Informed Knowledge Management - A VIP Editorial
Jinfo Blog

By Michelle Manafy

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Happy New Year! I am so pleased to begin 2011 as part of the FreePint team. As of this month, I have started my role as FreePint’s director of content. It seems fitting that much of this issue focuses on social tools at work for business — from Twitter to LinkedIn and Xing and Delicious and Yammer — because my first order of business here at FreePint is social in nature: to get to know our readers in order to better meet their needs for information resources. I have always preferred a collaborative process; I don’t think that it is wise (or even possible) for a knowledge professional to be an island. While they may well appear to be self-sufficient, I find that the most effective are at minimum supported by a robust network of information resources and at best by a network of people to provide them with insights and expertise to maximise those resources.

Clearly, we here at VIP — and at FreePint in general — strive to be a vital part of that information network for our readers. We bring together not only a dedicated group of editors, but also a deeply invested pool of contributors and a vast network of readers who bring their fair share of information expertise to the mix. I can see that this network will help me grow as the director of content here and that it provides me with a rich resource to do this job better. Thus, I hope you will not hesitate to contact me with any of your ideas, by email (michelle.manafy@freepint.com), through Twitter (http://twitter.com/#!/michellemanafy), LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/michellemanafy)... well, you get the idea. I am here and I want to hear from you: What can we do to help you do your job better? How can we help you be better informed? Better connected?

Without a doubt, we are all better able to tackle the vast array of information tools and resources with a little help from our friends. Today, of course, ‘friending’ has actually become a verb that provides one indication of how we expand our networks (along with following, liking, etc.). These endorsements help us better locate content and experts of interest to us, as vetted through our trusted network. When I look at the products reviewed in this issue — DNBi’s UK edition and Comintelli’s Knowledge XChanger — it not only reinforces my sense that we need trusted filters through which to evaluate these resources, but also that we must consistently strive to leverage these tools better to help us make sense of content, context and connections.

We here at VIP, and the entire FreePint Family, are proud to count ourselves among your trusted sources for information about the industry and rededicate ourselves, as this New Year begins, to continuing to do the hard work it takes to maintain that trust and build an even stronger relationship with our readers.

Michelle Manafy

Michelle Manafy is Director of Content, responsible for strategic management and development of all editorial resources within FreePint - reports, publications, sites, contributors, circulation and new projects.

This editorial appears in VIP Magazine No. 86, January 2011. Purchase online >>

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