The Online World, Odd de Presno [simple ebook reader txt] 📗

Most of us make notes in the margins, underline, use colors, cut out pages and put into folders. These tricks are important, since it is so hard to find information in a pile of papers. Not so with electronic information. With the right tools, you can locate information on your computer's hard disk in seconds. In seven seconds, I just searched the equivalent of 2000 pages of printed text for all occurrences of the combined search words 'SONY' and 'CD-ROM'! My tool was the shareware program LOOKFOR (see Chapter 14). It searched through 4.2 megabyte on my 80486-based notebook computer. If you use an indexing program, the search may be completed even faster. I guess you can see it coming. My personal databases usually give more direct value during my working day, than what I have on paper, and have available online. My hard disks contain megabytes of texts retrieved from various online services, but only what I have decided to keep. This private database therefore contains more relevant information per kilobyte than the online databases I'm using. Searching the data often gives enough good hits to keep me from going online for more.

| I repeat: You will often get better results when searching your |

| own subset of selected online databases, than by going online |

| to get information. It is usually easier and faster. |

On the other hand, your in-house database will never be fully up- to-date. Too many things happen all the time.

Also, the search terms used for your daily intake of news will never cover all future needs. Occasionally, you must go online to get additional information for a project, a report, a plan. Updating your database means going online often to find new supplementary information.

| Regular monitoring gives the highest returns, and is required |

| if you want to have an edge over your competitors. |

For beginners, the best strategy will often be to start with the general, and gradually dig deeper into industry specific details. Let us now review some good hunting grounds for information, and how to use them.

Clipping the news

Several online services offer 'clipping services'. They select the news that you want - 24 hours a day - from a continuous stream of stories from newspapers, magazines, news agencies and newsletters.

Several services make news immediately available, when they have been received by satellite. The delay previously used to protect the interests of print media is disappearing quickly. Online services usually deliver news sooner than in print media, radio or TV. You select stories by giving the online service a set of search terms. The hits are then sent to your electronic mailbox, for you to retrieve at will. 'Clipping' gives an enormous advantage. Few important details escape your attention, even when you cannot go online daily. The stories will stay in your mailbox until you have read them.

'Clipping' on CompuServe

CompuServe's Executive News Service (ENS) monitor more than 8,000 stories daily. They use sources like Deutsche Press-Agentur, Kyodo News Service, TASS, Xinhua News Agency, the Washington Post, OTC News-Alert, Reuters Financial News Wire, Associated Press, UPI and Reuters World Report, IDG PR Service, Inter Press Service (IPS), Middle East News Network and European Community Report.

One of them, Reuters, has 1,200 journalists in 120 bureaus all over the world. They write company news reports about revenue, profit, dividend, purchases of other companies, changes in management, and other important items for judging a company's results. They write regular opinions about Industry, Governments, Economics, Leading indicators, and Commerce. Reuters also offers full-text stories from Financial Times and other leading European newspapers. Its Textline is a database with news from some 1,500 publications in over 40 countries. It includes Reuters' own news services, and has translated abstracts of stories from some 17 languages. The database reaches back 10 years and is updated at around one million articles per year. (Textline is also available on Nexis, Data-Star, and Dialog.) Another one, the IDG PR Service, sends out high-tech related news gathered by the staffs of IDG's magazines. InterPress Service covers Third World countries. Middle East News Network integrates the contents of 28 information sources covering this region of the world. The Executive News Service lets you define up to three 'clipping folders'. Supply up to seven 'key phrases' that define your interests. These key phrases will be used when searching stories as they are sent. Hits will be 'clipped' and held in a folder for you to review at your convenience. Each folder can hold 500 stories. When creating a clipping folder, you set an expiration date and specify how many days a clipped story is to be held (maximum 14 days). To browse the contents of a folder, select it from the menu. Stories can be listed by headlines or leads. Select those you want to read, forward to others as email, or copy to another folder. Delete those that you do not need. Defining key phrases is simple. The important thing is not to get too much nor too little. General phrases will give you many unwanted stories while too narrow phrases will cause you to miss pertinent stories. Let me illustrate with an example: The phrase APPLE COMPUTERS will only clip stories that have the words APPLE and COMPUTERS next to each other. This may be too narrow. Specifying just APPLE or just COMPUTERS would be too broad. Entering APPLE + COMPUTERS is a better phrase since the words can appear anywhere in the story, and not necessarily next to each other.

ENS carries an hourly surcharge of US$15/hour over base connect rates.

Clipping on NewsNet

NewsNet greets users with this opening screen:

----------------- - N E W S N E T - ----------------- W O R K I N G K N O W L E D G E

***New--Electromagnetic Field Litigation Reporter (EY86) tracks developments in every important legal action involving electromagnetic radiation from power lines, cellular phones, VTDs, and radar and microwave equipment.

***The title of HH15 has been changed to Cancer Researcher Weekly. This service was formerly entitled Cancer Weekly.

***Important work in the blood field throughout the world is covered by Blood Week (HH44), including research, literature, and upcoming events.

***TB Weekly (HH45) is an internationally-focused newsletter that concentrates on tuberculosis-related news and research, including business developments.

New Services on NewsNet:

TB Weekly (HH45) Blood Weekly (HH44) Electromagnetic Field Litigation Reporter (EY86) Chapter 11 Update (FI82) Tobacco Industry Litigation Reporter (HH48) Trade and Development Opportunities (GT50)

For details on new services, enter READ PB99# or HELP followed by the service code.

NewsNet's clipping service, NewsFlash, will automatically search all new editions of newsletters selected for monitoring. The hits will be sent to your mailbox, and be retained there for up to ten weeks besides the current week.

Your selection of newsletters can be extended to include news stories from United Press International (UPI), Reuters News Reports, Associated Press, Business Wire, PR Newswire, and others. For some time, I clipped newsletters in the telecommunications group using the keywords 'Victoria' (an American communication project) and 'KDD' (the Japanese telecom giant). When I called NewsFlash to check, it typically reported: NEWSFLASH NOTIFICATION

4 Total Newsflash hits. Use STOP to stop and delete all. New Hits = 4 Saved Items = 0

TE01 7/17/89 == VICTORIA == Headline #1 COOKE SELLS CABLE HOLDINGS TO 6-MEMBER GROUP FOR NEARLY $1.6 BILLION

Jack Cooke's cable systems will be sold to 6-member consortium

TE11 7/17/89 == VICTORIA == Headline #2 BOCs' PROGRESS TOWARD INTELLIGENT NETWORK ARCHITECTURE INTERTWINED WITH DIFFICULT INTERNETWORKING NEGOTIATIONS, PENDING DECREE COURT

EC89 7/18/89 == KDD == Headline #3 KDD OPENS NY/LONDON OFFICES TOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 JUL 14 (NB) -- Kokusai Denshin Denwa (KDD),

EC89 8/22/89 == KDD == Headline #4 FOREIGNERS CAN BUY INTO KDD TOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 AUG 17 -- The Japanese government is planning

Enter Headline numbers or ALL to read, MORE, AGAIN, SAVE, STOP, or HELP -->