The 21st Century Information Professional

& the Opportunity of Abundance

An Attensa Position Paper
By Charlie Davidson, CEO
October 2011

2011 Attensa

The 21st Century Information

Professional & the Opportunity
of Abundance
Page 1

Authors Note: Originally published as a two-part series for the Special

Libraries Association FutureReady 365 Blog - CD

Designing for Flow: Big Opportunities for

Information Professionals
Information professionals have always played a critical role
supporting knowledge workers. Today, that role is more
important than ever as future-ready 1 technology solutions are
implemented.
As digital information proliferates, businesses and their
knowledge workers are confronted with unprecedented
information management challenges. These challenges arise not
just from the sheer volume of information, but also the number
of sources that produce it and the number of locations or
devices where this information is consumed.
As organizations grapple with the consequences, information
professionals play a critical leadership role in the solution. At
Attensa, we loosely define these individuals as special librarians,
knowledge management professionals, researchers and others
who in the course of business are tasked with delivering relevant
information to people who drive business results. We contend,
there is a massive opportunity for people in these empowerment
roles to impact personal and organizational performance
throughout their organizations.
This position paper explores the nature of the information
abundance challenge faced by information professionals and
how they can play a leading role in a company-wide solution
that gathers, filters, delvers and analyzes the use of relevant
information.
This paper explores how
information professionals can play
a leading role in a company-wide
solution that gathers, filters,
delvers and analyzes the use of
relevant information.

It is no small irony that today we have unprecedented access to

information and yet it always seems so difficult to maintain
awareness of the information that really matters to us and drives
organizational performance. Consider the results of a study by
Xerox that reported that 53% of the knowledge workers
surveyed believe that half of the information they receive is
valuable. The study also revealed that organizations believe that
time constraints and lack of understanding of how to find
information is preventing their employees from finding the
information they need to do their jobs. This topic is explored in
greater detail in the Attensa White Paper: Reducing Information
Overload in the Enterprise.
Why is information so poorly targeted? It is easy to lay complete
blame on information overload, which is unquestionably a major
issue. However, the fundamental issue is our inability to filter
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Professional & the Opportunity
of Abundance
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and discern the information that matters. In other words, the

killer app in the era of information overload will deliver
relevance. Information professionals are ideally suited to deliver
this to the people they serve.
Today, with the right tools, you can deliver the right information
to the right people and build a flexible foundation that is future
ready. Implementing these tools and strategies can be done
incrementally and is not complex. We find that with many of our
customers relatively simple first steps create immediate
business benefits.
Why Existing Approaches and Tools Arent Working
In todays enterprise, a
fundamental problem is how to
harness the value of the available
information, content and
knowledge without being
overwhelmed by it.

Before considering solutions, it is worth exploring why existing

approaches and information content providers are failing to fully
address the problem. One of the fundamental reasons is that
current solutions were designed on the premise of information
scarcity rather than information abundance. This paradigm shift
has been occurring for the past couple of decades, fueled by
the digitalization and networking of content and the new
communications and publishing tools that have decentralized
and democratized publishing. More disruptive change is clearly
on the way, as eBooks evolve and content in general is further
atomized. This shift not only requires new tools, but a new
perspective.
From Managing Sources to Managing the Flow
of Information
This shift is perhaps best captured by the authors of The Power
of Pull, who observe that Information now flows like water and
we must learn to tap into its stream. In the era of information
abundance, the traditional information supply lanes are
blurred.Unless that fundamental issue is addressed, getting the
right information to the right people at the right time is extremely
difficult.
By the same token, leveraging the notion of flow with the right
tools will enable information professionals to effectively manage
and deliver information in new and impactful ways. With the
right tools:
information from different sources inside and outside the
organization can be filtered and managed in a unified way;
simple software-enabled processes can streamline the work
of information professionals and simplify the lives of
information consumers;

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Professional & the Opportunity
of Abundance
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the information that matters can be delivered to people in

appropriate places rather than requiring them to look for it;
and,
intelligent software can help people focus their attention on
important information and help organizations utilize the
knowledge that exists throughout their organizations.
Information professionals can and should be at the epicenter of
this shift.

Designing for flow: New opportunity, new role and

new tools.
The best part of this evolution is
that it does not require radical
changes to company processes or
worker behavior.

Alexander Feng, director, strategic research at the dd+p group

and chairman of the Pharmaceutical & Health Technology
Division at the Special Libraries Association, offers a wonderful
perspective on the evolution of the information worker in his
essay Corporate Librarian 2.0: New Core Competencies (pdf).
He observes, the core role of information specialists is
changing from information gatekeeper to information guru.
Feng believes this can empower people in information support
roles, such as a librarian, to become both information enablers
and knowledge creators.
Information professionals are uniquely positioned for this
important new role by virtue of understanding myriad
information sources and how information maps to organizational
objectives. What is missing, however, are the processes and
enabling technologies to empower them.
The best part of this evolution is that it does not require radical
changes to company processes or worker behavior. The basic
notion is to have an integrated solution that can gather all
relevant information inside and outside of the organization,
organize it into topics of interest and then deliver it to the
individuals who need to keep track of those topics. Another key
ingredient is a system that is smart enough to fine-tune content
selection, recommendation and delivery based on user behavior.
These four essential elements are described in the graphic the
next page.

2011 Attensa

The 21st Century Information

Professional & the Opportunity
of Abundance
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The basic notion is to implement a

simple framework with four
essential elements:
An Aggregation Engine
An Automated Way to Organize
Tools to Personalize Delivery
Deep User & Content Analysis

These four elements form the foundation of a solution that is

robust enough to deliver on the promise of exploiting the
abundance of information available today -- and capitalize on
the changes to come. These innovations will bring immediate
value to your organization by extracting new and untapped
value from the information already flowing through it. You can
learn more about this here.
A question I often get asked is: How do information
professionals get started sponsoring these needed changes?
Here is the good news! The business justification for these
projects and the ROI are straight forward and provide impact
across different roles in the organization. You will find many
friends and supporters to help make your business case. In our
work with customers across various industries, common
interests have emerged between information professionals,
knowledge management professionals, marketing and sales
operations, CIOs and senior technology professionals.
Effective information management generally goes to the heart of
many corporate initiatives and the connections between your
initiative and other roles in the organization will be mutually
beneficial. For example, knowledge management professionals
gain insights into the intellectual assets of the organization and
are able to effectively connect people, information and
processes. CIOs and technologists harvest greater value from
existing technology and communication assets. Marketing and
sales operations professionals can grow revenue more
effectively and empower better customer relationships.

2011 Attensa

The 21st Century Information

Professional & the Opportunity
of Abundance
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Learn More About How to Thrive

in the Era of Information
Abundance at www.attensa.com

Of course, the ultimate value accrues when the people across

the organization receive more relevant and timely information
about the topics that matter to them so they can find prospects,
monitor competitors or industries and keep clients satisfied.
If you need help building a business case for current awareness
at your firm or want to see how the Attensa StreamServer
delivers on that promise, feel free to contact me at
charlie.davidson@attensa.com.
Charlie Davidson is the CEO of Attensa, an enterprise software company with
solutions for information management and content personalization. He serves
on the Steering Committee for the Information Overload Research Group and is
also a member of the Oregon and Washington State Bar Associations. Charlies
can be reached at charlie.davidson@attensa.com on Twitter @CharlieDavidson
or at +1 971.340.2000 ext. 100.

Endnotes
1 A term championed by Cindy Romaine, president of the Special Libraries Association, in

her membership empowerment initiative FutureReady365.

2011 Attensa