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April '01 Edition
Research Commentary on the Spire Project

Developing the Spire Project.
By David Novak

A kindly gentleman expressed interest in lending assistance to the Spire Project, so I responded with a description of a seminar I intend to deliver internationally. The confusion in his response said volumes.

Just what is the Spire Project striving for?

Certainly, we have created a collection of useful articles summarising information resources for specific topics. Looking at the logfile, it appears our Country Profiles and Searching the Web article are very popular.

We are happy to be of help, but this is not the primary goal of the Spire Project.

We have built these articles in some very novel ways. I am proud we were the first to embed the forms to specific search tools into discussion of what they mean. At last count we placed over 130 forms in our articles. I personally think it speeds research to have all the tools in one place.

But again, the goal was not to create a search tool with loads of embedded forms.

The Spire Project incorporates a great number of firsts in assisted research. We pushed deep linking to its natural limit and perhaps beyond what is sensible (thinking of our Country Profiles article). We crafted a JavaScript program to help use fields with search engines, and a Perl script to footnote webpage links. We also began tying information to clickable maps.

Just recently, we brought together a host of newspaper links and a map in a very novel way.

I have always harboured mild surprise that so many improvements were possible. But again, this was not the goal - or perhaps just a minor goal.

A great deal of labour has gone into extending our awareness of Internet research beyond Internet resources. To a practised information broker, this is a no-brainer - but oddly, few people think of Internet research in terms of searching the larger world of information, like books, articles and other formats.

Work on this involves some very unique research into research. There is a great deal of reading and study prior to writing an article on UN information resources. We proudly proclaim our work on Country Profiles, News and National Statistical Agencies (among others) as Best in the World. In some cases, no one else has tried compiling such information.

Finally we are getting closer to expressing our goal.

Through the process of building the Spire Project we have uncovered a great many insights into what Internet research involves. Some insights are relatively mundane, like refining the use of fields on internet search engines.

Other insights positively transform the research process. Take Url interpretation and theory behind anticipating resources. By gathering clues, we can make astounding judgements on where to look for answers.

Bridging my personal strength in Sociology and Technology bears particularly tasty fruit. The publishing process, after all, is very social. Who, why, and to a great degree Where can all be answered in part from its social context.

Many of these insights are available in our book (the Information Research FAQ) and through articles like this. Unfortunately, it is not always easy to describe what must be shown to be understood.

Thus enters our seminars: three hours of performance theatre on the techniques, tools and concepts to exceptional internet research.

There is so much to share.

From the beginning we attempted to make it more convenient to search for information. Most recently, we have taken this to uncovering better ways to look at information in general. Always, we focused on our slogan "Better ways to find information."

As traffic approaches 400,000 recorded visits, we have hopefully achieved just a little of this goal.

The Information Revolution drives over us, leaving large black tread marks on everyone trying to find information. And just like this metaphor I just used, most of us just don't get it.
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David Novak manages The Spire Project, an Internet research resource and thinktank.


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