Discussion List Archives

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

[Fwd: ICSTI News for Nov 16]

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

--Boundary_(ID_qZ1/k0A4dfjcn/3HCXskEw)
Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT


-- 
Howard Flack        http://www.unige.ch/crystal/ahdf/Howard.Flack.html
Laboratoire de Cristallographie               Phone: 41 (22) 702 62 49
24 quai Ernest-Ansermet             mailto:Howard.Flack@cryst.unige.ch
CH-1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland                   Fax: 41 (22) 702 61 08

--Boundary_(ID_qZ1/k0A4dfjcn/3HCXskEw)
Content-type: message/rfc822
Content-transfer-encoding: 8BIT

Return-path: <owner-icsti-l@DTIC.MIL>
Received: from gate.unige.ch ([129.194.8.77])
 by sunny.unige.ch (PMDF V6.0-24 #44959)
 with ESMTP id <0G44005XAV7OJF@sunny.unige.ch> for flack@sunny.unige.ch
 (ORCPT howard.flack@CRYST.UNIGE.CH); Thu, 16 Nov 2000 20:52:36 +0100 (MET)
Received: from DIRECTORY-DAEMON.gate.unige.ch by gate.unige.ch
 (PMDF V6.0-24 #44959) id <0G4400001V7O5G@gate.unige.ch> for
 flack@sunny.unige.ch (ORCPT howard.flack@CRYST.UNIGE.CH); Thu,
 16 Nov 2000 20:52:36 +0100 (MET)
Received: from mails.dtic.mil (mails.dtic.mil [131.84.1.19])
 by gate.unige.ch (PMDF V6.0-24 #44959)
 with ESMTP id <0G4400MCOV7NG9@gate.unige.ch> for howard.flack@CRYST.UNIGE.CH;
 Thu, 16 Nov 2000 20:52:36 +0100 (MET)
Received: from list.dtic.mil (list.dtic.mil [131.84.105.11])
	by mails.dtic.mil (8.9.3+Sun/8.9.3/990419cac) with ESMTP id OAA16098; Thu,
 16 Nov 2000 14:51:52 -0500 (EST)
Received: from list (list.dtic.mil [172.16.105.11])
	by list.dtic.mil (8.9.3+Sun/1.0) with ESMTP id OAA22261; Thu,
 16 Nov 2000 14:50:10 -0500 (EST)
Received: from DTIC.MIL by DTIC.MIL (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 1.8d)
 with spool id 38845 for ICSTI-L@DTIC.MIL; Thu, 16 Nov 2000 14:45:34 -0500
Received: from mails.dtic.mil (mails.dtic.mil [131.84.1.19])
 by list.dtic.mil (8.9.3+Sun/1.0) with ESMTP id LAA07452 for
 <icsti-l@list.dtic.mil>; Thu, 16 Nov 2000 11:16:55 -0500 (EST)
Received: from mcclure.tinet.ie (mcclure.tinet.ie [159.134.237.31])
 by mails.dtic.mil (8.9.3+Sun/8.9.3/990419cac) with ESMTP id LAA12544 for
 <icsti-l@dtic.mil>; Thu, 16 Nov 2000 11:16:55 -0500 (EST)
Received: from p93.as2.bantry1.eircom.net ([159.134.209.93] helo=eircom.net)
 by mcclure.tinet.ie with esmtp (Exim 2.05 #23)
 id 13wRiX-0000Ts-00 for icsti-l@dtic.mil; Thu, 16 Nov 2000 16:16:53 +0000
Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2000 17:18:44 +0100
From: The Mahons <mahons1@EIRCOM.NET>
Subject: ICSTI News for Nov 16
Sender: ICSTI-L list <ICSTI-L@DTIC.MIL>
Approved-by: crandall@DTIC.MIL
To: ICSTI-L@DTIC.MIL
Reply-to: ICSTI-L list <ICSTI-L@DTIC.MIL>
Message-id: <3A1408E3.6961B121@eircom.net>
MIME-version: 1.0
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en]C-CCK-MCD NSCPCD47  (Win98; I)
Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-transfer-encoding: 8BIT
X-Accept-Language: en
X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000

A couple of news items for today, with comments from me. Your feedback
on this style of presentation as well as the content, would be
appreciated. Bye, Barry

DIGITAL-LIBRARY COMPANY PLANS TO CHARGE STUDENTS FOR ACCESS
Is this a sign of things to come??
According to an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education Online, 14
November 2000, in January 2001, Questia Media will begin offering a
digital library service that will allow students to electronically
search a collection of roughly 50,000 books and journals by keyword.
Students must pay between $20 and $30 a month for Questia's service and
will be able to cut and paste specific content into their papers
digitally. The service will automatically create footnotes and will
hyperlink footnotes in papers that are submitted online, allowing
professors to check references easily. Questia says 135 publishers have
agreed to provide some titles through the new service, although many of
the titles are out-of-print. Yale University associate university
librarian Ann Okerson says Questia appears to be creating a viable
collection. Okerson, who recently accepted an unpaid job on Questia's
Librarian Advisory Council, says she hopes to persuade the company to
offer institution-wide licenses so all students could access the
service, since the subscription fees Questia is proposing are too high
for some students. According to Questia's web site www.questia.com the
subject coverage is "liberal arts books and journal articles" and
"Material included in the Questia collection will be accessible 24 hours
per day/7 days per week. Content will be archived in adherence with best
practices for long-term retention of digital research resources"
Questia's founder is a 1998 graduate of the Harvard Law School and is
backed by financing from Rod Canion, founder of Compaq.

AUTONOMY LAUNCHES ON THE LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE

Autonomy, a UK software house which sells Portal in a Box and other Web
based information management software, was listed on the London Stock
Exchange yesterday November 15. Autonomy also sells an information
retrieval package for which they claim very high recall and precision
ratios and a very sophisticated indexing capability. Wearing another
occupational hat I have heard extremely varied reports of its value,
from useless to very good. For the third quarter of 2000 Autonomy's
revenues were $17.6 million (up from $6 million on 1999, third quarter)
with a net profit of $6.5 million.

The company is a spin off from Cambridge University research on so
called Beynsian mathematics and the Chief Executive Mike Lynch who with
Richard Gaunt as chief technology officer are the founders, are paper
millionaires many times over. The Financial Times of London says that
investors on the London market are "are banking  on flawless execution
and the undivided attention of these two" and asks why they are actually
employed by a privately held company Neurodynamics, instead of Autonomy.

Based on its current London market valuation of more than £4bn, Autonomy
could qualify for inclusion in the FTSE 100 (the UK equivalent of the
Dow) at the next meeting of the FTSE committee on December 6. This seems
incredible given that this year is its first year to make a profit. It
is not often that we in the information world can identify with the
equivalent of a "dot com" enterprise where the market values the shares
so highly.

Anybody out there with specific experience they can share on Autonomy or
its products??


--Boundary_(ID_qZ1/k0A4dfjcn/3HCXskEw)--

Reply to: [list | sender only]
International Union of Crystallography

Scientific Union Member of the International Science Council (admitted 1947). Member of CODATA, the ISC Committee on Data. Partner with UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in the International Year of Crystallography 2014.

International Science Council Scientific Freedom Policy

The IUCr observes the basic policy of non-discrimination and affirms the right and freedom of scientists to associate in international scientific activity without regard to such factors as ethnic origin, religion, citizenship, language, political stance, gender, sex or age, in accordance with the Statutes of the International Council for Science.

Useful links