Library management systems and services provider Talis Information Ltd., UK, and TBI Communications, UK, have announced a joint initiative that offers society publishers the opportunity to participate in a free pilot project designed to test the application of Web 2.0 and semantic technologies to journal articles. The project will explore the potential of these tools to increase membership engagement - with other members, and with the society and its publications.
TBI and Talis have called for applications for participation in this free pilot, which will provide selected societies with access to a test site for a period of 3 months. Through this site, members can be invited to use a range of networking and content discovery tools. Feedback and levels of content usage will be used to assess the usefulness of this technology for society publishers and their members. Results will be made available to participating societies and the wider community, with the objective of stimulating discussion and innovation relating to the future of societies and their role within their communities.
To qualify as an applicant you will need to be a society with a journal publishing programme, publishing one or more leading journals in their field. Preference will be given to those societies who publish a significant proportion of journal articles within their discipline. An ideal candidate for the project would be a joint application between one or more societies within a particular discipline, perhaps representing different regions of the world. More information on this initiative, together with the application form, is available online at http://www.tbicommunications.com/news.html. All applications must be received by September 30, 2008.
