I’m still going over the future direction of TRIP and it’s exciting.  We have one potential buyer that we’re talking with and that’s potentially a great move for TRIP – making it secure and allowing investment in the product.However, we cannot allow the potential purchase to divert us from planning for the future. 

As well as all the design and functionality issues mentioned before (see here) I’ve been thinking about developing a premium version of TRIP.  TRIP, as is, would remain free but we’d add functionality to a ‘paid for’ version.  I can see a number of possible enhancements that might make subscribing worthwhile, for instance:

  • Development of the answer engine, possibly including content from other subscription services.
  • Linking out to full-text.  If an organisation subscribed the library could add the link resolver details to the site and a user would then be able to seamlessly link-out to full-text.
  • Allow the organisation to add their own content to the site (e.g. local guidelines, pathways etc).

Given TRIP’s low overheads we could probably create a low cost subscription model and at the same time offer a much enhanced service.
 

If we don’t get bought I’m not sure where the money will come from – we’ll see!