An Interview with Robert Harrelson

Inside Washington Publishers

Reprinted with Permission

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askSam: What is the mission of Inside Washington Publishers?

ROBERT HARRELSON: Inside Washington is a news organization, and it currently publishes 28 newsletters covering a wide range of federal, state and international policy issues. Our titles include Inside EPA (IWP's first newsletter, begun in 1980), Inside the Pentagon, Inside U.S. Trade, Electric Power Alert, Inside FDA, Washington Telecom Week, and a wide range of others. Inside Washington specializes in developing and reporting behind thescenes news about major policy developments in Washington and around the world.

Inside Washington's online division, IWP Online, currently publishes an askSam-based electronic version of Inside U.S. Trade, called World Trade Online, which includes a fully searchable archive of Inside U.S. Trade from 1993 to the present, and also offers a vast repository of other trade-related information gathered from around the world. World Trade Online is available to subscribers only; subscriptions begin at $1,440 per year. More information about World Trade Online is available at http://www.insidetrade.com.

We will begin publication of an electronic version of Electric Power Alert in August 1997. That site will be located at http://www.poweralert.com.

askSam: What is your role within your organization?

ROBERT HARRELSON:  I've been with IWP since 1989, and have worked as a reporter and editor. I am currently focused almost exclusively on our electronic publishing efforts.

askSam: Which askSam product(s) do you use and for what purposes?

ROBERT HARRELSON: We are using askSam 3.0 Professional and the askSam Web Publisher as the backbone of our web publishing business. For example, our World Trade Online site has each week's issue of Inside U.S. Trade in askSam, as well as back issues back to 1993. The back issues are organized by year, with a full year's worth of issues making up an askSam file of approximately 8 megabytes. Despite the large size of this archive, the combination of the Web Publisher and askSam 3.0 provides almost instantaneous results to a search on World Trade Online.

askSam: How has askSam made your job any easier, faster or more efficient?

ROBERT HARRELSON: The ability to publish on the Web with virtually no knowledge of HTML programming helped us get off to a fast start. The efficiency of the askSam search means that our subscribers get almost instant results to their queries. The simplicity of working with askSam has made it easy for us to keep management and updating of our site almost entirely in-house.

askSam: Can you describe what type of customer support you have received as a user of askSam and the askSam Web Publisher?

ROBERT HARRELSON:  The starting point for customer support in my opinion is being able to get in touch with somebody when you need help. When I call askSam (which I do several times a day) a person - a living, breathing, thinking person - answers the phone.  This is almost unprecedented in the computer/software world in my experience, and it makes a tremendous difference. We have been very happy with the support we have received.

askSam: Would you recommend askSam and why?

ROBERT HARRELSON: It depends on what someone wants to do, obviously. askSam is an extremely easy to use and flexible database, and offers a very simple way to publish information on the web. The search engine is tremendous. For many applications (including ours) I think askSam is a very good choice.

askSam:  What applications do you plan for askSam in the future?

ROBERT HARRELSON:  We expect to continue to move into electronic publishing with a number of new products. I expect that askSam and the Web Publisher will continue to be at the heart of these efforts.

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Robert Harrelson

Inside Washington Publishers

1225 Jeff David Highway, Suite 1400

Arlington VA 22202

Email: iwponline1@iwpnews.com

URL: http://www.insidetrade.com/