Privacy - Don't Hold Your Breath
Friday, 17th May 2013

The discovery that Bloomberg News journalists have been making use of customer data raises broader privacy issues. Associated Press has complained about secret use of its telephone records by the United States Justice Department and the British polling organisation Ipsos MORI has been exposed trying to sell anonymised data from the mobile phone service EE to the London police. How effective is anonymisation, should internet service providers shield user data from the authorities and are some websites’ privacy notices designed merely to protect the providers?

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Posted in: Information services management - Regulatory compliance - Company sources - People sources

Big Data - Time To Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone?
Monday, 13th May 2013

Recent reports by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and Cisco about the importance of mastering big data for future corporate success should represent opportunities for information managers. Yet the latest Business Information Review (BIR) survey shows that information services are, as yet, little involved in big data projects. BIR also highlights other areas where info pros may be missing out, and reports that the most successful information services are the ones that are adding value through activities well outside their comfort zone.

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Posted in: Collaborative and social tools - Information services management - Information strategy - Research

The Importance of Context in Search and Big Data
Monday, 29th April 2013

Keith Cooper provides an insight into web data extraction and monitoring in the field of big data and explains how unstructured big data can be turned into actionable information. He also explains the importance of context in search and why narrowing the field of enquiry produces the most relevant data for subsequent analysis.

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Posted in: Information services management - Information strategy - Knowledge management - Information purchasing - Company sources

An Array of Needs in Mobile Content: A View from the FreePint Community of Practice
Thursday, 25th April 2013

The mobile environment is a dynamic one. Robin Neidorf offers an update into how organisations are tackling the challenge of making content mobile, which devices are proving the most popular and which barriers to implementation remain. Security and authentication issues are discussed alongside BYOD and softer challenges such as users' lack of information literacy skills.

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Posted in: Collaborative and social tools - Information strategy - Internal communications - Mobile - News sources - Scientific, technical, medical sources - Training

Transferring Big Data by Bullet Express Train
Monday, 22nd April 2013

Analysis and outputs are the two issues usually associated with big data but there is another one which is just as important: data movement. Matt Benati explains why speedy data movement and skilled data scientists are essential to successful big data projects.

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Posted in: Information strategy - Research - Competitive intelligence - Content management - Visualisation

Technology Talent + Softer Skills = Ideal Candidate?
Monday, 15th April 2013

Information technology talent may be in short supply, according to a new survey from Forbes Insights. But other reports from the Economist Intelligence Unit and Gartner suggest that there is an equally pressing need to recruit skilled people who can interpret big data or foster collaboration using corporate social media. Significantly, there’s also one call for information resources to be pooled in a central unit, providing insights across the whole organisation and directly to the highest level executives.

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Posted in: Collaborative and social tools - Internal communications - Knowledge management - Research - Intranets - Social media sources

US Politico Bucks the Trend by Printing a New Magazine
Wednesday, 20th March 2013

While major newspaper publishers in Europe, such as the Financial Times, the Telegraph Group and the Irish Times have re-stated their commitment to digital business models, there is one journalistic anomaly in the US, which appears to be going against the trend. Politico, the must-read website for all observers of Washington news is preparing to launch a print magazine. Is this a genuine commitment to print or a marketing tool for its subscription business?

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Posted in: PR and external communications - Industry sources - Media monitoring - Mobile - News sources

Teleworking - Bad Career Move?
Monday, 18th March 2013

The furore over Yahoo's ban on teleworking has prompted pundits such as MarketingProfs and iHubbub to come out in support of the practice. But Telework Research Network figures show that homeworking is still not widespread, and a University of Texas study suggests that it hasn't helped work-family balance either. Nevertheless, a recent LinkedIn study shows that most women define success as having a good work-life balance, and another from Grant Thornton suggests that many employers are encouraging it. Finally, the London Business School has some tips for how teleworkers can avoid being sidelined for promotion.

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Posted in: Collaborative and social tools - Information services management - Internal communications - Social media sources - Workflow tools

UK Legal Market Research: Wishes and Fears, in Equal Measure
Wednesday, 13th March 2013

Robin Neidorf presents the final part of her analysis of 2013 research into legal librarians' spending on the "big three" information sources. Of course the "big three" are now set to become two with Thomson Reuters (TR) announcing its purchase of Practical Law Company (PLC) in January. FreePint's research examines the possible benefits and opportunities of the PLC/TR move and voices the concerns and comments of information professionals in the legal field about the PLC/TR offerings and the future of legal information products such as Westlaw, Lawtel and PSL.

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Posted in: Information strategy - Legal sources

UK Legal Market Research: Vendors, and How They Are Perceived
Tuesday, 12th March 2013

Robin Neidorf continues her examination of the three main information suppliers to the legal information profession and dissects the responses to identify interviewees' perceptions of LexisNexis, Practical Law Company (PLC) and Thomson Reuters. She also looks at how info pros and fee earners use the products in their daily work, which products are strongest for different specialisms and how firms would feel about reduced budgets forcing them to cut any of these sources from their information centres.

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Posted in: Information services management - Information purchasing - Research - Legal sources

Looking to the Skies - Law Firms and Cloud Computing
Monday, 11th March 2013

Much has been written in recent years about how cloud computing is going to revolutionise the way that law firms work. Cloud computing and SaaS has, in fact, been a disruptive force for much longer than we think and has the potential for long-term impact in most industries including the academic and commercial legal sector.

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Posted in: Collaborative and social tools - Content management - Legal sources - Social media sources

UK Legal Market Research: What Librarians Get and What They Want
Monday, 11th March 2013

Research into UK legal firms' budgeted spending on the three major suppliers: LexisNexis, Practical Law Company (PLC) and Thomson Reuters was carried out by FreePint in 2011 and has now been updated with further interviews in 2013. Robin Neidorf digs down into the results to examine information professionals' satisfaction with current offerings, which content sets and products they currently use, and what's on their wish lists.

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Posted in: Information services management - Information purchasing - Legal sources

UK Legal Market Research: Librarian Reactions to Latest Acquisition
Thursday, 28th February 2013

In the wake of Thomson Reuters' decision to purchase Practical Law Company, Robin Neidorf researches the reactions of legal librarians from the top 200 UK law firms. Following on from FreePint's 2011 research into information products and priorities in these firms, she questions over 50 librarians and queries their responses to the contraction of their key information suppliers by one third.

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Posted in: Information strategy - Information purchasing - Legal sources - Market sources

News Needs and Preferences: Free and Fee
Thursday, 27th December 2012

The tension information managers feel when managing non-cost and fee-based resources for news content is again reflected in the results of the Survey of News Needs and Preferences 2012. Premium products continue to maintain an advantage with regard to search, targeting an analytics, but information managers are no longer in as strong agreement about the additional value they bring. Comparing results since 2009 shows important shifts in perceptions and expectations for information managers with regard to free and fee sources now and in the future.

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Posted in: Information services management - Information strategy - News sources

News Needs and Preferences: Factiva and Nexis Usage
Thursday, 27th December 2012

Two news products -- Factiva and Nexis -- were named by nearly half of the respondents on our Survey on News Needs and Preferences as their organisations' "preferred product". Filtering the results for these responses, we can compare the satisfaction of those for whom Factiva is the preferred product, those for whom Nexis is the preferred product and the satisfaction of the full dataset.

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Posted in: Information services management - Information strategy - News sources

News Needs and Preferences: Premium Products
Thursday, 27th December 2012

Content purchasers select premium news products based on a range of criteria to meet the needs of their organisations. How satisfied are they with the products they purchase? Respondents to the Survey on News Needs and Preferences 2012 share their opinions on satisfaction and overall value they feel they are getting from their investments.

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Posted in: Information services management - Information strategy - Information purchasing - News sources

News Needs and Preferences: Purchasing News
Thursday, 27th December 2012

Many factors go into purchase decisions for news products. Respondents to the 2012 Survey on News Needs and Preferences rate different criteria like advanced searching, mobile availability, direct cost and integrated sharing; comparing this year's average ratings to previous years' demonstrates overall stability in purchase needs, with a few notable exceptions.

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Posted in: Information services management - Information strategy - Information purchasing - News sources

News Needs and Preferences: Activity Frequency
Monday, 24th December 2012

Frequency of different activities relating to news content appear to be relatively stable from year to year, in comparing the 2012 results of FreePint's Survey on News Needs and Preferences to previous years. Examining the range of responses information managers provide to the tasks they perform with regard to news content provides a view into the average work-week of information managers for searching, delivering results, testing sources, advising others and more.

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Posted in: Information services management - Information strategy - News sources

News Needs and Preferences: Preferred Features
Monday, 24th December 2012

When selecting and using products and services to deliver news content, buyers and users can prioritise a wide range of variables -- types of content, delivery formats and ways that the content can be integrated into a workflow. Average ratings for these variables suggest priorities amongst survey respondents; comparing these average ratings to those of previous years' survey responses shows where change has taken place, in some cases dramatically.

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Posted in: Information services management - Information strategy - News sources

Legal: An Industry Unto Itself
Monday, 10th December 2012

Law firms demonstrate unique characteristics around content budgets and staffing compared with other professional services like finance and consulting. Distinctions highlighted through FreePint benchmarking research indicate that law firms work within highly circumscribed budgets and with relatively low ratios of librarians to fee earners, compared with their counterparts in comparable industries.

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Posted in: Information services management - Information strategy - Information purchasing - Legal sources