What's your research and writing worth?
Nothing, apparently ? if you agree with Andersonomics as it's interpreted by some folks. Your content has no value if you make it digitally available?unless maybe you're a rockstar or already sponsored.

"It is challenging to find the best fit for the software."

OCLC, a nonprofit library service and research organization, and Recorded Books, have signed an agreement under which Recorded Books eAudiobooks will continue to be available to libraries through NetLibrary, OCLC's platform for eContent.

A former EContent assistant editor, Kinley Levack, forwarded me an August column from The New York Observer, The Media Mob. Her email bore this subject line: "I will always think of you when I hear this phrase ?" Alas, the column was not about the most inspiring bosses ever. In fact, it was about "The New Media Religion: ?Platform Agnostic.'"

Online, an increasing number of voices can be heard, and word certainly travels fast. Unfortunately, that word isn't always complimentary. Yet, many companies have no idea what negative information is being circulated and possibly eating away at their businesses and the reputations they have worked so hard to build.

"They were stunned at how quickly and easily it was done."

Should we establish codes of conduct for econtent? Do we need to bring civilization to the wild, wild web? Or, to put it in Old West terms, does this cybertown need a sheriff?or at least some law 'n' order? Whenever you have apparently unfettered freedom, questions like these arise. When that freedom involves an international multimedia platform, the questions are expressed even louder, and they are also harder to answer.

NetLibrary, OCLC's platform for eContent and provider of eBooks for the institutional library market, has announced agreements with 19 publishers that will add thousands of new eBooks and eAudiobooks to NetLibrary's catalog of titles.

"My job is to translate their knowledge and expertise into the information that our customers need."

Agile thinking is something we do everyday. Perhaps we miss a word or two on a bad phone connection, or we don't express our thoughts clearly in an email, yet the person on the other end of the communication detects myriad clues from context or experience to interpret meaning, or asks follow-up questions for clarification. Michelle Manafy, editor of EContent magazine, waxes eloquently on the topic . . .

It seems like everyone's talking about free information again: The old meme that "information wants to be free" appears to be recycling in the web's hive-mind. I am still not convinced that information cares one way or the other, but I do know that content owners and providers have widely divergent views on whether or how they should be compensated.

"I'm measured on the maintenance of the site's content."

I don't understand knowledge management. Yes, it is among the things we cover, but I swear it is the one of the most elusive. While content may be reduced to something as ephemeral as zeros and ones or bits and bytes, knowledge is one of the ultimate intangibles. How do you capture it in the first place so that you can make it manageable? It's like trying to catch air with a net.

"Usage metrics only tell part of the story."

Most bloggers are not journalists in any sense. They don't see their job as reporting the news and shouldn't be held to journalistic standards.

With the rapid evolution of interactive Web 2.0technologies, corporate marketing departments are presented with challenges and opportunities. Thechallenges come from selecting the right tools for the intended audience and figuring out how to mesh the new technologies with traditional approaches.Opportunity derives from the inherent democratizationof online marketing.

With digital distribution, the rules are still emerging and, like publishing business models, will continue to do so. Some things remain almost constant, though, such as the free versus fee debate. From B2B magazine and daily paper models to newsstand sales and high-value subscription content, the publishing business has always demanded a range of formulas for feeding the bottom line.

EContent editor Michelle Manafy interviews Peter Krogh, author of The DAM Book and Microsoft Icon of Imaging, about the importance of metadata in digital image preservation. Krogh provides tips for photographers as well as insights into the industry's role in long-term image preservation.

The pundits assure us that some day soon, we?ll always be connected?24x7x52?anywhere on earth. Ubiquitous computing. Full-time interactivity. Always reachable, always connected: We will never be alone again. I don?t regard that future as utopian, except in the dictionary sense of a utopia being ?imaginary and indefinitely remote.?

?We want a one-stop shop for ordering.'

EContent magazine editor Michelle Manafy discusses the role metadata plays in image preservation with Kevin Connor, senior director of product management for Adobe's professional digital imaging products.

I have strong evidence that ?negative? headlines often generate a lot more clicks than ?positive? ones. Why do tabloid newspapers put scandals on the cover? Because those big, fat, nasty headlines sell newspapers. Several of my blogger friends have experimented with negative headlines with fascinating results. For example, Jonathan Kranz, a freelance copywriter who works with companies to create marketing materials has a link on his site www.kranzcom.com: ?Important Reasons NOT to Hire Me.? Here are some of the reasons: ?You like jargon,? ?You want to play it safe,? and ?You like vague messaging.? Kranz says the negative word ?NOT? attracts attention.

At most companies, the intranet is not the "go-to" source for important business documents. In fact, for many companies The intranet has no real role in how employees and managers interact day-to-day or in the overall success of the business. This cannot continue. The corporate intranet needs to be a tool that increases your workforce's productivity, morale and confidence while also improving your business's bottom line.

NetLibrary, OCLC's platform for econtent and a provider of ebooks for the institutional library market, has announced agreements with 21 leading publishers that will add thousands of new ebooks and eaudiobooks to NetLibrary's growing catalog of more than 160,000 titles.

EContent editor Michelle Manafy discusses the convergence of Rich Internet Applications and content management with Darren Guarnaccia, Vice President of product marketing at Sitecore.

"Sometimes customer service is like walking a tightrope, due to the time difference."

NetLibrary, OCLC's platform for econtent, intends to offer downloadable eAudiobooks from Blackstone Audio through subscription as well as its current purchase program beginning March 3, 2008.

OCLC NetLibrary, a platform for econtent to libraries worldwide, intends to make available the individual ebook titles previously only available digitally through Oxford University Press' Oxford Scholarship Online product (OSO).

The EContent team suggests some sites, projects, and resources that--while outside the scope of the EContent 100 list--are well worth a closer look.

Welcome to the Seventh Annual EContent 100?our list of companies that matter most in the digital content industry.

Our list of the 100 companies that matter most in the digital content industry.

I've just returned from representing EContent at the second Gartner Portals, Content& Collaboration Summit in London. This turned out to be an excellent conference in every respect. It was especially notable for the balance of strategic insight and tactical best practices in the areas of search, portals, collaboration, and content management.

The annual EContent 100 list provides an opportunity to consider the industry as a whole, and it reflects the content industry?s need to look at its present and its future from many perspectives. Long gone is the era in which print, online, audio, and video media formed distinct publishing markets, as is the time when enterprise firewalls defined the boundaries of where professionals discovered professional-grade content.

It?s funny how, once you get an idea in your head, you start seeing things in a different light. I have moved from ?just in case? reading of blogs and discussion lists to ?just in time? searching of list archives for what I need right now. Sure, I still read and participate in a few lists, and I can?t start my morning without a few of my favorite blogs, but I have given up on trying to stay on top of new developments throughout the infosphere.

Get to know the judges behind the EContent 100 List of companies that matter most in the digital content industry.

While it might seem that choosing the 100 companies that matter most in the econtent industry is our biggest challenge in this issue, I find the more difficult (and fun) aspect of participating in the selection of the annual EContent 100 list is figuring out what the correct categories are and which companies go in each. As we revise the taxonomy of econtent companies, each year we seem to have more discussions about what company goes into what category than we do about the merits of individual companies.

Keeping with years of tradition, I always like to mark the EContent 100 issue with brash predictions about where publishers will start seeing some money or investment in the coming days. For 2007 my prognostications focused on the rising importance of content merchandising, the ad-supported mobile media model, increased emphasis on ad-targeting, and the possible (possible, mind you) revival of micro-payments. Boy, am I glad I hedged my bets.

EContent magazine editor Michelle Manafy discusses the challenges organizations face when users turn to consumer based technologies to meet their desire for a Web 2.0 collaborative experience inside the enterprise with Jim Till, CMO of Xythos Software.

"I don't get woken up in the middle of the night these days."

When we are searching econtent, we often focus on constructing the perfect search strategy. If the information is out there, we'll find it, right? Well, no. While intelligent indexing, tagging, and enhanced metadata all help construct bigger needles in the information haystack, we still approach the haystack assuming we know what a needle looks like.

The likelihood of any bottled water originating from pristine tropical falls may be questionable, but it does arouse my thoughts about evolving perceptions.

Yale University Press is adding digital content to NetLibrary, OCLC's leading platform for econtent to libraries worldwide.

Ebrary, a provider of econtent services and technology, announced that Duke University Press has licensed its platform.

"I like to be out in front of costumers as much as possible."

Social networking is all the rage online, and businesses are trying to get into on the action. In response, Generate has introduced a new technology designed to provide enterprise class social networking.

We old-timey publishing folks think in terms of lead time: We always think a couple of months in advance. I'm more likely to have trouble remembering what month it actually is than the fact that I'm working on my October column right now, just finished editing October news, am editing November features, and am voting on the December EContent 100 list.

Just because some organizations do not appreciate libraries or research analysts does not mean that these are not good career paths; it just means that individual librarians need to reposition themselves and emphasize the value they offer to an organization.

?I go out and play on the internet at least once a month just to see what is going on out there.?

EContent magazine editor Michelle Manafy discusses the value of eBooks versus print with Christine Scheidegger, who led the Elsevier team which commissioned an independent study evaluating the value of eBooks relative to print books.

The rise of interactive Web 2.0 technologies has changed user expectations relating to the immediacy and accessibility of content in context. Nearly every day there?s a press release touting a new tool or site that allows users to customize, modify, and mash up traditional forms of media to suit a specific function or need. And nowhere have the ramifications been felt more than in the traditional print publishing industry. Publishing isn't just a two-way street, though; content is coming and going in every direction and publishers are racing to keep up.

Two years ago, I considered the ?permanent record? we create online when we least expect it. In keeping with the security theme, let?s look at some other unintended consequences of easy econtent creation.

?Regular users, readers, and drive-by people come in and let us know what they think.?

EContent magazine editor Michelle Manafy discusses strategies and tactics for organizations searching for an Enterprise Search Solution with Martin White, managing director of Intranet Focus Ltd. and author of Making Search Work: Implementing Web, Intranet and Enterprise Search.

?I work with salespeople to make sure they have the tools they need to make sales.?

April was a busy month for content management trade shows, each bigger than the one before, and each with an emphasis on multilingual content.

After witnessing many econtent companies start up, grow, sometimes die, occasionally go public, and often be acquired over the past (gasp) 24 years, I've finally come to the realization that the best companies follow a defined birth and growth process. Initial sparks of an idea typically come from a founder who identifies a market problem that is solved by technology. The founder-turned-entrepreneur then either self-funds or finds seed funding to build an initial product, which is typically released into the marketplace after months or years of development effort. So far, so good.

?We come up with a method to map the current content to the new application.?

EContent magazine editor Michelle Manafy discusses practical applications of the Semantic Web with Eric Miller, president of Zepheira and former leader of the Semantic Web Initiative for the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) at MIT.

When most of us think of content management, we think of the enterprise variety?a large database repository for all of our documents?or we think of the web type, which manages our web content from the back end. However, another type of content management has emerged, one that has been specifically designed to let users slice, dice, and reuse information at virtually whatever level of granularity they desire.

Online media rooms provide many lessons in leveraging the value of econtent. This is the one place on any type of organization?s site where marketers and communicators act like publishers to create valuable and original content that reaches all of their constituents.

"We drive the vision and the strategy of the product lines."

Examples of fixed and fluid organizations abound. There are those that rely on size and dominance to maintain the status quo and those which, even if they are large, stay nimble and evolve with the marketplace, in part by tapping the collective web whims and wisdom.

OCLC has launched the WorldCat Registry, a directory for libraries and consortia, and the services they provide.

?I?m part of a team that helps the company go to market in the publishing industry.?

NetLibrary, a division of OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc., and a platform for econtent to libraries worldwide, has launched a new purchase model for its collection of eAudiobooks.

Ex Libris Group has announced the general release of MetaLib version 4.00.

Congoo, a free premium information network, has launched Congoo News, a news and information resource on the internet.

I seem to be turning into the User Interface Police. I am sure that, back in 1982 when they wrote the user manual for my ?Generation II? microwave, pushing nine buttons just to set the clock made perfect sense. The UI Police will let these folks get off with a warning?it was written in 1982, after all. I had hoped that household appliance manufacturers had gotten a clue in the last two decades, but my spiffy new vacuum cleaner came with a 40-page manual, complete with obscure line drawings and text in 9-point font. Evidently, there is still a need for good user-manual writers. In my work, however, I?m now on the other side of the equation.

EContent Editor Michelle Manafy discusses the basic legal issues that any would-be podcaster should be aware of with Jeffrey P. Hermes, a partner in Brown Rudnick's Litigation Department who focuses on First Amendment law.

?I help people from the planning phase through to the actual implementation.?

NetLibrary, a division of OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc., and a platform for econtent to libraries worldwide, has announced an agreement with Random House Audio Group to distribute Books on Tape, Listening Library, and Living Language titles.

NetLibrary, a division of OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc., and a platform for econtent to libraries worldwide, offers a selection of more than 1,600 classic and award winning e-audiobooks from Blackstone Audio.

A collection of blogs EContent 100 team members hit (or write) on a regular basis. Click and learn.

So who put the ?e? in econtent? I?d like to meet this guy. When collections are digitized, why don?t we call it ?econtent?? Instead, we talk about creating a ?digital library.? The information industry has been busy making content digital for 30 years or so. Yet somehow the idea of turning print indexes into online databases or digitizing entire runs of scholarly journals so that they are full-text searchable just doesn?t capture the public?s attention. It?s only when we call it ?econtent? that everyone gets all interested and excited.

In EContent?s 2005 year-end roundup of the Content Management System marketplace, I (amazingly) found 1,879 distinct CMS products listed in 20 directories around the world. I have received dozens of requests for my spreadsheet listing all the CMS tools and a second spreadsheet of their most common features, which is being developed as part of the CMSML project (a markup language to help describe and evaluate CMS capabilities).

Get to know a bit about the twelve members of the EContent 100 judging team, the group of experts and industry watchers who formulated the 2006 list of companies that matter most in the digital content industry.

This year we profile the 20 companies that generated the most banter among the EContent 100 Judging team during our month-long wiki-based judging process.

Welcome to the sixth annual EContent 100?our list of companies that matter most in the digital content industry.

Our list of the 100 companies that matter most in the digital content industry.

TheEContent team suggests some sites, projects, and resources that?while outside the scope of the EContent 100 list?are well worth a closer look.

"I use a statistical approach to get data into sensible and usable form.?

These five case studies explore the day-to-day impact of digital content on the way people really work. They demonstrate the transformative power of econtent on the way we create, collaborate, and connect.

NetLibrary, a division of OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc., and a platform for econtent to libraries worldwide, is offering subscription service to three Chinese-language databases from Airiti, Inc., an aggregator and distributor of Chinese language content.

EContent Editor Michelle Manafy discusses the commoditization of enterprise content management with John Newton, CTO and chairman of Alfresco.

EContent editor Michelle Manafy discusses issues related to deploying instant messaging (IM) in the enterprise--from industry standards to corporate culture--with Jive Software's co-founder and CTO, Matt Tucker.

?We want to know about their relationships with the computer.?

The other day, my sweetie taught me a new word:virga (defined as ?wisps of precipitation streaming from a cloud but evaporating before reaching the ground?). We see a lot of that here in the Rockies?long trails of rain in the distance that never get to us, tantalizing us in the middle of yet another summer of drought.

?Our profiles are written by real people and are not just boilerplate.?

EContent editor Michelle Manafy interviews Joe Fantuzzi, CEO of Workshare, about information security and leak prevention in the wake if the company's "Blind Faith" study.

NetLibrary, a division of OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc., and a platform for econtent to libraries worldwide, has announced an agreement with Taipei, Taiwan-based Airiti, Inc. to offer subscription service to three Chinese-language databases.

MyiLibrary, an aggregated eContent provider, has announced the launch of its updated eBook platform.

OCLC Online Computer Library Center, a nonprofit organization and provider of computer-based cataloging, reference, resource sharing, econtent, and preservation services, has acquired DiMeMa (Digital Media Management), an organization that developed and supports CONTENTdm, digital management software for libraries.

?It?s about your investment in your home and what upgrades you can make to it.?

The big takeaway for me is the perception that our industry faces a new content cannibalization scare. The old scare, ?free information will cannibalize fee,? which was intense for much of the early 2000s, is still simmering on the back burner. The new scare, the idea that offering micro-content will cannibalize subscription sales as well as the sale of large reports, now tops many publishers? lists of professional neuroses.

Content creators and users alike leverage tracking tools to help determine how content is being used. Accurate tracking allows content to be delivered in more meaningful contexts for users and advertisers, and can make a significant impact on the bottom line.

Tim Bray, one of the co-creators of XML who is currently the Director of Web Technologies at Sun Microsystems, speaks with EContent magazine's editor, Michelle Manafy, about the power and promise of XML--including RSS and Web Services.

?Leading the standards efforts gives us an earlier awareness of worldwide adoption.?

Face it: face time remains the most valuable way to forge relationships. While the Web makes it possible to find almost anyone, nothing compares to shoulder bumping and elbow rubbing when you want to make useful business connections. That?s why networking remains the most compelling reason to attend the Buying and Selling eContent conference. Not only is the show a content-biz Who?s Who, almost every aspect of it is designed to provide networking opportunities. In fact, sometimes the actual conference sessions feel like they get in the way of why everyone is really there.

Damien Stolarz, co-author of the Hands-On Guide to Video Blogging and Podcasting, talks with Michelle Manafy, editor of EContent magazine, about the business of podcasting. Is the medium a flash in the pan or does it represent a significant technological innovation and present a meaningful business model?

Heard about the Read/Write Web? It?s an instant clich? most econtent professionals need to be aware of: the growing importance of user-generated content?and the preference of many users for content coming from other users. I?ve discussed this before (October 2001 and February 2003), back when it was an interesting new trend. Now it?s a phenomenon. I spend more Web time reading ?nonprofessional? material than I do reading pro content, and I?m not the only one. It?s a considerable change from traditional media, where the sheer cost of publication and distribution limit most of the field to the pros. I?m not sure it?s the kind of change people expected.

Attendees from the 2006 Buying& Selling eContent conference held in Scottsdale Arizona discuss the value of the show with EContent magazine editor, Michelle Manafy, from the "Cookout on Mummy Mountain" networking event.

RLG, a nonprofit organization of over 150 research libraries, archives, museums and other cultural memory institutions that designs and delivers information discovery services, organizes collaborative programs, and creates and promotes relevant standards and practices, and OCLC Online Computer Library Center a nonprofit, membership, library service and research organization that provides computer-based cataloging, reference, resource sharing, eContent, preservation services, and research to 54,000 libraries in 109 countries, have agreed to come together.

NetLibrary, a division of OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc., and a platform for eContent to libraries worldwide, has introduced a new authentication solution that will allow libraries to extend access to remote users.

?I make certain that we get a positive ROI.?

The announcement of the Sony eBook Reader, expected out this month, triggered a flurry of speculation about the ebook market. We at EContent aren?t immune: We wrote about its Japanese predecessor (LIBRI?), covered its CES debut, speculated on its potential impact on the ebook market, and are angling for a review unit (as is every other media outlet on the planet). Sure, I?m interested in any delivery mechanism for digital content and the opportunity it offers as another content outlet, but damn, the new Sony Reader is just so small and hot!

?We make being a reference for EMC Documentum fun.?

In our dynamic industry, new companies form all the time. Start-ups in the content technology business as well as online publishing ventures appear at such a rapid clip that it is difficult to keep up. Imagine what it?s like for the executives of a new company in this business to get their brainchild noticed in a crowded field. A typical launch involves months of planning, lots of hard work, and often a substantial budget for PR, analyst relations, and advertising I found it remarkable, then, that a new company called Squidoo was successfully launched in late 2005 without any of the traditional marketing and PR techniques.

Patrick Spain, CEO of HighBeam Research (and one of the first to recognize the value of online information services) talks with EContent editor Michelle Manafy about user expectations of content flexibility? and how content companies can really deliver.

WebJunction, an online community dedicated to supporting the library management and computing needs of library staff, has named members of its E-Learning Advisory Committee.

What do you get when you combine a four-year-old licensing system and two possibly complementary projects to digitize substantial quantities of print information? With luck, a substantial ecommons: millions of digital items that can be used directly and as the basis for derivative works without infringing copyright. These projects should also result in full-text indexing for millions more items that won?t be freely available online but can be acquired through libraries and booksellers.

It?s been fascinating to both observe and participate in the debate about blogs and wikis in the enterprise. Just like the hand-wringing over personal computers entering the workplace in the 1980s and echoing the Web and email debates of the 1990s, enterprise IT executives and content professionals seem to be getting their collective knickers in a twist about blogs and wikis these days. Remember when executives believed email might ?expose a corporation to its secrets being revealed to the outside world?? How about when information professionals worried about employees freely using the public Internet and all of its (gasp!) ?unverified information??

"It's so much easier to be a student now!"

Forty-eight university libraries in Taiwan and Hong Kong have purchased more than 50,000 OCLC NetLibrary eBooks under a cooperative agreement.

In the early 1990s, Freenets were making Internet accessible to the masses. We could finally tap into bulletin boards, Usenet newsgroups, and even some rather primitive Web sites. I remember feeling very butch that I could configure my Trumpet Winsock and figure out how to establish a dial-up PPP connection. Everything was plain ASCII, and downloading text-only email took ten minutes, but it felt pretty exciting--not earth-shattering, though. Yes, it was nice to be able to connect to a remote BBS without paying long-distance toll charges, but the Internet was still mostly populated by us geeks. What a difference a decade makes.

?Many customers are under deadline and they need to have access to the information as quickly as possible.?

Twenty-first century business is transacted online?even the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has trouble getting people to read paper versions of corporate proxy statements in the econtent age. In a move to regain investors? attention, a recently proposed SEC rule change would allow them to read and post proxy communications via the Web.

Have you ever searched something on Google yielding more than 1,000 results? What a silly question. I?d guess most readers have seen results in the millions. Heck, even a vanity search may yield tens of thousands of results. Here?s a better question: are you sure you?ve ever retrieved more than 1,000 results for a Google search? And who are they to tell you what's relevant?

So what?s with all the nonsense words being thrown about by well-intentioned marketing people at econtent companies? Nearly every Web site I look at and almost all the press releases I receive are laden with meaningless jargon that?s just plain annoying. As I was cruising around looking at econtent company sites and press pages while serving as part of the EContent 100 decision-making group, it became clear that most companies in this business just aren?t communicating well.

It is now a tradition in the annual EContent 100 issue that we climb way out on a limb and anticipate promising new sources of revenue for the coming year. Even as 2005 closes, it is already clear that boatloads of money are about to start racing online, especially from big media TV and radio brands desperately chasing audiences that are fragmenting into smaller niches of personalized, on-demand media consumption. In past years, advertising drove many of the trends online, but this coming year much of the energy will be coming from the media industry itself as it tries to retool for an on-demand future.

The EContent team suggests some sites, projects, and resources that?while outside the scope of the EContent 100 list?are well worth taking a closer look at.

As we wrap up 2005, we should be well on the way to digital nirvana, everyone zooming down the infobahn consuming (and paying for) vast quantities of digital content. We should be getting full measure from our broadband connections?always connected, always in touch, always consuming. Yet somehow potholes keep emerging on that infobahn. In the past few months alone, high-profile columns and incidents have revealed a couple of deep ruts.

?If you are a researcher who goes to many different data sources or search engines, we can make all of those come together in one place.?

When you think of KM, you probably think of the corporate variety, but there is also a more personal type of knowledge management whereby individual workers try to keep track of the information they encounter in their daily work lives, and more importantly, make intelligent use of that information.

EBSCO has successfully tested the ONIX for Serials Online Holdings (SOH) format for communicating detailed holdings information between systems.

I won?t go into book cover-judgment platitudes here; rather, I?ll suggest thinking a bit about the whole what-you-see-is-what-you-get proposition. In life, it usually means that just wanting something (or someone) to be one way or another won?t make it so. The problem with the assessment phase, I find, is spin. Like cars: one person?s standard is another?s option?and software?s no different.

"The Internet has so changed the role of information for large global brands."

Why bother with all the issues of installation and upgrades, server maintenance and security, when for a fee, you could let the vendor take care of it all? However, hosted CMS is certainly not for everyone as?right or wrong?concerns about hosting linger.

MetaPress has announced it has enhanced its publisher content aggregation site.

Like most professions, the advent of digital content has affected the legal profession. It has changed the means and methods by which law firms, their clients, and the courts themselves must use, manage, and discover content.

The most well-known content management books, reports, and organizations describe various numbers of stages, or phases, of the content management process and lifecycle. While the experts differ somewhat on specifics, aspects of these stages are universal and those seeking to make a CM investment best be prepared.

Because the Internet is all about information?that which we find in the public domain but also, unfortunately, that which industrious seekers find through their own devices and then make public?even Average Joes and Janes have to be aware of their Web identities and proactive in managing them. ZoomInfo focuses on identity information about people and companies.

"Business people crave a little humor now and then."

At EContent magazine, we adhere to a strict separation of church and state. I think most reputable magazines do, but in trade publishing it is particularly challenging?and important?to maintain editorial integrity while balancing the interests of the vendors, who are both readers and potential advertisers. Despite this separation, I find myself with plenty of sales issues to think about. I?m not hawking ad pages or subscriptions, but many editors are concerned with the salability of their product in both of these arenas; it is our primary objective to fill pages with quality content that will attract readers?both for subscription revenue and to offer advertisers a desirable audience.

Remember the feeling of liberation when you realized that there was, in fact, no permanent record? That your elementary school GPA and behavior demerits really didn?t matter much in high school, no college would go back to anything prior to high school, and very few employers will even ask for your college transcripts, much less that infamous permanent record? Don?t be too smug, and maybe feel a little sorry for the tech-savvy kids growing up these days. They do have a permanent record of sorts, and so do you. It?s called the Internet.

Here?s a thought to give you nightmares: what you say in your econtent is only part of the message people receive. The rest is metacontent?and believe me, you have less control over metacontent than you?d like.

Web Services and XML technologies are catching on in traditional and digital publishing as well as in a variety of other industries. Consultants and vendors agree that there?s no single event that?s led to the increased popularity of these technologies but say the applications are now more proven and are gaining critical mass among users.

Despite the steady move to econtent by publishers, printers, academia, and corporations, there are still plenty of people who want paper and turn to digital content only reluctantly, according to Jean Bedord, consultant and senior analyst with Shore Communications, Inc. The need for better tracking of print advertising finally has been infused with new possibility, courtesy of a digital content technology.

I?m sick and tired of the media elite bitching and moaning about their diminishing role in society. There?s lots of blame and finger-pointing going on at big media these days: people don?t watch network TV news ?because they work long hours?; newspaper and magazine revenues are down, which is ?the advertiser?s fault?; and everyone?s favorite scapegoat?blogging?is ?not real journalism.? That?s the world according to traditional media. I disagree. The news cycle has changed, and with it, so must many of the rules of the game.

The TriCaster is a gem. NewTek has put together an incredibly powerful little package at an almost unbelievable price point. The live switching alone is probably worth the price of admission, but when you throw in video capture and editing, all in a portable form factor, you?ve got an incredibly useful Webcasting tool at your disposal. While it will best be mastered by a video pro, it is easy enough for almost anyone in an organization to use and provides a practical all-in-one solution for folks that can?t afford a production team, but want to produce relatively high-quality content.

?We help publishers by identifying problems and solutions.?

We hear in the news about famine-stricken areas of Africa, but due to connectivity problems, much of Africa is also information-starved. And, like a shortage of food, a shortage of information can be a disaster. Founded in 2000 to mitigate the third world?s dire digital communications problems, the WiderNet Project is a largely volunteer, nonprofit organization based at the University of Iowa.

?When we know what?s going on internally, we can compare that to what?s going on in the outside world, and we look for bridges between different technologies.?

TypePad is a terrific tool to set up a professional-quality blog in just an hour or so. Perfect for individuals or businesses, TypePad requires no Web design or HTML skills. With the WYSIWYG editor, creating a post is as easy as using Microsoft Word. TypePad is what Web-based services are supposed to be: easy-to-use, powerful, professional, cost-effective, and fun. Many services make the claims, TypePad actually delivers. David meerman scott

Endeavor Information Systems, a provider of library management software, has announced the first general release of Endeavor Meridian, an electronic resource management system.

As I evaluate and use information products and services, one thing I look for is evidence of right-brain thinking?in products and services offered as well as in companies? marketing and communications approaches. Sadly, we are primarily a left-brain industry. This obsession might seem trivial, but I guess my right-brain outlook on life causes me to take a holistic view of the information marketplace.

What goes on in some people?s minds? On an April business trip to the Buying& Selling eContent show (BSeC) in toasty Arizona, I got stranded in a blizzard in Colorado. Surrounded by 40,000 other travelers in various states of distress, I found myself wondering why some come together during difficult experiences and pool resources and knowledge to better the situation while others turn competitive and adversarial, hoarding both assets and information.

?Librarians: they?re smart, they?re organized, and a little subversive, which is cool.?

Ovid?s new platform for its electronic books collection provides a comprehensive search experience for the health profession. This version integrates books with Ovid?s journal database, university bibliographic records, and external resources.

You?ve seen them?in airports and on airplanes, on commuter trains, in the supermarket, walking down the street, in cars, wandering around outside office buildings. You may even be one. That?s right, the borgs have landed. Millions of them are among us. Maybe they?re not as scary as on Star Trek, but they can be pretty unnerving nonetheless. For the non-Trekkers, ?borg? is short for cyborg, a combination of person (or, in Star Trek, any sentient species) and machine. I recently read an article that expands the definition of borg, and now I see them everywhere.

Entriq "helps customers monetize content in new ways while not worrying about security issues, the technology involved in creating an online offering, billing issues, customer service, or results tracking," says CEO Jan Steenkamp.

I am a frequent conference speaker, and preparation is always a challenge because I know that most of the attendees at my sessions are experienced information professionals; I want to tell them something they do not already know. For a change of pace, I recently gave a series of workshops to groups of people within a variety of organizations who use the Web as part of their work, but who are not information professionals or Web researchers. From their questions and comments, and from watching them do hands-on searching afterward, I was reminded once again of some of the knowledge that we info pros take for granted.

?I look at how we can improve the process?and the information is the lifeblood of the process.?

Purveyors of digital content continue to seek the best ways to market and sell their materials while ensuring that only authorized parties access content. The trick is to find an end-to-end solution that lets customers use content in the ways they feel they should be allowed and at the same time, protect the rights of content providers.

Usability gurus say you have only five or ten seconds to communicate with a Web user before they click on to another site. And with Google now announcing Eight! Billion! Web! Pages! in its index, there?s never a shortage of new sites to click to. So it?s only natural to design content to suit fast-thought users, those for whom reading two hundred words would be serious effort.

"Information is the lifeblood of strategic sourcing work."

A simple yet powerful automatic translation tool for small to medium-sized businesses. Plug-ins for the most commonly used applications facilitate basic translations. The Systran Translation Project Manager coupled with the Systran Dictionary Manager helps companies achieve publishable translated content without hiring a full time professional translator.

Like survivors? tales, the story of the Web?s role in the Asian earthquak and tsunami disaster will unfold for some time to come.

Feed me! Feed me!? That?s the cry of many of your visitors, particularly those trying to find nutritional content despite junk-info overload. You can probably help by taking advantage of emerging content delivery options, but be sure to take into account some of the aggravations you may encounter when developing your informational menu.

Financial services?among the most regulated companies in the world?lag behind most other industries in implementing CMS, but those that are doing so are reaping benefits.

Entrieva offers a comprehensive product line providing information categorization, discovery, and notification software. The company?s products combine to create enterprise solutions that discover and categorize information intelligently. Real-time notification via cell or wired phones, PDAs, email, and similar systems is optional.

The influence of business and political blogs has become too large to be dismissed by the econtent industry. Blogging provides experts and wannabes with an easy way to make their voices heard in the Web-based marketplace of ideas. Companies that ignore independent product reviews and discussions about service quality found on blogs are living dangerously; information aggregators and distributors need to do some soul searching to determine where blogs fit in to their offerings; and info pros should be prepared to advise their organizations on the impact of blogs on a day's work.

Focus is a good thing, but myopia isn?t. Once in a while I have to get my head up off the page (or screen, as is increasingly the case) and look around at what?s going on in the world. This doesn?t always mean a change of scene, though?this week content made the evening news.

The self-proclaimed ?Jabber universe? is more than a company: It?s a veritable movement. At its core is the technology?an open, XML-based protocol that enables any two online entities to exchange instant messages, presence, and other structured information in real time.

"Blogs are my passion because they're a collaborative tool."

The European Parliament has voted with only one amendment in favor of the eContentplus program, which will support the development of multi-lingual content for innovative, on-line services across the EU.

Baker& Taylor, a distributor of books, AV, and library services, and OCLC NetLibrary, a provider of eContent services to the institutional library market, have announced an agreement to combine their strengths to facilitate delivery of a broader range of eContent to the library market.

ProQuest Information and Learning and Information Today, Inc. have announced an agreement to offer original articles and reports from nine Information Today titles directly to individuals via the Information Today Web site.

I take pleasure in looking forward to the more promising new revenue streams (and trickles) of the coming year.

Of the many trends on which I could comment, there are three areas that stand out: information architecture, personas, and CMS.

TheEContent team suggests some sites, projects, and resources that?while outside the scope of the EContent 100 list?are well worth taking a closer look at.

As I think about what makes econtent different from traditional content and what?s happening in the Internet landscape these days, one topic comes to the fore: trust.

The things that make an egoless company will also make a remarkable company and maybe even one that makes the EContent 100 list.

I am confronted with the downside of emergent communication more than most. With the increasing pressure for real-time information comes the responsibility of balancing substance with speed.

What?s wrong with online surveys? For the insta-polls on so many Web sites, a better question is ?What isn?t?? The questions are frequently badly worded, but that?s the least of it.

Companies are opting for elearning over more traditional learning due to the increasing mobility of the workforce, the need to save on training costs, greater acceptance of Web-based training, and better interoperability of system.

LiveMessage provides an easy way for a company with existing RSS feeds to organize and present them in a user-friendly fashion. Publishers (or would-be epublishers) use a step-by-step interface to create groups and Alert offerings. Using a .NET framework, LiveMessage provides end users with a clear and simple way to receive targeted content delivered to their desktop or mobile device without adding to email overload.

"The system is always evolving rather than a slice in time."

Not for one minute do I think that knowledge is not important; I just don?t think it can be managed along the classical definition of the management of resources, and it certainly can?t be managed by throwing KM technology at the problem.

anacubis Desktop is a novel and sophisticated tool for analyzing data?and connections between data and data sources?imported from a wide range of sources and file types, both textual and quantitative. The price is not trivial, and developing anacubis expertise will require climbing a substantial learning curve. But the potential rewards are great for analysts and companies willing to take the long view.

While the core business model remains virtually unchanged, the new wave of content being syndicated today comes from non-publishers like organizations and corporations.

Does your econtent site play fair with your visitors? Are you keeping the faith?behaving reasonably with each person who visits your site?

Making your site look and work just like a well-known category leader also tends to make you look like part of that category when you may not be. You might be better off embracing?and reflecting?your niche.

"I'm a part of everybody's team because I can spread information."

Setting up the technology for major events means creating the infrastructure equivalent of a temporary city. At the Democratic National Convention held in Boston?s Fleet Center July 26-29, more than a year of planning culminated with Verizon, the main contractor, employing 200 people for several months to install 4,000 miles of cabling to support convention organizers, the real-time econtent requirements of the media, and the massive security operations.

RelationsCentral Communications Dashboard makes collaboration between communications professionals, colleagues, and outside agencies simple. The quick-to-set-up and intuitive-to-use system will make communicators more efficient, saving both time and money. The ability to manage Web sites (such as an online media room) and extranets without dependence upon Webmasters or IT departments is a big plus.

Other than improved business, what are companies talking about this year? Based on decidedly unscientific measures, solutions and anything XML are hot.

Despite our enthusiasm about emerging digital content delivery technologies, we need to look sharp before we leap. Vendors can help by working with companies to create viable business models.

"Not eeryone can look at a press rlease and, within seconds, find the really important news buried in it."

CoreMedia, the German-based content technology company, has announced a new phase of the MINDS project (Mobile Information and News Data Services for 3G), which is funded by the European Union.

Split attention and inattention increasingly limit our ability to communicate, and econtent may encounter even more problems with this lack of attention than traditional forms of communication.

We take a look at two desktop search tools: Onfolio provides a quick way to organize material from a variety of sources, take notes and gather data, then generate reports to share with others. The Lycos toolbar allows you to search for a variety of materials all from one convenient location.

"I'm upping thr skill quotient of our end users."

I?m a diehard news junkie. My particular interest? Anything at the convergence of politics, business, and the media?especially the way the media covers itself.

Ofcom, the regulatory agency for the U.K. communications industries, has proposed a universal content tagging system, according to a consultation document on their Web site. Although this is still very much at the preliminary stage, one of the goals of the proposal is to provide a way to label content that might be offensive or inappropriate, ostensibly to protect young people using electronic media.

For a company large and lucrative enough to afford the price of ClearTags, it certainly seems like a way to dramatically reduce the number of person-hours spent on tagging, indexing, etc. This allows the company two options?either a reduction in the workforce, resulting in cost savings (which must be weighed against the costs for implementing ClearTags), or the people formerly performing those tasks are then able to tackle other assignments. Not only does it have the potential to cut costs and better reapportion responsibilities, it also offers powerful customized and prebuilt data analysis and output tools.

For some reason, everyone in the industry is loathe to admit what the numbers clearly demonstrate: Web content?or at least some important sectors of the digital content economy?has waged a quiet but remarkable comeback.

Understanding information arbitrage affords intriguing opportunities worth exploring, if you?re on the sell side of the econtent business, or exploiting, if you?re an information consumer.

The ever-evolving English language takes on new life in the OED Online.

"The amount of information that has been created just in the last two years is more than in all of human history before."

My very first disContent column was about content and context. Three years later, context remains an important topic, ripe for a revisit.

When you think about it, a Web site?s primary purpose is to provide content to visitors, but the real trick is presenting the most relevant content for any given visitor at any particular moment in time. While the objective may be clear, the process of generating dynamic content isn?t.

Knovel Corporation, a Web-based research and infoware resource for engineers, scientists, and researchers, has announced that the U.S. Navy, via the Naval General Library Program (NGLP) out of Pensacola, Florida, has become the company's newest subscriber.

On May 1st, 10 countries joined the European Union?s existing 15 members, increasing the EU?s GDP by 5% to W 9.6 trillion, its population by 20% to 454 million, and its official languages by 82% from 11 to 20.

While all enterprise-level IT projects prove to be difficult and risky undertakings, a deeper examination of the ECM challenge in particular will reveal an endemic inattention to its critical corollary: the need for Enterprise Information Architecture.

"I understand how to use technology in interesting ways to drive business forward."

NewsGator 2.0 takes this product?and news aggregators in general?to a new level. While it still works in Microsoft Outlook as it did in version 1.x, 2.0 also works in any POP3 email client?via a Web interface, or from a wireless PDA or cell phone.

In the econtent DRM proposition, be careful what you wish for.

Information Today, Inc. (ITI) has announced that its new Web site, Enterprise Search Center (ESC) is now active.

What role does marketing play in the econtent industry? Marketing is developing and positioning an econtent product so that someone will actually want to buy it.

"No matter how the industry changes over time, it always comes down to what business problem a product can solve.

In a serious business context, leaks of mission-critical data or