At the dawn of the digital information age, I learned an exotic research tradecraft “Selective Dissemination of Information” (SDI). Platforms such as Dialog and Orbit contained dozens of databases which included abstracts and descriptors for scientific and business
articles and reports. Curated topical updates could be harvested by using a set of complex commands and Boolean logic.
Here’s the catch: daily or weekly alert of new content could only be retrieved by logging onto the platform. There was no automatic delivery.
Everything sped up with the emergence of email and the World Wide Web in the 1990s. In recent decades aggregation platforms have evolved from simply speeding up and personalizing alerts, to providing immediate real time notifications. The emergence of analytics, AI and neural nets has been a force multiplier to drive the development of exotic features such as predictive insights and sentiment analysis. Microtrends became detectable as social media flooded into the competitive landscape.
In 2004 I was interviewed by EContent magazine and asked — if I could accomplish anything in my career, what would it be. Here is my answer:
“I’d like to be an information climatologist. I’d work with vendors to design information services for determining what is likely to happen next by pulling trends together. Imagine if someone could have known that Enron was about to happen?”
In 2023, aggregation platforms stand poised to fulfill that dream.
Why Law Firms Need Curation Platforms.
Lawyers are in an information business. The practice of law requires the relentless monitoring Continue reading on Legal Tech Hub
