Looks like BBCRiver.com, news headlines and stories, could be a winner in the Blackberry market. Check out Ewan Macleod’s post about using his Blackberry to get news. He writes SMS Text News.

Innovation is a key topic at fall conferences:
KMWorld & Intranets, San Jose, Oct 31-Nov 2
webcom Toronto, Building Smarter Organizations, Nov 7-9

From Michael Tchong’s Ubertrends, “innovation [is] on the front burner for a growing list of CEOs, The Wall Street Journal noted on July 17, 2006. That surge in innovation interest can be readily seen in a McKinsey study, which found that just 37% of top management wanted their organization to “be the category innovation leader” in 1993. Two years later the figure reached 69%. By 1999 it hit 95%.” Michael says, “The key to deciphering the “next big thing” lies in “Ubertrends” — overarching tendencies that ripple through society, leaving many subtrends in their turbulent wake. Ubertrends morph life in unexpected ways, which requires an understanding of their idiosyncrasies to give you a better sense for what’s needed next.” Michael tracks Ubertrends in seven sections: Digital Lifestyle, Fountain of Youth, Generation X-tasy, Time Compression, Unwired, Voyeurgasm and WAF. Interesting that Michael is another colleague from the Internet World era in the 90s when he started Iconocast.

Just stumbled upon this interesting blog, Smartspace, about annotated environments, intelligent infrastructure and digital landscapes. Written by Scott Smith who’s with Social Technologies, a leading international futures research and consulting firm based in Washington, DC. He also manages Mobile Weblog. He is “a futurist, writer, speaker and consultant whose work focuses on how technology changes lives and lifestyles: how and where we live, learn, communicate, care for ourselves and spend our free and working time.”

Have you ever seen so many ripples in the information industry? Shows you the extent of Danny Sullivan’s influence on the search engine world when his notice of pending departure from Search Engine Watch and Search Engine Strategies conferences impacts the blogosphere so strongly! Not only does that last article link to many blogs posts about Danny but check out how many comments are appended to Danny’s announcement! I also enjoyed reading Alan Meckler’s post. It reminded me of the heady and exciting days of Internet World when I first met Danny. I’ve seen him grow and develop over the last 10+ years, become a wonderful speaker (and thanks for all the great conference talks you’ve done for me, Danny!) and pack a force so strong in the SE industry that his announcement of departmit’s causing a tsunami of discussion, an outporing of love and thanks, and so much more. We can’t wait to see where your impact will be felt next Danny.

Looks like it could be a great new book from writer & Poynter Institute Faculty, Roy Peter Clark, titled, Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer. You can also see the 50 strategies online.

Interesting to see this post from Al Thompkins of the Poynter Institute on a business model for mashups and “how journalists should be getting smarter about using mashups. For the uninitiated, mashups are simply a way of marrying useful data, such as home sales with maps such as Google maps. Mapping data makes the information so much more user-friendly.” He includes some great examples, even one for teachers to use as a geography aid!

And mashups are the theme of Internet Librarian 2006, Oct 23-25 in Monterey CA this fall — Integrated Experiences:Compelling Content Combinations. Lots of examples of mashups and tips for creating them so that users can absorb information more quickly.

Great podcast by Janice Lachance, CEO, SLA from IFLA meeting in Seoul. She talks about common themes including
* library association agreement on the importance on advocacy for the library and information profession in a world where anyone can do research and has access to tools
* external advocacy to those making rules and policies impacting libray and information professionals, for example, copyright

Janice emphasizes that we must have stong advocacy programs and work together to be heard. Definintely!

The 72nd World Library and Information Congress hosted by the International Federation of Library Associtions (IFLA) is taking place this week in Seoul. The opening ceremonies were spectacular at this major league information event, or as the President of the IFLA National Organising Committee, Mr. Ki-Nam Shin, called it, “the cultural olympics”. The keynote speaker, Dae-jung Kim, is the 15th President of the Repbulic of Korea and 2000 Nobel Prize Laureate for his life long dedication to democracy and human rights. His key message, successful libraries create a successful world.

My presentation to the Library & Research Services for Parliaments section, Improving the User Experience: Tips & Strategies for Success, focused on social media tools for the enterprise, particularly blogs and wikis.