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InnoCentive Links Problems and Problem-Solvers
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by Paula J. Hane
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With the fast pace of technological change, many companies have seen the benefits of licensing needed technologies or buying a partner or competitor that has it in order to stay competitive. But what if it's a problem you haven't yet solved and would like to do so as quickly as possible? As Adrienne J. Burke wrote recently for The New York Academy of Sciences Magazine, "In a day and age when ‘thinking outside the box' is universally touted as the fastest path to scientific and technological innovation, incentive prize contests have come to be seen as one of the most creative ways to generate groundbreaking ideas." InnoCentive is one of the leading companies in crowdsourcing, open innovation, and incentive contests. It recently announced a partnership with Popular Science magazine to facilitate open innovation and greater collaboration in solving challenges in technology, science, and engineering. I love Popular Science, so this caught my eye, but digging into the InnoCentive site revealed an impressive range of activities and partnerships for the 10-year-old company.
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Swets and Innovative Interfaces Link Up for Data Interchange
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Swets, an information services company, and Innovative Interfaces, Inc., a library automation provider, announced that they successfully established a range of electronic data interchange (EDI) connections between their proprietary systems, namely SwetWise and Millennium. These connections enable the rapid, automatic transfer of invoice, claim, and packing slip information between the two systems and eliminate the need to manually input and duplicate that data. This is designed to provide greater efficiency and convenience to all librarians using the two systems.
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ZyLAB Introduces eDiscovery System to Search Audio
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ZyLAB, an e-discovery and information management technology company, announced the release of its ZyLAB Audio Search Bundle, a desktop software product used to quickly identify relevant audio clips from multimedia files and from ubiquitous business tools such as fixed-line telephone, VoIP, mobile, and specialist platforms such as Skype or MSN Live. The software enables technical and nontechnical users involved in legal disputes, forensics, law enforcement, and lawful data interception to search, review, and analyze audio data with the same ease as more traditional forms of Electronically Stored Information (ESI).
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Flat World Knowledge Releases 'Make It Your Own' Platform for Textbooks
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Flat World Knowledge, a publisher of free and open college textbooks for students, announced the release of a new platform called MIYO (Make It Your Own). The fully-automated system gives professors greater control over textbook content, and the ability, with one click, to make their modified book available to students free online or in multiple, low-cost digital and print formats.
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Library Ebook Lending Under Attack
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by Paula J. Hane
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Libraries are getting the short end of the stick in the ebook market. The options libraries have are poor and our customers are frustrated. There are numerous restrictions on lending, device incompatibilities, proprietary systems, interface issues, privacy issues, and more. How can librarians work with publishers to build a sustainable ebook model that works for libraries? With the world moving increasingly digital, libraries need to find a way to continue to provide services to their constituencies, to ensure equitable access to information, and to work to develop new electronic content access solutions. There's a growing rift between librarians and publishers—at the very time that we should be sitting down at the table together to work on these issues.
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If you regularly read blogs, add these to your reader:
ITI Conferences (libconf.com): covering ITI’s library conferences worldwide
ILI365/InfoToday Europe (infotoday.eu): news and ideas for, and by, innovative info pros from around the world, throughout the year
Streaming Media (streamingmedia.com/Articles/Blog): the go-to destination for opinion, analysis, and insights into the entire online video ecosystem
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