mostly research stuff
okay, valdis posted this message to SocNet earlier: “Look! Up in the sky… It’s a relationship! No, It’s a link! No, it’s a tie — a strong tie… no, it’s a weak tie… I don’t know, but they are definitely connected… for sure they are associated….Isn’t the current discussion of ‘ties’ between Iraq and al Qaeda the social network researcher’s nightmare? ;-) Valdis (btw, valdis IS www.orgnet.com) …Some related web sites…http://www.progressive.org, http://www.cnn.com/, http://www.weeklystandard.com, http://www.latimes.com
my reply: “it’s so much deeper than you even know valdis ;) …saddam was of course supported by ronald reagan…BUT….Ronald The Young Doctors,(1961) with Eddie Albert….Eddie Albert was in The Big Picture, (1989) with Kevin Bacon
the tie we must really explore, of course, is between (possibly) kevin bacon and al qaeda via saddam and ronald…thanks to: the ORACLE
looks like the ama will succeed with a big push for a new “HHS Clinical Trials” database….in june, circa 540 american medical association members at the annual meeting unanimously approved a resolution urging the us department of health and human services to create a national database for all clinical trials and their outcomes…here’s the link to the ama release from june 15th ….ama stated that, “Journals are more interested in publishing studies that are likely to affect clinical practice. As a result, confirmatory trials, trials with negative results, and trials that show no significant result are less likely to be published…new policies were based on…AMA’s Council on Scientific Affairs (CSA). “…a little follow-up note from the ama on june 18th shows positive signs…and it got even more steam just a few days ago, june 24th, when “Several members of Congress indicated interest in pursuing legislation to create the registry”
okay, this is huge news for researchers working in or around the world of pharma (!).. i remember what a pain it was ten years ago when i used to have call phrma to request all sorts of manufactured drug data from the librarians and researchers on staff. all were incredibly helpful, don’t get me wrong - just a lot of slow faxing and incomplete data depending on stage of trial, data slices used for reports and so on…i usually wound up making another ten phone calls to expound details until my ear was all clammy… but NOTE this: success remains to be seen. this is in the best interest of the public (duh), and while companies like glaxo (denying charges that they withheld details on paxil) and merck (one company that is bigger than the entire biotech industry rolled up) are publicly taking the high ground embracing this, according to new scientist , “merck doesn’t want details for smaller trials to be routinely included - only the large, pivotial trials” (6/26 issue, page 5)
lemme explain the precise significance of this for those who might not completely get it Read the rest of this entry »
“To control your cow, give it a bigger pasture.” - Suzuki Roshi, Zen Master
In the field of competitive intelligence, primary research is loosely defined as ‘in depth interviews’ with individuals likely to be intimate with competitor or marketplace activity. This might include employees of a competitor, suppliers and buyers, partners, pundits, former employees and many other sources ranging from neighbors to local government figures. Everything else seems to become secondary research by default.
Is there room for more stratification? Could this perhaps be as simple as ‘first person accounts’ (and related) versus ‘one step removed’? For a moment, let’s rethink what we’re doing when we call ‘all other’ secondary research. It feels as though secondary has now become just about anything that can be faxed, photocopied or printed on cheap paper in black and white ink on old machines (think: after Chaplin rolled through the gears in Modern Times, but before Reeves entered The Matrix).
Step back from popular CI industry definitions, if you will, and imagine primary research to more broadly encompass any primary source that permits us to get close to what is happening, has happened or will happen while reflecting the individual viewpoint of the observer, participant or otherwise intimately involved person(s). This might allow one to generate alternatives where staple secondary research sources are exhausted, come up short, or otherwise prove to be of little value without deeper context. Isn’t this why we often spend so much time on the primary research? Though analysis is absolutely critical, primary research consumes the lion’s share of hours in execution. Read the rest of this entry »
General MacArthur once said, “the Greeks liked Ulysses because he had been to the wars and he knew what they were, not because he held a Ph.D. from the Ivy Leagues.” I’m certain that we’d all like to believe that our clients feel the same way, right? Like it or not, today’s Ted-Kennedy-sized market for consulting services is so full of pedigrees that any potential client needs only to scan his junk mail to uncover the guru-du-jour.
We all really need look no further than our own legal system to understand the actionable value of experts (think: expert witness). Players from all walks of the service industry regularly confer with such individuals as a way to establish solid footing on a slippery trail lined with jagged service bills. What better way to substantiate your claim that ‘paper is an industry in decline’ than to quote the noted ‘history of pulp and paper’ expert in your presentation? Read the rest of this entry »
okay, combing is old news. in plain english, it’s a term a lotta researchers use to describe the process of ripping off the hard work of other researchers…or more elegantly stated, “avoid wheel-reinvention by searching for other well developed resource repositories.” this is quite common for most researchers who spend a lot of time looking for great collections of industry/topic/item specific collections (from pharma to industrial to whatever else one might need)…but when it comes to the world of librarians, it’s like a whole new take on the concept of meta-combing…
librarians have begun to seriously organize their own librarian web sites, blogs and similar resources - and it’s getting hotter than little ‘nony ryder’s pilfering video - so much so that even dmoz has developed a new category within the open directory project to house all of these librarian type resources. good news? you bet. here’s a run down of some starting points to consider if you wish to look over these growing meta-collections: Read the rest of this entry »
this blog is mostly safe for work, though i sometimes throw around a 'fuck' or two. you'll find a bunch of my articles from CI Magazine, SCIP online, other research pieces and some other crap. enjoy. there's lost of content here related to getting information about, around, from and through people and organizations...