Special issue on tech mining

摘要

This special issue of Technol. Forecast. Soc. Change addresses the topic of "tech mining". Tech mining strives to inform science, technology and innovation ("ST&I") management by applying text mining to exploit searches of electronic science and technology databases. It is richly informed by work in fields such as information retrieval, scientometrics and content analysis. Current tech mining efforts co-exist with related efforts, including technology futures analysis, research evaluation and competitive intelligence. Contrast tech mining with traditional ST&I policy and management practices. Traditional processes rely mainly on expertise. This could be anything from asking the "right-hand man" to convening multi-tier expert panels. The former relies excessively on casual knowledge; the latter tends to be slow and expensive. Both neglect the rich intelligence to be gleaned from data resources. Tech mining takes information already compiled, for whatever purposes, and exploits it just when needed. It derives knowledge pertinent to the issue at hand. For instance, today, we might search fuel cell patents to help assess how crowded the landscape is to help assess our new program initiative. Tomorrow, we might mine fuel cell patents to identify which other companies are the best prospects to license our intellectual property. In both cases, we get the intelligence immediately; we do not have to wait for a third party to perform special studies taking months.