Open Password – Wednesday April 6, 2022
#1051
Russia – Ukraine – Bucha massacre – Ingrida Simonyte
Steep templates 2021 – Art of decision – Polarizing statements – Willi Bredemeier – Tim Brouwer – ARIX – Information Professionals – Marc Behrenbeck – Kearney – Data supplier – Consulting and communication – Project teams – Werner Müller – GBI Genios – Analytics – Networking – Home office – Pandemic times – Communicative competence – Artificial intelligence – Oliver Berchtold – YUCCA Lab – Source competence – Newspaper and magazine crisis – Blogs – Social media – Donald Trump – Pegida – Alternative for Germany – Upcoming developments – Self-affirmations – Data science – From information and data provider to solution provider – Fake News – Verification effort – Handelsblatt – Sebastian Matthes – Electronic early warning system – Voice imitation – Hitler diaries – Claas Relotius – Journalistic competence – Media education – Martina Merkle – Migros Industries – Customer feedback – Customer acceptance – Juniors and partners
vfm – Vanessa Sautter – Christoph Forster – Claudia Hillenbrand – Spring conference “Fit for Files” – Minesoft – Spencer Slaine – Ann Chapman – Wisskom2022 – Public and academic libraries in dialogue – Thomas Arndt – Forschungszentrum Jülich, Central Library
I
Russia’s War on Ukraine:
Beyond Civilizations
II.
Title:
Steep assists 2021: The art of decision-making Well informed or better advised? – On the hunt for polarizing statements – By Willi Bredemeier
III.
vfm:
Vanessa Sautter and Christoph Forster on the board – Spring conference “Fit for Files”
IV.
Minesoft: Spencer Slaine as President of North America
V.
Wisskom2022: How do you do that? – Public and academic libraries in dialogue
Russia’s war against Ukraine
Beyond civilizations
“Russia has ceased to be a civilized country. I don’t know if they ever were. Now they definitely aren’t any more.”
Ukrainian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte after revealing the massacre of the civilian population of Bucha by the Russian army
Steep assists 2021
The art of decision-making
Good information or better advice?
On the hunt for polarizing statements
By Willi Bredemeier
The special topic of the “Steilvorlagen 2021”, “The art of decision-making – well informed or better advised?”, was taken up again by the moderator of the panel discussion, Tim Brouwer (ARIX). It’s clear that both are needed, he said, but which is more important? As in previous years, Brouwer advocated for a contentious, if not polarizing, debate. This has become more important in recent years given the growing desire for harmony in politics, for example. He confronted his children with arguments between Helmut Schmidt, Herbert Wehner and Franz-Josef Strauß. The children weren’t even aware that you could get mad like that.
But what if there is a broad consensus on central questions concerning information professionals and they operate in an environment that offers little room for polarization? Or if the personality structure of the information professional is typically located in such a way that he
enjoys harmonies
and shies away from controversy ?
Tim Brouwer
_____________________________________________________
Information Professionals: From data provider to consultant and communicator.
_____________________________________________________
Marc Behrenbeck (Kearney) answered the question about the relative importance of “informing” and “advising” in the work of InfoPros: Information is the basis, advice is the “winner”. Later he explained that the weighting of both factors had shifted, especially in the last five to seven years: When he started working at Kearney as a working student, they saw themselves as a data supplier. The work was very technical and procedural. Behrenbeck had to copy out pages of text from business reports, make a huge number of copies and create and maintain a large number of Excel tables.
In the meantime, however, the advisory and communicative function of InfoPros has become much more important. This is also a consequence of the fact that the InfoPros at Kearney have become aware of the expertise they have accumulated over the years and, if necessary, have aggressively pointed it out. The new weighting contributed to InfoPros being included in project teams instead of previously only operating in the background. This means they can fulfill their advisory and communicative tasks in direct interactions with external customers.
Has this trend also led to the typical personality structure of the information professional changing, for example through appropriate recruiting? Tim Brouwer says: He seems to remember that the InfoPros were more introverted two decades ago. Werner Müller from GBI-Genios explained that he follows a personnel policy based on the motto “Less analytics and more communication, teamwork and networking”. When he is in a job interview, he tries to assess how the applicant will contribute to the internal network. Since the rise of the home office during pandemic times, it is more important than ever that the internal networks work, and this requires, above all, communication skills. Müller also saw himself as a preacher who, from his first days as managing director, spread the message: “Have courage! You are strong and know a lot! Let it out!” Behrenbeck felt confirmed by these words and warned the InfoPros not to hide their light under a bushel. His message was: “Do good and talk about it!”
Marc Behrenbeck
_____________________________________________________
Source competence as the central unique selling point of InfoPros.
_____________________________________________________
At present, artificial intelligence is not smart enough to avoid being beaten by human stupidity. But wouldn’t information professionals become superfluous, even in their advisory roles, if artificial intelligence became creative? That’s what the moderator was getting at. Oliver Berchtold reassured the information professionals present, even if one could recognize creative approaches in AI, for example when it composes music: At least at YUCCA Lab, artificial intelligence is primarily concerned with repetitive tasks. However, the technology is developing extremely quickly and what will be achieved in five years cannot yet be seen. Even then, creativity could have remained the unique human selling point.
Source competence, i.e. knowing which sources there are for a question and how the quality of the source can be assessed, is still one of InfoPro’s decisive trump cards. It could even be its unique selling point. This is why information professionals are reluctant to reveal their sources, says Marc Behrenbeck. In the spirit of Donald Trump, Pegida and Alternative for Germany, checking sources has become more and more a key competence.
According to Werner Müller, if one were to assume that the classic quality media were present, their number had decreased. After all, the newspaper and magazine crisis does exist. On the other hand, there are an almost infinite number of new sources, for example blogs and social media. Checking the quality of this variety is almost superhuman, as several of the participants in the discussion agreed. This is where artificial intelligence comes into its own, said Berchtold, as it can look at “everything”, sift through it, think outside the box, discover new trends and discover interesting sources relative to human capabilities. Currently, many information providers, as well as many end users, make the mistake of only looking at what they have always used. This means they run the risk of noticing the coming developments too late. Another danger would be to feel primarily confirmed by incoming information and not take note of uncomfortable developments. This is riskier than ever in our crisis-ridden world.
Much of what YUCCA Lab does is similarly run by GBI-Genios, said Werner Müller. An infrastructure for data science is currently being created and a suitable cooperation network is being set up. In accordance with customers’ wishes, we are developing from an information and data supplier to a supplier of solutions – on the basis of models that are driven by data analysis.
_____________________________________________________
Defend the flood of fake news with a high level of verification effort.
_____________________________________________________
Would the editor-in-chief of the Handelsblatt, Sebastian Matthes, not want to use the machine from YUCCA Lab? Then he could bring today’s news two months earlier, said Brouwer. Efforts are indeed being made to create an electronic early warning system and similar tools, said Matthes. Not only is the number of sources growing exponentially, but this also applies to the number of fake news and the skill with which much fake news is produced. For example, the possibilities of voice imitation are so advanced that we have heard of cases in which a man with the voice supposedly of a board member answered the phone, was recognized as absolutely trustworthy and had the controller pay him 300,000 euros. It is only a matter of time before a major scandal occurs after a quality media succumbs to fake news. The Hitler diaries were briefly mentioned here and one could also have mentioned the internally generated fake news by Spiegel star reporter Relotius. What is currently lacking, said Matthes, is adequate risk awareness and media education that assumes that every image and every video can be a fake.
In any case, we are facing dramatic changes in how information is shared, said Matthes. In order to meet this challenge, Handelsblatt invests a lot of research and verification effort. In order to publish information, the verified original document should, if possible, be available or, alternatively, it should be supported by at least two, and preferably three or four, sources. The other quality media seduce similarly. In addition to the formal standards, journalistic skills are needed to decide when to run a story. The Handelsblatt currently has many stories and big topics in the pipeline, but they have not yet made it to publication because the sources are too uncertain.
Martina Merkle (Migros Industries) ensured that social media, which had fallen into disrepute and was characterized as “windy” on the podium, was not only mentioned negatively. To her knowledge, she never fell for a “bot revolt.” Your department uses social media intensively and successfully, for example to test products and get feedback from customers. She rejected the moderator’s search for polarizing statements by not finding a lack of acceptance for those who received her work at the management level. Similar to Marc Behrenbeck, who explained that he serves juniors and partners equally well, sees both as his customers and partners and gives them results so that they can work with them. And what if the two speakers were right, even if this was a shame from a dramaturgical point of view?
vfm
Vanessa Sautter and Christoph Forster
join the board – Spring conference “Fit for Files”
Dear colleagues,
On March 22, 2022, the course was set for a generational change on the board at the vfm’s regular general meeting: Vanessa Sautter was elected as the new chairwoman of the board and Christoph Forster was appointed secretary. Claudia Hillenbrand completes the new executive board as treasurer.
We look forward to getting to know you and exchanging ideas at the hybrid spring conference of vfm – Association for Media Information and Media Documentation.
As already announced, the central venue this time is the German Football Museum in the middle of Dortmund. There we will be able to welcome a limited number of participants under the recommended Corona protective measures . There are only a few places available on site, so if you are thinking about attending the spring conference in a sporting atmosphere, you should hurry up with your registration now.
But those who make a spontaneous decision will get their money’s worth again this year, because they can take part online at any time via Zoom.
vfm spring conference April 25th – 27th, 2022
Fit for Files
Media information between documentary and artificial intelligence
Registration
The conference registration takes place online .
If you have any questions about registration, please contact Hiltrud Lehmkuehler ( buero@vfm-online.de ).
Registration including confirmation for printing can be found here:
https://vfm-online.de/fit-for-files
Kind regards Vanessa Sautter, Christoph Forster and Claudia Hillenbrand,
the executive board of vfm
Minecraft
Spencer Slaine as President of North America
(Minesoft) Minesoft, a leading global patent search solutions provider, today announced the appointment of Spencer Slaine as President of North America for Minesoft and as a member of the Global Senior Executive Team.
Spencer is an accomplished IP professional and executive who has worked in various roles at several IP service and software organizations over the last seven years. He brings a wealth of IP knowledge and business development expertise to the Minesoft leadership team.
Spencer previously worked for Ipan GmbH, a Warburg Pincus portfolio company, where he supported the launch of the company domestically. He then served as Head of Sales for North America for Ipan/Delegate Group, driving significant growth before their acquisition by CPA Global, where he served as a Vice President of Strategic Accounts. Following CPA Global’s acquisition by Clarivate, Spencer was a Director of Product Sales where he worked with industry leading companies to help develop their innovation strategies.
In his new role, Spencer will lead the further expansion of Minesoft’s North American footprint working alongside industry veteran, Tim Campbell, Executive Vice President of Minesoft. Spencer will oversee customer success, sales, and marketing, focusing primarily on new business growth and strategy in North America.
“Minesoft, backed by Warburg Pincus and MLM 2, is expanding and on the look-out for top IP professionals to help our new phase of expansion and growth. We are thrilled to be joined by Spencer Slaine, whose expertise and commitment is exactly the combination we are looking for to join the senior executive team. “We look forward to further strengthening the existing Minesoft team across the world,” said Ann Chapman Daniel, Co-Founder, Minesoft.
WissCom2022
How do you do this? – Public
and academic libraries in dialogue
Dear Colleagues,
On behalf of the Central Library of the Research Center Jülich, I cordially invite you to WissKom2022 “How do you do it? – Public and academic libraries in dialogue” from June 21st to 23rd, 2022. Our early bird prices are valid until May 5th. We look forward to your registrations at: https://go.fzj.de/wisskom2022-anmelde
Academic and public libraries mostly operate in separate worlds, but they have more in common than meets the eye. Many libraries face the same challenges. Some have tackled these successfully, others can only tell a thing or two about the hurdles. What do academic libraries and public libraries have in common? What sets them apart in their paths and goals for the future? How and what can libraries learn from each other? What can libraries look like for one another and for one another?
Current topics will be presented and discussed at WissKom2022 from the perspective of both types of libraries. The contributions follow the “lessons learned” idea and are intended to stimulate an exchange about the presentation of one’s own activities and their feedback. The thematic blocks of WissKom2022 are:
· Information and advice
· Digital strategy
· Sustainability
· Open access
· User groups and open space
Wisskom2022 is organized by the central library of the Forschungszentrum Jülich in cooperation with the central library of the Düsseldorf city libraries. As part of the supporting program for WissKom, you can expect themed tours of the library and research at the FZ Jülich as well as tours of the newly opened library in Düsseldorf. A festive evening at KAP1 in Düsseldorf rounds off the conference. The complete program and registration can be found online. http://www.wisskom2022.de Please send your questions about registration and the WissKom2022 conference by email to zb-conference@fz-juelich.de .
We look forward to your suggestions and your participation.
Kind regards, Thomas Arndt, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH Central Library, t.arndt@fz-juelich.de
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