microsoft "search champs"

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On Sunday I'm leaving for a short trip to Redmond, where I'll be part of a new advisory group ("Search Champs") that Microsoft is forming to provide feedback on their search engine development.

Back when I was more active in the library profession, I once heard a wonderful conference talk by Herb White. He was bemoaning the trend in libraries to teach end-users how to do complex online searching so that they'd discover "the joy of searching." "I have no joy of searching," he said. "I have joy of finding!"

Those of us who chose to go to library school really are different from most other people, in that we do have "joy of searching"...it's the hunt that's fun for us, not the catch. We're like the housecat that triumphantly drops the dead mouse on the doorstep--we don't want to consume it, we just want to show you how good we are at tracking it down. So I'm not the typical search engine user. I'm interested in the high-end functionality, the little-known tips and tricks that let you find elusive materials quickly.

I'll be curious to see who else turns up in this "search champ" group. They aren't releasing the names before we arrive (privacy issues, apparently, though the privacy will be moot once we all meet face to face...), so I have no idea who they're targeting for advice. (If you're going, feel free to "out" yourself here!) I'm not 100% sure how I ended up on the list, though I suspect that Scoble may have had something to do with it, since he was copied on my original invitation.

There's an NDA involved in this, natch, but I'll blog what aspects of it I can without violating any confidentiality. Process, at least, if not content. Oh...and I do tentatively plan to hit the Redmond/Seattle-area blogger meetup next Tuesday night.

10 Comments

Good bloggers get noticed! :-)

Being of the librarian background, you should really take the time to stop by the new Seattle library if you get the chance. You'll be mesmerized...

It will be great to see you again! I'm trying to jumpstart the East side weblog meetup; the Seattle meetup has been ticking along for two years now.

Your coming!!! excellent!

Not sure if there will be a backchannel but I heard there is a panel on backchannel's at CSCW inspired by the social computing symposium & all the blog conversations.. I digress...

see you next week! Looking forward... & agree that scoble sounds suspicious!

Hi Elizabeth,
Is it still possible to get an inviation to this new advisory group ("Search Champs") that Microsoft is forming? While I do have a blog, I do most of my online work in various Microsoft public newsgroups:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q="full%20text"+"john%20kane"

I've also attended the last two yearly Microsoft sponsored invitee-only Publishers/Authors summits and will be attending this conference next year as well.

I live in the Kirkland, WA area (so travel is not an issue for me) and have been researching Microsoft Search technologies for a book I'm working on related to not only MSN Search, and to how Microsoft uses Full Text Search (FTS) in almost all of its products. If an inviation is possible, and I'm currently under Microsoft NDA, please let me know who to contact.

Thanks,
John
mailto:jt-kane@comcast.net

well: i got my medication files on a jumpdrive MP3 external drive: i have been dictating all my med lists and storing them.

today, with todays vioxx announcement, i was prepared, it took me less then 30 sec to search the files on that particular drive, and identify all the patients on the medicine so we can call them and tell them to stop. everyone else is still dumbgfounded on how to go about telling persons how to stop: the pharmacies are not sending out letters at this point...

fasinating!

but this vioxx thing stinks!

stef

Hello Elizabeth!
How i can cooperate with MSN Search, iam very fan of MSN and have a blog in es.thespoke.net is the most visited....
How i can cooperate??

> JulioCampos > juliocampos@mail.com
See you soon!
Thanks for the answer.

I don't have any control over who Microsoft invited to this...I'm an invited guest, nothing more. I really am not in a position to help anyone else develop contacts with the development team. Sorry.

here is some of the stuff jim gemmell and Gordon Bell are working on in the Mylifebits project: tried to sign up, but its sold out, but will find something else to attend. Or maybe i will sneak in when no one is looking...I could blend in and scrap up an abandoned id badge...

Archiving and Retrieval lecture

but to be honest, the stuff i am learning here and over at alex halavais's site is plenty: one has to real life try the ideas out to see how they can work.

I am glad you are coming to Seattle! Poupou is very happy and that in turn makes me happy.

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This page contains a single entry by Liz Lawley published on September 27, 2004 2:33 PM.

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