IP: business intelligence service (your own private CIA)

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Just to be VERY clear, both Geoff and I use this service and both of us pay
for it out of our own pockets. No freebies or investment -- no conflicts. I
find it a great help in keeping track of things and with the neat email
fetch capability in the latest version, I find it well worth the small price.


Dave




From: "Geoff Goodfellow" <geoff () radiomail net>
To: "Dave Farber" <farber () cis upenn edu>




Dave,


There is a great and cost effective business intelligence capability available
on the Internet that acts as an electronic information gathering service (sort
of a private CIA).  The service uses agent technology to monitor many media
sources of
information and the results are provided via e-mail.  


The service, called Farcast, currently scans around 150 sources, both 
international (such as Agence France-Presse, The Times of London, South China
Morning Post, etc) as well as domestic sources (many many newspapers,
including
stuff like the Investors Business Daily) and speciality sources such as
Communications Daily, American Banker, Jane's Defence & Intelligence, etc.
I'm
told that by the end of the year there will be well over 1,000 sources.  (see
http://www.farcast.com/sources.html for the current list).


The service is the brain child of Jim Opfer, former CIO of the National
Reconnaissance Office and unlike other services, there are no ads to wade
though or be distracted by and you get to define your own interests. [ and
an old IPer djf]


It is very simple to use and set-up and they offer a 30 day free trial.   See 
http"//www.farcast.com for details


Once you are on-line (the process takes minutes), you will get a message back
that will allow you to create droids (aka agents) to follow your subject areas
of interest, i.e. Internet engineering, the co's you invest in, competitors,
etc.


I use the service to track both professional interests in wireless and
internet
as well as personal interests in fine dining and dance music.  Needless to
say,
I find the service invaluable, thought you and fellow IPers might as want to
know about it.


--Geoff