My Favourite Tipples

FreePint Research

• Content evolution and the need to stay flexible to survive
  
• "But what is it you DO?" Getting to simplicity in a complex world

By Arthur Weiss

My work involves helping clients find information which means that I need to use a really eclectic set of sources, that go beyond Google and I sometimes need to look at the minutiae of the web. I also train people in finding information so keeping up-to-date on search related topics. Here are some favourite sites I use on a regular - or even view on a daily - basis.

• Twylah is a twitter collation tool allowing twitter users to categorise their own tweets and see them in context. Users can specify a custom link (visit my Twyla site) so that recent tweets are linked by hashtag in a newspaper type fashion, allowing you to see at a glance what's been tweeted for each subject. Twylah gives twitter context!
  
  
• Wired is a great science magazine, available offline also. I follow Wired as a way of keeping up to date on technology trends, along with New Scientist and the BBC's science and technology pages.
  
  
• Mashable.com aims to keep people up-to-date with the latest information on all aspects of social media and digital technologies, and is a fun way of finding out what's hot and what's not in the digitech space. Mashable was founded in Scotland, but is now based in New York!
  
  
• Lifehacker's tagline is tips, tricks and downloads for getting things done. That pretty much sums up the site - as every day you get a range of ideas that can help improve your life. These can range from protecting your stuff, speeding up your laundry, saving money through recycling or making something yourself plus how to tweak common software such as Firefox, etc. Lifehacker gives you ideas so that you can improve (hack) your own life.
  
  
• TimesOfIsrael.com is a new one, only started about a month ago. It aims to document developments in Israel and the Middle East plus news items of Jewish interest. It's approach is wide-ranging and generally apolitical which makes it refreshing (although as can be guessed by its name, it does have an inbuilt bias towards Israel).

Arthur Weiss is the managing director of AWARE, specialising in marketing & competitive intelligence research and training. Arthur's background was biochemistry at Sussex University but he's been in the information industry since 1981 when he found a job at the British Medical Association library. He then moved to Dun & Bradstreet, leaving to found AWARE in 1995. Arthur has gained a reputation as a marketing / competitive intelligence expert, lecturing worldwide on related topics and trying desperately to keep ahead of school leavers who have imbibed online technologies at birth. Particular interests are business strategy, social media and online research. Arthur is an MBA and Chartered Marketer, and blogs at www.awareci.com, tweets @awareci and his website is www.marketing-intelligence.co.uk.

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• Content evolution and the need to stay flexible to survive by Michelle Manafy
  Surprise! People young and old still read print newspapers. Twenty percent of US Adults have read a newspaper in the past month and those 18 to 24 read them as often as other age groups. Full article »
  
  
• "But what is it you DO?" Getting to simplicity in a complex world by Robin Neidorf
  New results in the fourth annual economic impact survey suggest normalisation of staffing and budget levels. These levels have required a fundamental change in service delivery. Leveraging cuts to create service enhancements rather than service reductions is one opportunity out of a difficult situation, but it requires information managers to communicate value despite the complexities of their offering. Full article »
  
  
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• Putting Twitter in your knowledge management toolbox by Elisabeth Goodman
  Twitter has evolved into many things to many people. At minimum, it provides a new channel for information delivery and discovery. However, when used effectively, it can also provide a valuable knowledge management tool. Full article »
  
  
• Learning to speak "stakeholder": Communicating value to your stakeholders by Scott Brown
  This third and final article of the series shares ideas for, and examples of, "speaking the language" of stakeholders - communicating to them in a way that has impact and meaning. The article also discusses ideas for illustrating value to stakeholders, via both quantitative and qualitative methods, including a brief discussion of return on investment (ROI). Full article »
  
  
• Intelligence in transportation: exploring insights and opportunities by Aileen Marshall
  This article gives a general overview of intelligence analysts working in the field of transportation, and more specifically for the heavy rail (subway) infrastructure. Full article »
  
  
• Automating information gathering, sharing and archiving with "If this then that" (ifttt) by Gary Green
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FUMSI Focus Articles provide sponsor-supported tips and features, written by information practitioners, provide practical insight for finding, using, managing and sharing information.

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• Social media, information overload and careful curation by James Mullan
  The methods by which we create, share and find content have changed significantly in the last 10 years. Whilst there are many opportunities to create and find new content, are we creating more problems then we're actually solving by flooding the internet with content? Full article »
  
  
• The Phantom: menace or maverick? The psychology of enterprise social media participation by Sarah Dillingham
  The big firms are waking up to the value of internal collaboration, and racing to implement enterprise/internal social media (ISM). Some of them already have platforms up and running, with the likes of Yammer and Jive leading the product pack. Full article »
  
  
• Collaboration can be hard to define by James Mullan
  What does collaboration mean to you? Does it mean sharing documents with colleagues and collaborating on them? If so you might want to rethink your definition of collaboration after reviewing the blog post "Sharing files isn't collaboration" by Jack Vinson ... Full article »
  
  
• Jumping on the social business bandwagon by James Mullan
  So what is a social business? Run a Google search for "What is social business" and you'll return a lot of results, all of which will provide different definitions of the concept "social business". Ultimately it depends on your perspective, so an information manager's take on social business might be that the organisation is trying to reap the benefits of using social media tools inside the enterprise ... Full article »
  
  
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• Product Review of Digimind by Jan Knight
  Digimind 9 is a competitive intelligence (CI) software package from a private company of the same name, headquartered in Paris, France and with offices in Boston, Singapore and Rabat. Digimind has been in existence since 1998 and has continued to grow and be profitable since its founding.Full article »
  
  
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  LinkedIn is extending a helping hand to recruiters by launching Talent Pipeline. Part of its Recruiter product, this new offering will allow recruiters to manage all their talent leads in one place, regardless of the source. Full article »
  
  
• Never mind the clever stuff; what about the fundamentals? by Tim Buckley Owen
  Listening to the big data analytics pundits, you might be forgiven for thinking that all the fundamentals of business information had been sorted and that it was appropriate to move on to sophisticated exploitation of the mass of data now available to us. But they're not sorted - and perhaps information professionals should be shouting louder about it. Full article »
  
  
• Translation tools bring back the human element by Penny Crossland
  I learnt about two translation services today, which to my mind look like useful tools for business researchers. The major paid-for online news services like Factiva and Nexis have an excellent archive of translated articles, with Factiva offering instant translation of news. However, there is usually a delay in uploading translated articles to these services and, of course, you have to pay for access. Full article »
  
  
• Altimeter Group Shakes It Up by Heidi Longaberger
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Jinfo is the central location for supporting your information career.

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  Product Research & Development Manager for Informa Business Information (IBI). | Recruiter: Informa Business Information (IBI) | Country: United Kingdom Full listing »
  
  
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  This role is a 12 month temporary role covering maternity leave. Responsible for supporting... | Recruiter: TFPL | Country: United Kingdom Full listing »
  
  
• Information Research Manager
  Lead & develop a team of specialist researchers for prof services firm in London. Communication, training & presentation skills a must. | Recruiter: Sue Hill Recruitment and Services Limited | Country: United Kingdom Full listing »
  
  
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  Immediate permanent vacancy to manage and mentor a well-established small research team... | Recruiter: Glen Recruitment | Country: United Kingdom Full listing »

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• INFO 2012 Annual Conference & Exhibition
  The "INFO 2012" Annual Conference & Exhibition is the major event in the information community in Israel. | Organiser: Teldan Information Systems | Date: 14-16 May 2012 | Country: Israel
  
  
• Internet tools for the advanced searcher
  This one day course reviews searching techniques both with and without search engines and covers more specialised areas... | Organiser: TFPL | Date: 12 Jun 2012 | Country: United Kingdom
  
  
• Centre for Information Science Open Evening
  Postgraduate open evening - 28 June from 5.00pm to 7.00pm | Organiser: City University London | Date: 28 Jun 2012 | Country: United Kingdom

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