Deborah Hunt Blog

“Information has gone from scarce to superabundant: that brings huge new benefits, says Kenneth Cukier (interviewed here)—but also big headaches.” The Economist print edition, Feb 25th 2010,

In my consulting work, my clients are wrestling with the terabytes of data they produce. Finding information that already exists in an organization can be the most frustrating, time-consuming task when starting a new project or working on a current one. Information exists in so many silos that no one can get their hands on what’s needed when it’s needed.

Intellectual capital often remains hidden to staff. When they need an expert to quickly get up to speed on a topic, how do they find one, either within their own organization or outside of it?

What to do? The growing field of enterprise content management is striving to wrangle this information into reusable, re-purposeful knowledge that organizations can use to positively affect their bottom line.

How does your organization tame its content?

Take some time to watch this inspiring video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbk980jV7Ao

It’s amazing how one person can change the lives of others for good. In our personal and professional lives, we remember those who make us feel good about ourselves in a genuine way. Let’s make the world a better place by validating others. It takes little effort, but can have far-reaching effects.

What do you think?
Check out: Online/offline: Deb Hunt where I’m featured in Information World Review:
http://www.iwr.co.uk/information-world-review/features/2257385/deb-hunt

How about you? What kind of techno geek are you? Check out the Digitometer for geeks.

Last night I presented to about 30 of my colleagues about Mining Enterprise Business Intelligence–All the World’s a Stage: Another Role for Info Pros. You can view the PDF of the slidedeck at:http://www.information-edge.com/presentations.php

Every organization can benefit from integrating its information silos and making information findable for staff to utilize in their work. Rather than reinventing the wheel at the start of every project, they can build on what already exists in the organization, whether it be documents, images or intellectual capital. No need to waste time trying to find a needle in a haystack, but rather find what’s needed or the expert on a topic and quickly get up to speed. Enterprise 2.0 tools need to be part of this solution. Re-finding and re-purposing information leads to more efficiency and has a positive effect on ROI, not to mention less frustration and more productivity in the workplace.

I just finished reading Here comes everybody: the power of organizing without organizations by Clay Shirkey (2008). A good read on how the internet and social networking tools have changed the way we live and work. Here is a good quote from pp. 303-4: “I’m old enough [he was born before 1980] to know a lot of things just from life experience. I know that newspapers are where you get your political news and how you look for a job. I know that music comes from stores. I know that if you want to have a conversation with someone, you call them on the phone…In the last fifteen years, I’ve had to unlearn every one of those things and a million others, because they have stopped being true…Meanwhile, my students, many of whom are fifteen years younger than I am, don’t have to unlearn those things, because they never had to learn them in the first place.”

What about you? Have you had to unlearn things? Iif you’ve never used them, are you glad you don’t need to know how to use them?

Deb Hunt, Principal at Information Edge, and a member of the Special Libraries Association (SLA) Board of Directors, was honored by Information World Review (IWR) magazine for her work on behalf of SLA to spearhead and implement the innovative “23 Things” program.

23 Things is a free, members-only, self-directed training program to help SLA members develop confidence and skills using a wide range of Web 2.0 tools. Hunt was granted a first-time special commendation mention by IWR at its “Information Professional of the Year” ceremony in London on December 1. “It was a highly competitive field but Deb and the 23 Things project really stood out,” said IWR Editor Peter Williams.

Read more: http://tinyurl.com/y8lds29

WASHINGTON D.C., December 8, 2009 — Information Edge has been selected for the 2009 Best of San Leandro Award in the Information Retrieval Services category by the U.S. Commerce Association (USCA).

The USCA “Best of Local Business” Award Program recognizes outstanding local businesses throughout the country. Each year, the USCA identifies companies that they believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and community.

Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2009 USCA Award Program focused on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the USCA and data provided by third parties.

How Much Information? 2009 Report on American Consumers
In 2008, Americans consumed information for about 1.3 trillion hours, an average of almost 12 hours per day. Consumption totaled 3.6 zettabytes and 10,845 trillion words, corresponding to 100,500 words and 34 gigabytes for an average person on an average day. (A zettabyte is 10 to the 21st power bytes, a million million gigabytes.) These estimates are from an analysis of more than 20 different sources of information, from very old (newspapers and books) to very new (portable computer games, satellite radio, and Internet video). Information at work is not included.
http://hmi.ucsd.edu/howmuchinfo_research_report_consum.php

Is it time to unplug a bit and smell the roses? Walk the dog? Go skiing?

As we approach the busy holiday season, the last thing we are probably thinking about is exercising, getting enough rest, and eating right. We are likely focused on getting things done, meeting deadlines and getting out gifts to clients.

Take a few minutes to read this short article in the New York Times “Small Business” section and see how you measure up. What the author describes can easily happen to small business owners and entrepreneurs who are busy running their businesses. It’s a reminder to look after ourselves.
http://tinyurl.com/yc7nz2d

Ever find a pill that you cannot remember why you have it or what it is? The national Library of Medicine has a new tool to help identify those mystery pills:Pillbox Beta:http://pillbox.nlm.nih.gov/

One can search based on physical criteria: imprint (characters or number printed on a medication), shape, color, size, and scoring. Users are shown thumbnail images of possible matches. These images are continually updated as the user enters additional information. You can search two ways: Adobe Flex Powered or HTML based — neither requires anything but your browser to use.

Once a solid dosage form has been identified, additional information is provided, including brand/generic name, ingredients, and the National Drug File identification number. Links are provided to NLM drug information resources, such as FDA-approved label information (DailyMed) and the Drug Information Portal, which searches all NLM drug information resources.

This system is designed for use by emergency physicians, first responders, other health care providers, Poison Control Center staff, and concerned citizens.

Disclaimer: NLM has made a great effort to verify the authenticity of each image. However, the Pillbox images are not part of the Structured Product Label (FDA-approved drug label) and have not been verified by each manufacturer. For this reason, Pillbox is not currently intended for clinical use. NLM and the FDA are working with manufacturers to get their official images.