TrendAlert: Solving The E-Content Logjam

Distribution channel logjams are holding up the Information Content (IC) Industry's realization of its full potential. Web-based technologies are opening up content vendors' opportunities for reaching end user desktops and embedding content in user applications. Fear and a lack of trust between parties are holding up progress, however. This Briefing provides concrete examples of channel relationships breaking down: the fits-and-starts development of e-journals, delayed development of products that combine content from multiple vendors, and portal offerings that want to provide free content previews to users are just a few. For both vendors and buyers/deployers of content, this Briefing prescribes a dose of open dialogue around a checklist of concrete questions that partners (both vendor-to-customer and vendor-to-vendor) must ask themselves if they want to fulfill the promise of their content products and technologies.