By Kevin Curran

In my work teaching computer science at the University of Ulster, I like to stay abreast of breaking issues in IT so I subscribe to a lot of tech blogs and often read them on my Android Phone using the Google Currents app. Here, however, are some sites I share with friends:

• Digg: My guilty pleasure at night as I visit to see what are the quirky and most talked about stories on the internet today. You will not "digg" all stories but there are enough hits on here to keep you coming back.
  
  
• Futility Closet: A short paragraph can never do justice to the interesting stories, facts and insights that you will come across on this good wholesome fun-filled gem on the web.
  
  
• TVCatchup: This site (and corresponding free app) allows you to watch all the Freeview/Freesat channels in the UK for free. It really is like porting your TV around the house or into the garden.
  
  
• TWiT.TV: The #1 ranked technology podcast with a cult following. It is a dedicated online TV station (and podcasts) for all things technology such as Apple, Google, security, tech issues...
  
  
• AirDroid: OK, technically not a site but this free app allows you to transfer files between your PC and your Android phone without the need for a cable. Just take a photo of the QR code on your screen - and you are connected.

Kevin Curran is a Reader in Computer Science at the University of Ulster. He is a regular contributor to BBC radio & TV news in the UK and is currently the recipient of an Engineering and Technology Board Visiting Lectureship for Exceptional Engineers and is an IEEE Technical Expert for Internet/Security matters. Dr Curran has made significant contributions to advancing the knowledge of computing evidenced by over 700 published works.

Dr Curran is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Fellow of the British Computer Society and is listed by Marquis in their Who's Who in Science and Engineering. He has authored a number of books and is the recipient of various patents.

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FreePint Features offers the latest commentary on trends, issues and opportunities in the information world, as well as examples of how organisations use FreePint resources to raise the value of information.

Selection of the latest FreePint Features articles:

• The Complexities of Politically Exposed Persons
  By Tom Brown on Friday, 1st November 2013
  How to know, understand and identify a Politically Exposed Person (PEP), manage the firm's risk expectations and have a better perspective of how the PEP's funds are generated and where they originate is a complex process, littered with pitfalls. Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) specialist Tom Brown highlights some of the key challenges for compliance professionals.
  Posted in: Regulatory compliance - Compliance tools
  
  
• Create & Share Your Own News Outlet - DIY News Aggregation
  By Claire Whayman on Friday, 1st November 2013
  DIY social media news aggregation tools have saturated the marketplace. Traditionally thought to be for personal use, this article asks what the implications are for the corporate environment. It argues that tools such as Flipboard, Pulse, Prismatic and Noowit can be used to build a strong business case for the correct use of social media within the workplace.
  Posted in: Media monitoring - News sources - Social media sources
  
  
• Time to Review Your Information Database
  By Rachael Elliott on Tuesday, 29th October 2013
  A review of the usage and usefulness of your information database should be carried out regularly, advises Rachael Elliott. She provides advice for those considering changing to a new source and tips on how to ensure corroboration, depth and accuracy of information when using social media channels alongside traditional databases.
  Posted in: Media monitoring - News sources - Search
  
  
• M-Adaptive: Monitoring Millions of Social Media & Editorial Outlets In One Package
  By Anne Lonergan on Monday, 28th October 2013
  With the ever-increasing volume of social media content, a media monitoring tool that combines both editorial and social content is a key part of any organisation's social media strategy. Anne Lonergan reviews M-Adaptive and finds it invaluable for marketing and communications professionals who need to sift and analyse the flood of social media and editorial data.
  Posted in: Information purchasing - Media monitoring - News sources - Social media sources
  
  
• News Aggregation Know-How from FreePint Topic Series: Beyond Aggregation
  By Andrew Grave on Friday, 25th October 2013
  The FreePint Topic Series: Beyond Aggregation launched this month and runs until the end of November. Series producer Andrew Grave takes a look at the articles and product reviews published to date. The articles include a market map covering news aggregators and more, and a case study of legal firm RPC and how they integrated enterprise RSS feeder Attensa with their own bespoke social intranet "Edge". The reviews published to date are M-Adaptive, Meltwater Buzz, Meltwater News together with a mini review of NewsEdge.
  Posted in: Media monitoring - News sources - FreePint News
  
  
• In The Thick Of It: FreePint for Government Information Professionals
  By Mark Faulkner on Friday, 25th October 2013
  Mark Faulkner examines how FreePint can help information professionals in government organisations identify new sources, help review older sources in a new way and provide assistance in thinking about procurement decisions. He highlights articles covering topics from grey literature to identifying authoritative news sources and improving the value of content investments.
  Posted in: Information purchasing - Copyright - FreePint News
  
  
• CB Insights: Intelligence on High Growth Sectors
  By Perrin Kerravala on Friday, 25th October 2013
  Venture capital database CB Insights is highly appealing for professionals in the investment, mergers & acquisitions (M&A), high tech, biotech, and other high-growth industries, finds reviewer Perrin Kerravala. New features since our 2012 review include proprietary research with commentary and data, valuation metrics for select financing and M&A deals, and data visualisation tools including heat maps, charts and graphics.
  Posted in:
• Information purchasing - Company sources - Financial sources - Regional sources
  
  
• Keep Ahead of the Compliance Curve with the FreePint Topic Series: Compliance in Context
  By Andrew Lucas on Thursday, 24th October 2013
  The FreePint Topic Series: Compliance in Context continues to provide articles exploring some of the key issues in compliance, including a regulatory overview, linguistic identity matching, understanding Politically Exposed Persons and tools available to mitigate risk. The FreePint Webinar on the design of compliance tools looked at workflow design, customer engagement and product development.
  Posted in: Regulatory compliance - Compliance tools - FreePint News
  
  
• Meltwater News & Buzz - Authoritative & Timely Media Monitoring
  By Jan Knight on Thursday, 24th October 2013
  Meltwater Buzz and Meltwater News provide timely information that is pertinent from a wide range of social media outlets and news sources, respectively. Jan Knight's review finds that the monitoring products allow users to quickly grasp what's happening in the areas being monitored and would provide great value to any professional in a public relations, social media or marketing field.
  Posted in: Information purchasing - Media monitoring - News sources - Social media sources
  
  
• A Wealth of New FreePint Content
  By Robin Neidorf on Thursday, 24th October 2013
  Robin Neidorf picks article and review highlights from the two FreePint Topic Series running this month: Compliance in Context and Beyond Aggregation and introduces the Series planned for 2014 which include The Social Enterprise, Next-Generation Competitive Intelligence, Copyright Symposium, and Licensing and Pricing.
  Posted in: FreePint News
  
  
• NewsEdge: Enhanced Media Monitoring
  By Jan Knight on Wednesday, 23rd October 2013
  Web-based media monitoring service NewsEdge combines premium and free web sources into one online database that is used by corporate enterprise and government organisations. As well as monitoring over 4,500 free online web sources, in the last 18 months the company has added over 4,000 premium titles including hard-to-find titles, from locations such as Russia, Taiwan, the Baltic and Thailand, with many titles appearing in languages other than English.
  Posted in: Information purchasing - Media monitoring - News sources
  
  
• ... More ...

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• Source Update November 2013: What's Happening with Eureka.cc and Europresse.com?
  By Anne Jordan on Wednesday, 6th November 2013
  This month's additions and takedowns in Eureka.cc and Europresse.com, researched and compiled by Anne Jordan. Europresse.com is the European version of the Eureka.cc solution.
  Posted in: News sources - Regional sources
  
  
• Mini Review: Newsdesk
  By Penny Crossland on Tuesday, 5th November 2013
  Penny Crossland's Mini Review of Newsdesk looks at how the product has evolved from a news aggregator into a collaborative current awareness tool which takes the wealth of information available on the internet and adds sophisticated filters to produce accurate and timely results. News is updated in almost real time, with searches frequently producing news that is less than 15 minutes old, and an archive feature is on its way which will allow users to save selected articles for more than 60 days subject to copyright restrictions.
  Posted in: Media monitoring - News sources - Social media sources - FreePint Reports: Product Reviews
  
  
• Facing Compliance with LexisNexis
  By Catherine Dhanjal on Monday, 4th November 2013
  Catherine Dhanjal finds out how LexisNexis solutions help customers in fields from financial services to pharmaceutical and insurance to meet the range of regulatory requirements incumbent on running a business and communicating about a business. The Bridger service helps clients to carry out high volume checks against sanctions lists and other databases whilst Lexis Diligence suits clients wanting to carry out more high risk enhanced due diligence as part of their compliance checks.
  Posted in:
• Regulatory compliance - Compliance tools
  
  
• Product Review of Eureka.cc & Eureka.cc Analytik: Interface, Search and Outputs
  By Anne Jordan on Monday, 4th November 2013
  The interface, search and output options are covered in the third part of Anne Jordan's review of online sources directory Eureka.cc and its media analysis module Analytik. She also goes into further detail on Analytik and introduces this optional additional module which provides high-level analyses of media coverage by a wide range of factors such as type of media, tone (or sentiment), time and coverage.
  Posted in: Media monitoring - News sources - Regional sources - Social media sources
  
  
• Source Update November 2013: What's Happening with Factiva?
  By Anne Jordan on Monday, 4th November 2013
  This month's additions and takedowns in Factiva, researched and compiled by Anne Jordan.
  Posted in: News sources - Regional sources
  
  
• Thinking about Installing LinkedIn Intro? Think Carefully!
  By Sarah Dillingham on Friday, 1st November 2013
  Whilst an attractive proposition for many professionals, the new LinkedIn Intro app is not without security risks, finds Sarah Dillingham. Industry commentators are concerned that the app works by routing your emails via LinkedIn's servers. Sarah looks at the potential security risks and why IT departments should be particularly concerned about BYOD and shadow IT users.
  Posted in: Collaborative and social tools - Information strategy - Mobile
  
  
• Product review of Eureka.cc & Eureka.cc Analytik: Sources, Content & Coverage
  By Anne Jordan on Thursday, 31st October 2013
  The second part of Anne Jordan's review of online sources directory Eureka.cc and its media analysis module Analytik covers the sources which range from print titles to newswires, company profiles, biographies, radio and TV, reports and social media & blogs. Although Eureka's strength is in its English and French language sources, coverage has expanded since our last review in 2010, particularly in European language sources and Spanish-language content from Latin America. In Europe Eureka.cc is known as Europresse.com.
  Posted in: Media monitoring - News sources - Regional sources - Social media sources
  
  
• FreePint Report: Information Services Management Monthly Update (October 2013)
  Published on Thursday, 31st October 2013
  This monthly update collects the current content relevant to those responsible for information service management, information strategy and content procurement in a convenient PDF package for download and offline reading.
  Posted in: Information services management - Media monitoring - News sources - Social media sources - FreePint Reports: Product Reviews
  
  
• Q&A with LexisNexis: Services Spanning the Entire Due Diligence Spectrum
  By Sophie Alexander on Thursday, 31st October 2013
  LexisNexis Business Information Solutions provides services that help commercial organisations and government agencies to prevent financial crime, achieve regulatory compliance and mitigate business risk. FreePint's interview with Mark Dunn of LexisNexis covers their due diligence services such as Bridger and Lexis Diligence and looks at key topics such as technology innovations that are impacting the compliance market.
  Posted in:
• Regulatory compliance - Compliance tools
  
  
• Understanding Politically Exposed Persons & Their Associated Risks: Part 2
  By Tom Brown on Thursday, 31st October 2013
  Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) specialist Tom Brown identifies five key areas which will help compliance and AML staff to identify who their PEP (Politically Exposed Persons) clients really are and whether the source of their wealth is genuine. He covers topics such as initial and ongoing due diligence procedures, enhanced due diligence checks, the firm's systems and controls, the firm's risk appetite and the level of KYC checks carried out.
  Posted in: Regulatory compliance - Compliance tools
  
  
• LinkedIn: Making Introductions Even Easier, but at What Cost?
  By James Mullan on Thursday, 31st October 2013
  LinkedIn has been busy over the past year - not only has it made a number of very high profile updates to LinkedIn.com, they've also been busy developing a more engaging and intuitive mobile application. They've now also announced the development of a new download which, when used with an email account and iPhone, enhances users' email and LinkedIn experience. But LinkedIn Intro hasn't gone down well in all quarters.
  Posted in: Collaborative and social tools - Mobile
  
  
• DIY Solutions: The Use of Social Media News Aggregation Tools in a Corporate Environment
  By Claire Whayman on Thursday, 31st October 2013
  With changes happening within the traditional news aggregation product marketplace, organisations are assessing their options. Claire Whayman looks at the potential for the use of social media news aggregation tools in the corporate environment. Three products are examined: Flipboard, Noowit and Xydocuration.com.
  Posted in:
• Media monitoring - News sources - Search - Social media sources
  
  
• Understanding Politically Exposed Persons & Their Associated Risks: Part 1
  By Tom Brown on Wednesday, 30th October 2013
  Tom Brown provides guidance on the definition of Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) between jurisdictions and looks at how Anti-Money Laundering and compliance specialists can manage the huge risks associated with PEPs as a result of these clients' exposure to wealth, power, information and influence.
  Posted in: Regulatory compliance - Compliance tools
  
  
• Big Data - We Have the Technology, Now Where are the Skills?
  By Tim Buckley Owen on Wednesday, 30th October 2013
  Recent findings from Gartner that businesses can expect to lose competitive ranking if they fail to get to grips with digital business, and from Wikibon that perhaps half of organisations fail to realise full value from their big data investments, both suggest that shortage of talent rather than of technology is the key factor. Companies such as Demandbase and Google, with their Managed Analytics tool and Analytics Academy respectively, may only be using their offer of skills support to encourage further use of their technology. But the fact that they feel it necessary to do so may signal a more general recognition that skills are at the heart of the problem.
  Posted in: Information services management - Knowledge management - Social media sources - Training
  
  
• Product Review of Eureka.cc & Eureka.cc Analytik: Introduction, Value and FreePint's View
  By Anne Jordan on Wednesday, 30th October 2013
  In the first part of her review of online sources directory Eureka.cc and media analysis module Eureka.cc Analytik, Anne Jordan gives an overview of the company and products, along with the value that they can offer their users - predominantly communications and public relations specialists along with marketing professionals and corporate library/information centres. In Europe Eureka.cc is known as Europresse.com.
  Posted in: Media monitoring - News sources - Regional sources - Social media sources
  
  
• Build a Solid Business Case for Your Knowledge Programme
  By Sarah Dillingham on Monday, 28th October 2013
  All knowledge management programmes require buy in from senior stakeholders. Building and documenting a strong business case provides a good foundation to obtain investment. This article looks at five critical elements of your business case, from aiming to reduce costs or increase revenue to quantifying investment requirements.
  Posted in: Information strategy - Knowledge management
  
  
• FreePint Report: Product Review of M-Adaptive
  Published on Monday, 28th October 2013
  M-Adaptive is a SaaS-based media monitoring tool that brings together editorial and social media content. Launched a year ago it promises to be an effective tool for its target audience of PR and communications professionals who use it for reasons such as brand management, identifying emerging trends, understanding end-user sentiment and tracking the success of PR activities.
  Posted in: Information purchasing - Media monitoring - News sources - Social media sources - FreePint Reports: Product Reviews
  
  
• The Cloud - Too Important to be Left to IT
  By Tim Buckley Owen on Monday, 28th October 2013
  Many challenges remain before cloud computing can bring real benefits to the enterprise - ranging from risk of data loss (according to Kroll Ontrack) to unanticipated costs (says a Forbes Insights report). Some of these risks might be mitigated by the new BSI and Cloud Security Alliance STAR Certification programme of cloud service providers - but Gartner believes that companies will also need to focus less on the technology and more on tactical solutions to business problems. To do this, it suggests, they could start with simple projects that have buy-in from all parties but are incubated away from the information technology department.
  Posted in: Information strategy - Content management - Workflow tools
  
  
• Intranets - Helping You Make the Right Decision Faster
  By James Mullan on Monday, 28th October 2013
  Sparked by a post written by Gerry McGovern which discussed the need for greater investment in web-based corporate tools like intranets, James Mullan looks into how intranets can help individuals, especially knowledge workers make decisions faster. He discusses why understanding how much time knowledge workers dedicate to "skill time" as opposed to "tool time" is essential in enabling better decision making.
  Posted in: Collaborative and social tools - Knowledge management - Intranets
  
  
• The Online Information Researcher of 2014: Beyond News Aggregation
  By Rachael Elliott on Friday, 25th October 2013
  Rachael Elliott looks into the changing landscape of business information sources from the days of the microfiche to the wealth of free information available on the web and gives the pros and cons some of the current news aggregation tools such Google News, M-Brain, RSS feeds and Twitter. She encourages us to go beyond the "usual suspects" for our business information news and to not to write off social media as an information source.
  Posted in: Media monitoring - News sources - Search
  
  
• Mini Review: CB Insights
  By Perrin Kerravala on Thursday, 24th October 2013
  This Mini Review updates FreePint's March 2012 coverage of CB Insights, an information provider of high-growth company information and financing and M&A deals intelligence. New features include proprietary research, deal valuation metrics, data visualisation tools, ranking functionality, and expanded Excel capabilities. The product is used by corporations (strategy, innovation and M&A) as well as private equity/venture capital firms, investment bankers (sell-side and buy-side) and other industries that are interested in understanding emerging trends or in acquiring or investing in high-growth companies.
  Posted in: Information purchasing - Company sources - Financial sources - Regional sources - FreePint Reports: Product Reviews
  
  
• ... More ...

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