UPDATE as of 9/1/2010 Drexel no longer carries Gartner Research –

Instead we recommend:

Faulkners for basic definitions and market awareness

Burton Group for in-depth tactical decision support on technology management issues, or

IGI Global for extensive handbooks and encyclopedias on specialty information use domains

Feel free to get in touch if you have questions about any of these.

Tim Siftar  -  siftar@drexel.edu

Professional associations are good investments. Whether you are networking for a job, keeping skills up to date or just seeking the company of colleagues, your reward from participating will exceed your investment many times over. A recent inquiry about local Philadelphia area associations that focus on IS/IT related topics provided the basis for this post.

While I don’t mean to slight national associations, I have only included groups that I know to have an active chapter in the Philadelphia area, just as a way to illustrate the F2F aspect of association activity. Many of these have an affiliation with a national organization, while others are strictly local. Techies outside Philly can use this list to get ideas about groups that might exist in your area. Even if you do not live in an urban area, you I encourage you to explore ways to network with other IS/IT professionals who meet face to face even if you have to take the first step.

Just choose the place to meet, and a discussion topic for the first meeting and then post an announcement to Meetup or Craigslist.  Just DO it! I promise you will be rewarded many times over! As always, I welcome your comments or any additional suggestions for this growing list of Philly area associations.

Regards,
Tim Siftar

Gerry Stahl’s INFO105 class recently heard about the different kinds of literature I find in the information technology / information systems field.  Following ancient library wisdom  “use the right tool for the job,” students who distinguish between the following 6 types are in a better position to take advantage of the strengths of each, while avoiding some of the “round-peg-square-hole” pitfalls that might otherwise arise. So here’s a quick overview of the talk.  Their assignment focused on “web 2.0″ examples so I may include sample search results along those lines.

UPDATE as of 9/1/2010 Drexel no longer carries Gartner Research – See Faulkners, Burton or IGI Global instead
As IT industry insiders are well aware, having the right “magic quadrant” or “hype cycle” graph from Gartner Research can be tremendously helpful in framing a discussion of IT strategy options. Should your organization invest in the next “new” tech fad?  What vendor has a proven record in delivering value? Each graph reflects the position of multiple technologies and/ or vendors into one deceptively simple image. It does this by synthesizing the conclusions of dozens of reports on individual technologies along with the collective views of an editorial panel of top flight Gartner IT consultants.

With Drexel’s recent service upgrade, students can now directly access the Gartner Research Portal and browse interactive online versions of reports we previously had only as flat PDF’s. How is that better? On the portal, by mousing-over datapoints on a hype cycle or magic quadrant you are instantly shown additional information on each vendor or technology mentioned. This supports more intuitive browsing and leads to a faster, more productive research experience.

To try out this feature, first search for the keyword “gartner” in the library catalog, or browse it on the library’s list of databases. (Or use THIS LINK.)

Log into the Gartner portal using your DrexelOne ID/PW. See the left-side of the portal front page for either the Hype Cycle or Magic Quadrant reports. Use the link to “view all” for a full list. Choose a report that sounds interesting, open it and find the main chart of the report. When you mouse-over the individually charted data-points notice they are clickable and lead you to more info.

Let me know what you think!

Hi -

It’s not everyday I pick up work-related ideas from science fiction. But HCI in particular has received lots of inspiration over the years from the Star Trek series with concepts such as the “tri-quarter” the “holodeck” and the sleek navigation consoles on their bridge. …more…

(more…)