Information Management Research Results

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Don't Rush to Technology

I believe that too many organizations rush to technological solutions to their problems.  The technology can help, but depending on the problem, it will not be a complete solution to the original problem.  It is important for the organization to understand the problem clearly and completely.  For example, I believe that an enterprise architecture is an important undertaking for most organizations and there are many technological tools that facilitate the capture, storage, retrieval, and correlation of enterprise architecture information.  The question is: what exactly is the problem that the organization wishes to solve by developing its enterprise architecture?  When the problem is well-understood, the best decision will be made.  It might be appropriate for an organization to first make behavioral changes without technology and let the new behaviors become well established before introducing new technology.

Technology and Families

One area in which I am very interested is how technology impacts family life, or more specifically, how it affects family life satisfaction.  In the information-rich environment in which many live, it seems to be tempting to live a life without specific focus or with misdirected focus.  On the other hand, the relative ease with which most can access information may enable the disciplined to live a very focused life and live a more personally fulfilling life than they would otherwise.  Masses of information could decrease family life fulfillment or, as this article suggests, it could lead to greatly satisfying family life.  This article from BBC news reports some interesting research findings.  I haven't seen the actual research, but I am interested in the details of how the research was conducted. 

Sharing Large Files

LifeHack Magazine published an article in which they review 7 ways to send huge files.  It is a fine list for starters, however as you begin searching you'll soon discover that there are much more than just the 7 ways described in the article.  Some of these tools provide online storage of files which is a central site for sharing large files.  The storage capacity is limited on some of the sites (unless you choose to pay for increased storage capacity), and others automatically purge files after a certain time has passed.

Concept Maps

Just found this great web site in which several concept and mind map sites are consolidated and summarized.  The idea of concept maps/mind maps is intriguing to me because of the application to information relationship discovery and management especially across an enterprise.  

Visual display metasearch

KartOO is a very cool metasearch engine (searches using multiple search engines).  It presents search results in what looks like an idea cloud or map and puts them in context of relationships to each other and classifying subjects. 

Personal Financial Information Management System

Mint has only been available for about a year, and has already won several awards.  Check out the web site for more details.  It is very easy to use and provides great features!  I signed up in 5 to 10 minutes and immediately was able to see an analysis of my spending over the past 90 days.  It also gave me suggestions for improving my savings plan to earn more interest than I currently earn. 

Findability

Here is an interesting web site with several links to other interesting web sites about information technology including discussions and demos of the future of information management.

Visual Information Tool

Ok, so here's one many have probably already known about for a while, but I just discovered it and find it very useful and intriguing.  Tag Galaxy gives you the opportunity to search images (flickr only I believe) on the web and see them on an interactive sphere in a "galaxy" context with related subjects surrounding the subject of your initial search.  Any sphere in the galaxy can be readily searched and the sphere itself might actually be another galaxy with related subjects revolving around it, ready for further exploration. 

Idea Mapping and Processing

Axon2000 is one of many software solutions to help "thinkers" keep track of ideas and organize information.

Data Accuracy

A primary aim for most companies is a comprehensive "view" or understanding of their customer.  Remember the 5 magic questions from Eric Denna.  Every company should understand: 1.  Whom you serve and what do those you serve need to do?  2.  What services do you provide to help them accomplish this?  3.  How do you know you are fulfilling your purpose successfully?  4.  How do you provide your services?  5.  How should you organize to provide your services successfully? 

Powerful answers to these questions requires powerful data.  How is the power of data manifest?  Data power is realized in the information and knowledge it generates.  In terms of electrical power, information and knowledge are the electrical tools and data are like the electrons.  Data power is therefore likened to its accuracy, timeliness, and completeness.  Accurate data are true electrons, with the proper charge and attributes.  Timely data are influenced by the medium in which the true electrons travel.  Complete data don't have a correlating attribute in this comparison.  How is data accuracy, timeliness, and completeness enhanced so that the resulting power of information and knowledge can be maximized?  The answer is data management.  A significant energy input is required for quality data management.  When there are many competing company initiatives, how can the significant energy draw of a data management be justified or the cost of the energy mitigated?  I propose that a justification should be found in company goals and objectives.  The cost of the energy, in terms of all resources, can be mitigated with technology (the right technology).   

Power Potential of Information

POWER!  Isn't that essentially what organizations and individuals seek in order to achieve increasing success?  The power to do more with less, the power to earn more business in a competitive market. Organizations and individuals utilize resources (assets) while implementing various means of  harnessing or generating power with those resources. For example, people are frequently called the number 1 resource of organizations and they are  often required to complete training courses. Training is a means of increasing the capability of individuals in order to apply that capability toward the achievement of some specific end. If individuals in an organization are considered as components of a machine, the energy they are able to exert over time (enhanced by training) contributes to the overall power output of the machine. Information is another resource and the degree to which it's capabilities are enhanced and harnessed is directly correlated to the amount of power output from the information. 

Now let's look a little deeper.  Training a person is orienting and organizing a person's natural capabilities in a specific direction.  Information is "trained" when it is correlated with all information in the domain and thus transformed into knowledge, which is the power-producing form of information.    

Google Tech Talk: PIM

Establishing a mission and vision

The following are the thoughts of Eric Denna, who has had many years of experience helping organizations develop strategic plans. I asked him to evaluate my rationale in helping my company develop goals and objectives. This was his answer:

"1. Whom do you serve and what do they (those being served) need to do?
I find, invariably, that organizations are very imprecise about who
their target customers are and what their customers are trying to do.


2. What services do you provide so they (those being served) can do
what they need to do? This is essentially a catalog of services
provided by the organization and a straightforward explanation of how
the services provided help their target customer do what they need to
do.


3. How do you know you are doing a great job? I have learned that
the more straightforward and simple the answer to this question the
more precise the answers to questions one and two. If someone needs
more than five pieces of data to evaluate how they are doing I start
getting nervous.


4. How do you provide the services? These are the processes for providing your services to your target customers.

5.
How should you organize? This includes information about the
organization structure, decision rights, resource distribution...


It is always an interesting experience to have a leadership team
answer these questions as to what is and then get them to reconcile
their answers. They learn an enormous amount about their organization,
particularly when they try and reconcile their answers.


I then turn the conversation to answering each of the five questions in the "should" form:

1. Whom should you serve and what do they need to do?

2. What services should you perform?

3. How should you know you are doing a great job?

...

When
answers to the first form of the questions disagree with answers to the
should form you have an opportunity to clarify vision/objectives.

The first three questions are the critical ones when
focused on vision/strategy."

I am thinking that these questions can be useful in helping individuals or families set up appropriate goals and objectives to help them achieve their personal vision as well.

State Transitions

In this post I have to state some definitions up front. An organization or a family, or an individual can each be considered a system and in this discussion, I will use the word system with that in mind.

A useful analysis in the design of a system is a state transition diagram. This is useful because it reveals events and actions our system must manage and perform -- events and actions transition the system to states.

We might begin by considering the potential states in which our system can exist. With a clear understanding of the states, we can begin to describe the events and actions our system must manage and perform that transition our system into each state.

Now let us consider the case of an individual as a system. First, what are the potential states of an individual? There are many ways to describe states of individuals and much research and study has gone into understanding human behavior over the centuries. I will illustrate a couple of simple states as described by Gordon B. Hinckley, the late President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in his book entitled "Way to Be!".

The first state he describes is "Be grateful". You may consider this as an action, but think of a grateful attitude as an attribute of an individual -- a way to describe an individual. Now, how does one transition to that state? What events must be managed to transition one to that state? What actions should one perform to transition to that state?

Another state he describes is "Be smart". What events transition an individual to that state? What actions facilitate the transition? This a good example for making a point about states in general. I consider states in themselves as modes of operation or ways of living for an individual. In other words, the general state of being smart consists of intermediate states that collectively describe the lifestyle of "smart".

Personal Information Management and Family Life

I am wondering about the connection between family stability or at least family life level of satisfaction and personal information management techniques, skills, or practices. I think everybody manages information in their lives whether they think about it or not. I just wonder if how well that is done has any relationship to a level of family life satisfaction. I'm not suggesting that personal information management should be some kind of formalized practice in a home (although whether formal or informal, it is done). I am saying that if individuals will give serious thought to their own information management-related activities, they will increase their own level of family life satisfaction. It is really an element of a broader concept of Time and Life Management.

Collaboration

One way people either gather, modify, use, or obtain information is through real-time collaboration with a specific end in mind. I just discovered a real-time collaboration tool at Thinkature.com. I know there are multiple tools providing this basic capability, this is just one I hadn't heard of before. Like any useful real-time collaboration tool, it apparently now comes with voice chat. I don't see here whether it can enable screen sharing -- I doubt it -- that is a function that other real-time collaboration tools provide.

Personal Information Management

Studies have been done on a variety of topics in the information management field. I am particularly interested in topics under the sub-heading of "Personal Information Management". Several teams of students at the University of Washington studied the following topics:

Folders vs Tags for organizing information
Factors contributing to abandonment of IM strategies
Putting information in its place in a digital age
Planning to organize personal information
Human cognition and personal information management
Information behavior
Human behavior related to information

I am intrigued by these topics. I intend to continue delving into some of these topics in the coming weeks and months.

Data Management: The Real Key to Business Continuity

This is a webcast. They basically outline business continuity considerations with regard to data and end up presenting a product solution from CA called XOSoft. I have experienced the key points about data brought up at the outset of the webcast. If our company doesn't understand it's data, it will not be able to prepare adequately for a disaster. The size of our company is such that the IT infrastructure is fairly simple, we have data servers and they are backed up regularly, but no body understands the specific value of most of the (redundant) data that resides on the servers, and it is difficult to find data that turns out to be very important.

Personal Information Management on Wikipedia

APA style
Personal information management. (2008, August 16). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:22, August 21, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Personal_information_management&oldid=232331722

Bibliographic details for "Personal information management"
Page name: Personal information management
Author: Wikipedia contributors
Publisher: Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
Date of last revision: 16 August 2008 16:17 UTC
Date retrieved: 21 August 2008 23:22 UTC
Permanent link: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Personal_information_management&oldid=232331722
Primary contributors: View the list (subject to extremely long replication lag)
Page Version ID: 232331722
Please remember to check your manual of style, standards guide or instructor's guidelines for the exact syntax to suit your needs. For more detailed advice, see Citing Wikipedia.

EyeOS Open Source Platform

Here is a concept for an internet-based based OS, I suppose it is more accurately a virtual OS. It comes bundled with basic productivity applications. You can upload documents, music, images, and video files. It is your desktop. If you have internet connectivity, it is all you need for basic functionality. It looks like another of many services or applications that continue to abstract legacy computer system functions. The result is called a thin client. A home computer whose functionality is stripped down to simply providing a network connection.

Dropboks Web Site

This is advertised as secure on-line storage of up to 1GB. I don't know enough about it to comment on its security, but it is another option out there for storage. It seems like when we open our minds to the possibilities and stop limiting ourselves based on past experience and legacy technologies, there are all kinds of new capabilities available to us.

The one thing I'll say here is that I certainly hope it gives one the opportunity to search metadata and categorize based on metadata, otherwise, it will only be like a big storage closet where you can put things, and complain about having to sift through to find a specific item. In fact, it would be great if, when you added an item it would automatically categorize it based on subject or title and if the categorization could be rearranged based on any key word.

Aurora Concept Video

This is a concept video from Mozilla and Adaptive Path. The particulars about the technology and standards required to support this scenario are the subject of much debate. I am interested in the concept of information management. As far as that goes, this concept seems to be a little too "sloppy" for me. I mean it seems like the information in her life is just there somewhere and organized only as well as her thoughts might be organized because it is all organized according to the pattern in which she utilizes her computer resources. I will only use this as an example of why it is important to get a handle on the information that is most important to you before you begin gathering and utilizing information. If your thoughts are scattered and un-focused, your pattern of gathering and utilizing information will also be scattered and un-focused, which means that the knowledge and subsequent power to accomplish what is most important to you will be diminished. Rather than undisciplined, unfocused thoughts controlling your life, it would be well to develop a pattern of disciplined and focused thoughts leading to disciplined actions and a fulfilling and happy life.


Aurora (Part 1) from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

Thoughts on different collaboration tools

Thanks to Rick Colosimo, Managing Director, ThoughtStorm Strategic Capital LLC for this post in answer to a question on LinkedIn about how to engage team members in utilizing collaborative tools such as blogs, wikis, MS Sharepoint, etc.

"At the end of the day, a tool has to be useful for the intended
purpose. We too often see people thinking of all these tools as
interchangeable, but blogs are more of a one-to-many tool as compared
to wikis that are better at capturing widely held knowledge, which is
different from SharePoint, which is much better at organizing
document-focused work, e.g., word processing documents, spreadsheets,
and presentations, with collaboration more often in a supporting role."

In summary:

Blogs: one-to-many collaboration, information dissemination centrally managed
Wikis: many-to-many collaboration, capturing widely held knowledge, information dissemination with distributed management
Sharepoint: document-based work organization, information dissemination centrally managed

Biology, MIS, and Faith

I will explain here how and why I see Information Management being an important element of everyone's life--information management has an effect on an organism's survival, one's personal life, and an organization's standing in the market.

My undergraduate studies were in Biology; my graduate studies are in Management Information Systems; my life studies have been the subject of faith--understanding what moves me to action, what moves others to action. It may not be obvious to everyone, so I will explain how I see all three of these studies being related. My biological studies taught me to observe carefully what I can, question what I can't directly observe until I can "virtually observe" and understand the elements of my world. The general concepts are: OBSERVATION OF THE KNOWN, QUESTIONING THE UNKNOWN TO THE POINT OF UNDERSTANDING, and DEFINING 'MY WORLD'. My graduate studies have taught me to observe business processes, motivations, goal accomplishment, and supporting technologies; question those elements and study and improve them through abstraction and modeling techniques. It is understood in this observation and questioning process that the context must be well-defined. The general concepts described here are: OBSERVATION AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE KNOWN, QUESTIONING AND DESCRIBING THE UNKNOWN POSSIBILITIES, AND DOING ALL THIS WITH A FIRM GRASP OF THE OPERATIONAL CONTEXT. My life studies on faith have taught me to carefully consider why I do what I choose to do, why I choose to believe what I choose to believe (which really determines what I choose to do), and how I can improve my ability to accomplish goals that are important to me (again, based on what I choose to believe). My studies on faith have been enhanced by and faith itself strengthened through the acquisition and application of information. The general concepts are: INTROSPECTIVE 'OBSERVATION' AND UNDERSTANDING, QUESTIONING MY MOTIVATIONS, DISCOVERY OF THE UNKNOWN IN THE CONTEXT OF MY CHOSEN BELIEF SYSTEM. It should be clear that I relate each of these areas in terms of OBSERVATION, QUESTIONING, and DEFINING OR REDEFINING OPERATIONAL ENVIRONMENTS (i.e. the environment in which one performs activities). Since information leads to knowledge and knowledge is power, information management (yes, even at the level of a single cell) is important to all living things.

Wiki-How: How to avoid being overwhelmed by information

How to Avoid Being Overwhelmed by Information

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Life can throw challenges at you every day, but you just have to be aware of what is important in life. If you have a family and you have credit problems, that can be fixed with the many different programs available to get you out of debt. At the same time, you can also keep focused on your family. Don't let any one situation get you down, there will always be problems in life.

Steps

1. Look at all of the information/problems presented to you in a calm manner.
   
2. Find which one is more important then the others.
   
3. Make a list of your problems/information you've been given and really decide if it's worth getting stressed over.
   
4. Take the problems head on one at a time.
   
5. Write out a plan. Organize fixing your problems around your everyday life.
   

Tips

• Anything can be fixed over time; there's no reason to stress over it. Stressing can only make the problem worse.
  
• It's OK to ask for help when you need it; don't be afraid of going to someone for help.
  
• When a problem is presented to you, simply take it in stride. If you know you can't do anything about it at the moment, don't let it bother you until you can address it properly.
  

Warnings

• If you try to take on more than one problem at a time, you'll get even more overwhelmed than you were when you first found out about the problems.
  
• Don't ignore the problems! You must face them or they'll only get worse.
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Make Time by Prioritizing and Scheduling
  
• How to Get Organized and Concentrate on Your Work
  
• How to Get Things Done Without Stress
  
• How to Slow the Hectic Pace of Your Life
  
• How to Be Mentally Prepared and Organized Before School Starts
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Avoid Being Overwhelmed by Information. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Information Management

I see a natural hierarchy in which information management falls. Going from the highest level of abstraction to the lowest, this is the way I see it. Knowledge Management, Information Management, File Management, Document Management, Data Management. This may not seem like it represents an operational hierarchy, but does represent a tactical hierarchy. Knowledge represents the ultimate end of data elements and in an operational context, it may be that a single data element is identified and leads directly to useful operational knowledge. However, in the tactical context, that data element will be maintained and managed in the context of an individual document or file, a file structure, and a larger information environment in which knowledge is produced and utilized.

Free On-line Document Management Service

I've just discovered KnowledgeTree.com. It is a free Software as a Service (SaaS) document management capability. There are limits, of course, on how much you can upload and the free version is only good for up to 3 users, but for a simple home user, it seems to be a good resource. It certainly gives you a taste of what document management is about, why and how it can be very useful for any organization.

Clipmarks.com Blog

I've just started using the clipmarks firefox add-on to quickly capture and track information I find related to information management. I am still experimenting with which apps to use to support blogging, publishing, discovering and generally utilizing internet technology to improve my productivity.