Thomson Reuters gears up for 21st century business

Interesting news story in the FT about one of my old employers - Reuters (now Thomson Reuters).  I particularly liked the quote from Devon Wenig about catering for the 23 year old who has grown up with Google.  Abstract from the story below:

Thomson Reuters will on Wednesday unveil the biggest overhaul of its markets division since the merger that formed the financial and professional information group was completed two years ago this week.

A series of product launches starting next week and culminating in the autumn will bring together products from the former Reuters and Thomson Financial for the first time into two simplified platforms, one aimed at enterprises such as large banks, the other aimed at individual users such as small hedge funds.

The web-based platforms, which replace traditional terminal commands with online search, were part of a drive to cater to “the 23-year-old at Goldman Sachs who grew up with Google”, said Devin Wenig, chief executive of Thomson Reuters Markets.

They are also aimed at distinguishing Thomson Reuters from Bloomberg, its arch-rival, which invested heavily through the financial crisis but has remained committed to its one-size-fits-all terminals.

If only more organisations would realise that their 20th century IT tools are stifling a new generation of employees that have grown up with Web 2.0 tools and being connected 24/7. Good for Thomson Reuters, clearly one of the more enlightened companies!

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Online Information Conference 2010 - Call for Papers

ONLINE INFORMATION CONFERENCE - CALL FOR PAPERS

Have you submitted a proposal yet? The deadline of May 3rd is approaching fast.

Here's why you should submit a proposal:

• Show case your work with 700 delegates from over 40 countries and be seen as a pioneer and leader in what you do
  If you have been part of a successful (or unsuccessful) project with innovative best practices, lessons learned, hints and tips, then we want to hear from you

• Benefit from the extensive marketing campaign and promotional exposure/recognition you will receive from being part of one of the largest conferences serving the information industry.
  You and your organisation will be listed in the printed brochure (sent to 22,000) and on the website (emails to 24,000).

• Join a roster of industry authorities and use this opportunity to raise your profile. Previous keynote speakers to the programme include:

  * Charlene Li, Co-Author of 'Groundswell'
  * Dame Wendy Hall, Professor of Computer Science, University of Southampton
  * Nigel Shadbolt, Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Deputy Head Research, University of   Southampton
  * Blaise Cronin, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
  * Clay Shirky, Author of 'Here Comes Everybody'
  * Jimmy Wales, Founder, Wikipedia
  * Dr David Weinberger, Co-author of 'The Cluetrain Manifesto'
  * Dr Jakob Nielsen, described as 'The king of usability'
  * Dame Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive, The British Library

• Selected speakers receive a FREE place to the 3 day conference and co-located exhibition, worth over £900

For information on conference themes, making your submission and review criteria please click on the links  below

I look forward to receiving your proposal

Stephen Dale
Chairman
Online Information Conference 2010

 

1. Review Criteria and Submission Requirements 
2. Example Abstracts 
3. Conference Themes 
4. Delegate Profile 
5. Conference Committee 
6. Guidelines for Exhibitors 
7. NOW Click here to submit your paper online

Please note: Deadline for submissions is Monday 3 May

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Creating a feed for websites that do not support RSS

I’m not sure if anyone else has shared my frustration at having come across a really useful or interesting website and then discovered there is no RSS facility to subscribe to subsequent updates. Clearly the author/owner of the website believes that their readers will bookmark the site and keep popping back to see if there are any changes.  Not very realistic when there are several billion websites out there.

There’s also the perennial issue of the (mainly public sector) websites that fail to support RSS, with an antiquated content management system (CMS) often cited as the problem.  Mash the state (http://www.mashthestate.org.uk/) clearly had some good intentions in embarrassing local councils into providing an RSS feed on their website, but with only 32% of councils with this facility at the last count – well short of their target of getting all council websites to support RSS – they may well have given up on this crusade (indeed the website hasn’t been updated since 2009)

Anyway, there is a solution (sort of) which I had completely forgotten about until recently when I was reconfiguring some feeds in my Google Reader. This lets you create a web feed for websites that do not have an RSS facility. It’s a bit coarse in that you can only monitor changes to a whole webpage (rather than – say – just monitoring news updates), but better than nothing.

To make a custom Google Reader feed, all you need to do is cut and paste the URL (the web address) of the page you want to monitor into the box you get when you click on the ‘Add a subscription’ button at the top left of the Google Reader page.

I’ve shown below the screen shots for the feed I’ve juts created for my local council Uttlesford  - not, I might add because I think they’ve got anything interesting to say, but you never know, they might read this and respond by providing a real RSS feed on their website. I can live in hope!

 

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Contractor of the year award 2010

Nominations for Contractor of the Year award. Nominees are:

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Are Civil Servants made for Social Media?

Picked up from Robert Hicks' post on FutureGov.

"Most senior civil servants are Generation Xers, born at a time without the internet. But does this mean that web communities are too ‘young’ for top officials to operate in effectively? In interviews with FutureGov, government officials from Australia, Malaysia and the UK argue that although civil servants may not feel comfortable using social media to reach young citizens, the rewards are worth the risks".

I'd partly agree with that, but thinking of the UK demographic of public sector employees, I think that majority of the decision makers fall into the Baby Boomer category (born 1940's to early '60's) than Generation X (born 1960s- 1970's), and it's these decision makers that are primarily responsible for blocking access to social media in their departments. They see no impact or consequence of blocking social media because they don't use it, either for work or personal use. Regrettably, they are limiting the opportunities for their departments to engage with the increasing number of citizens of all ages who are using social media, and risk creating departmental 'ghetos', isolated from the conversations that may have some direct relevance to them.

Glyn Evans the Director of Business Change at Birmingham City Council in the UK make a good point ..."external communication has traditionally been mediated through communications professionals whereas social media engagement is direct and potentially puts the civil servant personally ‘in the firing line’." True, but with suitable training, and having a clearly defined and communicated social media policy, most civil servants should be able to deal with this.

The post concludes with reference to how British civil servants are being encouraged to get more involved online. The greater use of digital technologies was a key part of Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s recent speech, and the Conservative opposition has been making similar noises. With a General Election looming, use of social media by civil servants is “likely to increase significantly". Amen to that!

Posted via email from Fragments

Are Civil Servants made for Social Media?

Picked up from Robert Hicks' post on FutureGov.

"Most senior civil servants are Generation Xers, born at a time without the internet. But does this mean that web communities are too ‘young’ for top officials to operate in effectively? In interviews with FutureGov, government officials from Australia, Malaysia and the UK argue that although civil servants may not feel comfortable using social media to reach young citizens, the rewards are worth the risks".

I'd partly agree with that, but thinking of the UK demographic of public sector employees, I think that majority of the decision makers fall into the Baby Boomer category (born 1940's to early '60's) than Generation X (born 1960s- 1970's), and it's these decision makers that are primarily responsible for blocking access to social media in their departments. They see no impact or consequence of blocking social media because they don't use it, either for work or personal use. Regrettably, they are limiting the opportunities for their departments to engage with the increasing number of citizens of all ages who are using social media, and risk creating departmental 'ghetos', isolated from the conversations that may have some direct relevance to them.

Glyn Evans the Director of Business Change at Birmingham City Council in the UK make a good point ..."external communication has traditionally been mediated through communications professionals whereas social media engagement is direct and potentially puts the civil servant personally ‘in the firing line’." True, but with suitable training, and having a clearly defined and communicated social media policy, most civil servants should be able to deal with this.

The post concludes with reference to how British civil servants are being encouraged to get more involved online. The greater use of digital technologies was a key part of Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s recent speech, and the Conservative opposition has been making similar noises. With a General Election looming, use of social media by civil servants is “likely to increase significantly". Amen to that!

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Ordnance Survey datasets and products available for free use and re-use from 1 April 2010.

On 23 December 2009, the Government published a consultation paper on policy options for geographic information from Ordnance Survey. The purpose of this consultation was to seek views about how to best implement proposals made by the Prime Minister on 17 November 2009, to make certain Ordnance Survey datasets available for free with no restrictions on re-use. This was part of the PM's vision for the role of
public data and information in the delivery of Smarter Government that would empower citizens with better public services and a thriving private sector market based on the data that government produces.

A response to the Governemnt consultation on making Ordance Survey (mapping) datasets available for use and re-use is available on the CLG website.

Key points from the consultation are:

A package of datasets will be made freely available to the public and will be released under the product name OS OpenData™.

The datasets that are released as part of OS OpenData will continue to be maintained by Ordnance Survey to a high and consistent standard. To ensure the product set remains relevant and continues to fulfil its objectives, it is envisaged that this product set will be reviewed periodically by an expert panel appointed by government and reporting to CLG Ministers.

The OS OpenData will include

• OS Street View®
• 1:50 000 Gazetteer
• 1:250 000 Scale Colour Raster
• OS LocatorTM
• Boundary-LineTM
• Code-Point® Open
• Meridian™ 2
• Strategi®
• MiniScale®
• OS VectorMap™ District (available 1 May 2010)
• Land-Form PANORAMA®

The OS VectorMap™ District dataset is a new product and is available in both raster and vector formats. It is designed to be a flexible and customisable product specifically designed for use on the web. It will enable developers to select, customise and modify maps to their specific requirements.

OS OpenData products will be available from 1 April 2010 in hard media and as an on-line service at www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/opendata

In addition OS OpenData will include an on-line viewing service of a selection of the OS OpenData topographic products.

This initiative continues the trend in making public data public (over 30000 datasets now available through the http://www.data.gov.uk portal) and will no doubt spawn the develpment of a whole new raft of innovative mashups, widgets and apps by social innovators. Exciting times!

http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/corporate/pdf/1528263.pdf

 

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