We at Dow Jones and Grolier's finally launched the first electronic encyclopedia to high praise. Time magazine said it was "likely to revolutionize how we gather information." A friend's congratulatory card said "Info-Maniacs Need To Know."
We at Dow Jones and Grolier's finally launched the first electronic encyclopedia to high praise. Time magazine said it was "likely to revolutionize how we gather information." A friend's congratulatory card said "Info-Maniacs Need To Know."
And right they were.
We'd mined the content structure the right way. You could browse all 22 volumes of the encyclopedia. You could search it. You could see how people used it. You could explore links to discographies, bibliographies, do quick fact checks… You could relate background and news. You had context… If you tried hard enough. And if you read the marketing materials on how various separate information sources related.
And the Info-Maniac became the "queen of ease-of-use" -- before "information was cool," to quote a recent Wall Street Journal Interactive ad. Repackage and aggregate. Search. Clip'n'email. Rinse and repeat.
About 10 years later came Cognito from IAC. And this Info-Maniac had great time acquiring new types of quality content to create Cognito, a new improved "living encyclopedia" complete with news, magazines and reference books added all somewhat conveniently repackaged. http://www.encarta.cognito.com/about/index.html
And 
, like so much else, became part of… http://www.encarta.msn.com/library/intro.asp
And now we're all swimming in information -- on the Web, agents, in our emailboxes, in our Pilots, in our virtual communities where we seek personal recommendations and human pointers, and in our personalized "Daily Me's" Gary Arlen, president of Arlen Communications, joked about New Media,Surfers catching the "next great wave" while the publishers struggled to,reach online critical mass -- and make some money.
And right he was in 1990. And right he is now.
If you're not Microsoft, it's ShowMeTheMoney.com time.
The richness is in the meta-content, the unique views into media assets that help you identify your strengths, and partner away your weaknesses. It's still how we gather the information -- the tools and the meta-content hooks -- that give you quick time-to-market with new products, targeted ad sales, and content with context. Because we all still need to know.
© Copyright 1998 Need to Knowm Information Solutions