Charles is Head of Global Learning at Reuters, the World's largest Global multimedia information company.  Charles has more than 20 years' experience in developing, deploying and using a wide range of technology enabled learning solutions

Charles's Top 10 Tools as at 29 January 2008

1. Google Reader - Still use this great tool. It allows me to read all my key blogs in one format and in one place, and even offline with the Google Gears browser plug-in.

2. MindManager - One of my workhorses. It’s indispensable for anyone who thinks visually and needs to capture and organise their thoughts, notes, and plans. MindManager integrates very well with the Microsoft suite of products including Project, Word and PowerPoint. It also outputs in PDF and HTML. We have the free viewer on our corporate intranet so team members who don’t have MindManager can still view the native files.

3. Firefox - Does everything I need my browser to do. I use other browsers, but Firefox is best. I’m hardly aware it’s there.

4. Adobe PDF Writer / Adobe Reader - Both of these are essential. Reader because a huge amount of information is now in PDF format – and it sorts out all those A4/Letter and other format issues – and Writer because it allows me to share information in a standard way.

5. iGoogle - The personalised Google homepage. Vital feeds in one place – local weather, Cricinfo cricket news, Reuters news (of course) and lots more.

6. Audacity - In the past I used Sonic Foundry’s Sound Forge, but Audacity does everything I need. The large library of plugins add all the functionality I think I might ever need. It’s free and open source too

7. Wikipedia - Wikipedia is now maturing to an extent that you can rely its content as much as you can on edited and proofed traditional encyclopaedias.

8. Webex - I’ve used a number of virtual classroom tools over the years, and there are lots available. I’ve just cut over from Microsoft Live Meeting to Webex Training Center. Webex does sharing, interaction, breakout sessions and video very well.

9. Flickr - a great tool for storing and sharing images. The geotags utility is especially useful for pin-pointing the exact location you took the photo from, long after you've lost it from your memory.

10. Pollstar - The concert hotwire that lets me know when musicians I’d like to hear are in striking distance so I can extend my musical education. Invaluable to any child of the ‘60s (or '70s or '80s)

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Charles's Top 10 Tools as at 28 July 2007

1. Google Reader - A great tool. It allows me to read all the key blogs I keep up with in one format and in one place, and even offline with the Google Gears browser plug-in

2. MindManager - One of my workhorses. It’s indispensable for anyone who thinks visually and needs to capture and organise their thoughts, notes, and plans.  MindManager integrates very well with the Microsoft suite of products including Project, Word, and PowerPoint.  It also outputs in PDF and HTML.  We have the free viewer on our corporate intranet so team members who don’t have MindManager can still view the native files.

3. Firefox - Does everything I need my browser to do. I use other browsers, but Firefox is best. I’m hardly aware it’s there

4. Adobe PDF Writer / Adobe Reader - Both of these are essential. Reader because a huge amount of information is now in PDF format – and it sorts out all those A4/Letter and other format issues – and Writer because it allows me to share information in a standard way.

5. iGoogle - The personalised Google homepage.  Vital feeds in one place – local weather, Cricinfo cricket news, Reuters news (of course) and lots more.

6. Audacity - In the past I used Sonic Foundry’s Sound Forge, but Audacity does everything I need.  The large library of plugins add all the functionality I think I might ever need. It’s free and open source too

7. Paint Shop Pro - Paint Shop Pro has always been a favourite for manipulating images and graphics. I’m not an expert who can stretch PhotoShop.

8. Webex -  I’ve used a number of virtual classroom tools over the years, and there are lots available. I’ve just cut over from Microsoft Live Meeting to Webex Training Center. Webex does sharing, interaction, breakout sessions and video very well. 

9. MailWasher Pro - A New Zealand product that saves me huge amounts of time by filtering spam and unwanted e-mail when I’m outside my corporate firewall.

10. Pollstar - The concert hotwire that lets me know when musicians I’d like to hear are in striking distance. Invaluable to a child of the ‘60s