My Favourite Tipples

Once I have identified where these experts might reside, I start with my 'Big 2': The Chamber of Commerce Directory, which accesses 7,500 chambers across the US, including contact information and numerous links. Drill down to the individual chamber, identify who you want to talk to, and learn a bit more about them through their LinkedIn profile or YouTube to warm up the call. Many times the companies I research are a big fish in a small pond, and the local community proudly boasts about them.

My second 'Big 2' is the Economic Development Directory, which is global. Again you can drill down to the specific geographic area. Often economic development employees can refer you to the right people in government. I value this since my experience wading through US government websites to find the right person can be incredibly time consuming. However, once located, the right government contact is usually knowledgeable and willing to share.

My favourite one-stop shopping for news is Newslink. I like it since it's global and also links to small town newspapers which can offer both relevant information to warm up calls, and good people to connect with in the local community. Newslink also provides links to magazines, and to US radio and TV channels, so is a Mecca for a news junkie.

While iSeek is a general purpose search engine, I like its ability to organise search results when I look up people. It organises the results by topic, people, places and organisations. It's a quick place to learn about a person before you call them, but doesn't include social media. I think 123people does a good job of providing an individual's social media presence.

Two favourites for both learning and finding experts are Slideshare and Quora. Use them to learn more about topics you are unfamiliar with. While companies and consultants like to advertise their expertise through Slideshare presentations and by answering questions on Quora, they often share information nuggets in the process. Most people who publish on Slideshare or Quora want you to find them, so they are receptive to your phone call.

However you Find, Use, Manage or Share Information, you'll find something in FUMSI to help.

VIP Magazine: On the Horizon

VIP Magazine features VIP Horizon, a brief summary of important news in the information industry, interpreted to help information managers communicate upward regarding strategy, risk management and planning for change.

The most recent issue of VIP (No. 93) features the following in VIP Horizon:

To judge from the sudden surge of interest, Big Data is set to become the next Big Thing. McKinsey believes that analysing large datasets will become a key basis of competition, although integrating data from legacy systems may prove problematic and there are likely to be skill shortages among analysts.

An IBM survey indicates that Big Data is a priority for mid market companies as well as global enterprises. But Gartner warns that the very term puts too great an emphasis on the volume of information handled, whereas it's finding patterns in it that helps organisations make better business decisions.

http://www.vivavip.com/go/e32297

***

Companies are ill-prepared for dealing with the United Kingdom's new Bribery Act, according to a survey from Thomson Reuters. Introduced at the start of July, it creates an offence of failing to prevent bribery, even when the company didn't know about it.

An Economist Intelligence Unit study adds that few companies have the "big picture" they need for effective risk and compliance management, while business intelligence specialist Information Builders finds that most IT decision-makers are aware that their data isn't reliable. But all the business intelligence in the world may not fix things if employees are deliberately keeping inconvenient truths concealed.

http://www.vivavip.com/go/e32302

***

Implementing the European Union cookie Directive could result in a plummeting of cookie use, according to evidence from the United Kingdom Information Commissioner's Office. It experienced a 90% drop in recorded visits to its own site after introducing statutory cookie opt-in rules.

Meanwhile the European Union is considering introducing Do Not Track legislation of the kind contemplated in the United States, and has challenged the industry to come up with a standard within 12 months. So anyone with a business intelligence strategy that depends on knowing what all their customers are doing online is likely to need a serious rethink.

http://www.vivavip.com/go/e32304

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• FreePint No. 310, 23rd September 2010 "Treasuring Twitter: The Why and How of Preserving Tweets" and "Transferring zeroes and ones - getting around file format issues"
  
  
• FreePint No. 286, 17th September 2009 "Guardian Research and Information: The Evolution" and "Information Risk Management: The Benefits"
  
  
• FreePint No. 261, 25th September 2008 "Creating User-Centred Taxonomies - Part One" and "Secret Leeds. Share your secrets, share your city..."
  
  
• FreePint No. 238, 27th September 2007 "Doing Research in a Foreign Language Market: Tips and Techniques" and "FUMSI Report: European Research Resources"
  
  
• FreePint No. 214, 21st September 2006 "The Project Handbook: How to Write Clear and Cogent End-User Documentation" and "Transcontinental Teamwork: A Collaborative Case Study in Using Multilingual and Multinational Information Resources"
  
  
• FreePint No. 191, 29th September 2005 "Mentoring Independent Information Professionals - A Case Study" and "Specifying and Implementing Enterprise Search"
  
  
• FreePint No. 167, 16th September 2004 "Information Sources For Education On The Web" and "Copyright - how to stay legal"
  
  
• FreePint No. 145, 18th September 2003 "Tips on Negotiating Licences for Electronic Products" and "Real Estate Sources on the Web"
  
  
• FreePint No. 121, 19th September 2002 "Copyleft, Collaboration & Clusters" and "Resignation or redundancy: understanding your legal rights"
  
  
• FreePint No. 96, 20th September 2001 "Wales: Business, Economic and Government Sources" and "Women In Business"
  
  
• FreePint No. 71, 21st September 2000 "Routes into Knowledge Management" and "The Net Snags Cash Flow - Business Information and Cash Flow on the Internet"
  
  
• FreePint No. 46, 23rd September 1999 "The UK 1998 Data Protection Act and your Web site" and "About NUA: A discussion with Gerry McGovern, CEO NUA"
  
  
• FreePint No. 22, 17th September 1998 "Reverse Psychology - How to find more sites like the ones you love" and "Electronic commerce".

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