tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12530211604931539992011-12-10T23:16:48.691-05:00Peregrinationsintellectual wanderings of a professional researcher-writerQuodlibethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05310871394184407035noreply@blogger.comBlogger231100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1253021160493153999.post-83187998971302160922011-11-14T09:43:00.000-05:002011-11-14T09:43:15.552-05:00On My Desk: Storm Damage.
Though it’s been more than two weeks since our big October snowstorm – the snow has melted, the power was restored several days ago, the clean-up of downed trees and limbs continues – we are all still feeling the effects.
Many businesses, including my own, really slowed down without electricity, phone service, and internet connections! I’m still cleaning up a lot of storm damage in my office.Quodlibethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05310871394184407035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1253021160493153999.post-28758207972006521942011-10-17T09:09:00.000-04:002011-10-17T09:09:49.307-04:00Doing Competitive Intelligence? Add Your Firm (and Your Name) to the List.
Among the research services I provide for my clients, I do a bit of competitive intelligence; that is, gathering (through legal and ethical means) information about my clients’ competitors, including information about their products, services, PR efforts, and the like. I keep track of several businesses on a regular basis to help my clients keep abreast of their competitors.
One of the Quodlibethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05310871394184407035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1253021160493153999.post-64124608975214638282011-10-12T13:32:00.001-04:002011-10-12T13:38:40.921-04:00Who is Responsible?.
Two news items caught my attention this morning. They seem unrelated, but each one touches on an interesting trend.
The first item was about a couple (or family, the story isn’t clear) who got “lost” – twice – on a road trip in Pennsylvania after having depended on a GPS unit to provide travel directions to certain locations. (This "getting lost with GPS" seems to be a growing trend.) The Quodlibethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05310871394184407035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1253021160493153999.post-73441595408288267262011-10-03T11:14:00.002-04:002011-10-12T13:42:41.841-04:00When You Absolutely, Positively Have to Know .
The other day I watched a friend trying to find some information on the open internet. It was a fairly straightforward question that should have been fairly easy to answer, yet he tried again and again and could not come up with anything useful. I could see that he was using ineffective search terms and strategies, and I offered a few suggestions for how to formulate the search, but…no go.
Quodlibethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05310871394184407035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1253021160493153999.post-10913651099171609292011-09-30T13:53:00.000-04:002011-09-30T13:53:32.035-04:00Sure, I Can Write a Doctoral Dissertation in Two Weeks
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I got a very interesting message from a potential client recently; it came in via my website, www.peregrineinfo.com. I’ve removed any identifying details.
-----Original Message-----
From: [link from website]
Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2011 01:44 PM
Subject: Visitor Feedback from Your Website
First Name: [-----------]
Last Name: [-----------]
Company Name: [name of a university based in Quodlibethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05310871394184407035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1253021160493153999.post-20388997297221933562011-09-25T10:16:00.000-04:002011-09-25T10:16:26.774-04:00Get Set.
Sunday morning seems like a good time to write about relaxation with online games. Like many people, I enjoy playing a few online games, but no fantasy, warfare, or action games for me, please; I stick to games about words and information.
Of course, online crosswords are always a favorite, and D and I do the Los Angeles Times crossword together each evening, at the Master skill level.
http://Quodlibethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05310871394184407035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1253021160493153999.post-4963460136002030702011-09-22T14:27:00.000-04:002011-09-22T14:27:35.308-04:00Separating the Wheat from the Chaff.
I’ve been a research librarian for a long time. Over the years, it’s been fascinating to observe, and be part of, the continuing advance of information technology, and to see how it has changed how we create, store, retrieve, and use information. There is more information available than ever before, and we can choose how, when, where, and by what means to receive, analyze, slice and dice, Quodlibethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05310871394184407035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1253021160493153999.post-58793160984606944732011-09-21T10:30:00.001-04:002011-09-22T09:42:36.004-04:00Best-Ever Spam Greeting.
In sifting through material that I had gathered for this blog some time ago, I found a note I had made about the best-ever greeting in a “spam” message. It was in an "anonymous" message in which I was asked to send a large sum money to an overseas location in order to free up funds …. well, you get the picture.
I didn't read past the first wonderful sentence:
“Sir/Madam, Unfortunately I am Quodlibethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05310871394184407035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1253021160493153999.post-17831586728255513042011-09-20T11:15:00.000-04:002011-09-20T11:15:59.081-04:00Preparing a Winning Proposal.
Two clients recently asked me for proposals for research projects.
In my thinking, a proposal has several functions:
First, a proposal outlines what the client needs or wants. Here's where you document the “reference interview,” that is, the discussions that you have had with the client, by phone or email, about the project. By the time you start drafting the proposal, you should have a very Quodlibethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05310871394184407035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1253021160493153999.post-6202030026245212052011-09-18T13:02:00.000-04:002011-09-18T13:02:20.197-04:00On My Desk .
After a long hiatus, I’m back in the office at Peregrine Information Consultants, my technical research and writing business (www.peregrineinfo.com).
Here's a rundown on what I’m working on right now.
For my clients in property-casualty insurance, I’ve got several interesting projects:
For a property-casualty insurer, I’ve been asked to prepare a ready-to-publish “risk alert” to inform Quodlibethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05310871394184407035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1253021160493153999.post-41653994129447998102011-09-17T14:46:00.003-04:002011-09-17T14:55:09.389-04:00A Book In Hand is Worth...Two on The Screen?.
I love books. And newspapers. And magazines. And cereal boxes. Well, maybe not cereal boxes – I’m more of a toast and tea person at breakfast time. (Or better yet, croissants et café au lait, en France…but that’s another story).
Still, I love to read, and I read voraciously, and yes, I do enjoy the feel of a book, and the smell of the ink (volatile organic compounds, anyone?), and the physicalQuodlibethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05310871394184407035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1253021160493153999.post-81128048057383914992009-12-10T11:30:00.003-05:002009-12-10T11:36:24.152-05:00How Much Information?.
An interesting new report came across my e-desk today:
How Much Information? 2009 Report on American Consumers
Global Information Industry Center, University of California, San Diego, December 2009
http://hmi.ucsd.edu/pdf/HMI_2009_ConsumerReport_Dec9_2009.pdf
Here are some excerpts from the Executive Summary:
In 2008, Americans consumed information for about 1.3 trillion hours, an average Quodlibethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05310871394184407035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1253021160493153999.post-27402261759515073652009-12-02T22:06:00.002-05:002009-12-02T22:11:39.306-05:00On My Desk.
Here's a rundown on what I’m working on this month for my consulting clients at Peregrine Information Consultants, my technical research and writing business (see www.peregrineinfo.com/).
* Technologies and risk management practices to reduce theft for solar panels (research and write a technical guide for commercial property owners)
* Risk management guidelines for commercial laundries (Quodlibethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05310871394184407035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1253021160493153999.post-18975898874831068402009-10-02T11:24:00.003-04:002009-10-02T11:28:08.908-04:00Footnotes or Endnotes?
When I read a book, I often find it challenging to just read the book and not consider all the editorial and production questions that must have been considered during its writing, editing, and publication. This is especially true when the book in question is a research-based volume in which the author must weave information from secondary sources into the narrative. I’m constantly thinking ofQuodlibethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05310871394184407035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1253021160493153999.post-28683224600619789102009-10-01T12:33:00.005-04:002009-10-01T12:59:25.217-04:00Searching Out Spurious Composers
Yesterday in the ChoralNet forum, a choral director asked for suggestions for choral works that might be suitable for a concert called “Mistaken Identity,” which would feature “works wrongly attributed to famous composers.” He had already gathered a list of about a dozen works, and was looking for more. Well, the question was irresistible, and soon I was online, on the hunt. But I found, as Quodlibethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05310871394184407035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1253021160493153999.post-17873575929270669082009-09-21T11:29:00.003-04:002009-09-21T11:34:55.466-04:00A Picture is Worth a Thousand GOOD Words.
A few weeks ago, my husband and I treated ourselves to an afternoon at the New Britain Museum of American Art, a very fine museum near our home. Two current exhibits were of interest, including a collection works from the Hudson River School, which featured several items on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We enjoyed seeing many familiar paintings and some that were new to us.
We alsoQuodlibethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05310871394184407035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1253021160493153999.post-21690612937533151692009-08-31T17:02:00.006-04:002009-12-10T11:35:29.728-05:00Whose News? Part 2.
Oh, this is so much fun.
Yesterday, I wrote about the justifiable and widespread outrage over The Hartford Courant’s practice of inappropriately using material published by other news outlets. You can read my summary here: http://peregrine-research.blogspot.com/2009/08/whose-news.html
As I mentioned in that essay, there has some been some confusion about the terms “attribution” and “Quodlibethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05310871394184407035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1253021160493153999.post-71866335291325270192009-08-30T12:16:00.003-04:002009-08-30T12:24:40.896-04:00Whose News?.
An interesting story is developing in the Connecticut news community. The Hartford Courant (www.courant.com) has been accused of plagiarizing content from other area newspapers, not just once or twice, but in a systematic manner over an extended period. Here’s how The New Britain Herald reported it yesterday, in this excerpt from an article by Christine McCluskey (reporter at The Herald’s Quodlibethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05310871394184407035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1253021160493153999.post-88436729731146219652009-08-29T18:39:00.005-04:002011-10-12T13:41:03.674-04:00Addressing Information Overload.
In a very interesting post, Jonathan B. Spira (CEO and Chief Analyst at Basex) addresses the many causes of information overload which, in his view, “...stems from the proliferation of content, growing use of social networking tools, unnecessary interruptions in the workplace, failed searches, new technologies that compete for the worker’s attention, and improved and ubiquitous connectivity (Quodlibethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05310871394184407035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1253021160493153999.post-5307348574843677152009-08-21T09:16:00.002-04:002009-08-21T09:20:38.006-04:00Fair Compensation? Part 2.
Yesterday, I wrote about the factors to be considered in assessing the scope and complexity of a program note assignment from a prominent orchestra:
http://peregrine-research.blogspot.com/2009/08/fair-compensation.html
The project requires fairly quick professional research and writing of program notes for twelve major works, most of them composed in recent years, for which little published Quodlibethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05310871394184407035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1253021160493153999.post-22562004585791424092009-08-20T08:55:00.003-04:002009-08-20T08:59:15.839-04:00Fair Compensation?.
The other day a representative of a prominent American symphony orchestra contacted me to inquire if I could prepare program notes for three concerts scheduled for early September. I was delighted that the orchestra wanted to engage me, hoping that this project might lead to a long-term relationship.
The most difficult part of any consulting project is negotiating fees and costs. As the Quodlibethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05310871394184407035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1253021160493153999.post-14197389395181830482009-08-14T19:08:00.001-04:002009-08-14T19:10:12.750-04:00On My Desk.
Here's a rundown on what I’m working on this week for my consulting clients at Peregrine Information Consultants, my technical research and writing business (http://www.peregrineinfo.com/).
Each of these projects involves in-depth research to obtain current, complete, objective information; original writing to prepare the paper, article, or guide; and formatting and layout.
– A technical Quodlibethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05310871394184407035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1253021160493153999.post-79915602196039802102009-08-14T18:55:00.002-04:002009-08-14T19:01:19.134-04:00Peregrinations.
This is the first post of this new blog, Peregrinations, where I will share the “intellectual wanderings of a professional researcher-writer.” “Peregrination,” which means “wandering,” refers to Peregrine Information Consultants, the research consulting business I started in 2003. (No, I don’t wander around my office; I chose the swift and elegant peregrine falcon to represent the quality of Quodlibethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05310871394184407035noreply@blogger.com0