EDITOR'S NOTE
All About Data
by Barbara Brynko
I received an email from a company the other day with a brief message that began:
“We’ve noticed it’s been a while since you’ve opened [name of enewsletter], a monthly email newsletter … We know that unwanted email can be a hassle, so we want to make sure you’d like to continue your subscription.” Though the finger-pointing e-message made me blush at the truth, the email didn’t pass any hasty judgments on the state of my inbox; it just provided links to continue or cancel the subscription, which made the process of staying on or opting out easy and efficient.
But this quick exchange reminded me of how dependent we’ve become on clicks, hits, analytics, and knowledge management to measure engagement. There’s truth in numbers, for sure.
Today’s digital world continues to raise the bar on how we process information. We measure our success and failure in hits these days. But what about tomorrow? We’re churning out a new generation of students who want to continue their education via MOOCs or expand their skill sets via knowledge management (page 1), or weigh the impact of their scholarly research (page 8), all topics that were specifically selected for our September “back to school” issue.
And we welcome Ella Balagula, the new head of Knovel, who is putting her own spin on the innovative engineering platform a little more than 6 months after Elsevier’s acquisition took place. We talk about her vision, the transition, and the newly released platform that’s packed with agile capabilities for the next generation of engineers. The story begins on page 1.
But that’s just for starters. Enjoy the issue.
— Barbara Brynko |
