I did a bit of consulting for OA during my time at Oxford. It's truly
amazing to watch the analysis machine in operation. Every morning at
7am about 12 Oxford professors/analysts sit around a roundtable and
pontificate about the most important stories/trends in the world. (The
other 1000 "senior faculty members" may be on speakerphone!) OA does a
great job at analyzing the news rather than just reporting it.
History: One of Kissenger's key staffers from the White House (David
Young) decided to create a service for corporate execs that is analogous
to the service provided to Kissenger. Basically, a bunch of policy
wonks would stay up all night and scour a stack of international papers
for relevant activity. The activity would then be analyzed and
reported- sometimes with recommendations. OA is the same sort of filter
for private industry. The service is great for people in the financial
and political communities. The service is exclusive (fairly pricy).
OA will struggle to figure out how to position itself as content is more
freely distributed across the internet. This may erode their pricing
model. Joint ventures with TV news programs have also recently been
closed.
Mark
>----------
>From: Rohit Khare[SMTP:khare@w3.org]
>Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 1997 1:54 PM
>To: FoRK@pest.w3.org
>Subject: Oxford Illuminatica
>
>Noted at: http://www.slate.com/GlobalVision/97-07-08/GlobalVision.asp#Bio
>
>Oxford Analytica is an international consulting firm that draws on
>more than 1,000 senior faculty members at Oxford and other major
>universities and research institutions around the world. Founded in
>1975, the firm provides corporations, banks, governments, and
>international institutions with analyses of the implications of
>national and international developments. E-mail address:
>oa@oxford-analytica.com.
>
>July 1997, Oxford Analytica Ltd., 5 Alfred St., Oxford OX1 4EH, U.K.
>