Answer Machine

Susan E. Feldman Sue Feldman is CEO of Synthexis, a consulting firm that provides business advisory services to the search industry and to buyers of search and text analytics technologies. In her book, The Answer Machine Sue discusses the technologies behind information seeking and analysis, and their central role in the future of computing. She speaks frequently at industry events on topics such as conversational systems, big data technologies, and the hidden costs of information work. She wrote the chapter on search engines for the Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, and was the first editor of the IEEE Computer Society's Digital Library News.Sue’s clients rely on her for strategic advice and business coaching, as well as for her wide network of contacts in the industry. Before founding Synthexis, Sue was Vice President for Search and Discovery Technologies at IDC (International Data Corporation), where she directed research on the technologies and markets for search,text analytics, categorization, translation, mobile and rich media search. Prior to coming to IDC, Ms. Feldman was founder and president of Datasearch, an independent technology advisory firm, where she consulted on usability and on information retrieval technologies. She is a founder and former president of the Association of Independent Information Professionals,a member of the Association for Computing Machinery, and has won numerous research and writing awards. Ms.Feldman holds degrees from Cornell University in linguistics and from the University of Michigan in information science.

• Introduction.- The Query Process and Barriers to Finding Information Online.- Online Search: An Evolution.- Search and Discovery Technologies: An Overview.- Information Access: A Spectrum of Needs and Uses.- Future Tense: The Next Era in Information Access and Discovery.- Answer Machines.