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Online Information Conference 2008 – Clay Shirky Keynote Preview

online-08-logoAs a first-time speaker at the Online Information Conference in London in a couple of weeks, I was intrigued to see the organisers have posted up a preview video of the keynote speaker on YouTube.

“Clay Shirky , Author of ‘Here Comes Everybody‘ and thought leader on the social and economic effects of internet technologies will open the 2008 conference with a keynote address that examines ‘Every piece of information is a latent community.’

One of the absolutes of information is that people don’t just like to have it, they like to share it, discuss it, argue about it. In the digital world, we now have media that can both transmit information and coordinate people at the same time; one potent side-effect is that published information can call a topic-specific community into being, by linking together the people who gather around it.”

It sounds like it will be an interesting and controversial topic.

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The Future is not what it used to be

Went to a fascinating Sir Kenneth Cork Management Lecture last night at the Octagon (part of Queen Mary, University of London in the Mile End Road).

The event was organised by the London Branch of the Chartered Management Institute and featured Brian Baldock currently Chairman of Mencap.

In his wide-ranging talk Brian covered the changes to technology, society, communications, business and finance which have brought us to our present state. He explored how once cutting edge Business Models are now universally outdated; why corporate re-engineering, re-organisation and cost-reduction processes are all time and effort wasted; why organisation structures and processes are generally not fit for purpose.

His role model companies were Google who are focussed on creating services their customers want, and Walmart who constantly reduce the price of products for their customers.

Amongst a long list of suggestions for what business needs to do to become competitive in the future were the following highlights:

  • Eliminate committees
  • Replace trainers with coaches
  • Create a culture of ‘restless dissatisfaction’
  • Become customer and consumer obsessed
  • Think the unthinkable
  • Recruit mavericks
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Business & IP Centre minor media star

We are very proud of Jeremy O’Hare our minor media star in the Business & IP Centre team. His first appearance was last summer on the BBC’s Working Lunch show.

They came in to the Centre to film a ten minute slot on our wonderful and unique free sources of information and interviewed a couple of our ‘success stories’. As well as finding out how they had used our information, the journalists wanted to interview a member of our reference team. Jeremy volunteered and did an excellent job, suppressing his understandable nerves to give a clear but enthusiastic summary of our service.

In fact Jeremy’s appearance was so successful the rest of the team had to deal with several weeks of answering phone enquirers who specifically asked for Jeremy to assist them with their business information needs.

Since then he has played a staring role in our award winning interactive annual report.

Last week we received a call from the Working Lunch show saying they wanted to come in and get three British Library staff to review the latest batch of E-readers. They wanted to know if the ‘professionals’ thought we were ready to usher in the era of digital books. You can watch for yourself to see what their views were.

Once again Jeremy was pressed into action and once again acquitted himself excellently.

Who knows where this media career will lead!

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Our future world is Blue, Green or Orange

Just back from the ebic 2008 conference organised by TFPL, and exhausted from listening to so many speakers and ideas (plus networking late into the night). This year we spent an afternoon brainstorming the implications for the information and knowledge profession of the Pricewaterhouse Coopers‘ scenario worlds of the future, Managing tomorrow’s people: The future of work to 2020. This predicted three very different possibilities and gave each a colour:

The Blue World: Corporate is King: Big company capitalism rules as organisations continue to grow and individual preferences trump beliefs about corporate social responsibility.

The Green World: Companies Care: Social responsibility dominates the corporate agenda and concerns about demographic changes, climate and sustainability become the key business drivers.

The Orange World: Small is Beautiful: Companies begin to breakdown into collaborative networks of smaller organisations and specialisation dominates the world economy.

Our task was to attempt to answer the following three questions:

1. What significant developments/events/trends that will impact on KIM (knowledge and information management) activity can we expect/anticipate across the forecasting time-line in this world?
2. What KIM activity would ensure success in this world?
3. What KIM roles and skills would be of value to organisations in this world?

The outputs from these discussions were recorded and I am looking forward to seeing the conclusions in the next few weeks.

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ebic 2008 and Flight Memory.com

I’m off to ebic 2008 on Wednesday for the TFPL organised conference of which I was a regular attendee a ten years or so ago. After a gap of a couple of years they have revamped it in the form of a “networking event for people working in the knowledge and information arena”.

I am looking forward to meeting some old and new faces from the profession, and to seeing Berlin again after a ten year gap. At that time it was the largest building site in Europe as it adjusted to the removal of ‘the wall’.

flightmemory

Appropriately today’s Net@Nite with Leo and Amber included Flight Memory, a new flight tracking website which enables you to record previous trips and produce cumulative data. It also generates a map similar to the ones found in the back of the airline magazines showing where your flight routes.

They will also calculate your total time in the air, distance flown and even keep track of aircraft types and airlines. All they need to add is the amount you have added to global warming to complete the picture.

flightmemory2

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Manchester’s Commercial Library and Ask About Business service

Today I visited Manchester’s Commercial Library and Ask About Business service with my colleague Nigel Spencer. The weather was spectacular all day which made for wonderful views from the train over Cheshire and the Peak District. But also put a lie to Manchester’s reputation as grey and wet city. Walking along the canal past Victorian industrial palaces and modern glass and steel offices to the impressive circular building (apparently based on the Pantheon in Rome) was a delight.

The meeting was to compare developments in our respective services and to explore how we can support each other in future. They demonstrated their recently launched Ask About Business service, which is particularly impressive.

“Ask About Business is a new partnership between eleven library authorities in Greater Manchester, Blackpool, and Blackburn with Darwen.  Led by Manchester Library & Information Service, Ask About Business provides access through libraries to information that supports:  Pre-Start and new businesses, Existing business, Jobseekers, Consumers, Inventors, Business students”

What is particularly inspiring was the decision to use their numerous local libraries as the front line for this new service. Customers are then referred to business information specialists on a case by case basis.

It was flattering to hear that some of their initiatives (such as workshops and use of success stories) were inspired by our activities in the Business & IP Centre. Considering the limited budget they have been working to, their achievements are even more extraordinary.

Providing remote free access to the Cobra (Complete Business Reference Adviser) database (one of our most useful sources for business startups) is inspired.

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Journey of an invention blog

The British Library has always had a strong fan base, particularly when our funding seemed to be threatened. However it is great to see a new fan in the shape of Liz Joseph an inventor. She has started a brand new blog to follow her journey of discovery as she develops her mass-market product.

She has started her route to success by making full use of the wide range of services we offer, and it is great to see her positive comments on the practical benefits these give.

She has already put in for a detailed patent search, so fingers crossed for a positive result there. I look forward to following her adventures as the days and weeks go by.

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Business & Intellectual Property Centre (the envy of every business librarian

I know we like to think we are doing a great job here in the Business & IP Centre, but it is great when an external source confirms this for us. Especially when it comes from as far away as Australia.

The case in point is a blog post from the State Library of Western Australia which has picked up on our Weird and Wonderful Gadgets and Inventions small display, but in passing mentions that the Business & IP Centre is “the envy of every business librarian”.

Praise indeed.

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City Information Group visits the Business & IP Centre

In what might be considered something of a busman’s holiday, last night we hosted a visit from the City Information Group. The fifty or so information professionals who came along seemed to be suitably impressed by both our Treasures Gallery and of course the Business and IP Centre itself.

The organiser Jill Fenton has written a nice note in her blog.

Katy Crosse came with a group from TFPL (the Recruitment, Consultancy and Training company), and put a short write-up on their blog.

Apparently the list of attendees was oversubscribed so we may do it again.

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An informational Aladdin’s Cave for the aspiring entrepreneur or small business owner

man

It is always nice when one of our customers blogs about their positive experience at the Business & IP Centre, at the British Library.

In the case of Andrew Warren-Payne (a recent from St Catherine’s College, Oxford, who is currently exploring potential ideas that help individuals and businesses make best use of Web 2.0 technologies in London) he has written about two visits to the Centre.

In his first visit on 14 June he discovered that we are; “an informational Aladdin’s Cave for the aspiring entrepreneur or small business owner. On the shelves and on their computer databases (from which you can download!) are reports from professional market research companies like Mintel, Datamonitor and Frost & Sullivan. This information is worth thousands of pounds. And yet, I have access to it, 15 minutes walk away from my flat, free of charge! And they run a lot of other services such as one-to-one clinics, free online courses, and have a YouTube channel. Make sure you subscribe to it so they can see providing information like this is much appreciated!”

He came back on 4 July for a workshop was on business Terms and Conditions and why you should get them right and was held by Helen Parkins.

“Helen’s presentation was excellent and really explained why getting your Ts & Cs right is crucial when it comes to business. … Helen has also co-written a book titled A Zest for Business, and having bought it and had a quick read over it is definitely excellent value for money. Compact in size to slip in your briefcase or laptop bag, but absolutely filled with valuable advice far better than other books I’ve read so far (there’s no double spaced size 14 font as is often the case!), and the sections are neatly broken down into subheadings and relevant bullet point check lists.”