At a recent conference on the Internet and information technology, I heard many complaints about information overload on the Internet. There is a vast amount of quality information available, especially for business use, but business people have no time to read, collate and absorb it all. Today’s column will describe efficient ways of getting current and staying informed about the subjects that matter to you.
Business News Via E-Mail - Free
Instead of surfing for news, let the news come to you, by email newsletter. There are several very informative, well written, entertaining and free newsletters that provide essential business information in a very easy to use manner. All have basically the same format. You subscribe via the site of the publication in question, and then receive regular emails. The email consists of a list of links to articles, with a short synopsis of each one. If a synopsis persuades you that it is worth your while reading more, you simply click on the link and the full article appears on your screen.
All the newsletters have printer friendly versions, allow you to email articles to friends and colleagues, and most importantly provide the opportunity to cancel or suspend delivery by a simple mouse click.
Daily Reading
I have two favorite email business newsletters that I read every day. One is Wired News, a real-time news service offering news briefs and in-depth reporting on politics, business, culture, and technology. Wired News is clear, concise, and complete, and a great source for daily news and analysis of the technologies, companies, and people driving the information age.
My other favorite comes from The Red Herring Magazine, the high tech industry’s bible. It is the monthly business magazine for technology, and it focuses on trends in technology and the companies driving them.
The online version, www.redherring.com provides business professionals and private investors with daily technology news, analysis, and in-depth company profiles. There is also a daily alert available that describes what's hot on Red Herring Online, from daily news analysis to special features from The Red Herring. You can also subscribe to The Red Eye, a newsletter from The Red Herring's Editor-in-chief Tony Perkins, in which Tony brings you news, opinion and gossip from the four corners of the globe, as well as the latest information about what's going on behind the scenes at The Red Herring.
Weekly News Reviews
Before jumping in and reading these newsletters, it is important to first get the background information that will help you understand the articles in the newsletter better. And if you don’t have the time to read a daily newsletter but still want to be on top of things, you need an alternative. The good news is that there are sources of information that can get you up to date, and provide you with information on a weekly basis.
One way to get up to date and stay that way is to use the Yankee Group’s research notes. The Yankee Group describes these notes as "a set of notes, advice and reflections for users on information technologies hottest topics of the past week."
The notes are relatively short – around 10 pages, and easy to skim through. There is a table of contents that lets you first see all of the topics for the week and then view all of them or just the ones you want. In addition, the notes are archived all the way back to June 1997, so if you really need to know all of the important events since then, the Yankee group makes it easy for you.
I recommend going back around 2-3 months, quickly skimming through the tables of contents, and printing out the stories that fit your particular area of interest. Hopefully you can find the time to read them in one shot. Once you have caught up, you can then read the notes each week to make sure you stay abreast of the news in your industry. The Yankee Groups offers a free 4-week trial subscription for the research notes.
Another source of weekly news reviews is Wired Magazine. Each weekend, Wired highlights the most interesting stories Wired News covered that week, and then summarizes them in an easy to read format. There is a brief headline that has a short synopsis underneath. You click on the headline to get the full story.
The weekly review also provides something else: a glimpse into the week ahead. You are notified of upcoming stories, and are given the opportunity of going back to get the full story on the date it is published. This way you can stay generally informed on a weekly basis, but still read particular items as soon as they appear.
All of the sites mentioned in this article can also be used for in-depth market research. Upcoming enable columns will show you how, and tell you in detail about other market research sites, both free and paid.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on May 3, 1999