Media Monitoring and Current Awareness: Tools in the

Information Explosion

by Connie CrosbyCrosby Group Consulting

for CALL/ACBD/MichALL 2010Windsor, Monday, May 10, 2010

RSS feeds

XML code

Source: http://www.w3schools.com/XML/xml_examples.asp

Find the feed - e.g. http://www.legalpubs.ca/

Find the feed - e.g. http://www.legalpubs.ca/

Choose your feed reader

Add to feed reader or copy the feed URL

Other RSS feed sources

• blogs

• news sources

• publication websites

• subscription services - search results

• Google News search results

Google News search - RSS at bottom of page

No feed available? Create one - Dapper http://www.dapper.net/open/

Google Reader

Organize RSS feeds in Google Reader & tag items

Under “Manage Subscriptions” > “Folders and Tags” - click on “private” for tag Banking

Sharing options - public page, email or add clip (widget) to your web pages

Sharing page - “Banking” - dedicated URL & feed

Yahoo! Pipes

Yahoo! Pipes - http://pipes.yahoo.com -simple sample feed aggregation

Yahoo! Pipes - http://pipes.yahoo.com -simple sample feed aggregation

Fetch RSS Feeds

Yahoo! Pipes - http://pipes.yahoo.com -simple sample feed aggregation

Sort feeds by date

Yahoo! Pipes - http://pipes.yahoo.com -simple sample feed aggregation

Show only 20 results

Yahoo! Pipes - http://pipes.yahoo.com -simple sample feed aggregation

final output (RSS feed)

Running the results inside Yahoo! Pipes

Various options for using the results

•pull together feeds

•filter results

•create a custom search

•make results available by email

Widgets

Yahoo! Pipes - use one of their badges

Customize your widget

Customizing - test different settings

Ask for embed code (HTML code)

Add the widget HTML code to a page

Grab code & feed info through widgets e.g. JD Supra widget

e.g. Mag.ma - feed of favourite videos

Semantic Web

Eqentia - http://portal.eqentia.com - semantic search results

Results - sort by region, industry, company, people, issues & topics

Refine search results

Works with free + subscription sources

Mobile delivery

Build your own

iPhone app

e.g. Navigator app

Delivering selected

news

Link to web

sources

App users can

share theirfavourites

Cannedmessages

makes sharing

convenient

Viigo.com -

customizable news for the Blackberry

5,000+ pre-set news

channels

5,000+ pre-set news

channels+

add selectionsfrom your

feed reader!

Concluding thoughts

1. automate what you can

(information management)

2.then focus your time &

effort on knowledge work

• increasing complexity and client needs:

• automate what you can for ongoing routine current awareness, as customized as possible (information management)

• for difficult projects, automate what you can but this is an opportunity to use your knowledge skills to develop and analyze (knowledge work)

• competitive intelligence

• business intelligence

• such as reference requests for specialized monitoring

Keith Swensonon

knowledge work:

VP R&D - Fujitsu America

Non-repeated

Unpredictable

Emergent

and robust in the face of variable conditions

Where do our

services fit in?

Start simple & build on success

Selected Sources (1/2)• Brown, Scott, “Yahoo! Pipes: Relevant information on tap,” FUMSI, November

2009http://web.fumsi.com/go/article/find/4342

• Michele Gamache, Web 2.0, Legal IT 4 conference, Montreal, April 26, 2010.Will be posted to: http://legalit.ca/en/about/publications/

• Steve Matthews, “New Feed Mix for DUI Law,” Slaw.ca, July 31, 2008.http://www.slaw.ca/2008/07/31/new-feed-mix-for-dui-law/

• Steve Matthews, “Yahoo Pipes Tutorial for Feed Mixing,” Slaw.ca, June 22, 2008.http://www.slaw.ca/2008/06/22/yahoo-pipes-tutorial-for-feed-mixing/

• Keith D. Swenson, The Nature of Knowledge Work, Process.gov conference, Reston, VA, April 15, 2010. http://www.slideshare.net/kswenson/the-nature-of-knowledge-work

• David Whelan, Finding and Managing Legal Information on the Internet, Canada Law Book, 2010.

Thank you!Connie Crosby

Crosby Group Consultinghttp://crosbygroup.ca

connie@crosbygroup.ca416-919-6719

Image Credits

• “.|Unique|.” by clix http://www.sxc.hu/photo/923718 - used under stock.xchng standard licensing

• Alaskan double rainbow by Connie Crosby - available under Creative Commons

• “Emerging Beauty” by timsamoff on Flickr - used under Creative Commons - http://www.flickr.com/photos/timsamoff/106779233/

• “Blick auf Karlsbad - Karlovy Vary” by fleckchen - used under Creative Commons - http://www.flickr.com/photos/amanda63/4499939895/

• Image of business man used under standard stock.xchng license http://www.sxc.hu

• “Simplicity” by subodev - Flickr - used under Creative Commonshttp://www.flickr.com/photos/suvodeb/3188700716/