The Discovery Hoax: Commercial Databases Make Big Promises
March 8, 2010
I was given a box lunch and a can of Pepsi as compensation for my one hour talk at a conference last week. I had an interesting conversation with a former big wheel in commercial database publishing. I thought the wizard was a retired poobah. I was wrong. The fellow had his shoulder pads on, a sweatband, and Gucci cleats. He’s back on a commercial company’s publishing team. I am an old, cowardly goose, and it is with trepidation that I get too close to big people garbed for quasi-military re-enactments related to electronic information.
I asked the industry titan what his new gig involved. I recall one word, which he repeated several times to me, the addled goose. The word? “Discovery.” I thought I was having a The Graduate moment. In 2010, plastic was a loser. The winner? Discovery.
Yep, the lingo of the search and content processing market has reached the world of professional publishing and for-fee database access.
The idea, as I understood it, is that this commercial company will allow a user to enter a keyword; for example, employee stock ownership. The system will crunch away and present:
- Results from the firm’s for fee databases. Not just anyone can run a search. The user has to have access to an institutional account or sign up and pay. There is some free stuff, but this is a real, live make-money-or-die operation.
- The system will also “discover” possibly related content and list that information in the form of links. I think the idea the titan was communicating is what Endeca calls “Guided Navigation” in 1999! Not exactly yesterday! To see the Endeca system in action just go to OfficeFurniture.com.
- Content from the public Web.
The idea is that a person using a commercial system will enter a search string and then see links to related content. This works for buying office furniture. I am not sure how a computational chemist would react to a suggestion she read a blog post about a meth lab that blows up.
Yep, our professional grade service needs those custom chrome wheels. Image source: http://www.up.ac.za/organizations/movup/images/minefun/indian_haul_truck.jpg
I asked what happened if I used one of the company’s business databases and entered the search term “management.” I got a bit of double talk and the titan backed up, trying to get away from me. The reason I asked about this type of search is that I know from hands-on experience that the use of a general controlled term in his firm’s databases does not generate a usable results list. Thus, any “discovered” information is likely to be wide of the mark. Broad queries don’t often work too well in the for-fee, quite specific content in certain commercial systems. A single word like “management” in a Google search box generates what is highly ranked by clueless millions like a link to the Wikipedia entry.
Quote to Note: Most Stolen eBooks
March 4, 2010
I read “E-Book Piracy Costs U.S. Publishers $3 Billion, Says Study” and was genuinely surprised to learn that something other than technical books were stolen. The most stolen books? Here’s the quote to note:
On average, nearly 10,000 copies of every book published are downloaded for free,” the report concludes. Business and investing books are stolen the most, at an average 13,000 copies per title.
Now what about those ethics classes in business school? Ever wonder why certain clauses creep into legal agreements on little cat’s feet?
Stephen E Arnold, March 4, 2010
No one paid me to capture this quote. I feel as though I should report non payment to the US Postal Service which seems to have cornered the market on doing work for modest compensation.
Financial Times Hopes for a Flood of Cash
March 3, 2010
The Financial Times * was * one of the most magnetic business information brands. Now I don’t think too much about the Financial Times. Its 2009 Newssift.com site (now mercifully removed from my browser’s bookmark list) is history. Newssift featured technology from Endeca, Nstein (now surprisingly part of OpenText, and Lexalytics (now a unit of Infonics). The dreams of the SharePoint-ish interface, the weird and colorful boxes of options, and the irrelevant results are just a reminder that online is tough. The decline in revenues in the most recent quarter is not heartening either, but the company did get out of the wax museum business. That was a positive step.
I just read “FT.com Tests PayPal To Rake In Paywall Fees”. The most telling comment in the write up in my opinion was this passage:
FT.com has more than 126,000 online subscribers and 750 direct corporate licenses, according to UK’s MarketingWeek. In 2009, content revenues increased by 15%, although revenues for the overall FT Group, which contains Interactive Data and FT Publishing, fell by 12% in 2009.
I thought about some of the free thinking ideas I heard at the NFAIS Conference in Philadelphia yesterday (March 1, 2010). NFAIS is a professional organization for those in the “old” abstracting and indexing business, but there were some young folks attending as well. I heard some speakers describe in general terms their employers’ monetization efforts.
I wanted to ask some questions, but I caused enough upset tummies when I mentioned in my invited luncheon address for members the following:
In the old days of online, the publishers ruled the roost. Publishers had memberships to the country club. Publishers organized the golf foursomes. Publishers got to pick who was allowed to entertain at the 19th hole. Today companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and a handful of others are the country club members who organize the foursomes, and it is the Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google executives who decide who pays and who plays. The publishers are now the caddies for these newer info-giants.
Two people excused themselves. Quite enough of the addled goose I concluded.
Now the Financial Times is about to demonstrate that it has weak magnetic power. Why will its dreams of untold riches not materialize? Individual newspapers, even those with a chunk of the Economist in its hip pocket, lack the pull that other types of online services deliver. One example is the financial information available from AOL, Google, and Yahoo. If you have not explored these resources, take a gander. These services continue to improve, and I think that as the economy continues to wobble, the Financial Times will have to do quite a bit of work to get traffic and generate significant flows of online revenue.
Can the Financial Times achieve this goal? If Newssift.com is an early indicator, I think the odds are indeed long.
Stephen E Arnold, March 3, 2010
No one paid me to write this. I suppose I have to report writing for nothing to public affairs person at the National Railway Retirement Board.
UK Readers Digest Cut Loose?
February 28, 2010
Short honk: Yep, the old turnaround at the Readers Digest is humming along. You can read about the amputation of the UK arm in “Talks Under Way for Sale of UK Reader’s Digest” and get the details. Will this move reverse the slide for this venerable curator of the recycled content from other publications? The goose consults the leaves floating in his mine run off pond and says, “Nope.”
Stephen E Arnold, February 28, 2010
No one paid me to write this. Is this type of article under the jurisdiction of the GPO? I will report nevertheless.
German Google Books Activity
February 26, 2010
A reader sent me an email filled with useful information. A happy quack to that person. Here’s the key information from that message.
I know you like watching these efforts.
Munich Digitization Center of the Bavarian State Library does the scanning. The product: The German Digital Library (Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, or DDB). The Fraunhofer Institute in Sankt Augustin, near Bonn, is responsible for the DDB’s computer technology and may be based on Theseus. The goal is to integrate the DDB with Europeana. See information here.
Another article on the Fraunhofer Institute linked from Silobreaker looks at developments in 3-D scanning of museum pieces and the possible building of an online repository of culture and archaeology. See the China Post’s “Digital Depot May Archive World Culture in 3-D.”
Great idea for Germany, but with the European Union’s financial challenges falling on Germany’s broad shoulders, I am not certain the flow of money needed to deliver a Google-scale project will be available if Greece, Italy, Spain, and Belgium go south.
Stephen E Arnold, February 26, 2010
No one paid me to copy and paste a reader’s email. Because I used the word “mail”, I will report sending a message without official payment to the US Postal Service.
Reed Numbers
February 23, 2010
Short honk: I read “Reed Looks to IT Outsourcing to Cut Costs”. I wanted to know if there was any magic behind the company’s financial reports and I was curious about how outsourcing was going to impact existing staff. For information about Reed, click here.
Well, not much was new in the info department, but I did notice several items.
First, the big payday was the result of an acquisition. I noted this telling passage:
Reed saw underlying revenues and adjusted operating profits fall 4 percent and 15 percent, respectively.
Second, Reed is banking on legal and professional information to put the ball in the net. The only problem is Google’s plugging away in the legal information arena. Google has dumped legal info into Google Scholar, but there are some interesting links in Google’s US government index, and from what I hear on the goose pond, there is more legal info coming. Google gives away legal info, allowing advertisers to foot the bill. Reed will have to find a way to compete with Google’s subsidized business model.
Third, the fancy talk about more software and better customer support is interesting, but these are words that may keep the Wall Street folks happy, but I think that this is an old cassette tape stuck in the boom box.
My view is that Reed will face increasing pressure going forward. Last time I checked, there were fewer and fewer attorneys willing to spend big bucks to tap into expensive legal databases. Libraries have some money but there is fierce competition for those dollars which means marketing and sales costs are going up and up.
Outsourcing is a fancy word for getting rid of staff and finding lower cost sources. Interesting but what happens to the “quality” and “value” of the information products? Fun to watch this info giant move forward in my opinion.
Stephen E Arnold, February 23, 2010
No one paid me to write this. Because I mentioned costs, I will report not payment to the Treasury Department. Money wizards there for sure.
Baffled about Real Journalists
February 23, 2010
I am not a journalist. I don’t even know how one becomes a “real” journalist. I learned when I read “Why We Don’t Trust Devil Mountain Software (and Neither Should You)” that big publishing companies don’t know either, assuming the information in the write up is accurate. I guess I should not be surprised. I learned last week at a person who writes about electronic information is officially an “expert” on electronic information. I suppose that means that if I were a crime reporter and I wrote about an alleged illegal activity, I would be qualified to talk about wrongdoing as an “expert”. I wonder how the professionals in law enforcement, military intelligence, and related disciplines feel about “real” journalists becoming experts by virtue of talking to people and reading news items? I suppose faux expertise and “real” journalists are products of the modern world. I find the footprints of these types of folks when I work to mop up after search and content processing disasters. There is a downside to the lack of information about complex subjects even at outfits who are supposed to “know” what’s “real” and what’s not. One thing is sure. This flap is great for the search engine optimization crowd.
Stephen E Arnold, February 23, 2010
No one paid me to write this. I do use a persona—namely, the addled goose—when I write this column. But I received no crumbs for this article. As a fowl, I will report this bedraggled condition to Fish & Wildlife. I wonder if the “real” journalist was paid for his dual roles?
Tinfoil Hat Department: UK UFO Archives Now Online
February 19, 2010
The Ministry of Defence (UK) and the National Archives have an online resource for those who believe in unidentified flying objects or UFOs. You can get the details in “MoD UFO Files on the National Archives Site.” For me the telling statement was:
The files are just the latest round of information about UFO sightings released by the MoD.
Who needs Google Books?
Stephen E Arnold, February 19, 2010
No one paid me to write this. I am not sure which agency controls the writing of uncompensated news items about UFOs? Probably NASA. I am now reporting. Dit dah dah.
Will the iPad Able to Float Publishers’ Boats?
February 17, 2010
My answer to this question about a product that has not shipped containing information that I don’t know about at prices that are fuzzy is, “Nope.” Apparently, I am not alone in my skeptical goose pond. “Publishers Skeptical of Apple iPad Business Model” reported other Doubting Thomases. In my reading, some of the publishers mentioned in the Apple Insider write up are not sure that the iPad and its business model will deliver big bucks. For me, the most interesting comment was:
One unnamed newspaper senior media executive said Apple’s reluctance to share consumer data beyond sales volume is “pretty damn close” to being a deal breaker.
Caravaggio’s Doubting Thomas, 1597
Another point of interest:
Some publishers also said Apple’s revenue model, which gives the content provider 70 percent of sales while Apple keeps 30 percent, does not make much sense for subscriptions. Publishers are also reportedly concerned that they will see the same impact iTunes had on the music industry in 2003, when individual song sales from Apple severely impacted consumer purchases of full albums.
In my business, I start with assumption that a person pretty much does the same thing that worked in the past again. Sure, there are some minor changes, but a biochemist usually does biochemical stuff. My hunch is that Apple does Apple stuff. Hope is a wonderful human quality, but I assert that Apple starts work thinking about how to make life better for Apple. Publishers, well, maybe a resource to be used as needed?
Stephen E Arnold, February 17, 2010
No one paid me to write about Apple. With food as a metaphor, I will report writing for no money to the Department of Agriculture. I wonder if a relative of Johnny Appleseed works at a regional research lab now?
Raise Prices, Lose Sales. Obvious?
February 13, 2010
I found the information in “Online Gaming Store Lowers Prices 75%, Sees Sales Shoot Up 5500%” ideal for my lecture anecdote file. I suggest you check out this write up. For me, the key point was:
Rasmus Larsson points us to a report from an online gaming store that also reduced prices by 75% and saw sales increase by an astounding 5500% (Google translation from the original). A similar test, with a price decrease of 50% saw sales increase 533%. Interestingly, after each price decrease, the company put the price back up again and saw a (slight) sales increase at the higher price too. As the article notes “the price is marketing.”
With book publishers pushing up prices for electronic books, will publishers hit a home run? Bottom of the 9th, two outs. Play ball.
Stephen E Arnold, February 12, 2010
No one paid me to write this. I will report the non compensated activity to the director of the US Postal Museum. Help stamp out inefficiency.
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