Round world could be displayed on a flat surface ... g.

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InfoToday 2003 National Online New York
City Patrick Spain May 6, 2003
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Who Is This Man What Did He Teach Us?
1512-1594
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Gerhard Mercator- The Father of Modern Map Making

• Innovator - Mercator Projection
• Inspired breakthrough
• Round world could be displayed on a flat surface
• Solved the largest problem of the day how to
  give explorers a map they could relate to their
  navigation instruments
• Only one problem- it was wrong!
• Integrator - Invented The Atlas
• First person to create a book of similarly scaled
  maps of the known world
• Not an explorer, but a synthesizer compiler
• His Atlas served as the template for all modern
  mapping

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The Information Landscape

• There are few new ideas right now
• In fact, we are going backwards in many ways
• There is little real growth in most areas
• Providers are focused on profits survival
• Price increases are a substitute for growth
• Aggregators are adding content gathering
  rights, rather than making content easier to find
  use
• Technology is viewed as a delivery vehicle,
  rather than a value enhancer
• Many publishers are waging a hopeless battle to
  close the barn door on free/low cost content

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But Exciting Conditions Have Been Created

• More content than ever available online
• More people than ever have access to online
  resources
• Primary means of research is now online, rather
  than in physical libraries
• More tools to make that content useful

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This Has Given Rise to Some Noteworthy Trends

• Rise of the individual as content manager
• Integration of software data
• Decline of the importance of brands
• Focus on answers rather then results
• Opportunities for new mapmakers

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Rise of the Individual As Content Manager

• Long-term societal trend toward taking control of
  matters that are important
• Technology has made individual research easier
• Cost cutting at enterprises means fewer
  gatekeepers fewer centralized resources
• Its just more efficient each individuals buys
  and uses what he/she wants/needs
• Rise of the acceptability of individual online
  payment

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Integration of Software Data

• The online environment is not a technology
• It is also not a new medium
• It is not a big, cheap pipe
• It is an amalgam of tools and data tied together
  by brand that, when properly organized, does
  something think AOL
• Whether you believe this or not, Microsoft does
  that will make it happen

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Decline of Importance of Brands

• There are more brands this dilutes existing
  brands
• It is now easier to build a brand, using online
  presence (e.g., AOL, Hoovers, Motley Fool,
  Drudge Report) so existing brands are less
  valuable
• Requirements for credibility become less
  stringent as audience gets larger and less
  professional this is a fundamental change that
  most info professionals have failed to grasp
• Pretty good information at an excellent (low)
  price is larger market than perfect information
  at a high price (Thats why Wal-Mart is 150x
  Tiffany in size)

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Focus on Answers, Not Results

• Answers involve a combination of locating,
  organizing, and publishing
• Most so-called research services stop at search
  results
• Even search stops half-way Google does a good
  job on the free Web but then you have to search
  paid/registration services separately

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What You Asked For

• What Is the Price of Tea in China?

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What You Got
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Role of the New Mapmakers

• Help individuals with particular interests to
  locate, collect integrate information - Blogs

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Jim Romeneskos MediaNews Blog

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Role of the New Mapmakers

• Help individuals with particular interests to
  locate, collect integrate information - Blogs
• Develop new methodologies to prepackage
  information so it is more useful Mercators
  Atlas

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Kartoos Visual Representation

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Role of the New Mapmakers

• Help individuals with particular interests to
  locate, collect integrate information - Blogs
• Develop new methodologies to prepackage
  information so it is more useful Mercators
  Atlas
• Expand access to what already exists, as printing
  did for the written word - Metasearch

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SurfWax Metasearch

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What You Asked For

• What Is the Price of Tea in China?

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What You Needed

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Insurmountable Opportunities

• Content is permanently commoditized
• Technology is still too abstract
• Publishers are still balkanized
• Aggregators have not come close to replicating
  the cable TV model or the software bundling model
• Mindsets about value market size are fossilized

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Conclusions

• Most of the information industry is boring and
  little interested in innovation, much as the
  mapping industry was in the mid 16th century
• Innovation can come from new discovery, but can
  also come from putting together the pieces that
  have already been been created in new more
  useful ways
• While technology will be the engine of this
  industry, people companies who understand how
  information is can be used to provide answers
  will be the ultimate winners

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We Just Need the New