http://www.sajim.co.za/default.asp?to=editvol9nr1 Search SAJIM Editorial Vol.9(1) March 2007 Investigating the business value of information management by authors Saloojee, Groenewald and Du Toit is the first article on the list of good reads for the first issue of the year. All three authors are employed by the University of Johannesburg – situated in the heart of the business hub of South Africa. The business value of the effective management of information as a resource is an important issue. The authors first argue that it is somewhat problematic to establish the business value of information. Some reasons are that information management as such creates business value indirectly, but creates business costs directly, making the evaluation and measurement of information management and the benefits thereof difficult for organizations. As a result, an empirical survey was conducted in ten large South African organizations to establish practices and norms in managing the business value of information management, information management investment and benefits evaluation. Van Zyl, Amadi-Echendu and Bothma's article entitled Nine drivers of knowledge transfer between universities and industry R&D partners in South Africa is conveying exactly what the title implies: testing the following nine drivers of knowledge transfer between South African universities and industry: a) Perception that knowledge is a valuable resource; b) emphasis on getting a return-on- investment in research; c) need to close the knowledge gap; d) need to extract appropriate knowledge at the right time to make critical decisions; e) international trade; f) need to protect intellectual property such as patents and trademarks; g) war, terrorism and natural disasters; h) geographic proximity between the knowledge source and recipient; and i) need to protect knowledge for competitive advantage. The results of the research project are discussed in detail. After reading the article, the reader is convinced that the development, ownership, protection and utilization of all South African knowledge assets are necessary in order to compete in the new global economy. Higher education therefore forms a major stakeholder in this process of competing in the new global economy. Still in the knowledge management arena, however with a slant to indigenous financial knowledge, the Bray and Els article tries to contradict the notion that 'for too many individuals, indigenous knowledge systems provoke no enthusiasm as it is perceived to be dormant and irrelevant'. In Unpacking 'ethno-finance': an introduction to indigenous 'financial' knowledge systems, the authors attempt to change this perception by highlighting the need for an in-depth knowledge of indigenous knowledge systems and in particular indigenous knowledge systems within finance. Comprehensive definitions of ethno-finance as well as examples are discussed in the article in order to assist in the development of research opportunities within the sub-field of ethno-finance regarding indigenous knowledge systems. On a more technical note, specifically on the techniques of Web surfing (or should it be Web survival?), authors Kritzinger and Weideman discuss the results of a research project regarding techniques to ensure that a better quality retrieval (hits) is ensured or, in information science terminology, to ensure a better precision ratio. Empirical evidence was therefore sought that the placement of keywords in certain areas of the body text of a Web-based or digital document could have an influence on the Web sites' visibility to search engines. The result of two experiments, as described in their article Keyword placing in Web page body text to increase visibility to search engines, indicates that keywords should be concentrated towards the top of a Web document, and diluted towards the bottom to increase visibility. However, care should be taken in terms of keyword density to prevent search engine algorithms from raising the spam alarm. Pieter van Brakel Scientific Editor ISSN 1560-683X Published by InterWord Communications for Department of Information and Knowledge Management, University of Johannesburg