The World Has Gone Tweeting Mad
Jinfo Blog

By Lesley Robinson

Item

The world has gone 'tweeting' mad. Even government officials do it. Sadly, some of them are on Facebook too. However, it now seems after the initial excitement of using social networking tools to tell the world everything about yourself, there is evidence that people are starting to pay more attention to their online reputations. It can be easy to judge someone or a company in the wrong way by what you read online and you can never be sure that they are the right people to do business with.

With this in mind, it is great that there are products around from companies like Experian. Experian is one of the world's largest credit information service providers and their B2B information platform 'e-Series Business' provides credit reports on UK companies. The product goes beyond just providing base data and gives opinions on a business's creditworthiness, providing risk reports which predict a business's likelihood of failure in the next twelve months. One of the main draws of the product, however, is the blended reporting on companies and its individual directors. So, you can check if the Managing Director who was bragging on Facebook about how well the company is doing is in fact telling the truth. Handy.

Google has come up with another experimental content model called 'Living Stories' which is an open-source project. The idea is that it groups content on significant stories on one web page and provides a summary with updates, timelines and filters, such as graphics or quotes. In the crazy world of information overload, I would find this really useful.

On the same theme, InfoViewer, produced by InfoDesk, is reviewed in this issue. InfoViewer allows users to personalise, view, search, publish and export real time information extracted from any electronic resource they have access to. The clever part is that the user can edit and precis a story and add to it with their own views and comments, thus avoiding damaging copyright conflicts. So, they can collaborate and distribute with a clear conscience which isn't always easy.

One final point from me is to note the staggering statistic that mobile technology, according to Cisco, is expected to surge dramatically in 2010 with the volume of mobile data traffic predicted to increase 39 times over the next five years. I would just like to say that I am doing my bit to assist this trend by buying a new iPhone. I will go easy on the tweeting and sharing too much of my fascinating life with you, but bring on the apps.

-- Lesley Robinson is VIP's guest editor for March. She is a well-known speaker and consultant in the information industry and can be reached at lesley@lesleyrobinson.co.uk.

This editorial appears in VIP Magazine No. 76, March 2010. Purchase online>>
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