Porter The advent of the "Information Economy" is making ever-expanding information resources available. A significant challenge is to exploit these resources to enhance the management of technology (MOT). Technology Opportunities Analysis (TOA) has been created to analyze text information retrieved from electronic publication and patent databases. This project would apply TOA to identify new 'information products' that inform technology managers and professionals about particular emerging technologies' current and future prospects. If successful, this will enhance capture of external technology information resulting in better informed research management, competitive technical intelligence, and strategic planning. Specific analyses and ways to represent technology information will be developed, then compared. These analyses combine bibliometrics and natural language processing to measure particular facets of innovation, yielding innovation indicators. Five types of users will evaluate if this information fulfills their diverse technology management needs and suggest improvements in content and in ways to present findings. Feedback from users in collaborating organizations will help refine the content and form of these innovation indicators. The results of this program should enhance innovation forecasting, allow users to gain a perspective on R&D activities in a target domain and enable managers of technology, as well as students, to take full advantage of emerging electronic forms of information.
