My Favourite Tipples from a Freelance Content Specialist
Jinfo Blog

By Dale Moore

Abstract

My Favourite Tipples are shared by Dale Moore a freelance content specialist and long-time information manager. He shares his favourite online resources around electronic resources, IT news and project management.

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I've worked as a freelancer in the field of content management, taxonomies and metadata for many years and I'm very interested in finding practical solutions to content management problems. Some of the information resources I use on a regular basis are:

• AIIM: The Association for Information and Image Management is a great resource for content management expertise, advice, training and awareness. I've been a member for as long as I can remember. They have a ton of information for content professionals including excellent training, development and awareness initiatives. Like FreePint, they regularly publish research findings covering a range of information related topics. 

• Tales from the Terminal Room: A free newsletter from Karen Blakeman for anyone who uses electronic media for locating information. Content includes reviews and comparisons of information sources; updates on business information resources; and dealing with technical and access problems. Karen is a veteran of the information industry. If you use electronic resources you should definitely read this. 

• The Register: I use this for news and daily headlines. A bit of a general digest but I really haven't got time to scan through lots of news sources. The Register seems to provide me with pretty much what I need. If something relevant sparks my interest, I'll look further afield. I guess this is a sign of the times!

• Trello: Trello helps me to help keep on top of projects. Not exactly an information resource in the consumer sense but essential to keeping my professional life together. I only discovered this a short while ago but it's certainly proved its worth by helping me keep on top of a diverse portfolio of projects and deadlines! Very simple to use.

• TermStore: As I do quite a bit of work with SharePoint, there are also a lot of resources I have bookmarked which I call upon when I have specific issues that need resolving. But these all focus on this one platform so aren't really relevant in a general sense. As a keen advocate of "content findability", I tend to spend a lot of time in the Term Store, creating taxonomies and context specific Content Types. If this doesn't mean much to you, don't worry; your life's none the poorer for not knowing.

• FreePint: And FreePint, of course! This is the "go-to" source for all that is information related. I've been a reader since 1997, when it first began.

An article in FreePint I found particularly interesting: 

• I found the recent Topic Series "All About Usage - From Content Sharing to Data Mining" very interesting, particularly the article on content management systems (CMS) by Martin Murtland.
  
  This is a subject close to my own heart. Many people use these systems but not everyone understands them well enough.
  
  A well chosen and carefully configured CMS can be incredibly useful but you really have to know the system you're using in some depth to get the most out of it. SharePoint is a classic example. It is worth investing some effort if you want to realise the, often hidden, features that can make your working life easier. The article was a very good overview of what is a relatively easy to understand concept, but often perplexing in its layers of complexity. It was a useful reminder that one size does not fit all!

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