By James Mullan

My interests have changed significantly since my first role within the information profession and as result so have my websites of choice. Whilst I look at a lot of websites during the course of my working day, there are several that I'm using regularly at the moment. These websites help me to stay on top of developments in the field I work in and, perhaps most importantly, help me feel part of the community of intranet and knowledge managers that exist both in the UK and overseas.

• Twitter: The first of these websites won't come as any surprise to a lot of people because it's Twitter. Of all the things I do on the internet on a daily basis, Twitter is the website that I always open first. What's interesting about my Twitter use is how it has changed in the time that I've been using it. I'm now much more strategic about who I follow and the reasons why. Whilst it can be very tempting just to follow everyone who follows you, you can soon end up with a long list of people you're following and a very busy Twitter stream. If this is the case, then you'll need to look at using a tool like Hootsuite or TweetDeck to manage your Twitter account. Of these I primarily use Hootsuite as I love being able to manage content and individuals into streams. Hootsuite also allows me to publish content to more than just one social media account, which for me is a big bonus.
  
  
• CITEworld: I've recently started reading articles on the CITEworld website; it's a great place for anyone who is interested in finding out more about how consumer technologies are reshaping the business IT landscape. The site regularly publishes articles on Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), mobile devices, enterprise apps, enterprise social networks and the use of smartphones and tablets in the workplace.
  
  
• LinkedIn: My next website is LinkedIn, I might be cheating a little by including LinkedIn as some people might not consider it a resource but I certainly do! LinkedIn has proved an invaluable resource whenever I've wanted to tap into the collective intelligence of my friends and colleagues. It has also started to position itself as publishing platform and the source for content across the web - although it probably has some way to go before it really is this. Until then I recommend that anyone who hasn't looked at LinkedIn today or the "Groups" functionality does so, because they're both very valuable resources.
  
  
• Count Characters: I've been working on a few websites recently where there is a character limit applied to several areas. To ensure myself and other editors stay within the character limit I've been using a tool called Count Characters. There are many websites which doing something identical to Count Characters, but I like it because out of all of them it looks the best!
  
  
• RunKeeper: My final website isn't an information resource, but a site that I've been using since early 2010, which I would recommend to anyone. The site is question is RunKeeper and whilst it might sound as though it's designed for runners, it's actually designed to record any kind of activity. It even allows you to record the number of hours sleep you had in the previous night, so you don't even need to exercise to have an account!

James Mullan has worked in the legal sector since 2001. He is an advocate of social media tools and has been talking about how these tools can be used by information professionals and organisations since 2005. James is a Past President of BIALL and in 2009 won the Wildy-BIALL Law Librarian of the year award for his use of social media tools. Outside of work James is a keen runner and maintains his own blog called "The Running Librarian". You can follow James on Twitter @jamesmullan6 or friend him on Facebook.

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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:

• Keep Up-To-Date on Compliance Tools & Issues
  By Andrew Lucas on Thursday, 17th October 2013
  Key themes in the FreePint Topic Series: Compliance in Context include product workflow, improved efficiency and, above all, ensuring that you have the right product in place to protect your organisation against regulatory, reputational and business risk. Series producer, Andrew Lucas, highlights articles and reviews which cover these important aspects along with ways to keep up-to-date with the constant flow of new compliance regulation.
  Posted in: Regulatory compliance - Compliance tools - FreePint News
  
  
• Maximise Your Technology Investment - Tap Into Your Technology Culture
  By Robin Neidorf on Tuesday, 15th October 2013
  An organisation's technology culture has an enormous effect on its ability to identify technology-driven opportunities, connect them to business goals, prioritise across different opportunities and initiatives and implement technology projects wisely. Robin Neidorf introduces the technology culture inventory, a medium to gather and benchmark your inputs on your organisation's technology culture so that you can then play to the company's strengths and weaknesses.
  Posted in: Collaborative and social tools - Information strategy - Knowledge management
  
  
• FreePint Series Keeps You On Top of the Changing Landscape in News Aggregation
  By Andrew Grave on Monday, 14th October 2013
  The FreePint Topic Series: Beyond Aggregation launched this month and runs until the end of November. Reviews of key news aggregator and awareness tools form a key part of the Series which brings eight product reviews in addition to M-Adaptive already published, plus three mini reviews. Series producer Andrew Grave also previews the articles and webinars in the series, covering areas such as customised integrations of news content and news awareness technology installations.
  Posted in: Media monitoring - News sources - FreePint News
  
  
• What Goes Into Product Design? Focus on Compliance Tools
  By Robin Neidorf on Monday, 14th October 2013
  Understanding how compliance tools were designed and which problems they were designed to meet can help you to use the tools more effectively. In the upcoming FreePint Webinar on Understanding Compliance from the Inside Out, vendors will answer questions such as: How do you engage with customers? How do you stay relevant in a quickly changing regulatory environment? How do you create the right balance between standard features and customisation in a product designed for workflow integration? Join this free session.
  Posted in: Compliance tools - FreePint News
  
  
• The Global Regulatory Environment: Key Issues for Compliance Teams
  By Matthew Baker and Victoria Brocklehurst on Friday, 11th October 2013
  Ensuring compliance with the rules of a home regulator alone has become increasingly challenging, but add to this enhanced regulation in all markets in which a global financial services institution operates, then firms have an unenviable task to ensure compliance. Matthew Baker and Victoria Brocklehurst examine the key issues for compliance teams, from differences of approach between jurisdictions to conflicting approaches between initiatives and planning for the impact of new controls.
  Posted in: Regulatory compliance - Compliance tools
  
  
• Selecting the Right News Aggregation Product
  By Claire Whayman on Friday, 11th October 2013
  This article examines the changing marketplace of news aggregation products. It takes a top-level view of the types of news aggregation tools available and emphasises the importance of understanding your organisation's news requirements before negotiating vendor contracts.
  Posted in: Media monitoring - News sources
  
  
• What's Essential? Engaging with FreePint Customers
  By Robin Neidorf on Thursday, 10th October 2013
  FreePint offers many opportunities to get engaged with peers through Communities of Practice or webinars in areas from mobile deployment to international copyright. Focusing on topics and products relevant to Subscribers is essential and to support this we've just launched a new "sounding board" of FreePint Subscription customers representing all our key audience segments. As a result, upcoming coverage will include mobile security and authentication, and trends and challenges in pricing and licensing models.
  Posted in: FreePint news
  
  
• ... More ...

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Recent FreePint Subscription articles and reports:

• Product Review of Meltwater News and Meltwater Buzz: Executive Summary
  By Jan Knight on Wednesday, 23rd October 2013
  Meltwater News and Meltwater Buzz are online media monitoring tools from Meltwater, an international company headquartered in San Francisco, California. Both products are based on the same extensive online business intelligence platform. Meltwater News monitors news worldwide from somewhat traditional sources, and Meltwater Buzz allows monitoring of news and additional activities through social media sources.
  Posted in: Information purchasing - Media monitoring - News sources - Social media sources - FreePint Reports: Product Reviews
  
  
• FreePint Report: Product Review of Meltwater News and Meltwater Buzz
  Published on Wednesday, 23rd October 2013
  Reviewing Meltwater News, which focuses on more traditionally official journalistic sources and Meltwater Buzz, which focuses primarily on the user-generated content in social media, Jan Knight looks into what value the products offer and finds that using the online monitoring tools to monitor competition, industries, news, potential partner companies, customers, executives and more opens up many opportunities for even smaller companies to be competitive.
  Posted in: Information purchasing - Media monitoring - News sources - Social media sources - FreePint Reports: Product Reviews
  
  
• Moving closer to a European Banking Union
  By Sophie Alexander on Tuesday, 22nd October 2013
  Sophie Alexander examines the impact of the proposed European banking union as the European Central Bank (ECB) gains regulatory powers over the eurozone's 6,000 banks. She looks at how the ECB will supervise some of the largest banks in eurozone countries as part of a three stage process designed to bring Europe's banks under a single regulatory umbrella despite concerns voiced from bodies such as the International Monetary Fund and countries including Germany, Sweden and the UK.
  Posted in: Regulatory compliance - Financial sources - Regional sources
  
  
• Product Review of M-Adaptive: Executive Summary
  By Anne Lonergan on Tuesday, 22nd October 2013
  M-Adaptive is a new media monitoring tool that brings together editorial and social media content. With the addition of an advanced analytics module due by the end of the year, M-Adaptive has the potential to be a very effective tool for marketing and communications professionals, finds Anne Lonergan in her executive summary.
  Posted in: Information purchasing - Media monitoring - News sources - Social media sources - FreePint Reports: Product Reviews
  
  
• Mini Review: NewsEdge
  By Jan Knight on Tuesday, 22nd October 2013
  Jan Knight reviews web-based news monitoring service NewsEdge, an award-winning product that combines premium and free web sources into one online database that is used by over 450 global corporate enterprise and government organisations. She provides an overall look at the product and its current features as well as a discussion on some of the more significant product enhancements since our 2012 review.
  Posted in: Information purchasing - Media monitoring - News sources - FreePint Reports: Product Reviews
  
  
• Building a Business Case for a New Intranet
  By James Mullan on Tuesday, 22nd October 2013
  Intranet managers might be wondering why they need to build a business case for a new intranet when it's clear how important the intranet is and the value it provides. However, whilst you might appreciate the value your current intranet provides and the importance it has within your organisation, and how much more a new one could offer, senior management might not be of the same opinion. They may see the cost of a new intranet as an unnecessary overhead. So as an intranet manager you need to have a strong business case and some effective tactics in hand to "sell" a new intranet solution internally.
  Posted in: Collaborative and social tools - Information strategy - Intranets
  
  
• Q&A with Perfect Information: Offering Bespoke Compliance Solutions
  By Sophie Alexander on Monday, 21st October 2013
  Sophie Alexander interviewed Jorge Montana of Perfect Information to find out more about the company's range of productivity tools and workflow solutions which help investment banks, law firms and consultancies in all areas of corporate finance to operate more efficiently. Jorge provided insight into their Anti-Money Laundering (AML) solutions, what differentiates them from competitors, technology innovations and the biggest compliance challenges faced by businesses today.
  Posted in: Regulatory compliance - Compliance tools
  
  
• BYOD or COPE - Technology Isn't Always the Answer
  By Tim Buckley Owen on Friday, 18th October 2013
  Current concerns over the risks of the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and Corporate Owned, Personally Enabled (COPE) developments focus as much on personal behaviour as on technological solutions. Reporting on growing tablet use at the office, Ovum warns that corporate security mustn't come at the expense of user experience, and Safetica implicitly acknowledges that acceptable use policies play as important a role in regulating personal computer use at work as does monitoring or blocking software. Finally, warning of the dangers of commuter snooping when people are working on confidential documents in public places, Iron Mountain suggests that the first priority is to educate employees.
  Posted in: Collaborative and social tools - Information strategy - Mobile
  
  
• Q&A with Alacra: Onboarding to Ongoing
  By Sophie Alexander on Thursday, 17th October 2013
  Alacra provides financial institutions with compliance workflow tools to reduce their financial, legal and reputational risk and meet global regulatory requirements. FreePint's interview with Alacra's Gail Jewsbury covers how the company works with its clients and what developments she expects to see in the risk and compliance market over the next few years, from technology innovations to the changing landscape of regulatory developments around the world. She also gives insight into the ROI which clients can experience when using Alacra Compliance Enterprise (ACE).
  Posted in: Regulatory compliance - Compliance tools
  
  
• New IT Security Threats: The Rise of Shadow IT
  By James Mullan on Thursday, 17th October 2013
  James Mullan writes about the new threat of "shadow IT" where staff use software and devices for work reasons which are not approved by the IT department. This follows hard on the heels of the concepts of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and Corporately Owned Personally Enabled (COPE) which are also changing the way people work within organisations.
  Posted in: Information strategy - Mobile
  
  
• Product Review of Meltwater News and Meltwater Buzz: Introduction, Value and FreePint's View
  By Jan Knight on Monday, 14th October 2013
  Reviewing Meltwater News, which focuses on more traditionally official journalistic sources and Meltwater Buzz, which focuses primarily on the user-generated content in social media, Jan Knight looks into what value the products offer and finds that using the online monitoring tools to monitor competition, industries, news, potential partner companies, customers, executives and more opens up many opportunities for even smaller companies to be competitive.
  Posted in: Competitive intelligence - Media monitoring - News sources - Social media sources
  
  
• Is it Time to Unplug From Technology?
  By James Mullan on Monday, 14th October 2013
  I wrote a few articles earlier this year about why individuals should take time out from using technologies and discussed some of the problems associated with digital addiction and digital distraction. Nine months later I'm still seeing articles about why we should take time out from technology. The latest I read talked about the work/life balance, which I think is an important area not previously discussed.
  Posted in: Collaborative and social tools - Mobile
  
  
• Validating and Improving the Value of Content Investments
  By Willem Noorlander on Friday, 11th October 2013
  With a range of stakeholders having different needs and expectations, it can be difficult to reach agreement over the value of content purchases. Bill Noorlander shares ideas on how to identify and decide the real issue or need, organisational requirements vs product capabilities, the business impact of changes, which stakeholders should be involved in the process and whether it's most appropriate to choose a short-term fix or a long-term solution.
  Posted in: Information strategy - Information purchasing
  
  
• Product Review of M-Adaptive: Introduction, Value and FreePint's View
  By Anne Lonergan on Friday, 11th 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
  
  
• Better Semantic Search: Google's New Hummingbird Search Algorithm
  By James Mullan on Thursday, 10th October 2013
  Last month Google rolled out a major new upgrade to the algorithm that interprets user searches. Codenamed "Hummingbird", it's the first major upgrade to the Google search algorithm in almost three years. James Mullan explores how our search results will be affected by concepts such as semantic search and conversational search.
  Posted in: News sources - Search
  
  
• Market Map: the Options in News Aggregation & Beyond
  By Claire Whayman on Thursday, 10th October 2013
  The pace of technological advancement and the advent of social media has widened the provision and scope of news aggregation resources. Products traditionally focused on legal or financial information, PR, communication and marketing activities, together with those aimed at the news industry itself all provide a potential wealth of business news. This Market Map provides a top-level comparison of the types of news aggregation tools available, from social media aggregation to press cuttings and software-only solutions. It is intended as an aid to the information professional in considering alternative sources of news.
  Posted in: Media monitoring - News sources
  
  
• The Global Regulatory Environment: Regulatory Risks for Businesses
  By Matthew Baker and Victoria Brocklehurst on Thursday, 10th October 2013
  Identifying the regulatory risks for global organisations is an increasingly-complex task as the amount of regulation and legislation faced by the financial services industry continues to grow at an alarming rate. Victoria Brocklehurst and Matthew Baker explain the differences of approach to compliance between countries and jurisdictions. They outline key risks which compliance teams should consider, from extra-territoriality to the varying rules surrounding the marketing of products into different jurisdictions.
  Posted in: Regulatory compliance - Compliance tools
  
  
• Combatting Identity Fraud & Online Threats
  By Tim Buckley Owen on Wednesday, 9th October 2013
  If even sophisticated information companies like LexisNexis, Dun & Bradstreet and Kroll can fall victim to cyber attacks who can't? Verizon's latest survey shows that security breaches can take months if not years to discover, and European organisations are concerned that a proposed directive on network & information security will be too slow moving to address the threat. Meanwhile there are plenty of touted solutions - from Gartner, the Cloud Security Alliance and HP Autonomy - with big data analytics playing a key role.
  Posted in: Information services management
  
  
• ... More ...

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