Patinformatics.com Website and Weblog Officially Launched


Abstract
On May 5th, 2003 during my talk at the Patent Information Users Group meeting I officially introduced the world to Patinformatics.com. While I have been working on the weblog for almost two months now, the PIUG talk represented the first time I introduced it to a larger audience. Click the Read More link below for a more detailed explanation of how the log is organized.

A copy of the note I sent to the PIUG and Chemical Information mailing lists is included below:

Today during the PIUG National Meeting I officially launched Patinformatics.com and the weblog I have started as a way of sharing information and perspective on the world of patent analysis.

The journal is divided into five sections:

Tony's Reflections - Typically for comments on meeting attendance and commentary of the industry at large, this section will contain less news and more perspective on events.

General Information - New meeting announcements and information not necessarily on patent analysis (like how one actually publishes a weblog) are included in this section.

Interesting References Articles - When I read an article that I think others might find useful in the field I will comment on them here.

New Presentations and Papers - As I continue to communicate in more traditional channels (talks at conferences and journal articles) I will let people know they are available here.

Vendor News - Press releases and tidbits that I glean (or that people what to share with me, anonymous or not!) on the vendors that work with the patent analysis committee will be covered in this section.

Conversational and maybe a bit controversial in tone and topic I hope you will find my commentary on the field of Patinformatics interesting and informative.

The weblog is available now and can be accessed by going to www.patinformatics.com using any browser. If you would like to be notified when I have added new content to the site please email me at tony@patinformatics.com.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with weblogs a brief explanation might be necessary. Usually referred to as a "blog", weblogs are exactly what the name implies a web log or journal. They have developed out of the personal publishing world and make it quick, easy and inexpensive for people without a formal media outlet to share information with the world at large. The concept has been around for some time now but originally blogs were used to share information with family, friends and colleagues about the on going day to day events that would occur in the author's life. They could contain thoughts on movies, hobbies, books or any other topic the author thought might be interesting to a broad audience. Imagine in some way the combination of an annual holiday letter with an email or web delivery method.

Blogs have more recently begun to really take off with larger communities who want to share information on experiences that have affected their success or enjoyment of a particular endeavor. I personally read blogs daily on topics ranging from social networks and pharmaceutical drug discovery to about 10 different blogs on rumors and on going events in the wonderful world of the Macintosh computer. Keeping all this news and information straight and readily available is accomplished by using a blog reader. Blogs have what is called an RSS syndication component associated with them. RSS has been defined a number of different ways (including my personal favorite Really Slick Syndication) but in essence is the title (headline) and abstract of the blog entries formated in XML. Since RSS is a standard format blog readers can subscribe to different blogs regardless of how they were created and select which headlines appeal to them out of all the ones they subscribe to. With easy personal publishing, industry specific blogs are now becoming more and more popular.

Another advantage that blogs have compared to other forms of personal publishing is the fact that while the headlines are formated in XML the full entries are formated in HTML so like any other web page the log entries can have imbedded links, images, sounds and even movies in them. This form of publishing allows the budding journalist to add context and background in the form of hyperlinks to their comments seamlessly.

I hope all of you will come by Patinformatics.com and share your thoughts and experiences with me. While the site does not currently allow comments to be saved within individual entries I would very much like to hear your thoughts and comments via email. At the bottom of each entry there is a link that will format an email message to tony@patinformatics.com where you can share your impressions with me. If the site proves successful and interesting to people I can move it to a more advanced blogging system where comments can be shared online.

Posted: Sun - May 4, 2003 at 09:07 AM   Patinformatics   General Information   Email Comments

© Anthony Trippe