My Favourite Tipples from a director of knowledge
Jinfo Blog

By Shimrit Janes

Abstract

My Favourite Tipples are shared by Shimrit Janes, researcher and consultant for the digital workplace. She shares some of her go-to sources to keep up with emergent trends and established best practice.

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As director of knowledge for Digital Workplace Group, as well as an independent researcher and consultant for the digital workplace, it's essential that I can both keep on top of emergent trends (such as artificial intelligence) as well as established best practice. These are the resources that currently help me track the knowledge flowing around our industry.

It's funny how your personal knowledge management (PKM) practices ebb and flow; in my last Tipples I reflected that Twitter and LinkedIn featured less in my current awareness practice compared to when I first became a freelancer. Another two years on, and social media/aggregators are back in my toolbox.

• Twitter: Much has been written about the challenges facing Twitter as a platform. However, as a current awareness tool - particularly within the KM and digital workplace field - it has re-emerged as my go-to place for finding the latest thinking from and articles being shared by key thought leaders and practitioners. See who I'm following here.

• Digital Leaders: Over the last year and half, I've taken a particular interest in digital transformation within the non-corporate sector, and the resources and articles on the Digital Leaders site are always thought provoking and inspiring, covering themes such as diversity, accessibility, government and cyber resilience.  

• Google Alerts: The inclusion of Google Alerts as well as Twitter makes me reflect that a key part of my PKM is creating channels that allow for serendipity; so rather than relying on specific publications or resources, I set up funnels through which content can flow. I currently have alerts set specifically for "digital government" and "digital nations", feeding me through a digest of latest articles and headlines each week and often from sources that I wouldn't be individually monitoring. 

• Are we smart enough to know how smart animals are? Books... I'm going to be a little controversial, and say that books remain a key part of helping me do my job. As a researcher (and bibliophile), it helps to be able to see your main field of interest through fresh eyes and reading books such as "Are we smart enough to know how smart animals are?" or "Reality is Broken" help challenge my thinking about the world we live in and how we interact as humans, something which is key as we tackle questions such as how (and why) to encourage collaborative working and how to build meaningful and effective digital worlds of work.

For fun:

• Podbean.com: Over the last year or so, I've truly discovered the joy of podcasts! They're fantastic to listen to in bed, while cooking, and when you want to rest your eyes from screens. Podbean is a hosting platform, with a few of my current favourites: the fictional drama "The Bright Sessions"; "Imaginary Worlds"; "Myths and Legends"; and (as a lifelong Arsenal fan...) "Arsecast" (from the blog Arseblog).

An article in Jinfo I found particularly interesting:

• As a researcher - and consultant - frameworks can be an essential tool to kickstart a new project, remove the risk of blinkered thinking, and both conduct and structure your analysis. As a result, I very much enjoyed "Using research frameworks to solve strategic questions", part of Jinfo's current Research Focus, "Benchmark information roles - Jinfo models of excellence". It provides a good overview of three key models, which are also being explored in more depth within the series. 

Contribute your "My Favourite Tipples"

Would you like to share your "My Favourite Tipples" with the Jinfo audience? For contributor guidelines email catherine.dhanjal@jinfo.com or visit the Publish with Jinfo page.

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