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Paying attention, social media and big data
Tuesday, 14th August 2012 Please login to be able to star items

Abstract:

Content Development Editor Scott Brown provides his first Information Content Newsletter editorial and highlights the new FreePint Report: Product Review of Attensa StreamServer. Tim Buckley Owen and Dale Moore cover the latest statistics in social media and big data, respectively.

Article:

This editorial marks my debut as Content Development Editor for FreePint. After several years of writing for FreePint, I’m very pleased to be contributing to FreePint in this new role. I’m looking forward to working more closely with the talented writers and colleagues at FreePint.

As I transition from contributor to editor/contributor, I find that I’m introducing my own product review of the Attensa StreamServer, an enterprise-grade content management and distribution tool. Attensa’s approach is to focus on user “attention”, highlighting those items that are most shared, viewed and commented upon by users. The interface is especially intuitive, and, most importantly, the tool can be used by information professionals to curate information before distribution. As part of the new FreePint format, you'll find individual chapters from the review (starting with the Introduction, which links to the others), as well as the full PDF report.

The “attention” functionality of StreamServer highlights how pervasive social dynamics are becoming in information management. At this point, you’d think that every enterprise would be a bit more open on social media in the workplace. However, Tim Buckley Owen reports that 70% of European IT bosses continue to block Facebook, and almost half block Twitter – this despite the fact that Gartner predicts that enterprises that don’t use social media to engage their customers will suffer consumer wrath.

Dale Moore looks at the relationship between big data and content management, and provides some interesting statistics from a recent report published by AIIM. Dishearteningly, but not surprisingly, 70% of organisations find it’s “harder” or “much harder” to research information held on their own internal systems compared to the Web. But I suppose that’s good news for content managers, information architects, taxonomists – for many of us in the industry.

Enjoy this issue, and I welcome your feedback and suggestions.

By Scott Brown
Content Development Editor, FreePint
scott.brown@freepint.com

By Scott Brown

Scott Brown is the content development editor for FreePint, responsible for working with the customer advisory board, authors and staff to identify areas of interest for articles, reports and webinars and develop those resources. He is also the owner of Social Information Group (http://www.socialinformationgroup.com), an independent information practice that focuses on the effective use of social networking tools for sharing and finding information. His forthcoming book, "Social Information: Gaining Competitive and Business Information Using Social Media Tools" will be published in late 2012. He has worked with libraries, Fortune 500 companies, startups, government organisations and individuals to help them understand and effectively use these tools for their clients, and to drive increased visibility and return on information resources. He has over 20 years of experience in library and information organisations, in public, academic and corporate settings. Scott is a regular speaker nationally on many areas of information work. He is also a professional coach.

You can reach him at scott.brown@freepint.com, connect with him on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/scottrbrown, or follow him on Twitter at @socialinfo.