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.