategic value

"One of the biggest changes to occur in t information ind. last 10 yrs is that clients are no longer satisfied with undigested data. They seek context, synthesis and 'presentation-ready' results - data prepared in finished, usable format that they can in turn share with others”

Independent information professionals may be well positioned to help companies do some preliminary information gathering, sorting and synthesizing for new insights.

Some of the skills that IPs can market to clients in order to help companies meet their business challenges are: Focus, Distill & delete, Summarise, Format for readability, Find the bottom line, Communicate, Reveal methods, Develop modular content.

Identifying complementary service providers: Sharing t research goal. Using a modular approach to the project. Knowing IPs with other skills.

Knowing IPs in other countries. Knowing other business professionals. Starting small. Allowing at least 10% more time

Freelance Information Professional Joanna Ptolomey identiefies success factors in business and personal development for the independent IP

Joanna presents a case study of the methodologies and outcomes of a four month personal and business plan that she developed for herself as a free IP

More references to independent IP role model Joanna Ptolomey

Also check the website of the Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP) and Mary Ellen Bates Information Services

Catherine Kelly: Managing the relationship between knowledge, power and trust in enhancing collaborative working relationships. Kelly explores how power may be exercised in the organisational context the use of power resources.

Why knowledge is regarded as a power resource. How organisations may use power in a legitimate fashion. The impact of legitimate governance. The consequent development of trust.

Kelly: Key themes in the knowledge economy literature include.: Knowledge is of central importance to advanced economies, key to organisational performance.

Organisations and work have become more knowledge intensive. Key challenge to employers is that of helping employees to work. Kelly proposed that, if power is excercised in a legitimate manner, it will lead to the development of trust amongst organisational members. The development of such trust will result in employees and employers working together collaboratively to achieve organisational objectives. This greatly enhances the levels of knowledge creation and sharing amongst organisational members, while restricting t rigid control systems and consequent organisational rigidity that are typically found in organisations built on a culture of disrust.

Kelly: Human beings are naturally social animals. The knowledge manager working within the knowledge economy must harness our natural urge to collaborate and communicate while, at the same time, minimise t effect of destructive levels of competition in t workforce collaboratively in an increasingly competitive working environment.

And last but not least: The role of the knowledge manager in enabling knowledge flows. Also see: Inside Knowledge http://tinyurl.com/2jzbkt

Bio of Catherine Kelly (London Metropolitan University, UK) http://tinyurl.com/23b3qm

Online Informaton 2007, Catherine Kelly