Under this slogan, the IT Promotion Center organized infobroker workshops on October 17-18 of this year.
In the first part of the meeting, the characteristics and the path to the infobroker profession were presented by Dr. Zdzisław P. Szkutnik, Dean of the Faculty of Journalism and Social Communication at the University of Social Sciences in Poznań. At the beginning, he explained the meaning and origin of the term “infobroker,” what the work of an infobroker entails, and the specifics of this profession. Professor Szkutnik presented a broad overview of the areas of operation for infobrokerage firms and introduced the work of several example agencies operating both domestically and abroad. The professor devoted the remainder of the lecture to the subject of training infobrokers, presenting a range of opportunities for entering this profession. Piotr Waglowski, a board member of the Internet Society Poland, spoke about the legal aspects of operating in this profession. The most important principle here is, of course, compliance with the law, especially copyright law. Waglowski also drew attention to the obligation to adhere to the standards of the code of ethics: respecting the principles of database protection, fair competition, classified information, professional and trade secrets, and those related to the protection of personal data. Honesty, reliability, competence, and maintaining confidentiality are the traits that, according to the speaker, an infobroker should possess.
Dr. Tadeusz Wojewódzki from the Infobrokerage Center, founder of the website www.infobrokerstwo.pl, delivered a paper on the use of infobroker skills in a modern organization. The main thesis of the lecture is summarized by the statement that the modernity of an organization is determined by the presence of pertinent knowledge, i.e., knowledge consistent with the user’s needs, delivered on specific demand. The goal of infobrokerage activities will therefore be to guarantee the organization knowledge that meets the specific needs of the recipient at a given place and time. An analogy between an infobroker and a librarian was made in the final paper by the Director of the Main Library of the Warsaw University of Technology, Dr. Henryk Hollender. The boundaries between the two professions are very fluid. Specific qualifications can be acquired in various ways and at different universities. It is qualifications, not professions, that are most important today.
The second part of the workshops was devoted to practical exercises. An employee of the Institute of Mathematics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the University of Warsaw, and the Warsaw University of Technology, and a well-known science journalist, Bogdan Miś, initiated the workshop participants into the secrets of the art of using internet search engines – essential tools for the work of information brokers. After a brief introduction to the world of the Internet – explaining what the Internet is and how it works, the instructor advised on how and where to start searching for information. Many types of search engines, databases, etc., were discussed. However, the most attention was paid to the Google search engine as one of the best information delivery systems. Interest in the infobroker profession is growing, as evidenced by the high attendance of participants at the workshop organized by the IT Promotion Center. Both the lecture and the practical parts of the meeting fully satisfied the attendees. They will undoubtedly use the knowledge gained, and especially the newly acquired information retrieval skills, in their daily work.
The article comes from the magazine “e-Fakty” 6/2006.