The key “I” words, information and intranet, seem to be giving way to a new kid on the block—“Integration.” Portal and content vendors are emphasizing their integration strategies, while information professionals hasten to identify ways to integrate myriad information sources—internal, external, structured, unstructured, tacit, explicit, you name it—into value-added services and products. In Mike Ferguson’s Portal Cement article on www.aboutportals.com, he uses some form of the term integrate more than 10 times on the first page (OK, so I stopped counting!). Intranets, or, more specifically, portals, are viewed as “intragrators extraordinaire” (sp).

Bonnie Burwell investigates how enterprise information portals (EIPs) are pushing ahead to integrate applications and content, and what SageMaker [www.sagemaker.com] offers in this area. Deborah Henderson explains how a large, recently deregulated utility wrestles with the challenges of an EIP to integrate business and task-based information and applications. Both authors offer candid insights into the promises of these technologies and the pitfalls. 

Andy Breeding finishes his observations about the ASIS Summit 2000 on information architecture (IA) [www.asis.org]. Last issue Andy talked about how the conference speakers defined IA; this issue he describes the sessions covering the tools, skills, and realities of IA. 

Andy’s reports lead very nicely into the November/December issue on information architecture. Lou Rosenfeld of Argus Associates [www.argus-inc.com] will share Argus’ experiences at winning corporate support for implementing IA environments. Argus is a information professional entrepreneurial success story, now moving to larger office space to accommodate its growing workforce. Roy Tennant of California Digital Library [http://escholarship.cdlib .org/rtennant/] will explore the competencies required for IA and the evolving roles for information professionals in this field.

Integration may well be just a term to describe an interim phase we’re now going through—much like knowledge management is, or has been. We integrate objects, processes, or environments to create new objects, processes, or environments. Content vendors are grappling with this integration phase, searching for new business models, new pricing and revenue streams, new products. History may not necessarily repeat itself, but it does offer insights and useful metaphors. 

Take, for example, the textile and clothing industry as a potential metaphor for the information industry. Years ago, people produced their own yarns and fabrics, from wool, silk, cotton, etc., as well as their own garments. Technologies, processes, and an industrial environment evolved, allowing people to purchase their fabrics rather than enduring the backbreaking work of reaping, spinning, and weaving. With the exception of the upper class, people still made their own clothes. More economic, technological, and process developments brought ready-made clothes for the masses. Today, very few people produce their own fabrics or their own clothes. People choose where to buy their clothes depending on their individualized needs: cost, use, times available to shop, etc.

Where am I going with this? A similar realignment is underway in the information industry that will enable people to purchase ready-made information solutions that fit their individualized needs. For the most part, the traditional information vendors have been supplying their markets with raw materials to produce an information solution—a piece of clothing, if you like. In many cases, information professionals have been doing the reaping, spinning, and weaving of very limited “raw” content pieces available to them into customized information “garments” or packages for their clients. The new players in the information industry, from Northern Light to Powerize.com to SageMaker, are integrating content, applications, and environments, expanding the raw materials available and making it much easier to produce the clothing. People still, however, have to make their own information solutions. The exceptions are those industry-specific vendors, such as Gartner or Espicom, that provide their specific markets with customized information products—sort of boutique tailors. 

The next phase for the information industry should be one in which these customized information products are offered to the masses, either at Macy’s or Wal-Mart levels, depending on individual spending and usage patterns. True integration will eliminate the need for organizations to identify, contract for, and technically accommodate specific content feeds—the analogy here is finding, purchasing, and hauling home the fabrics, buttons, threads, and zippers. True integration will mean that we can buy the answer or the insight we need, just as we would select a garment, step into a 3-D sensor, and have a version of that garment produced to an exact fit. 

The ground under the feet of content providers is shifting so severely that they must move or be swallowed in the chasm. Move back along the supply chain to become publishers? Move forward on the chain to become customized ‘insight’ consultants? And where does this leave intranets and portals? Hmm…integration means interesting times.
 

Rebecca 
rebecca@dysartjones.com
 

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