September 29, 2005
Ottawa IM Roundtable Set to Start New Season
The Ottawa IM Roundtable (OIMR) met this Tuesday, September 27, 2005 at XIST to begin our first full season together. The OIMR is a cooperative assembly of nine information management (IM) associations representing those who work in the fields of record management, libraries, archives, website management, database management, knowledge management and information technology. The focus this year is towards developing programs that meet the needs of our collective memberships, without overlapping subjects or time slots. Also, to promote professional development and professionalism among our IM association memberships. The Ottawa IM Calendar ( http://OttawaIM.xist.com ) will continue to be the official listing of OIMR partners' events, along with other local events. We intend to provide our members excellent value this upcoming year and help assocations become more effective in meeting their needs.
Posted by John Savage at
02:39 PM
On-line Privacy Notices "Unenforceable"
As we are dealing with privacy issues as part of a current XIST project I am reminded of a note I wrote last year.
A U.S. court has ruled that even if a company (Northwest Airline in this case) breaks it's own privacy policy there is little that can be done about it. As we design websites we tend to bury the 'important notices' assuming that nobody reads them anyway. It turns out that this means that nobody reads them. To quote from the decision:
"Although Northwest had a privacy policy for information included on the Web site, plaintiffs do not contend that they actually read the privacy policy prior to providing Northwest with their personal information," Magnuson noted. "Thus, plaintiffs' expectation of privacy was low."
Read the article on the news.com site.
Posted by Tim Wayne at
11:51 AM
Roll your own search engine
Here is a fantastic idea. Rollyo is a search engine that allows the user to choose which sites are to be indexed and searched. I am currently looking through my bookmarks file and choosing the top 25 information management sites. It is possible to convert your bookmarks file to a search roll. Rollyo will index and return results from just these sites. I get to decide what sites I trust.
Rollyo has pre-selected search rolls from some subject experts and a browsable list of other notable rolls. I see rolls based on a single product (digital cameras) organization type (labour unions) or a specific subject (the possibilities are endless). It is possible to convert your bookmarks file to a search roll.
It takes just a few minutes to set up a roll. Take a look at my IM roll (under construction) at http://www.rollyo.com/profile.html?uid=1650.
Posted by Tim Wayne at
10:36 AM
September 15, 2005
Timeline of the History of Information
An entertaining and arbitrary history of information (actually mostly the history of the transmission of information).
It ends in 1998. What next? Any suggestions?
Timeline of the History of Information
Posted by Tim Wayne at
09:00 AM
