Aggregating knowledge
J Charles Germain, president, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America RoweCom Inc
- Think of all of the information you should read in order to stay current in your field.
- What percent do you actually read?
- Give me a number
Who are you?
- Knowledge creators
- Knowledge users
- Infomediaries - in between
The plan for today
- The New Knowledge World
- RoweCom's Response
- Challenges Ahead
- Conversation
The New Knowledge World
Beliefs
- The internet is merely the second of three digital revolutions:
- Computers Communications Convenience
- These digital revolutions are disruptive of virtually all aspects of society. They are rapidly changing the way we buy, sell, learn, earn a living and play. Much of this causes fear and pain.
- There is an explosion in both the sources and uses of knowledge, with an increasing number of knowledge users becoming knowledge providers.
- We are experiencing a global transfer of value and power from knowledge providers to knowledge users that will cause many revered institutions to collapse and many upstarts to appear.
More beliefs
- Digital convenience will dramatically accelerate the rate of global change in five to ten years.
- Access to usable knowledge will be the primary driver of successful enterprises in the 21st century as work moves from primarily manual to primarily mental
- Work is shifting from manual to mental. The imlications of this shift are profound
- The functions of librarians are becoming more important at the same time the form of libraries is changing.
- The future is conversations.
The future
- E-commerce will dominate the global economy within a decade because:
- Faster More reliable Cheaper
- Knowledge content itself will be ubiquitous and inexpensive, often "free"
- Most people are overwhelmed by the mass of content that exists and feel guilty about not knowing enough. This is a rapidly expanding global epidemic
- Value-added services around content that simplify and personalize the knowledge world will thrive
- New public policies are urgently needed to guide these technical and social changes underway in directions that promote a healthy and prosperous global society.
Commerce and content
eCommerce
Pluses:
- Faster
- More accurate
- Global
- Manageable
- Inexpensive
- Available
Minuses:
- Payment systems underdeveloped
eContent
Pluses:
- Faster
- Interactive
- Customizable
Minuses:
- Poor user-interface
- Requires change in behaviors
- Technology in early stages
Examples of change
- AOL users averaged six minutes a day in 1996 and one hour in 2000.
- In 1999 magazine readers in the U.S. spent more time online than reading magazines.
- An e-commerce transaction costs between 1-2% of a comparable paper transaction.
- Many major institutions are shifting their purchasing dramatically from paper to online publications, some with a goal of 100% online within three years or less.
All of this change despite:
- Inconvenient and slow user interfaces
- Few functional enhancements over paper
- Chaotic systems for knowledge
- Creation
- Distribution
- Pricing
- Control
The convenience revolution
- Personalised
- Interactive
- Voice, text and video
- Wireless, wearable
- Ubiquitous
- Comprehensive
- Real-time
- Global
Portable technology electronic paper
- E Ink
- Paper-like look and feel
- Electrochemical process
- Paper-like tabloid displays by 2002
- Black and White only
Knowledge platform evolution
What do our clients want and need so they can work
smarter:
- Fast
- Everywhere
- Comprehensive
- Personalized
- Interactive
- Community-based
- Trusted
RoweCom's response
RoweCom market model
RoweCom's knowledge store
Over 17 000 clients
Benefits
- Convenience for knowledge worker
- Control for institution
- Cost savings
Challenges ahead
Librarians and libraries
- Crucial distinction between function and form
- Functions of librarians becoming more important - century of the mind
- Forms are changing dramatically with much more change ahead
10 crucial functions of librarians
- Conversation manager
- Market researcher
- Knowledge taxonomist
- Community developer
- Entrepreneurial publisher
- Network coordinator
- Content archivist
- Museum director
- Intellectual property controller
- Knowledge therapist
Challenges for publishers
- Digital economics a challenge for all publishers
- Consumer
- Falling circulation - less time to read paper; more time on net
- Specialization - fragmentation of markets
- "Everything free"
- Business and Trade
- Many went to controlled circulation (ad-based)
- Just as advertisers were heading to the Web
- Many fewer advertisers for paper versions
- STM
- Challenges from e-Print and Preprint Servers
- Intellectual communities as online referees,
- Expert review; user reviews and comments
- Economics of the shift to digital publications uncertain
- Economics of Knowledge
- Non-commercial sources of revenue
- Endowment
- Taxes
- Gifts
- Commercial sources of revenue
- Subscriptions
- Pay per view
- Advertising
- Sales commissions on transactions
Public policy challenges
- What new metrics are needed to measure the impact of knowledge upon the economy?
- What knowledge should be public (unfettered)
- Government records
- Basic scientific databases
- Basic life-giving information
- What knowledge should be private
- Personal medical records
- Personal correspondence (email)
- What kinds of intellectual property should be commercialized in the digital age?
- Should there be a Universal Declaration of the Rights to Know?
Wrap-up
- Advanced e-resources are challenging the roles of publishers, librarians and agents
- Future technologies will enable ubiquitous access to information
- Digital rights management of some sort will be key to the expansion of knowledge
- Personal libraries will be preferred method of knowledge management
- The roles of those librarians who make the changes will be greatly enhanced.
- The technological imperative will thrive.
- Public policies are urgently needed to ensure effective and just access to knowledge combined with appropriate management of information rights.
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