So, we’ll soon be up and running! And as soon as the new version of ResearchTrail gets out there - the one with the Marketplace - we’ll be holding another competition to see how SearchPros like it. With prizes, just like the very successful competition we held back last July.

Of course, the main reason for the competition is to test how easy it is to use our new site; whether everything works the way it does; whether anything that SearchPros would like, is missing. (We’d love everyone’s ideas on that one!) After all, this is still officially an alpha version of the site. But we think the people who spend time to help us figure out how to improve, deserve a reward, so we do it as competitions, for prizes.

We’re aiming to run the competition in March. Any SearchPro (librarian, information professional, or student of library or information studies) can take part. We’re putting a registration form at our main site: www.researchtrail.com. We’re really hoping lots of you will go join up and show us your skills!

Well, we’ve been in stealth mode for a while, dreaming up all the things we think searchers need. And most especially, developing our Marketplace where everyone, worldwide, who needs quality information, can get help from - and when appropriate, order searches from - the pros. It’s a natural outgrowth of our idea of Global Collaborative Search - search pros helping each other find information, giving tips to the people who need information, and providing an easy way for people who need more than tips to get the services they need.

Of course businesses above a certain size, in the Western world, have already got access to information professionals (or, as we call them, SearchPros). But for small businesses and individuals, it’s a different story. Yet they need quality information too - they just haven’t had an easy way of getting to the SearchPros who can provide it. Till now.

So here we go, everyone - pretty soon our Marketplace will be out there and you’ll all be invited to try it out!

Actually, it’s a whole lot more - a full-length feature article on today’s Freepint Newsletter!

Here, ResearchTrail’s Judy Koren talks about the needs that drive Global Collaborative Search, shares examples of where things are today, and gives a peek into what this concept could be.

Now it’s your turn to share what you think. Leave a comment below, or email us.

We’re gearing up for the Online conference in London next month, and honing our vision of what we’re beginning to call GCS - Global Collaborative Search. As we see it, this would provide a way for all information professionals world-wide to help each other out, to discuss things between themselves, and to help others. And it’d provide a way for everyone world-wide to have access to advice, help with searches, and, if they wanted, the paid services of an information professional.
So we’d have an active online community where end-users and info-people could meet and interact easily and openly.

How close are we to this concept of Global Collaborative Search? Would you, info users and info pros, use it? Share your thoughts.

It’s official. The full agenda for the Online Conference at the Olympia Hall in London has been posted on the web. And we’re proud to have not one, but two sessions there. Judy will be

a) hosting a round table on Tuesday

b) Giving a presentation on collaborative search on Wednesday

If you plan to attend the Online conference, please, drop us a line! We’d love to meet you there.

Besides the invaluable feedack, tips, features and defeated bugs from our alpha testers, the following ten lessons sum up our experienc with the Alpha.
1. listen to your users
2. respond quickly – you your user’s respect and get more feedback as a bonus
3. you never know which part of the system will be a hit, and which one will go unperceived or demand a steeper learning curve
4. be available
5. be open
6. Enthusiasm is viral, especially if it’s from your users
7. The best compliment is when users miss it after it’s down for phase 2, and tell you exactly what they would have done in a given situation where the site up and running
8. If you build it, they will come. If you build it well, they might even stay.
9. Collaboration is real. It is right. And it’s ready to take on the world.
10. When in doubt, refer to number 1

Congratulations to Jeanne, winner of the grand prize of our “alpha-alpha” test. According to the reports, her 12-year-old daughter and her husband are already tossing the dice to see who gets to keep the brand new iPod.

A big hand to our runners up, Elena and Tali, who were a handful of trails/bug reports/ideas behind Jeanne for the grand prize. Tell us what those gift certificates got you?

And a big thanks to the dozens of participants like you who submitted almost 200 trails (strategies) in just over two weeks, and shared their ideas, their enthusiasm and tips along with helping us debug and test drive the features (and new features, and new features on top of those) of ResearchTrail.

Keep trailing!

Congratulations to the several dozen of volunteers who were chosen to participate in our Search Strategy Competition as part of our closed Alpha.

Looking forward to your feedback, your strategies, your interaction, and your questions.

And good luck to all.

Today we added our first “real” strategy and created the first TrailMap of its kind. Until now we have been mostly playing with the system trying to locate bugs (deep and troubling ones), but finally the time has come to try it out for real.
So here it is. The first TrailMap ™.

(Note not all links are currently active)

Welcome to the ResearchTrail blog.
(Shhh. Remember this is still an underground effort and we’re not officially out there yet)

In the past 9 months, we have undergone a serious transformation from an idea to help people find improve the quality and scope of information they need to a concrete set of tools that, we hope, does exactly that, and more.
The first real test will come in a few weeks’ time, when our Alpha opens to a select set of researchers. It’s exciting, yes.

In the meantime, we’re looking forward to our first public “disclosure” of RT. Tomorrow, Judy, our information-specialist-in-chief and CIO, will present the RT proposition in a forum of research professionals. This means, first direct feedback in a public forum. Very exciting.

So I guess we’re not such a covert operation anymore… Time to start letting go, and let users drive it forward.