Information Maven: Greg Meyer

I’ve been trying to figure out how to use networking as a resource for learning more, specific information about the topics I’m interested in exploring.

This should sound like a “duh” statement but seriously - think about a time when networking produced direct answers. Networks connect you to people who know the answers you don’t, but not usually directly. In my experience, you realize the connections you have once you ask people in your network to help you think about the problem. Google makes the lag time shorter, as do services like LinkedIn, because they use technology to help you realize the connections that you have.

I’ve learned about a new service recently called Judy’s Book, which started out (I think) being a general purpose “Yellow Pages” for the information your friends know, and now is focused more on families and connecting them with the specific information they need in the neighborhoods where they live. I’m interested in this concept because it seems more personal than the CitySearch model, yet it also will be difficult to support in my opinion until it reaches critical mass.

I wonder whether this service will work better than a simple email or phone call to one of my friends when I need to find out about a great new restaurant or place to go. Judy’s Book would be more effective if twinned with already-there repositories of content, so that I could highlight the information that my friends know but not have to go to another website/search engine to match what my friends know with public information that’s already out there in the world.

Google Local also seems like a particularly strong competitor to Judy’s Book, if only because Google already groks the hard part of the “gotta find new stuff” equation: the ability to find stuff quickly and easily from whatever internet connection/information appliance you happen to have on hand. Recently I travelled in central Oregon, and found myself using the WAP interface for Google to solve problems I used to solve with phone books and maps — getting directions and finding new places. Google WAP didn’t help me where I didn’t have cell coverage, but that’s another story

See my Judy’s Book posts on the sidebar, and let me know if you think this service might be useful.