Derwent spends a fortune developing training materials. Transform those
training materials (which MUST ALREADY be updated regularly ) into HTML
documents. There are excellent tools on the market right now that will
transform a WinWord document into HTML (which just means adding some tags),
and put the document on the web page with a GOOD title and suplementary
index terms (again this is what Microsoft does with their Knowledge Base
tool) and copy it to the net. Done! It might even be CHEAPER because there
are NO PRINTING COSTS.
For example I was just looking at an ORBIT annual meeting folder. It was
broken up into 20 or 30 different papers. Each of these papers would be a
separate document, each with a SUPER title and clearly dated (so we have
some idea how far we can trust the suggested methods). The hard part was
writing the paper. Putting it on the web is a breeze by comparison. A web
page can even include fancy-schmancy pictures and diagrams in color,
although this would require somewhat more effort.
Yes PIUG could absolutely create a web page that could link to any source
that has a URL address. I personally would prefer a centralized resource
that I could go to and see how e.g. name searching is implemented in the
registry file as loaded on different vendors, ie "which vendor segmented
the names?" because I do/do not want segmenting for the particular thing I'm
attempting to find.
Realistically I do not expect this type of cooperation, and I'll gladly take
what I can get!
Sandra
>An excellent suggestion! Most important would be
>an updating facility - the producer would keep all of
>the information that remains useful to those accessing
>the knowledge base, updates things that change, and
>deletes things that have been erased (not just discontinued).
>For example, the old Derwent Plasdoc codes are still used
>for searching, but are no longer being used for indexing -
>the base would describe them and indicate clearly which
>time range they cover. STN keeps upgrading its crossfile
>facilities - the base would tell us how to search with the
>current software and not how we would have searched in
>1992.
>
>That would allow us to throw away old manuals with those
>mixtures of current and obsolete information and substitute
>the current information collected in the knowledge base.
>
>But who would bell the cat? None of the commercial patent
>info companies would spend the time and effort to collect
>the information and keep it up to date. It would be
>helpful if each of them provided the information on a
>separate web page. Could PIUG and/or PATMG create a
>web page that linked them all if they were available?
>
>Edlyn simmons
>
>
-- =============================================================== Sandra Unger | Mail: ssunger@erenj.com | (908) 474-6605 ===============================================================