FASTforward Day 1 wrapup
by Sandy Kemsley
Day 1 at FASTforward has seen some interesting trends emerge.
First and foremost, search is being recognized as not just a feature in other products, but as a profound change in how to we access information. Weinberger’s talk showed just how fundamental those changes are, as data and metadata become one, and how we’re undergoing a user revolution driven not just by user-created content, but by user-generated taxonomies to categorize that content, and user-created links and references to connect the content in new, emergent ways. Clare Hart also discussed the shift in the nature of search and information access through "search without the search box", where information is served up to individuals based on their very customized needs and preferences.
Secondly, search and business intelligence are beginning to at least show a lot of symbiosis, if not actually merging. Tom Davenport’s presentation about competing on analytics showed a trend towards more unstructured data types in analytics, as well as interesting combinations of BI and search. Using search as a basis for BI can increase flexibility by expanding the underlying data sources, and provides a more natural user-driven paradigm for information discovery.
Search has definitely changed how I access information. In many cases, I don’t store information in a predefined structure, but use search — web or enterprise (which for me is an enterprise of one) — to find what I need when I need it. I also have searches buried in automated information presentation, by creating automated blog searches for specific terms that I want to track, and subscribing to them in my feed reader: another form of Hart’s search without the search box.
How is search changing the way that you access information? Do you create your own personalized filtered view of the tsunami of information, or are you intimidated by the sheer volume of what’s out there and not yet comfortable enough with the tools that you need to tame it?
