Conference reports

Citation

Rudall, B.H. (1998), "Conference reports", Kybernetes, Vol. 27 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/k.1998.06727dab.002

Conference reports

Conference reports

Online Information 97

The 21st Online Information Conference and Exhibition was held at the National Hall and Olympia Conference Centre, London, UK, from 9-11 December 1997. Online Information 97 was billed as the largest information industry event in the world, and those of us who attended can well believe it. At its new and larger venue in the National Hall and Olympia in London it attracted, for its 21st anniversary, a record number of 17,728 visitors, an increase of some 10 per cent on the 1996 figure of 16,156.

The conference aims

The Online Information Conference claims to follow industry's trends each year and aims to keep information professionals and the growing number of interested end-users abreast of the latest developments in content and the impact of technology on the world of information. This is indeed a challenge at a time when there is an information explosion in an information society.

Part of this explosion has been not only the arrival of the Internet, predicted by cyberneticians and systemists for many years, but its sudden popularity and "take-up" worldwide in so many wide ranging areas and by such diverse groups of people. The explosion of the Internet has created a new challenge for the online industry ­ the end-user market. The conference demonstrated that new business alliances between traditional online information providers and information technology pioneers are now being created to facilitate the growth of the end-user market. It is also evident that the increasing use of online information throughout organisations also creates a greater need for information professionals to put effective information management systems into operation. The programme at the '97 Online Information Conference catered for this and many more aspects of the rapidly changing scene in the world of information. Those who are involved in the future delivery or use of information are beginning to accept that this series of conferences is becoming crucial if they wish to know not only about the present state, but about future trends and prospects.

Participants at the conference and exhibition

The participants at this event came from a very broad church and the useful discussions were the richer for it. They included:

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  Information professionals.

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  Information users.

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  Information service providers.

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  Librarians.

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  Management consultants.

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  Market researchers.

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  Marketers.

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  Publishers.

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  Technical managers of online or CD-ROM retrieval systems.

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  Broadcasters.

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  Telcos.

Conference topics

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  The Online Industry ­ Convergence of Technology and Content.

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  Push Technology.

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  Exploring the Technologies.

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  Managing Information ­ the Solution to Overload.

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  Measuring, Marketing and Maintaining the Information Asset.

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  Knowledge Management Strategy.

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  Ensuring the Quality of Information ­ Real-time, Financial and STM.

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  The Future of Searching.

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  Developing New Revenue Models.

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  Information Society ­ New Technologies, New Jobs.

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  Pricing ­ Who has a Clue?

Conference officials and sponsors

The sponsor was Information World Review, a journal that is a premier source of news and reference sources for both the users and producers of electronic information and allied services. The event was also supported this year by the national newspaper, Financial Times.

The conference co-chairmen were David Raitt (The Netherlands), who has taken the conference chair at this event for several years, and Paul Blake, who is the editor of Information World Review (UK). They were backed by a committee of 18, mainly from industry and academia in the UK.

Sessions, seminars and discussions

The programme rather overwhelmed the participants with its variety and the choice of activity. For those who fell into the category of "Executive" there were briefings called "Executive business-corporate information resource strategies". These were aimed at giving executives the essence of information strategy, its management and its asset value. This briefing was held on day 1 and after the Chairperson's welcome and introduction, there followed a "brain-storming" session which was aimed at allowing attendees to introduce themselves and start networking immediately. This had the objective of "customising" the conference. Sessions on "Why information strategy is important", "Implementing information strategy" and the "Results of a successful information strategy" were programmed.

The main conference programme on Tuesday, 9 December included the presentation of the following awards:

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  The UMI Excellence in Writing Award was presented by Bonnie Lawlor of UMI to Chris Ferguson, Assistant Dean for Redesign of Subject Libraries at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Mr Ferguson accepted the award for the paper entitled "The shape of services to come: values-based reference service for the largely digital library", written jointly with Charles Bunge, Professor Emeritus, School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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  The European Annual Information Product Award, sponsored by the European Online User Group, was presented by Oriole Arnison-Newgass, Chair of EUROLUG, to Andrew Gray of Sift for SiftAccountingWEB.

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  Sponsored by EIIA (European Information Industry Association) the award for European Annual Information Promotional Activity was presented for two categories ­ the Best Stand award was given to The British Library and Best Publicity Leaflet to ADC Network.

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  Desktop Data won the Internet Product of the Year Award, sponsored by Information World Review; the award was presented to Don McLagan of Desktop Data.

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  The European Annual Information Personality Award, sponsored by EUSIDIC (European Association of Information Services), was presented by Robert Kimberley, Chairman of Council, to Vitek Tracz of Current Drugs.

There followed a session on: Online Industry in context; Push Technology, and a panel discussion on using push technology to distribute information to the end-user and other pertinent questions such as: "Does push technology provide a threat or an opportunity for information departments?" One advantage of the programme that had been arranged after this "plenary" meeting was that it allowed "two track" participation. Following Track 1 sessions led to expositions on "Exploring the technologies ­ small is beautiful" while Track 2 presentations looked at "Managing information ­ the solution to overload" followed by "Measuring, marketing and maintaining the information asset" which asked all the right questions.

On the next day the opening session "Knowledge management strategy" was followed by the two track parallel sessions of "Knowledge management ­ the technical solution" (Track 1) and "Ensuring the quality of information" (initial sessions on this theme ­ Track 2). Both of these sessions were continued later in the day. "The future of searching: Web and nothing else?" made an interesting attraction. As a final afternoon session, it raised the question: "Are user-friendly Web information services merely the dumbing down of older more complex traditional services?"

There is a school of thought that believes the Web is being used by many users simply as a search device, one that is continuously "trawled" as are the TV channels. Perhaps this means that only a very superficial interest is taken in the information that is so rapidly obtained by many users. On the final day the opening session on the "Information Society" examined different countries initiatives and their long-term plans for development. Is the concept of an Information Society a technological or a content revolution? was a question that the participants attempted to answer. Later sessions looked at "The Information Community" (Track 1) and "Developing new revenue models" ­ concerned with the Internet and publishers in the main (Track 2). The later sessions included the UKLUG lecture ­ "Networking education: the university as a community of learning", which was followed by a discussion on "Pricing ­ who has a clue?" ­ which considered the new pricing models that the move towards electronic formats has created. The closing session addressed some of the problems of: "New technologies, new jobs, competition or survival of the fittest?" Indeed we would like to know how the information profession can best adapt to the technological and socio-economic changes in the industry and many more considerations, which, perhaps we will leave until the next Online Information which is scheduled for 8-10 December 1998, at the National Hall and Olympia 2, London, UK.

Other events at the conference included seminars, user group meetings, investor forum and satellite events as well as the social activities. The Exhibition with over 200 exhibitors, proved to be a fascinating showcase ­ a perfect opportunity for leading companies to demonstrate the creativity and constant change that is inherent in this industry.

For further information on Online Information 97/98, please contact Jill Cousins/Jennifer Palmer, Learned Information Europe Ltd. Tel: +44 (0) 1865 388000; Fax: +44 (0) 1865 736354; E-mail: marketing@learned.co.uk (Try also: http://www.online information.com . which was set up for Online 97.)

B.H. Rudall