So much push, so little time

Information Outlook, Nov, 1998 by Robyn E. Stanley, Christy Confetti Higgins

The Internet has created an environment where real-time and current news is available to everyone and provides a competitive advantage in the business world. The onset of push technology allows end users to receive targeted current news - on companies, products, technology, people, etc. - via e-mail through their workstations, personal digital assistants, handheld computers, or pagers.

At Sun Microsystems, employees receive current news through internal and external web-based push services that are either free or fee-based. SunLibrary research staff has been advising individuals of various types of push services available for some time. Sun employees are information savvy and prefer to receive current news in a variety of formats from many different sources.

Given Sun's corporate environment, SunLibrary research staff decided to create a web-based service that would be a central space for information about push-based current news - internal, free, and fee-based. This service, located on the SunLibrary Intranet, would include information on key push news sources deemed of value to Sun after a research, review, and evaluation process. The site would continually be evaluated and enhanced based on Sun's evolving business needs.

After a two-and-a-half month research, evaluation, and design period, SunLibrary introduced this web-based service, called NewsBursts, to Sun employees.

Staffing

Christy Confetti Higgins, a SunLibrary information specialist, managed the project. Scope of work, staff assignments, web site look and feel, content, and naming of the product were some of her responsibilities.

Robyn E. Stanley, a graduate student in San Jose State University's School of Library and Information Science program, worked on the project for her internship practicum. Stanley identified and evaluated news sources, designed and implemented the NewsBursts' infrastructure, in order to create the prototype web site. As her final practicum requirement, she demonstrated the product's features to the SunLibrary staff, providing one-on-one training as requested.

Research Process

The initial step was to identify news sites using push technology. Research was conducted using the web, commercial databases such as Dialog and IAC-Insite, and by surveying with friends and colleagues, both internal and external to Sun Microsystems.

Once a group of services were identified, the evaluation and review process began. The evaluation criteria consisted of five components. First, the focus of the information on the service was evaluated to determine if the content matched Sun's business needs. If it did, the next step was to review and evaluate the credibility and reliability of the source, currency of content, and overall design of the web site. Finally, compatibility of the service with Sun's technology infrastructure was investigated.

Subscriptions were initiated to each service during the evaluation period in order to determine whether the services had a reliable delivery schedule and if the news was useful, authoritative, and easily accessible. When available, both text and HTML delivery formats were evaluated. Sites using downloadable software such as NewsBot and PointCast were reviewed but not included in NewsBursts.

Five NewsBursts Categories

In all, sixty sites were selected from both internal and external resources for the NewsBursts web site. Sites are broken down into five categories, described below: Custom News Pages, Daily News Updates, Fee-based Push Services, Market Research Alerts, and News Alerts.

The NewsBursts' home page describes each category and provides a link to the category. Each category web page lists all services with description and subscription information. All web pages include a link to SunLibrary researchers for further information, assistance, and feedback.

Custom News Pages

NewsBursts' Custom News Pages covers services that allow users to create personal news web pages. This category currently includes links to six customizable services and will likely expand as more information providers offer this service. CNN and NewsEdge's NewsPage are two examples.

CNN is a good site for general news that is updated continually in a variety of areas such as technology and world news. CNN highlights important stories on the user's personal home page and provides the option to receive daily and weekly updates (which are not customizable).

NewsPage entitles users to create customized home pages as well as track companies by selecting specific categories. Once users have customized their home page, they receive a daily e-mail summary based on their categories. Although this is a free service, users only have access to forty percent of NewsPage's full-text articles.

Daily News Updates

Daily News Updates links to free current news services that use push technology to send daily news via e-mail. This is the largest NewsBursts category and has several sub-categories that are modeled after Netscape's Inbox Direct service: business, general, international, and technology.