Friday 18 July 2008

Various news

I'm starting to catch up with reading - here's some of the news to hit recently (ish!):
  • Microsoft buys up Powerset, in its attempt to take on Google
  • HEFCE announces 22 pilot institutions to test the new REF (http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=402609)
  • NHS Choices selects Capita as preferred bidder
  • Google is experimenting with a Digg-like interface
  • Amazon S3 experienced service outage on 20 July - one of the risks of relying on the cloud, I guess
  • Encyclopaedia Britannica goes wiki
  • Proquest to acquire Dialog business from Thomson Reuters
Some interesting articles came my way too...
  • Information : lifeblood or pollution? has some interesting thoughts about when information has value and when there is so much information it loses its value. Jakob Nielsen is quoted: 'Information pollution is information overload taken to the extreme. It is where it stops being a burden and becomes an impediment to your ability to get your work done.' Possible solutions are rating the integrity of information and clearer provenance.
  • International initiative licenses resources across 4 European countries about a deal negotiated via the Knowledge Exchange with Multi-Science, ALPSP, BioOne, ScientificWorldJournal, and Wiley-Blackwell.
  • A fun way of describing the amount of data Google handles

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