The dark side of information overload
18th September 2012

The extent by which we all suffer from information overload has been written about and discussed time and time again, but is there a dark side to information overload - a side that we're only just becoming aware of?

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Findability: a taxing issue
18th September 2012

Taxonomies connect people and content. They enable us to find what we're looking for by grouping related things together and help capture the key vocabulary of our knowledge domains. So why do so few organisations seem to make use of them? Why do we hear so much about big data, the cloud, social media and mobile computing, but relatively little about taxonomies? Is this an area we should be focussing on in our organisations?

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The Deal moves into TheStreet with Pipeline and top subscribers
17th September 2012

The crowded digital financial information space has just consolidated. Econtent alerted us to the acquisition of The Deal LLC by TheStreet Inc, the well-established publisher of free and paid-for financial news and consumer sites. The transaction price was $5.8 million and reflected the value of The Deal’s respected premium database Deal Pipeline, which is only four years old and contains news on deals and profiles of individuals and firms.

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My data, my rules?
17th September 2012

Doubts and uncertainties remain about swathes of United Kingdom privacy regulation, including self-reporting of breaches, regulation of cookies and the principle of putting data "beyond use". The government is clearly dissatisfied with the voluntary take-up of the midata scheme so far, and a consultation is looking at making it compulsory if necessary. Like it or not, it probably means there’s more privacy regulation on the way.

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"Inconvenience sucks"
13th September 2012

Make information more insightful to our users. Value-added services need to be as easy to use as Google. Inconvenience sucks. Be "aggressive" in approaching key players and departments. All good stuff, but where are the exemplars? To keep abreast of the empowered end-user, you have to get ahead of them - and that may mean taking conceptual risks.

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Taxonomy management: Needs and considerations
13th September 2012

Taxonomy management is an important responsibility of any organisation that owns a taxonomy, no matter the original source of the taxonomy. Taxonomies connect users to content, and, as users, content or terminology may change over time, the taxonomy must adapt. Taxonomy management encompasses the issues of taxonomy change and maintenance, taxonomy system, taxonomy editorial policies, and taxonomy ownership roles and responsibilities.

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InfoMonitor launches as InfoArmy reaches milestone - the CI battle heats up
12th September 2012

Competitive intelligence researchers should take note of a new service offered by InfoDesk, the information management solutions company. It recently launched an alerting service called InfoMonitor, which provides tailor-made updates on companies using web-based, subscription and social media sources, including Twitter.

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Making enterprise search more like Google
12th September 2012

We live in a world where information is being created at a phenomenal rate. You only have to look at this infographic to understand how much and how quickly information is being created. Whilst the numbers are a bit smaller, organisations face the same challenges when managing their internal information. Two issues in particular stand out: how to organise content that has been saved in different systems and how to search it. Enter a new breed of enterprise search tools and moves to make search "more like Google".

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Mini Review: PrivCo
11th September 2012

Searching for financial information on private companies in the US is time-consuming and difficult, simply because private companies don't have to file their accounts with the SEC. This article reviews the PrivCo database, which focuses solely on providing accurate financial, M&A, venture capital and investor information on private companies. It's a rather neat tool that provides a good deal of insight on private companies all in one place, saving users the hassle of conducting multiple searches across an array of databases and social media networks.

Update: A new review of this product is available here »

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The SharePoint puzzle
7th September 2012

In a recently published report from AIIM (the content management specialists), it's stated that SharePoint 2010 seems to be the Swiss army knife of Enterprise Content Management systems and, as such, seeks to be a lot of things to a lot of people. Is this a strength or a weakness? The report offers some very interesting and surprising insights into current practices and attitudes, and some clear opportunities for information professionals to make their mark.

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