When Going Up Against Giants, Technology is the Great Equalizer

May 16, 2011 - PRLog -- It’s a very old and romantic story: David versus Goliath, the 1980 US Men’s Olympic hockey team versus their Soviet counterparts, Cassius Clay versus Sonny Liston, anyone versus Ken Jennings.

And now, Knowledge Mosaic Inc. versus the three-headed hydra of Westlaw, Bloomberg, and Lexis Nexis. For what seems like decades, lawyers, law librarians, Wall Street watchers and others have been beholden to these three behemoths, all the while clamoring for a cost-effective but comparable alternative.  Now, with the unveiling of its third generation alerting and research service, dubbed KM3, the underdog has equipped itself with a shiny new weapon in its battle against multi-billion dollar competition.

Following hard on the heels of the release of an upgrade to the wildly popular knowledgemosaic Dodd-Frank Rulemaking Tracker, KM3 leverages advanced technology to organize information in innovative ways. One example is the new Laws, Rules, and Agency Materials page, which relies on a faceted interface to provide a single window into data from over two dozen federal agencies and rulemaking bodies alongside the full US Code, CFR, and Federal Register.

This faceted approach is a vast improvement on the more traditional—and inefficient—trial-and-error text searching. Rather than demanding that users begin by positing long, complicated text strings in adherence to strict operator rules, the faceted interface invites a refine-as-you-go approach in which sophisticated, pinpoint searching can begin with a single keyword.  

This new Laws, Rules, and Agency Materials page epitomizes two things that have come to define Knowledge Mosaic. First, the commitment to marshalling creative and cutting-edge technology to provide a different, more pleasant user experience. Second, an emphasis on refashioning its identity by broadening coverage beyond its traditional focus of SEC filings.

As company President and founder Peter Schwartz explains, “The big story of this release is that knowledgemosaic is definitely no longer just about securities and transactional research. We’ve made dramatic advances in our goal of mapping the entire federal legislative and regulatory landscape. By exposing this landscape and making the vast stores of vital information it contains transparent, we communicate our commitment to the concept of abundant search, and to the profound and detailed insights about our public institutions that this kind of search enables.”

It remains to be seen who, if anyone, will emerge victorious in the ongoing battle for online legal and business research supremacy. One thing is certain, however: with the playing field now largely leveled thanks to technology, Knowledge Mosaic has momentum on its side.