The future of federated search: ideas for the writing contest

Submissions are due for the federated search writing contest by October 31st. That’s less that three weeks from today. If you’re thinking of submitting an entry, I still have some $25 Amazon.com gift certificates to give to those of you whose entries are among the first ten. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the contest, you can read all the details in this article. Here’s the gist of the contest:

1. Write an original essay predicting the future of federated search.

2. Best essay wins $500. Second and third prizes are $250 and $100.

3. First prize winner’s entry will be published in Computers In Libraries Magazine.

4. First prize winner will attend the Computers In Libraries Conference March 30-April 1, 2009. Travel and lodging expenses will be paid by Deep Web Technologies.

5. First prize winner will be formally recognized at the Computers In Libraries Conference.

Winning the contest can really propel your career forward.

If you’re having trouble coming up with ideas about what the future of federated search might look like, here are some suggestions:

1. Read some of the basics articles in this blog to get a background in federated search. If you’re new to the industry read the first five articles in the basics page and the one on connectors.

2. Read this series of articles at the OSTI Blog, which I co-authored, comparing and contrasting federated search with crawling and indexing.

3. Read Part IV of the luminary series interview with Todd Miller, in particular, questions 13 and 14.

4. Read the interview with federated search luminary Kate Noerr, especially questions 10 and 11.

5. Read Carl Grant’s blog article, “Looking into the future of metasearch.”

6. Read the interview with Deep Web Technologies founder Abe Lederman in Stephen Arnold’s “Search Wizards Speak” series. Abe shares some thoughts about the future at the end of the interview.

Do some homework then get your essay in.

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Tags: federated search