Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!dreaderd!not-for-mail

Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!dreaderd!not-for-mail
Message-ID: <internet/info-research-faq/[email protected]>
Supersedes: <internet/info-research-faq/[email protected]>
Expires: 20 Sep 2000 07:49:19 GMT
References: <internet/info-research-faq/[email protected]>
X-Last-Updated: 2000/03/04
Organization: none
From: [email protected] (David Novak)
Newsgroups: alt.internet.research,sci.research,alt.answers,sci.answers,news.answers
Subject: Information Research FAQ v.4.1 (Part 7/9)
Followup-To: poster
Approved: [email protected]
Summary: Information Research FAQ: Resources, Tools & Training
Originator: [email protected]
Date: 07 Aug 2000 07:56:58 GMT
Lines: 592
NNTP-Posting-Host: penguin-lust.mit.edu
X-Trace: dreaderd 965635018 9446 18.181.0.29
Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu sci.research:20500 alt.answers:50551 sci.answers:11941 news.answers:189425

Archive-name: internet/info-research-faq/part7
Posting-Frequency: monthly
Last-modified: Mar 02 2000
URL: http://cn.net.au
Copyright: (c) 2000 David Novak
Maintainer: David Novak <[email protected]>

Information Research FAQ (Part 7/9)

This section of the FAQ originates as webpages for The Spire Project - a
large project to help you find information. If you do much research,
consider selecting one of the html formats with its forms and links.

Please forward leads and comments to David ([email protected]) and note
the disclaimer statement on Part 1 of this FAQ.

Enjoy,
David Novak - [email protected]
The Spire Project: SpireProject.com, SpireProject.co.uk and Cn.net.au

Contents

----- Part 7 -----

23. Personal Information
24. Business Benchmarks
25. Imports & Exports
___________________________________________________

23. Personal Information
from The Spire Project
http://spireproject.com/people.html

There are tools to assist you to either locate someone you know, or dig
up background information. The Internet has email directories and phone
directories aplenty as well as tools to trace internet communication.
Beyond this, there are tools to find silent numbers, business and asset
ownership, newspaper articles and more. You will start with a name or
email address.

[1]

Internet

Finding an Email Address

[1] The Yahoo People Search (people.yahoo.com[1]) is an important and
flexible tool for finding email & address information.

[2] Switchboard (www.switchboard.com[2]) also offers several people
search tools.

[3] You may need to search the people databases from several internet
websites to be successful. For further assistance, consider the FAQ: How
to find people's E-mail addresses[3] and the phone & address[4]
references on Yahoo.

People who Publish Online

[3] Has the person published anything on the Internet? The simple way is
to search the Internet for the full name of the individual in the hope
they included their email address or real name on the webpage. Use
AltaVista and Debriefing for this task. For more depth, read the
article: Searching the Web[97].
Altavista[1] has a very large, fast search engine. Type the name using
quotes to keep the words together. Add in further information if you
know using url:edu or keywords (use the + sign). Also, capitals matter
with Altavista.
Debriefing[2], is a meta-search engine optimized for finding people &
named websites.

Finger is a lesser known Internet protocol which sometimes reveals
information about a person given an email address. It used to be more
common and may give name & perhaps if a person is currently logged in.
It is easy to make a finger request from a unix command line (finger
email@host). Some web-browsers will allow you to enter a finger request
directly (as finger://username@host). Alternatively, use a finger
gateway like this one[5] from MIT.

Tracing Online Communication

[15] Deja.com usenet archive (www.deja.com[14]) maintains a very large
database of newsgroup discussion. The Deja.com's power search[15] is a
must-see and will give you a brilliant author profile. Here is a quick
search; the power search has more flexible options.

[12] Searching mailing list discussion is more difficult. If you know a
forum a person is active in, see our article: Discussion Groups[12] for
further instructions. Alternatively, search the web for the email
address. Hopefully you will catch list discussion picked up by zines or
directly by search engines. Use Altavista for this:

Phone Directories

There are several tools available to you here:
Printed Directories: White pages - if you know the name but not the
address or phone number.Yellow pages & other business listings - if you
know the business, but not address or number.Sometimes libraries and
post offices will have the white pages to different states. A better
alternative may be to search the white pages through the Internet. For a
very complete list, visit Telephone Directories on the Web[6].

Directory Assistance - if you know an approximate name/address
combination, but not number. Directory Assistance is a service provided
by your phone company.

Phone directory databases - usually prepared as a CD-rom, listing all
the phone numbers in Australia. this is particularly good for a reverse
search: seeking the name and address from the phone number.

Library

Biographical Directories and Databases

If the person is famous, newsworthy or historically important, this may
be a worthwhile option. Directories like the series of Who's Who
directories will list some basic biographical details, most likely
prepared by the person involved. Who's Who directories exist for many
categories and countries like Longman Who's Who (EINS[7]) Marquis Who's
Who (SilverPlatter[8] & Dialog[9]) or Who's Who in European Business
(Datastar[10]).

Alternatively, consider the collection of biographical directories and
databases like Wilson Biography Index (see SilverPlatter[11] or
FirstSearch[12]), Wilson Current Biography (SilverPlatter[13]), Bowker
Biographical Directory (Dialog[14]) or Biography Master Index
(Dialog[15]). The Wilson Biography Index, for example, cites a large
number of periodicals & books which include biographies.

There is also a simple biographical database online: Biography Online
(www.biography.com[34]), with 15000+ biographical abstracts - but most
are really really short. Access is free on the net[34]. Of course, for
very well known people, consider an encyclopedia.

Commercial

Newspaper Search

Local newspapers are a brilliant resource for information about
individuals, and most anyone running a business will try to be featured
in their local newspapers. The key here is local newspapers, and
historical databases (not current news).

There are no shortages of electronic access to good news too. Datatimes
presents a single access point to many of the North American newspapers.
Global textline includes access to a wide range of different countries.
With both these news archive databases, you must be careful to specify
exactly what you are looking for. You would be surprised how many David
Novak's there are in my state alone. Use the full text databases in
particular.

Asset Searches

The asset search involves searching a selection of government databases
for home and business ownership. The presence of a morgage on a house is
public knowledge (though the information is not particularly current).
National business ownership databases, like ASCOT in Australia, will
give you the ownership of businesses and association management. For a
small fee through the department of business registration, or a
collection of commercial retailers, you can search the ASCOT database by
name.

One elegant suggestion is to seek help from a professional information
broker from the area where a person lives. The mailing list InfoPro is a
particularly large collection of brokers who routinely distribute this
kind of information. Consider emailing a request for assistance to the
list manager James and ask your request be circulated to the mailing
list.

Reverse Telephone Directories.

Previously these were primarily police resources, but today they have
become tools for telephone marketing. CD's are pressed with all the
phone numbers in Australia, or all the numbers in the US. The search
function lets you run this as a reverse directory just by searching for
the phone number. Look in the yellow pages, or perhaps ask a librarian
for leads to these resources.

Commercial Personal Information Profiles

There are commercial products supporting the needs of human resource
departments, legal research and the police. Information is collected and
distributed as like Credit Reports, or personal profiles. As an example,
running a level three Missing Links search on CDB (for about US$15.00)
will usually return a US silent phone number.

[64] CDB Infotek (www.cdb.com/public/[64]) maintain a selection of
commercial databases of personal information. Look at their database
descriptions[65].

Further firms have been mentioned as active in this industry, including
American Information Network[16], Know-x[17] and IRB OnLine[18]

Conclusion

There is a serious issue as to the morality of easy access to personal
information. There is an equally important moral value in empowerment:
what is publicly available to should be publicly known.

Beyond these resources we have to tools available to private
investigators: rummaging though garbage cans, following the suspect,
etc... There are also computer files and databases with better
controlled access: drivers databases, police arrest records, voters
registration, medical records, passport and immigration records, banking
records. Most of the latter resources will only be available to you with
the direct permission of the one involved. Further databases, like a
database of known pediphiles, while available, would only be useful if
you had previous suspicions.

This article comes from The Spire Project.
Advice welcome : email [email protected]
[1] http://people.yahoo.com
[2] http://www.switchboard.com
[3] http://www.cs.queensu.ca/FAQs/email/bigfinding.html
[4] http://dir.yahoo.com/Reference/Phone_Numbers_and_Addresses
[5] http://www.mit.edu:8001/finger?
[6] http://www.teldir.com
[7] http://www.eins.org/databases/103.html
[8] http://www.silverplatter.com/catalog/mwsw.htm
[9] http://library.dialog.com/bluesheets/html/bl0234.html#AB
[10] http://ds.datastarweb.com/ds/products/datastar/sheets/wweb.htm
[11] http://www.silverplatter.com/catalog/wbio.htm
[12] http://www.oclc.org/oclc/man/6928fsdb/biographyind.htm
[13] http://www.silverplatter.com/catalog/cbio.htm
[14] http://library.dialog.com/bluesheets/html/bl0236.html#AB
[15] http://library.dialog.com/bluesheets/html/bl0287.html#AB
[16] http://www.ameri.com
[17] http://www.knowx.com
[18] http://www.irb-online.com
___________________________________________________

24. Business Benchmarks
from The Spire Project
http://spireproject.com/bench.html

Business Benchmarks are statistical descriptions of the running costs of
comparable businesses.

There are several ways to use benchmarks. Accountants use them
frequently, as do bankers and investment advisors, to judge the health
of a business. Certainly anyone buying a business will reach for
business benchmarks as one measurement of business health and value.
Equally as often, your accountant will do this work for you.

A standard business benchmark will describe various costs as a
percentage of total turnover. They may include figures like turnover per
staff, gross profit as a percentage of turnover, staffing costs as a
percentage of turnover and such. Some benchmarks give more. These are
the ones we are aware of.

[1]

Internet

Small Business Advancement Electronic Resource

[1] The SBAER[2] publishes a collection of 33 small business profiles[1]
free on the net, but unfortunately slightly dated now.

Library

U.S. Industry and Trade Outlook 2000 (USA)

[3] U.S. Industry and Trade Outlook 2000 is an NTIS publication compiled
by industry analysts from Dept of Commerce. Their blurb describes a 650
page volume, reviewing most important sectors of the US economy. If
your library does not have a copy, the book is inexpensive at about
US$70. See their webpage description[3].

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (Australia)

The ABS publishes business benchmarks in their industry analyses. If the
ABS has undertaken surveys, and you search their online catalogue to
determine this, then they will have compiled information which can be
used as business benchmarks. You may have to calculate the percentages
yourself, the ABS tends to have older data than other sources, and focus
more on industry. The ABS collects their data from surveys sent to
businesses.

[4][5] 1) The ABS 1998 Catalogue of Publications.
Full Text Search of the 1999 Catalogue

[6] A separate article, National Statistical Agencies[6] includes a more
complete description of ABS products and services.

Other benchmarks are published as books.

The [Australian] Bureau of Industry Economics publishes a series of
studies on various Australian infrastructure industries. Each study
compares between states and against best work practice, including costs,
services and operating efficiency. All have the titles "International
Performance Indicators ..." and you can get a list by entering this in
the AGIP database[12] of Australian Government Publications.

The Locating Books[97] article will help you find alternative books.

Commercial

FMRC Benchmarking Team (Australia)

The FMRC Business Benchmarks are Australian business benchmarks,
recording the expected costs as a percentage and certain business ratios
for a range of mostly small business industries.

I have not had time to review their new website, but previously they
came in two formats... a single sheet and a small pamphlet which is
little more than the single sheet with an explanation attached.
Accountants use benchmarks frequently, and this may well be the easiest
place to go to get them. The State Library in Western Australia has an
aging collection in a binder held behind the business help desk and The
Small Business Development Corporation's Free Advisory service in WA
incorporate this information into their advice. You could also purchase
these directly from the SBDC (formerly $250 for hard or softcopy for
complete information or about A$40 each.)

Be careful of their age. Each industry is only analyzed every few years,
and the libraries may not have the most recent version. Further, these
do require some understanding of business ratios.

[35] FMRC now resides at www.benchmarking.au.com[35] (yes, .au.com!)

Westralian Business Ratios (Western Australia)

John Watson, from the Economics Department of the University of Western
Australia, has created a very professional set of business benchmarks on
Western Australian businesses. Unlike most business benchmarks, these
are annual, present quartile information and describe the statistics in
a most professional manner (including sample size !). You may need the
help of your accountant to get a copy.

Conclusion

We have listed just a few benchmarks here, but information about
benchmarks is so poorly distributed, and we get asked so frequently, we
thought it worthwhile publishing this article anyway. If you know of
further benchmarks, do inform us.

One further opportunity is Purposeful Benchmarking. Ideally you arrange
an amicable invitation to peruse the best practice of, not your
competitor, but a business unit which does similar functions in a
different industry. Thus, compare Airplane Turnaround times with an
RaceCar Pit crew.

The Benchmark Self-Help Manual is guide to the concept of creating
benchmarks. Best Practice manuals and journals also cover this activity.

This article comes from The Spire Project.
Advice welcome : email [email protected]
[1] http://www.sbaer.uca.edu/sbaer/publications/#industry
[2] http://www.sbaer.uca.edu
[3] http://www.ntis.gov/product/industry-trade.htm
[4]
http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/D3110121.NSF/fd7f26b58d96f182ca2565600
01b40ff?OpenView
[5]
http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/D3110121.NSF/d29f0d90066771024a25644f0
01d0c5b/$searchForm?SearchView
___________________________________________________

25. Import and Export Statistics
from The Spire Project
http://spireproject.com/imports.html

Once you have decided to reach for trade statistics, reach for the best.
All the general statistics and trade links are of limited relevance
compared to knowing the volume of tuna exported to Japan. We can try to
identify specific exporting firms, potential markets and existing trade
patterns. We list here statistics prepared by the national statistical
agencies, certain directories of possible interest, and a database of
port traffic.

[1]

Internet

Trade Data Online

[82] Trade Data Online
(strategis.ic.gc.ca/sc_mrkti/tdst/engdoc/tr_homep.html[82]) is a service
by Industry Canada[1], presenting trade information from Statistics
Canada and the US Bureau of the Census. This free database presents
trade data for both the US and Canada. Results either list imports and
exports by product (down to the level of "pulp of wood and the like", or
"footwear", or imports and exports by industry ("fruit farms" or
"contract logging industry").Further description appears on this
website[83].

In every way, this is a brilliant tool, except the depth of categories.
Results can be as specific as exports from British Columbia to
Afghanistan, divided by month in CA$ or US$. For more detail, we need to
reach for the paid services below.

Library

Directories

[2] Kompass directories list manufacturing firms by product. If you are
looking for the manufacturer of plastic disk slips - here is where you
go. They are a bit tricky to use, so read our simple guide[2] first.
Kompass directories list manufacturing companies, which may suggest
potential exporters.

Kompass is produced by Kompass [US][51] or Kompass International[3].
Print directories exist for most countries while Kompass databases cover
regions (ie Kompass Asia/Pacific). Large libraries will have some of the
print directories. Further descriptions can be found from Dialog[4],

Australian Exports by Austrade, gives the names of major firms divided
by product and service. Volume of trade is not provided, but this
directory, and directories like this, provide the names responsible for
the trade numbers you can determine using other resources (like export
statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics). The American
Export Register provides similar information.

Commercial

US Trade Statistics

The US Customs Service collects import and export information, but the
information is developed by the US Census Bureau and Stat-USA (a
commercial wing of the Dept of Commerce). The Trade Data Online listed
above[5] is a free version of this information but at a shallow level.

[92] The National Trade Data Bank (NTDB) is a subscription service to US
import and export statistics offered through Stat-USA[92]. Costs are
US$50/quarter or US$150/yr. This data is accessed through the stat-usa
website. The database extends down to the level of "0105190020 Turkeys,
Live, Weighing Not Over 185 G Each (SIC0259)".

The subscription price also entitles you to a range of further economic
data, so you will want to investigate this a little further. Start
here[92].

[15] The US Census Bureau[34], also sells trade data collected by the US
Customs Service. Start at USA Trade Statistics[6].

Canadian Trade Statistics

Canadian customs information is either available through The Trade Data
Online listed above[5] (a free but at a shallow trade database), or
through the Canadian International Merchandise Trade Database, also by
Statistics Canada[80].

[7] The Canadian International Merchandise Trade Database delivers
specific imports and exports from Canada - and provides you with a quote
for the cost. Works like a shopping trolley, and Statistics Canada
accepts payment by credit card. Start from this page[7].

Australian Trade Statistics

[6] All the Australian Trade Statistics are prepared by the Australian
Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Import and Export statistics are collected
by the customs authority, then released as a paid service directly from
the ABS prepared to the level of classification you need. Prices are
arranged by quote.

Due to privacy concerns you will not be able to pinpoint who is
exporting/importing but you will get totals, by state if you wish, for
commodities. This is a paid service. To start, contact the ABS by
phone[7].

PIERS - Port traffic database.

[67] PIERS (www.piers.com[67]) is a database of port traffic. Based upon
the port documents (manifest & bill of lading), the complete database
compiles this information into specific categories, countries and the
like. The PIERS database covers imports and exports from the US, Mexico
and a collection of south and latin american countries. Of particular
interest, summary data is also available through the website (sample). A
report detailing the top importers of olives fro italy costs US$87 when
I looked.

Databases are organized as US or Mexico, Import or Export. Consider
reading the further descriptions from Dialog[8].

Conclusion

As each national statistical bureau records and monitors imports and
exports, read the National Statistical Agencies[6] article for
directions to other country statistics. For those tempted to trawl for
Internet resources, consider International Trade Web Resources[9] by the
Federation of International Trade Associations, a site recommended by
Argus.

This article comes from The Spire Project.
Advice welcome : email [email protected]
[1] http://strategis.ic.gc.ca
[2] http://spireproject.com/imports.html#
[3] http://kompass-intl.com
[4] http://library.dialog.com/bluesheets/html/bl0592.html#AB
[5] http://spireproject.com/imports.html#1
[6] http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/www/index.html
[7] http://www.statcan.ca/english/tradedata
[8] http://library.dialog.com/bluesheets/html/bl0572.html#AB
[9] http://www.fita.org/webindex.html
___________________________________________________
This document continues as Part 8/9.
__________________________________________________
Copyright (c) 1999 by David Novak, all rights reserved.
This FAQ may be posted to any USENET newsgroup, on-line service,
website, or BBS as long as it is posted unaltered in its entirety
including this copyright statement. This FAQ may not be included in
commercial collections or compilations without express permission from
the author. Further permission requests please to [email protected]
-----------------------------------
David Novak - [email protected]