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Data straightjacket stifles business flexibility

IWR News Desk — 2009-07-10T15:02:00.000Z

IWR News Desk, Information World Review, Friday 10 July 2009 at 15:02:00

Senior professionals at asset management firms think their ability to undertake business initiatives is hampered by the need for aggregation

Senior professionals at asset management firms think their ability to undertake business initiatives is hampered by the need for aggregation, the operational process of pulling together data to support key investment, control and reporting functions, concludes a report.

The market study, conducted by independent consultant Paul Miller and sponsored by software provider SimCorp, found that the firms that do not see aggregation as a major issue have deployed simpler application systems architectures, composed of fewer applications.

It also found that the majority of firms have a high dependency on spreadsheets and bespoke databases and even those that have deployed a data warehouse still need to store the results of aggregation processes in multiple locations. The study indicated that this constitutes a significant operational risk.

Cath Rawcliffe, vice president - sales and marketing, SimCorp said: "These processes are creating a data straightjacket which hampers asset managers’ ability to adapt to business change. If the operational platform is complex, it is more difficult to extract useful information from it.

“Yet even though the vast majority of firms said they could reduce the number of systems they have in use today, many continue to add further complexity in the form of more processes and data stores. This study indicates that the more this approach is followed, the more difficult it becomes to adapt as business requirements change."

The study reveals that aggregation is seen as an important issue by asset managers, from both an operations and IT perspective. A large number have "high " or "medium" levels of aggregation process duplication across business functions. The management of data, the timing of aggregation processes and reliance on third parties to either perform aggregation functions or deliver data to be processed were seen as causing difficulties.

"While appearing to solve immediate problems, the continued introduction of new aggregation processes further entangles already complicated operations," said Rawcliffe.

Thomson Reuters’ latest tool will give investment managers ‘an edge’

IWR News Desk — 2009-07-09T13:21:00.000Z

IWR News Desk, Information World Review, Thursday 9 July 2009 at 13:21:00

Thomson Reuters has launched an investment management software solution - Lipper for Investment Management – that can leverage Lipper’s global fund data and content

The solution is aimed at providing efficient fund analysis and reporting on over 197,000 share classes covering mutual funds, closed-end funds, exchange traded funds, hedge funds, domestic pension and insurance products in 60 countries and fund holdings in 12 major markets.

It is thought to help info pros and asset managers to improve their research methods to stay ahead of the competition amid worsening financial conditions. Its fund coverage will enable professionals to spot opportunities and profit from better investment decisions, according to the financial information provider.

Andre Lavoie, global managing director, investment management, Thomson Reuters said: “Today more than ever before, fund managers are increasingly seeking independent investment insight to provide an edge that differentiates them from their peers.

The platform is available in UK and US English and Japanese with coverage of local market classifications. It will soon be supporting German and simplified and traditional Chinese.

The hosted desktop product includes Lipper’s mutual fund rating system, and charting capabilities that enable risk and performance analyses. Lipper is a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters and provides mutual and hedge fund information, analytical tools, data and commentary. Having been acquired by Reuters, Lipper became part of Thomson Reuters when Thomson Financial and Reuters merged in April last year.

OU’s online repository adds research on mobile learning

IWR News Desk — 2009-07-08T11:32:00.000Z

IWR News Desk, Information World Review, Wednesday 8 July 2009 at 11:32:00

The research paper called “Will mobile learning change language learning?” becomes the 10,000th item to be deposited in ORO

A research paper which argues that mobile phones and portable devices can lead to new perspectives and practices in learning has been added to the Open University’s research repository- Open Research Online (ORO).

The research paper called “Will mobile learning change language learning?” becomes the 10,000th item to be deposited in ORO. It was written by Agnes Kukulska-Hulme, Professor of Learning Technology & Communication, Open University.

During her research, Professor Kukulska-Hulme looked at the impact mobile phones and other portable devices are beginning to have on how learning takes place, and concludes that an emphasis on mobility can lead to new perspectives and practices.

Launched in 2006, the ORO is part of the initiative - open access movement – that aimed at making peer-reviewed research free. She added: “Browsing the repository gives an instant sense of the enormous breadth and depth of collective expertise – a just reflection of the research and scholarship of a multitude of talented people working at this institution.”

Currently around 20 per cent of the articles deposited on ORO provide access to the full-text, with research ranging from dating climate change on Mars to investigations of rhythm in North Indian music.

ProQuest set to end search woes with its forthcoming platform

IWR News Desk — 2009-07-07T12:44:00.000Z

IWR News Desk, Information World Review, Tuesday 7 July 2009 at 12:44:00

ProQuest will launch a search platform in 2010 that unifies the experience of search by providing access to a broad range of resources, content and services

ProQuest, the provider of specialist information resources, will launch a search platform that unifies the experience of search by providing access to the company’s range of resources, content and services.

Launching next year, the unnamed platform will integrate the company’s products including CSA Illumina and selected Chadwyck-Healey and later migrate all its products to the solution. The product-idea follows ProQuest’s research on search behaviours of more than 6,000 end users, librarians and faculties and is based on their feedback and requirements.

Marty Kahn, chief executive, ProQuest said: “We’re simplifying administration of e-resources for librarians.” He also added that it has assembled the right assets and fostered strategic partnerships to offer a careful combination of content and technology that are meaningful to all types of library users.

The platform will have features such as advanced post search manipulation tools and navigation tools for finding relevant data quickly. For librarians, it will offer new administrative and reporting tools that provide greater flexibility in customizing the experience to their institution’s needs.

Currently being tested, the platform will enhance users’ experience of discovering information and their ability to organize and use their findings more efficiently and precisely. Users will also be able to narrow in on the answers they need by searching across all content and a broad range of complementary sources, including leading journals, periodicals, news content, rare and archival information, dissertations, research reports, e-books and multimedia, ProQuest added.

World’s oldest Book goes online

IWR News Desk — 2009-07-06T12:02:00.000Z

IWR News Desk, Information World Review, Monday 6 July 2009 at 12:02:00

Codex Sinaiticus, the oldest surviving Bible in the world, written in the fourth century in Greek, is published online in full for the first time

People around the world will be also able to explore high resolution digital images of all the extant pages of the book for free starting today.

Written on more than 800 pages of animal skin parchment, the pages of the oldest Bible were scattered between the British Library, Germany, Russia and St Catherine's monastery in Egypt's Sinai desert. Its literature and images were the work of several scribes and had its text revised and corrected over the course of the following centuries.

Pieced together under one site, the online project is the effort of a four-year collaborative agreement between the owners of these different parts of the document, including British Library which possessed over 300 pages.

Professor David Parker from the University of Birmingham's department of Theology, who directed the team funded by the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), which made the electronic transcription of the manuscript said: “The process of deciphering and transcribing the fragile pages of an ancient text containing over 650,000 words is a huge challenge.

“The transcription includes pages of the Codex which were found in a blocked-off room at the Monastery of St Catherine in 1975, some of which were in poor condition,” added Parker. “This is the first time that they have been published. The digital images of the virtual manuscript show the beauty of the original and readers are even able to see the difference in handwriting between the different scribes who copied the text.”

Researchers, academics and general public can search all the surviving text and study the Greek text, which contains information not found in the modern Bible

The British Library is hosting an exhibition in September to mark the launch of the reunited Codex with a range of historic items linked to the manuscript.

View the oldest surviving Bible at: http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/.

European institutions come together to ease mass digitisation

IWR News Desk — 2009-07-03T11:29:00.000Z

IWR News Desk, Information World Review, Friday 3 July 2009 at 11:29:00

The British Library and the University of Salford, along with 15 other European institutions are starting a project - IMPACT – to remove the barriers that stand in the way of mass digitisation of the European cultural heritage

Project IMPACT (Improving Access to Text) follows EU’s i2010 vision to significantly improve access to Europe’s cultural information. Spearheaded by Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the national library of the Netherlands, the project aims to share expertise from across Europe and establish international best practice guidelines with a view to speeding up, standardising and enhancing the quality of mass digitisation. It will establish a centre of competence for text based digitisation.

Mass digitisation has become one of the most prominent issues in the library world over the last 5 years, with a number of experienced libraries in Europe already scanning millions of pages each year.

As part of its role, the British Library will lead on one of IMPACT’s four sub-projects, establishing standardisation and the operational context of the work carried out by contributors to the project.

Aly Conteh, e-strategy and information systems, programme manager, British Library said: "It is absolutely vital institutions work together, sharing experiences and resolving the challenges we face in digitising historic texts. To ensure that we deliver the digital resources that are sustainable and meet the expectations of the 21st century researcher.”

British Library team will work on a set of ‘Decision Support Tools' in an effort to focus on practical implementation support, providing guidance on digitisation workflow, the capturing of material and the organisation of metadata based on the real world experiences of project partners.

Dr Apostolos Antonacopoulos from University of Salford said: “This collaboration presents an opportunity to make a significant world-wide impact on the digitisation of historical documents, by focusing extensive research expertise to exceptional material in both breadth and volume. So far libraries and archives around the world rely on service providers whose best technologies are designed primarily for modern business documents and cannot take fully into account the nuances of and problems posed by ageing books and newspapers.”

Through collaboration IMPACT has already established methods for overcoming issues with geometric correction, border removal and binarisation, and is looking at examples of best practice from around the world, such as the Australian Newspaper Digitisation project's cutting edge application of collaborative user generated corrections, to increase resource discovery success for historic mass digitisation.

National Archives launches tool to optimise information management

IWR News Desk — 2009-07-02T11:30:00.000Z

IWR News Desk, Information World Review, Thursday 2 July 2009 at 11:30:00

The resource- Information Management Value Model (IMVM) - can quantify the significant cost savings, and other benefits, of good information management

A tool which can quantify the significant cost savings, and other benefits, of good information management is to be made freely available to the public sector by The National Archives.

The resource- Information Management Value Model (IMVM) - will ensure best practice in information management throughout the public sector.

It has been developed by Bramble.cc, a UK-based specialist consultancy and solution provider for information management, on behalf of the “Digital Continuity Project”, managed by the National Archives. The project is developing a service that will enable government to use its digital information for as long as it needs to.

David Thomas, chief information officer, The National Archives said: “The information an organisation holds is often of great value, not only for it to function in the short term, but also for legal compliance and for its wider historical value.”

“Information which is managed poorly tends to lose availability, integrity and usability, and can therefore lose value over time.” Thomas points that organisations need to know what information they have, where it is and how to access and use it.

The IMVM addresses ways in which poor information management such as time wasted by staff hunting for information and the unnecessary duplication of effort, can be costly to an organisation.

It calculates a number of benefits, from efficiencies and effectiveness to better customer service and risk reduction. It works by quantifying the value of a proposed improvement in information management, rather than attempting to directly measure the value of the information.

The model is currently being tested and refined within central government. It will then be made available to all government departments and the wider public sector through the National Archives website.

Webroot improves web and email security

IWR News Desk — 2009-07-01T11:23:00.000Z

IWR News Desk, Information World Review, Wednesday 1 July 2009 at 11:23:00

The security provider has released enhanced versions of its solutions- Web Security SaaS and Email Security SaaS - that includes email encryption service and enforcement of internet policies

Internet security provider, Webroot has released enhanced versions of its solutions- Web Security SaaS and Email Security SaaS. Updates to the solutions include web browsing quotas to enforce internet use policies and an email encryption service to secure sensitive email communications.

As email encryption becomes mandatory for email security, organisations are increasingly faced with legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. The enhanced versions aim at addressing security concerns by blocking threats in the cloud and keeping malware off the network.

Don Beck, general manager of SaaS, Webroot, said: “With the continued growth in volume and maliciousness of web threats, businesses today require more robust functionality to manage web security as well as employee Internet use.”

New features of the Web Security SaaS include extension of log duration to access detailed forensic data on internet use; enforcing company policies for time spent online, bandwidth used, and number of sites accessed; improved detection of malicious JavaScript and Shell code; enforcing “safe search”; and improving support for mobile users.

The added features of Email Security SaaS are automatic encryption of email communications to meet legal, compliance and regulatory requirements; allowing customers to easily deploy, configure and manage their services; and improving control over content of daily email summary reports enabling users to more effectively manage their inbox.

The updates are for protecting companies’ sensitive information amid increasing threats from sophisticated online frauds, the company informed.

Project ‘Amplified Leicester’ will try new technologies to boost business

IWR News Desk — 2009-06-30T10:08:00.000Z

IWR News Desk, Information World Review, Tuesday 30 June 2009 at 10:08:00

De Montfort University is launching a research project which will link diverse communities in order to explore how pooling their knowledge and experiences can be used to catalyse innovation

De Montfort University (DMU) is launching a research project which will link diverse communities within the city in order to explore how pooling their unique knowledge and experiences can be used to catalyse innovation.

The Leicester-based university is calling for people willing to try new technologies, to join the experimental project – Amplified Leicester - which will boost business and communities by using digital networks to encourage disparate groups to share bright ideas and expertise.

Professor of new media at DMU’s city centre campus, Sue Thomas said: “We will be exploring diversity and innovation by building a network across diverse communities. We hope it’s the beginning of a really exciting era which might see whole communities working together in an entirely new way across social media like Twitter and Facebook.”

The project starts in October 2009 and the university is calling for info pros, individuals, small businesses or community organisations to participate in the project, free of charge. The city-wide experiment has received funding of £116,000 from the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA).

Roland Harwood, director of NESTA’s connect programme, said: “This experiment is designed to show how social media such as Twitter and Facebook can be used to connect the city’s disparate and diverse communities and networks. We’re aiming to make Leicester the most connected city in the UK and use these networks to grow the innovation capacity of Leicester for both social and commercial benefit.”

The project is also supported by DMU’s pioneering Institute for Creative Technologies (IOCT), and will be based at Phoenix Square, the new digital media centre in Leicester which opens later this year.

Psychologist Tanya Byron launches e-safety resource for primary schools

IWR News Desk — 2009-06-29T13:12:00.000Z

IWR News Desk, Information World Review, Monday 29 June 2009 at 13:12:00

The interactive resources have been designed to empower all primary school employees to understand, tackle and teach e-safety issues to children

Child psychologist, professor Tanya Byron, is launching a set of resources called 'Know IT All” for primary teachers to help schools keep children safe online.

The interactive resources have been designed to empower all primary school employees to understand, tackle and teach e-safety issues to children. The tools are developed through funding from the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA), Becta and the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS).

According to Ofcom, children as young as eight now use social networking services and mobile phones, so providing education and training in internet safety at a younger age has never been more important.

The move follows the recommendations made in the government-commissioned report by Byron who called for greater effort on the part of schools and government to educate and support young people in using the internet and digital technologies.

The tools also forms part of a set of the “Know IT All” resources including “Know IT All for Parents” which academy Childnet had produced, sponsored by Becta.

Stephen Crowne, Becta's chief executive said: "Enabling the whole school workforce to provide a safe environment for the use of ICT is one of Becta's key strategic aims. Previously, the know-it-all series has been successful in equipping and educating parents, secondary school teachers and trainees on how to keep children safe online."

Childnet's chief executive, Will Gardner, said: “Equipping children to use the internet and mobile phones safely is crucial and we need to do this at the time when children are first beginning to use these powerful tools. The ‘Know IT All’ resource, available free to primary schools, will provide a much needed and highly valued resource."

According to the TDA, the resources offer support in understanding e-safety issues in teaching and learning and includes effective learning resources to engage young children.

This new resource includes 3D animation specially designed for young children beginning to try new technology. Presented as five chapters, it includes a real life “smart crew” who guide the cartoon characters in their quest and help them make smart online decisions. It is available in CD format as well as on the Childnet’s website to be used in an assembly or a classroom setting.