Google Quality Content Vs Information Literacy

Some interesting thoughts about Google Quality Content and information literacy from this article by Soltis Consulting. Well worth the read.

As an Information Manager, I am always bemused about other (non information) people’s perspective on what is a quality piece of information.  It is my opinion that most people are no way as information literate as they think they are.

Google’s Quality Content does concern me a little.  I like the idea that you can find quality information on the first search results page, it’s so darn convenient.

However I am always cautious of models based upon assumptions, let’s face it keyword searching is only as good as your key words. Unless you have sound library and information retrieval skills you are most likely not getting the best out of your searches.

So people when you are looking for something on Google (or any other search engine for that matter) please ask yourself the following questions:

1)      How old is this information?

2)      What expertise does the author have in the topic you are searching for?

3)      Does the Author have an agenda?

4)      THE IMPOTANT ONE – What is the author’s reputation like? (think peer review)

Also:  PLEASE LOOK AT MORE THAN ONE PAGE OF THE SEARCH RESULTS.

Survey: Communication

Fascinating read! A survey about peoples interaction with’Tecnology in particular Smartphones.

Information Technology

Survey Background:

A large portion of technology is aimed at communication, whether it is between friends and family or company ERP systems. This has given way to programmers to design software over which you can communicate; some of the popular ones would be Facebook, Twitter, Gmail and Whatsapp to name a few. Together with these programs, devices are needed on which to run these programs, such as smart phones, computers and tablets.

In order to achieve worldwide communication a vast network of infrastructure is needed; such as wireless 3G, and 4G connections, fiber optic cross continent connections and household land lines. This has required a huge amount of capital in order to achieve this.

The purpose of our survey is to understand how people communicate and what systems they prefer to use as individuals. This survey will help software programmers improve their products and also help hardware designs optimise their…

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Smart Phone WARS: who is winning?

It wasn’t all that long ago, when the only smart phone being used was the iPhone. Anyone who was anyone especially if you was gen-y had an iPhone. oh and you had to show it off.

Then came the android devices. At first it seemed that Gen -y would scoff at these new devices and only buy something if it had a nice picture of a partly eaten apple on it. However the older folks were divided, some had iPhones others were trying out the new devices.

Now today, it seem everywhere you go, people are raving about the android devices.  Some of my most fierce iPhone fanatics have now jumped ship and are sporting nice new Samsung galaxies.  I myself have a galaxy, in fact I’ve never had an apple product of any kind.

So what has happened?  Why are android now the current flavor for smart devices?

Well an article by John Edwards in the Law Technology News might shed some light on this shift.

In this article John Looks at both android and iPhone devices and scores them on a number of different criteria. These Criteria and perspective scores are:

• App Selection: Android 1 – iPhone 1
• Screen size: android 3 – iPhone 1
• Interfaces:  Android 5 – iPhone 1
• Text and data entry: Android 7- iPhone 1
• File attachments:  Android 9 – iPhone 1
• Security: Android 9 – iPhone 3
• File transfers: Android 11 – iPhone 3

To find out how john came to his conclusion you can read his article here

This Week is Privacy Awarness Week

Emails are wonderous things.  The amount of new pieces of information I receive in my email is staggering. One day i might do some personal analysis on my email in boxes.

Yes,  I have multiple email addresses. If I believed in Information overload, then I would probably implode by the amount of information I receive on  a daily basis, but I don’t so I’m safe. However, I digress.

Now where was I?

Oh that’s right Emails.

Today I received one very interesting but not so surprising piece of information telling me that this week (28th April to 4th May) is Privacy Awareness Week.  This I did not know.

Current and emerging technologies such as drones, social media, smartphones, tablets, and the cloud have important personal privacy implications which we all should be aware of. Sure these technologies help people and organisations connect in ways which we have never connected with before. However without the proper awareness of these technologies and how they impact on you personally, your personal privacy may not be protected as well as you think it is.

Privacy Awareness Week (PAW) is an initiative of the Asia Pacific Privacy Authorities (APPA) –> Another thing I did not know existed.

PAW exists to promote greater privacy awareness and the  importance of protecting personal information. I recommend that you visit the APPA website and have a good look and some of the activities and initiative supported by your local APPA member.

I found this interesting Infographic I thought I might share.

Technology is Changing_v12_EN

The PC is dead…Long live the PC

Fascinating discussion about the death of thr PCs. Is it dead or has it just evolved.

What do you think?

Ridgian

Ridgian’s latest article has been written by our Analytics specialist, Jon Lunn:

There has been a lot of talk recently of it now being the ‘Post PC’ era, but is it true, is the PC dead? And how does the current move away from PC’s to Tablet have anything in common with the Galapagos Islands?  That last question may be a little bit strange, but it does have something in common as you will see.

The end of the PC is like one of those conspiracy theories about the end of the world, always upon us or just around the corner but never actually happens. Back in the early 2000’s it was imaged that the house PC would be this small black humming box that sits under the stairs and connects to everything. The buzz word was at the time was ‘Convergence’, which was basically your PC, DVD, TV, Game…

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Infographics #20 – Creating FaceBook Page Detailed Steps

Great Infographic about our favorite Social Networking Tool.

10 Mistakes to Avoid When Buying and Using Smartphones

Smartphones! They are everywhere. 

On top of that, there are so many of them.

Consider this little nugget From “Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2012–2017” 

“By the end of 2013, the number of mobile-connected devices will exceed the number of people on earth, and by 2017 there will be nearly 1.4 mobile devices per capita.”

So there you have it more and more people are using them. Which is not all that surprising really, they are so darn convenient.

However with so many types and brands on the market today, how do you know which one is good for you?

Further, once you have your new shiny Smartphone are you maximizing it effectively?

Alan Cohen from the Law Technology News  has compiled a list of useful hints to consider when buying or using a Smartphone. They are:

1. Skip the bargain model
2. Read the fine print. 
3. Bigger isn’t always better. 
4. Plan ahead if you plan to travel internationally. 
5. Use the pass code feature, and opt for a “strong” one. 
6. Back up personal items stored on a work Smartphone. 
7. Let the battery live long and prosper.
8. Embrace encryption. 
9. Take the grand tour. 
10. Find Your Phone — the Easier Way

To view these hints in more detail you can read Alan’s article here

The Power of Social Media and Collaboration During the Boston Marathon Tragedy

Some interesting insights about the power of Social Media in the face of a great tragedy from Information is Currency.

Information Is Currency

I had several information governance posts that I initially planned to post today.  Being a runner myself, today was the holy grail of running events and in the morning my attention was glued to how elites the performed and I figured I would do my updates later in the day.  When the afternoon came the unthinkable happened and all thoughts about information governance vanished.  Despite the horrors of today’s events one of the things that stuck out to me was the power of social media and collaboration to bring out about good.

1. The AIIM Certified Information Professional study guide defines collaboration as, “The practice of working together to achieve a defined and common business purpose.”  Google has developed a person finder app, which was first used during the Haiti earthquake, that allows people to collaborate to find missing people from the explosion.  The app has two components 1)to give…

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You can’t do records management in SharePoint (part 2) — but you’re probably not doing it anyway

As always a very though provoking article from agile ramblings about why records management is not being done properly.

agile ramblings

In the last post, I called it like I seen it: SharePoint out of the box can’t do records management. 2007, 2010, 2013—none of ‘em left to their own devices are worth much when it comes to automating the retention and (more importantly) disposition of your records according to the retention schedule.

But as if that weren’t provocative enough, I also argued that, regardless of system (SharePoint, IBM FileNet/P8/CMOD, EMC Documentum, OpenText, Hyland OnBase, whatever), and regardless of the capabilities of that system, pretty much no one is actually doing real records management on their electronic content.

Check out the last post to see my reasoning for this being true (and let me know what you think of it). In this post, however, let’s turn to what might be driving the fact that almost no one is doing electronic records management (whether in SharePoint or any other enterprise content…

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Today’s IG PowerPoint Slide: What Does Unstructured Information Really Cost Organizations?

If there is one thing I Like more than a good list is a good ol graphic representation of a list.

Barclay T Blair discusses the real costs of unstructured information. Well worth the read.

Also if this graphic doesn’t help sway management, I’m not sure what will.