Blogs, Findability, and the Future of Information Seeking

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Blogs, Findability, and the Future of Information
Seeking

• Marydee Ojala
• Editor, ONLINE The Leading Magazine for
  Information Professionals
• Dick Kaser
• VP, Content
• Information Today Inc.

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Agenda

• Whats a Weblog?
• Who blogs?
• Why blog?
• Blogs and the information industry
• Future of Weblogs
• Infotodayblog.com

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Whats a Blog?

• Online journal
• Short entries
• Reverse chronological order
• Archived
• Personal, Subjective
• Links, inbound and outbound
• Interactivity - Maybe

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Changes in Definitions

• Individual blogs still exist, BUT
• Corporate or enterprise blogs
• Group blogs
• Event blogs, some in real time
• PR blogs, created for image
• Product blogs
• Photo blogs

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Trend Line

• Has gone from obscure technology to mainstream in
  practically no time
• Organic growth
• How mainstream?
• A USA Today article published 27 August 2004,
  Blogs May Be Good for Business
• National television
• Harvard Business Review

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Who Blogs?

• 60 of Internet users have a blog (Pew)
• Might be an undercount
• Technorati counted 2.8 million
• 9 blogs are created every minute
• Perseus says 10 million, 66 not updated
• Kids, University students (Even LIS students)
• Librarians
• CEOs (Alacra, Jupiter Media)

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Requirements

• Commitment
• If you say youre going to do this on a regular
  basis, people start expecting you to do it
• Quality
• Have something to say
• What is your area of expertise
• Be original

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Dangers

• Too personal
• Job-damaging (Mark Jen)
• Saying something youll regret
• Errors there forever, at least thats the theory

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Welcome to the Blogosphere

• What were not covering
• Do you include blogs when you look for
  information on a topic? Are blogs a legitimate
  format to include in a literature search? Will
  blogs be abstracted indexed?
• Evaluating information in a blog
• Staying current with RSS feeds

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Why Blog?

• To express an opinion
• To inform
• To be first
• To appeal to a new audience
• To communicate
• To disseminate information

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Opinions on Blogging

• Information Today poll on implementing blogs
  within the organization
• IWR poll on usefulness of blogs

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Blogs and Information Professionals

• Librarians were early adopters of blogging
• Gary Prices Resource Shelf
• Public libraries
• St. Joseph, Indiana
• Academic libraries
• U Minnesotas UThink, North Carolina State

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Blog Search Engines

• Daypop
• Technorati
• Feedster
• Web search engines
• RSS feeds

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Future of Blogging

• Fad? Trend? Already not cool?
• Non-threatening environment
• Potential for information analysis
• Replacements for non-functional intranets?
• Technological improvements needed
• Potential to be transformational
• Time management issues

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Is There a Blog in Your Future?

• Reintermediation of information professional
• A different form of publishing
• Instant opinion on products
• Should be a question on Jims survey
• Establishing us as cutting edge, out in front
  technologically

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Blogs in the Media

• Democratic race for president
• Bloggers were accredited
• Journalists blogging
• Sometimes as part of their job, sometimes not
• Newspaper librarians blogging
• Liz Donovan, Miami Herald
• The new face of information delivery/journalism
  and journalists are scared

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Information Today Publishing Platforms/Venues

• Sub-based periodicals (subscriptions ads)
• Controlled circulation mags (ads)
• Media web sites (impressions, banners, clicks)
• Digital blasts (sponsors and clicks)

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Content in Context

• Content as product
• Content as draw
• Content as driver
• Content as a leader

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Enter Blogs . . .

• Blogs as a topic of interest to readers
• Blogs as a medium of expression
• Blogs as a threat to media traffic
• Blogs as a monetization opportunity

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Blog as Editorial Initiative (2003)

• How to interest editors in blogging?
• How to reduce exposure and risk?
• How to get IT and marketing and sales behind it?
• A wide staff initiative (London Online
  2003)proof of concept.

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Infotodayblog.com

• Our event blog
• Online Information London 2003
• SLA 2004 (Sponsored)
• Online London 2004 (Sponsored)
• NFAIS 2005
• ITIs CIL Conference?

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Blog Traffic (London Online)
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Blog Traffic (London Online)
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Blogs The ITI Press

• Blogs as product extensions
• Bloggers as contributors columnists
• Blogs as advertising media
• Blogs as site traffic builders

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ITI Blog Initiatives

• www.infotodayblog.com
• www.librarystuff.net
• www.onlineinsider.net
• RSS