How to Audit Your Personal Information Management

Auditing your your personal  per sonal  information management  An action guide for the perplexed or merely curious

Mark Gregory  Teacher and Open University Ph.D. student  ESC Rennes School of  Business

1

An Healthy Uneasiness I 

Did you ever feel …

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How many times have you felt …

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When was the last time you felt …

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… that you did not have the right  means to store, organise and retrieve your personal data?  2

An Healthy Uneasiness II 

Do you have an effective system of folders of  folders and  sub-folders on your computers?

• 

Do you use more than one computer and/or  "platform" (e.g. Windows PC; Mac; smartphone)?

• • 

Could you change it to make it better? How?

How do you synchronise them? How do you protect  them?

What happens to you when (not if!) you lose your  smartphone? your hard disk contents? 

3

Good news…  

You are not alone! In fact, you are a knowledge worker 

• (Drucker 2000) 

You work in knowledge networks as part of (real or virtual) teams



(Toffler 1990) observed that knowledge workers must have at their disposal systems to create, process and enhance their  knowledge and that of their subordinates 4

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Knowledge and information workers work as individuals within team structures to get work done Computer-based tools can assist in the storage and management  of the information they acquire However, little is understood about

• • • • 

How people use these tools How they learn new ones The ways in which the tools constrain the ways in which people work and think How best to educate people to make the right choice of the right tools

Lots of tools (e.g. spreadsheets) – few people use them well!

Research context: a Ph.D. in progress 

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

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TOPIC: “Towards a better understanding of how individuals and small groups use computerbased information and knowledge representation tools” OPEN UNIVERSITY SUPERVISOR: Prof. David Weir, Liverpool Hope University INTERNAL (ESC Rennes) SUPERVISOR: Dr. Dirk Schneckenberg With special thanks to Dr. Mario Norbis, Quinnipiac  University, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, who has often guided  me! 

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My Aim and Yours Part of my aim is to help you to become more efficient and efficient and effective by managing your   personal information better   As you do this, I want you to consider telling consider telling us what works for you and why  

• • •



So that I can improve my understanding of what  works and why  on the basis of your experiences and those of others 1 + 1 = 3, win-win… You are invited to participate in my Action Research! 

Before you can do this, here’s some background…

Structure of this presentation What PIM is  Productivity paradoxes  How to “do” PIM using your office suite  How to “do” PIM using specialist PIM programs  Researching PIM: my overall agenda   Auditing your personal information management: a suggested agenda for you  Parenthesis on advanced classification ontology  Challenges 

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“Err… Put it more simply, please…” 

Q:

• 

A1:

• • 

What is personal information management ? Storing the information you need to Get Things Done GTD Examples: diary (agenda), to-do list

A2:

•

Keeping information in a way in which you can find it again and evolve it – Keeping Found Things Found KFTF 

• • •

Keeping it up-to-date Restructuring it when that’s necessary  Address Book  Example: your Contacts // Address

9

Sample PIM (Ecco): Contacts + To-Do + Appointments

Folder hierarchy – itself an outline

Contacts / address list

Details of  highlighted person

Appointment with highlighted person 10

 Working better  We are motivated by or paid for what we do, what we achieve: for our  work   Doing things involves  processes, resources, information and knowledge  Doing bigger things in accordance with deadlines and budgets may require  projects  Work is usually done in a competitive context – where we as individuals or as part of an organisation have to do and be better than others  Increasingly it is done collaboratively  

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The role of information management in work 

Knowledge Knowledge and information workers work as individuals within organisational departments

•



More significant are work processes

• •



But departments are a relatively (and increasingly?) unimportant organisational convenience Work processes require information which the worker stores in a large number of arbitrarily complex ways

• • •

Some are paper-based But they’re increasingly computer-based And they’re moving to the Web

Processes are sometimes individual but very often involve collaboration, implying shared information

Some of the time we work in virtual team structures to do one-off particular tasks

•

This way of working is called  project work 12

Processes and Projects Aims, objectives, goals… are achieved by processes and/or   projects  Business process (or method) • A collection of related, structured activities or tasks that produce a specific service or product for customers (external or internal)  Business project  • A collaborative enterprise, frequently involving research or  design, that is carefully planned and executed to achieve a particular aim  Processes are repeated and ongoing   Projects come into existence to address a specific problem or issue and then come to an end  

•

Social networking within and outside the enterprise is blurring the distinction between process and project, which is still useful  13

Managing projects - 1 

A project can be defined as

• A temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product, service or result

• A management environment that is created for 

the purpose of delivering one or more business products according to a specified business case



The project objectives define target  status at the end of the project 14

Managing projects - 2 

A project therefore needs

• • • •





Objectives Plan Execution Evaluation • The evaluation (measurement) occurs at the project closure but also by continuously monitoring and evaluating during the execution of  the project

Projects may be huge (build the Channel Tunnel) or they may be small (build an en-suite bathroom) Smaller projects:

• •

Don’t generally need complicated software like Microsoft Project But they do need managing – there may be sub-contractors (e.g. your  partner!) and there are dependencies between tasks 15

The challenge of organisational productivity 

(Strassmann 1999) identified an organisational   productivity paradox 

• • • 

Increasing technological possibilities raise the hurdles all the time Although you can do some things quicker… Overall you don’t get much more work done!

Why? Organisations have to do things better in order  to compete with others who are reacting to and benefiting from the same new possibilities

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Knowledge work 

(Drucker 2000) identified better knowledge better knowledge work productivity as productivity as our most important economic need

• 

He went so far as to warn that our long term prosperity and even our economic survival depends upon it

Knowledge work productivity is the measure of the efficiency and effectiveness of the output generated by workers who mainly rely knowledge, rather than labour, during the on knowledge, production process 17

The challenge of personal and small-group productivity 

Individual knowledge workers face a personal productivity paradox of the same kind as do organisations

• • •

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Why?

• • •

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Increasing technological possibilities raise the hurdles all the time Although you can do some things quicker… Overall you don’t get much more work done! Individuals and the teams of which they form a part have to do things better in order to compete with others who are reacting to and benefiting from the same new possibilities We vary considerably in our efficiency and effectiveness, as individuals and as collaborators Most of us are not lazy – we just concentrate on the wrong things at the wrong time!

We have to improve, OK?  18

Auditing our processes, projects and information needs 

We should audit the way we work  and the way we manage our information in order  continuously to improve them understanding  of  Better identification and understanding of  • Better identification the various processes various processes of which we are a part managed projects • Better managed projects better information • Based (in part) on better information management 

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Two Key Productivity Issues 

Individuals, teams and organisations need to carry out business processes; they have to Get Things Done: GTD

• (Allen 2003) 

To do this, they need to Keep Found Things Found: KFTF 

• • •

Data Information Knowledge

• (Jones 2007) 20

 What is the difference between Getting Things Done (GTD) and Keeping Found Things Found (KFTF) - 1? 

GTD is about planning about planning your work and doing it , as an individual and individual and in the various teams of  which you are part 



students:: For example, teamwork for  for students

• Teams for coursework assignments • Work or project teams when doing internships • Student clubs and micro-enterprises • In fact, whatever is done in small groups • It includes things like diaries (agendas, personal and shared) and project plans 21

 What is the difference between Getting Things Done (GTD) and Keeping Found Things Found (KFTF) – 2? 

KFTF is KFTF is about keeping all the information you need to need to learn, to work, to live; things like:

• Lecture notes • Reading lists • Contact lists (address book) • Shopping lists • Recipes for meals 

Note that some things, e.g. “When your team is playing football”, can be in either the GTD category or the KFTF category or both 22

KFTF: Keeping Found Things Found 

Searching is not always the best way to find things – if  you have already found them and kept them organised

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So we make lists (and lists of lists), such as:

• •

Shopping lists

•

Bibliographic references

Websites, perhaps using Google toolbar to store bookmarks on the Web

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This is an example of Keeping Found Things Found – the fundamental need is to be able to find and store information for reuse

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Further reading: Jones, William (2007) 23

researcher as an example (Drucker  2000) 

Aim: to learn and to assist others to learn

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Processes

• •

Assimilate existing knowledge

•

Disseminate knowledge

• • • • •

Create new knowledge

• • •

Publish scientific papers Create new teaching materials Edit and integrate existing teaching materials

Represent knowledge: describe and model an applicable state of the art Assess learning Design modules and programmes Research existing management Manage research and learning

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Data, information, knowledge

•

As needed by each of these processes

Managing knowledge - an example context: Schools - 1 

Schools are institutions of learning

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Outputs

• • • 

Better educated students Scholarly production Improved professional practice

Actors

• • • • •

Candidate students who wish to be better educated Firms that need workers Practitioners who want to be more efficient and / or effective Us: teachers, researchers Standards bodies: accreditors, professional institutions…

Managing knowledge - an example context: Schools - 2 

Processes

• Pedagogy

• Disseminating / sharing useful and usable knowledge • Teaching, learning and assessment (TLA)

• Research

• Creating (hopefully) useful and usable knowledge

• These are forms of Knowledge Management, personal and group

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Tools

• Libraries, ICT, the Web; software and systems

Classifying and tagging things 

Hierarchical classification schemes: giving names to parts of lists

•



Recently, social networking sites have introduced tagging . Such sites include:

• • •



You can use simple keyword classification schemes, or  more complicated classification schemes such as those used by libraries

Reddit Digg Del.ici.ous

Semantic network services may well be the next generation:

•

E.g. Radar Networks Twine 27

Example concept map (extract) Process STUDY PKM: think about and observe observe P KM

Understand PKM: personal personal knowledge management

S

S

Knowledge worker 

GTD: get things done KFTF: keep found things found

S C

C

C

PRACTISE PKM: do PKM

C

Use PKM tools

C

C

C C

Specific instance of  Process

Researcher 

A

C

IP

Concept

Do Ph.D in PKM

A

S

A

P Learn from doing the PhD

(Paquette 2002)

P

PKM / PIM tools IP

Use PKM tools to do the PhD

Share information and knowledge

Example concept map with forward and feedback loops highlighted STUDY PKM: think about and observe PKM

Understand PKM: personal knowledge management

S

S

Knowledge worker 

GTD: get things done KFTF: keep found things found

S C

C

C

PRACTISE PKM: do PKM

C

Use PKM tools

C

C

C C

A

C

Researcher 

IP S

Do Ph.D in PKM

A

PKM / PIM tools A

P Learn from doing the PhD

P

Share information and knowledge

IP

Use PKM tools to do the PhD

Source: author 

A complementary perspective: memory and cognitive processing

Short term memory Process: think Long term memory

Individual knowledge worker

Source: author 

Source: author 

The individual shares knowledge in a team or community of  practice

The individual extends her knowledge management using PC and web-based PIM and PKM tools

Classification versus tagging 

Classification decides where things are in a strict tree-  structured hierarchy 

• •



• •

Complicated, Complicated, especially when more than one person classifies Not realistic in every context – Fred is both a professional footballer and a town councillor 

Tagging permits the same thing to be found via different routes

• 

Advantage: it’s easy to find something because it can only be in one place (or, of course, nowhere) Disadvantages:

But it risks being anarchic!

Ergo, both are needed, depending on context

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Computers and productivity 

Computers can be used to:

• • 

Computers can be used to improve efficiency 

•  

Store and manage information Represent and help to manage knowledge This was the original justification for introducing computers co mputers into businesses from the 1950s onwards

Computers can be used to increase effectiveness “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently  that which should not be done at all.” 

•

Peter F. Drucker 

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Q: How do knowledge workers manage their personal information and knowledge and how can they be helped to improve their personal knowledge management (PKM) by a teaching, learning and evaluation framework?



One approach: provide people with self-help tools to evaluate and improve their own PIM / PKM and observe how much more effective they become

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Another approach: actively intervene with people to assess their learning styles, existing knowledge and to help them learn to improve

Business information systems - 1

Most organisations identify and procure computer-based computer-based information systems  “Information systems are the means by which people and organisations, utilising technologies, gather,  process, store, use and disseminate information” (UK Academy for  Information Systems definition) 

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Business information systems - 2 





These systems generally support the main ongoing  processes of the organisation Example: in a school or university

•

A student resource planning system supports the assessment process

•

A learning management system (LMS) or virtual  learning environment (VLE) supports the teaching and  learning process

These are examples of large, corporate information systems which form part of the overall applications  portfolio of an organisation 36

 Work Systems 

(Alter 2002) defined a Work System as:



A system in which people and/or  machines perform a business process using resources (e.g., information, technology, raw materials) to create products/services for internal for internal or  external customers 37

Information Systems 



Information System = a work system that processes information, thereby supporting other work systems An Information System processes data: • • • • • •

Capture (input) the data Transmit Store Retrieve Manipulate – calculate, collate … Display

38

Business Information System Information

Data

Source

Data Processing System

Store Data

Client

Retrieve Data Databas e 39

How individuals store data - 1 

Data is typically stored in files

• E.g. Word documents, Excel spreadsheets 

But sometimes in databases databases • E.g. Access databases



Word, Excel and Access are  programs included in the Microsoft Office suite that enable users to create, update and delete data 40

Office productivity suites 

An office suite is a software suite (collection of component programs) intended for use by people like clerical staff  and knowledge workers



The components are generally distributed together, have a consistent user interface and usually can interact with each other 

• Best-known current examples of office suites are Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org  41

 What do they do? Office suite functionality Focus on the production of documents of various kinds

 

Also offer various tools for managing and sharing   personal information; the facilities typically include:

• • • 

Word processor  Spreadsheet Presentation program

• • •

Database Graphics suite Messaging and email client

Many people use general office applications such as spreadsheets (Microsoft Excel) and relational databases (e.g. Microsoft Access) specifically for   personal and small-group information management  42

How individuals store data - 2 

Data is typically stored in tables: tables: two-dimensional two-dimensional structures

• 

In MS Office terms:

• • •

Word tables (also PowerPoint) Excel worksheets Access tables

Tables can be linked , adding a third dimension

•

In MS Office terms:

• •

Excel worksheets • These can cross-refer to each other, using functions like HLOOKUP, MATCH and EQUIV Access tables are related using primary and foreign keys

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Storing data in Microsoft Office Method Advantages Word

Disadvantages

Simple, well understood by people No formulae (or only very with weak computing skills rudimentary ones) Exc Excelle ellen nt form forma attin tting g opti option ons s

Not Not a sa safe place lace to stor store e crit critic ical al or long-life data

Powerful built-in outliner for structuring lists (e.g. of tasks) E x ce l

Some degree of structure – rows and columns

Poor support for queries – searching is slow and finding information again is imprecise

Very powerful data manipulation using formulae

Size limits – 65535 rows (until Office 2007) No design methodology or coherence

Not a safe place to store critical or  long-life data Access

Relational data model gives method and coherence

More difficult to learn

Very powerful data structuring and querying

Requires thoughtful use and advance planning

Outlining in Word – Table of Contents

Note that Outlining  forces a strict treestructured hierarchy   – a piece of text is classified by where it  is in the document 

Use Outline Mode (in French: “mode plan”)

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Using Excel for bibliographic referencing

Formulae are used  to link data; these formulae can include user-programmed  elements (here, exists_file)

46

Using Access to store details of  paper documents – Tables – Tables and  Relationships 

Note that here Docs are hierarchically  classified by subject by subject  – SubCategory within Category within Context 

Note that here Docs are hierarchically  classified by storage by storage  – Location within Unit 

47

Using Access to store details of paper  documents –  typical Form / Subform / Sub-subform 

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Mindmaps – for – for those who prefer  visual representation 

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Group Information Management 

People work in teams, often virtual – see (Lurey & Raisinghani 2001)



Shared agendas – meeting scheduling

• 

E.g. use a Google shared Calendar 

Collaborative development of documents

• Advanced versions of MS Office offer many facilities to enable this  Shared classification schemes • Keywords • Which may be hierarchical

•

Tagging and wikitags

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Special software for personal and smallgroup information management

There are also a number of computer-based tools, sometimes referred to as Personal  Information Managers or PIMs which are intended particularly to assist in the storage and management of personal information, tasks and projects  PIMs are additional and complementary to the functionality of the so-called “office suites” (sometimes “office productivity suites”)  You may need both!  

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 Why can’t I manage my work using Outlook, Excel, Access? 

You can, to a large degree; but:

•

Outlook rigidly distinguishes messages from tasks from contacts and doesn’t greatly help you to organise or link them

• What you have to do is partly in a task list, largely in your email in-tray!

•

Using Excel or Access requires you to structure s tructure your  information very carefully – and most of us will spend more time doing that than we can save!

•

Not everyone is good at Do-It-Yourself!

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Ready-made PIM or Do-ItYourself? 



Need a new information system? Bespoke (custom-built)?  Packaged? Integrated-component system building?  An analogy: You need a new kitchen - What alternatives exist?

•

Bespoke (custom-built)? 

Get A Man In (GAMI)!

• • •

• • 

•

Totally customised Expensive Depends on a partnership between client and supplier and on accurate transmission of requirements And then the client changes their mind…

Packaged? 

Buy a kit - IKEA Integrated-component system building 

Do It Yourself (DIY) – Home Depot, Brico Dépôt, Mr. Bricolage

Put more simply, Make or Buy? 

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Problems associated with approaches based on using particular programs in a suite 

An analogy:

• A carpenter who only uses hammers and

nails tackles badly, or not at all, problems which need screws and screwdrivers!



Similarly:

• Someone who uses spreadsheets to do what should be done with a database! database!



Having a good toolbox doesn’t make you a good carpenter… 54

Recap: we MUST manage our  information better… 





Some information belongs to organisations and has to be managed by them: they procure corporate business information systems Employers also enable individual productivity by providing PCs together with an office suite However we all store and manage information (and knowledge) which is personal to us and  represents our own competitive advantage – it’s ours, to manage and to profit from

• Implies our own PC + office suite + PIM:  personal information management 

 Ways of managing your personal information 

Write your own PIM program?

• 

Not a sensible option! Life’s too short…

Build your own customised approach

•

By integrating parts of an office suite, e.g. using Outlook together with Excel or Access – fine for individuals, OK for  small groups

•

But if you and your collaborators need a shared, webaccessible, database, database, note the arrival of “Situational   Applications” – briefly discussed later in this presentation



Select and procure one or more ready-made PIM  program(s)



In practice: some combination is common 56

Using office tools for personal information management 

Email, contact and event management software (e.g. Microsoft Outlook)

• Many people manage what they have to do by leaving uncompleted work as emails in their inbox 

Hierarchical outliners (e.g. Microsoft Word / PowerPoint outlines)



Mind-mapping software (e.g. MindManager)

PIM and PIM programs 

Specific computer-based tools (sometimes referred to as Personal Information Managers or PIMs or PIMs)) have been created in order to assist in the storage and management of personal information



Programs: EssentialPIM, InfoQube • E.g. Ecco, EssentialPIM,



Web services:

• E.g. Basecamp 58

 your current approach to PIM  

Why not set yourself the task of improving  your personal information management? 



You can ask for help from a friendly neighbourhood PIM specialist…

• 

E.g. the author of this presentation!

yourself by carrying out a Or you can help yourself by Self-Audit

•

And here are some suggested first steps…

59

Think about, describe, analyse and then write notes on:  How you Get Things Done (GTD)

•



That is, how you keep details of what you need to do and when, and how you plan and organise your time

How you Keep Found Things Found (KFTF)

• •

That is, what you do to store and manage all the personal information you need in order to learn well and to live well How should you classify things in order to be able to find them again? On paper? On your computer and other devices (phone, music)?

60

First necessity: Use folders and sub-folders



To group like, related, things together 

• 

Hierarchical classification

Organise your computer-based files better 

•

Use Windows Explorer 

•

Or Apple Finder etc.

• Not the same thing as Internet Explorer 

61



Describe and analyse how you (plural) Get Things Done , that is, how you keep details of what your various workgroups need to do and when, and how you plan and organise your time in that group

•



How might you use computer software (such as the programs you use as an individual, or others) in order to improve this management of  time? Can you get group “buy-in” (commitment) to your suggested approach?

Describe and analyse how you Keep Found Things Found , that is, what you do to store and manage all the information you need to work together effectively in groups

•

How might you use computer software (such as the programs you use as an individual, or others) in order to improve this management of  information? 62







“platforms” (computers and mobile phones) do What “platforms” (computers you currently use in your work and personal lives? List the computer programs you use for personal and work-related purposes List the web services you use for personal and workrelated purposes

• 

Have you ever considered alternatives? Which?

sites ? Do How do you keep a list of favourite of favourite web sites? you use bookmarks in Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari etc.? Do you keep an online list of favourites (e.g. Google Toolbar bookmarks)? Should you? 

63



List the ways in which you store and manage personal information at the moment

• •



What personal information matters to you? Make a list of the various kinds (or types) of  information you store, and how you currently do it

•



How do you keep your  agenda (electronic diary) (if any)? How often do you lose it? Which email clients do you use? Do you synchronise them?

Examples include shopping lists, inventory of possessions, bank account details, references of books and articles you want to read…

List the processes you carry out to maintain and use this personal information 64

Do you participate in projects?  





Projects involve:

•

Multiple participants

• •

Tasks which depend on other tasks Tasks which break down into sub-tasks

• •

Project manager  Usually, a project supervision arrangement, such as a project steering committee

•

A single-participant project can be treated as a simple project

Projects need to be planned and managed

Tasks in themselves have characteristics (properties, attributes) which are very similar to processes, and they can be treated as a subset of processes

•

Both tasks and processes may need to be analysed  and even modelled , if  they are complicated

65



These are some of the kinds of documents and data that people keep:

• Contact management , address books, etc. • Diary : Calendar and meeting scheduling Dos: task management for self and others • To Dos: •

Errands to run, films to see...

• Journal : a record of the use of your time • Document creation and management  • Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.

• Message management 

• Emails, instant messages, etc. 66





There is an overlap between personal information and shared small-group There is also an overlap between

• • 

Generic information Generic information – the information that almost anyone might keep • Agenda, contacts, etc. Rôle-specific information Rôle-specific information • For a lecturer / professor: references / bibliographic details, shared agenda, student results etc.

Why? Different groups of knowledge workers (Drucker  2000) keep different kinds of personal information 67

 Among the processes associated with personal information are these; which matter  to you? Describe you? Describe them, in some detail. The items in bold italics are further  described on the next slide.     

• •      

Capture Store Secure Communicate / synchronise between devices and platforms p latforms Finding things again Classify Find

Show Present  Share Reuse Publish Reorganise 68

 

Capture: Capture: of text, pictures, audio, video, web clippings… Store for easy access

• 

Secure storage

• • 

•

Potentially across decades

Classifying them when found or created/modified Searching for them later  Filtering your lists to show s how only relevant items

Presentation

• • 

Keeping secrets – showing to some (but not others) Preserving investment

Finding things Finding things again

• • • 

Handheld, on PC, stored on the Web (“in the cloud”)

Visual aspects: getting a message across Communication and Sharing (read-only, or shared-update)

Reuse: Reuse: using material again: in a new presentation, presentation, book… 69

 At a more detailed level, do you need: 

•

Journalising  or  Diarising: record “anything and everything” Personal notes/journal, annotations and note-taking in multiple media: a kind of  electronic jotter 

Transcription between media, e.g. handwriting recognition, voice



recognition, scanning and OCR Search across email, e-docs and other information forms, across multiple media types Hypertext Authoring : writing documents that make links between each other 





Synchronisation between computers: Mobile/PDA devices and inter-

 

device synchronisation Coordination between people in hierarchies and in projects



Visualisation of information resources

• 

Graphing, charting, mind maps etc.

Export , e.g. to PowerPoint

70



What are the really big frustrations in your personal information management?

• •

Do you forget where you’ve put things on your computer? How do you find  them again?  Do you have difficulty keeping and synchronising files synchronising files between computers?

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Do you find it difficult to manage documents that you store locally on your PC and the same or similar documents stored on work file servers, web services, etc.? Do you end up with multiple, incompatible versions of more-or-less the same information?

Do you succeed or fail in coordinating / synchronising address books, diary, etc. between computers? Do you succeed or fail in managing multiple email services (e.g. work/school, home Hotmail, home Gmail…)? How do you coordinate your activities when you y ou work in groups / virtual vi rtual teams?

What are you going to do to improve the situation? 

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How organised do you like to be?  Do you thrive on organisation, or find that it stifles your creativity? People oriented towards structure may favour databases, or PIMs which offer  powerful data structuring. People oriented towards spontaneity and personal creativity may prefer more visual approaches – or to stick with paper!

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What kinds of computer software do you like, feel at ease with, or want to master?   Are you at ease with classification and with rigour? Try database. database.  Do you enjoy a numeric, quantitative, algebraic approach? Try spreadsheet .  Do you think visually? Try mind mapping or  mapping or  concept maps. maps.  Are you brave enough to try novel program, approaches? Try a specialist PIM program, choosing one which suits you. 

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One possibility is to use a ready made PIM 

• We have already identified over 150 PIM/GIM (group information manager) programs 

What if that is too restrictive, or you can't afford it?  • Another possibility is to "roll your own" personal  information management using office tools

• Word processing • Spreadsheet • Database • Etc.

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Some examples of the kind of programs used for personal and small-group information management on different computer computer platforms Platform  Type of program

²PC

Proprietary

Open Source

Mac Proprietary

Cloud (SaaS, Software As A Service)

Mandrake or similar Linux distribution

Apple OS/X

Glide

Apple Safari

n/a

Built-in

n/a

Á

Operating system, with Microsoft connection to local area Windows and global networks Web browser

Microsoft Firefox Internet Explorer

e-mail client with built in Microsoft basic PIM capability Outlook

Thunderbird

Offi Office ce prod produc uctiv tivity ity suite suite Micros Microsof oftt Office Office Open OpenOff Office ice.o .org rg;; Microsoft Office for Google Apps; KDE Mac; Apple iWork Zoho Word Word process processing ing

Microso Microsoft ft Word OpenOf OpenOffice fice.or .org g Doc

Microsoft Word; iWork Pages

Google Docs

Spreadsheet

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel; iWork Numbers

Google Docs

Relational database management program (RDBMS)

Microsoft Microsoft Access OpenOffice.o OpenOffice.org rg Base

FileMaker Pro

Qrimp

OpenOffice.org Calc

Some significant PIM approaches –  examples only! find your own  personal preference!  

Microsoft Outlook

•

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Appointments, contacts, tasks, emails…

Microsoft Office • See in particular, Word, Excel, Access, Outlook, OneNote, Visio, SharePoint, InfoPath, Groove Web Services • Backpack • Remember The Milk • Google Calendar  • Plaxo • Digg, Reddit, del.ici.ous • Twine – semantic web Concept maps

•

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Mind mapping

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VisiMap MindManager 

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Lotus Notes

• • • • •

Chandler  Info Select Tinderbox (Mac only) Ecco and EccoExt InfoQube

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Gnowsis Haystack

Group Information Managers Specialist PIM applications

Semantic desktop – mainly research prototypes

CMap

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Important Note 

Most PIM and GIM tools are paid-for  software

• Few are free-to-download or open-source 

Many are available on a try-before-youbuy basis

• Use this freedom • Please don’t abuse it… “the labourer is worthy of his hire”!

Standard PIM features Personal notes/journal    Address books (contacts)  Lists (including task, “to-do” lists)  Significant calendar  dates 

• • •

Appointments and meeting Birthdays Anniversaries

Reminders   Archives of email, instant messages, fax communications, voicemail, etc. 

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Some advanced PIM features 

Example tool: InfoQube, IQ fields) – so you build • User-defined folders (IQ calls them fields) your own classification and cross-link information

•

IQ permits:

• • •

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Hierarchical Hierarchical classification – splitting things up into categories (and even sub-categories) sub-categories) Multiple (network) assignment

•

In IQ, one item can be classified by more than one field; this means that you can classify things in multiple, overlapping ways; the same thing can appear in more than one place. It also supports wiki-style tagging.

Auto-classification Auto-classification and auto-linking can be achieved on the basis of rules Note implication: implication: users only get the best from these tools as they structure their data and also think about processes about processes

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Situational Applications 

There exist applications builders which can be used by non-  technical users to build customised multi-user business information information systems

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Such applications are increasingly “in the cloud”

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Captive databases, available only locally: e.g. Microsoft   Access Relational databases deployed on the Web: e.g. Qrimp On Web servers Which may not be under the direct control or ownership of the organisation which owns the information

IBM has suggested a new name for this category of simple s imple applications builders: "situational applications builders“

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See (Cherbakov et al. 2007) See also (Gregory & Norbis 2009)

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Do you need a situational  application?  Firstly audit your personal and smallgroup information needs, as above  Then list the “big” business information systems you use  Identify any gaps: do you and your  colleagues / collaborators, in any context, need to procure a new system or build your own using a situational application builder? 

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 A possibl  possibl  of the Ap Sp

1m

1000

100

10

1

N u m b e r 

Corporate transactionoriented applications

Web 2.0 applications

o f  u s e r  s

Situational Applications

GIM: Group Information Management PIM: Personal Personal Information Management Spreadsheets

Tex

Action – Now!   

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You and I have only one life to live Sometimes we have to collaborate, to wait while others get things done for us But mostly, our destinies are in our own hands Let’s stop procrastinating and act – now – to improve our own information management and personal productivity Audit your information management, then act to improve it

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Choose at least one software program which you will use over the next few weeks in order to help h elp you IMPROVE the ways in which wh ich you Get Things Done and Keep Found Things Found  • Start to use it NOW  • Set a time limit on your experiment – say five or six weeks • Do the necessary learning to get into the program LOG of what you do with the program, how you plan its • Take a LOG of use, how you learn more about it, what your experiences are – good and bad

•

• •

A log is a list of things you have actually done – what they were and when you did them.

EVALUATION of how At the end, complete your log with an EVALUATION of effective your experiment experiment was. What will you do in the future to improve? Maybe share the log online? Join our gang?  84

The main points of this presentation are available in the form of a template questionnaire, which you can fill in and  – optionally – share with others

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• Helps you to get things done because you’ve made a visible commitment

• Potentially helps in my research

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More about classification - ontology 

So far, we’ve taken a fairly light or  informal approach to KFTF

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Classifying, tagging and associating meaning with information may need to be taken further…

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Background 

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We nearly all classify things – that is, we group them by name or  keyword (work, home, clubs and associations…) A simple organization of kinds of things is to list them alphabetically. If we give a list a title which attempts to name or  describe the items in the list, we begin to establish a vocabulary. If  we make a list of football teams, each member of the list “is-a”  football team. Making items into lists, and deciding which list each member is a part of, is a process called taxonomic classification or just classification , and it is fundamental to science and to the communication of meaning: we are ascribing and defining a vocabulary, and grouping things by their classification or type • See (Boardman 2004) for a fuller discussion, including the limitation

•

of hierarchical (tree) structures See (Golder & Huberman 2005) for a discussion of classification and tagging 87

Applying this to your  information 

How do you group files into folders on your PC?  Can you, should you, improve this? How have your classifications changed in the past, and what  changes do you anticipate? 

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Do you find the inherent limitations of the standard folder structure (which is strictly hierarchic, and is in fact a taxonomic classification) troublesome?

•

Do you need ways to store things in more than one place at a time?

•

Do you need to take this further as an ontology? 

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Archives – finding old things 

Have you previously used software and/or  platforms which you no longer have or wish to retain?

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Have you already exported the data / information to a current platform? Should you now do so? 

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Have you still got the use of the old software? Have you a way to access the old data / information? 89

Relevance to your self-audit: 

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We need to store lists in a way in which we can find the lists and their contents easily, name them, classify their contents, and relate them Your personal information management may need to evolve in these directions It is therefore wise to choose programs which permit you to

• • • • 

Create your own lists and then to name them To classify them either by a keyword within a hierarchy of keywords or  by more than one keyword (like tagging tagg ing in social networks) To search them To enable you to link one item to another 

Unfortunately, very few programs do all of these things!

•

And the ones that do demand self-investment 

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Towards Personal Management  

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What do your data mean?  There is limited support in some PIMs for classification of  contents • User-specified keyword classification of information structured in accordance with user design • Rule-based auto-classification, where the tool automatically classifies items • Tagging Semantic web approaches, such as semantic desktop, are  just beginning to appear 

• •

Q: Why is this significant?   A: Emerging shared ontologies (shared vocabularies!) should be a significant change enabler in groups of knowledge workers 91

Our initial research hypotheses (Why do  people choose  to use PIMs and GIMs?)  

Hypothesis 1

• 

Hypothesis 2 

•

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The data-centred approach adopted by most PIMs is not necessarily well adapted to the working methods adopted by knowledge workers. Establishing what styles and functionalities appeal to (or repel) different types of users is not yet well understood. Current PIMs tend to emphasise one particular information management technique, to the exclusion of others. The absence of complementary information management techniques is one of the factors which cause knowledge workers to reject current PIMs.  Why and how to choose between databases and spreadsheets? 

Hypothesis 3

•

PIMs are not much used because PIMs either impose an ontology which does not correspond to the user’s ontology, or do not permit that ontology to be made explicit and/or shared. The incorporation of explicit knowledge representation mechanisms which are tailored to their users’ (plural) needs will make a PIM more useful: by beginning to turn it into a small-group knowledge manager.  Knowledge is about classification and association; let’s make that explicit!  92

Radically rethinking your personal information management: 

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

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ontology defines a set of representational primitives which An ontology defines model a domain of knowledge Ontologies extend taxonomy by applying a larger variety of  relation types than just “is-a” • The representational primitives are typically classes (or sets), attributes (or properties), and relationships (or relations among class members) An ontology is a data model that represents a set of concepts within a domain and the relationships between those concepts; it can be used to reason about the objects within that domain Ontologies Ontologies are used in artificial intelligence, the semantic web, software engineering and information architecture as a form of  knowledge representation about the world or some part of it

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Ontologies generally describe   

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Individuals: the basic or "ground level" objects Classes: sets, collections, or types of objects Attributes: properties, properties, features, characteristics, characteristics, or parameters parameters that objects can have and share Relations: ways that objects can be related to one another  Events: the changing of attributes or relations • http://www.owlseek.com/whatis.html checked 26/03/2009

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Ontology 101 

So what is your ontology? 



Start off with a hierarchical classification, classification, and see if that works well enough for you If you or a project of which you are a part really needs a full ontology , consider using an ontology editor  Much interest centres around Stanford’s Protégé open source ontology editor and knowledge-base framework





•

See http://protege.stanford.edu/ 95

Post-implementation Post-implementatio n audit  

We suggest that:

•



Later , after a suitable evaluation period (at least five or six weeks), please revisit  your original personal information audit and evaluate the extent to which your personal and small-group information management has improved

• • •



You carry out an initial audit initial audit and then Get Started 

Good experiences (and bad ones…) Areas for further improvement What help you needed, where did you get it, what further help do you now need?

Much later , you will want to re-evaluate your  success

•  And very likely change some of the tools you use

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You should aim to Get Things Done

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You should aim to Keep Found Things Found 

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Take into full consideration

• • 

Personal work (and living, fun, e.g. music) Group work: work you do with others

whether and how to how to self-audit Decide whether and

•

If you wish, you can complete the Word document that you’ll find here

A-Form-You-Can-Complete-as-You-Audit-Your-Personal-Infor  

We hope you’ll want to talk to us about your  experiences, experiences, and thereby contribute to my research 97

(Allen 2003)

Allen, D., 2003. Getting things done: The art of stress-free productivity, penguin books.

(Alter 2002)

Alter, S., 2002. Information Systems: Foundation of E -Business, 4/e 4 éd., Pearson Education.

(Boardman 2004)

Boardman, R., 2004. Improving tool support for personal information management. London: Imperial College: Dept. of Electronic and Electrical Engineering.

(Cherbakov et al. 2007)

Cherbakov, L. et al., 2007. Changing the corporate IT development model: Tapping the power of  grassroots computing. IBM Systems Journal, 46(4), 743.

(Drucker 2000)

Drucker, P.F., 2000. Knowledge-worker productivity: The biggest challenge. The knowledge management yearbook 2000–2001.

(Golder & Huberman 2005)

Golder, S. & Huberman, B.A., 200 5. The structure of collaborative tagging systems. Arxiv preprint cs/0508082.

(Gregory & Norbis 2008a)

Gregory, M. & Norbis, M., 2008a. The business of p ersonal knowledge. Dans 8th International Conference on Knowledge, Culture and Change in Organisations. Cambridge University, United Kingdom.

(Gregory & Norbis 2008b)

Gregory, M. & Norbis, M., 2008b. Towards a Sy stematic Evaluation of Personal and Small Group Information and Knowledge Management. Dans 5th International Conference on Cybernetics and Information Technologies, Systems and Applications: Applications: CITSA 2008. Orlando, FA.

(Gregory & Norbis 2009)

Gregory, M. & Norbis, M., 2009. Evaluating Situational Applications Builders. Dans C ITSA 2009: The 6th International Conference on Cybernetics and In formation Technologies, Systems and Applications. Orlando, FA.

(Jones 2007)

Jones, W.P., 2007. Keeping found things found: The study and practice of personal information management, Morgan Kaufmann Pub.

(Lurey & Raisinghani 2001)

Lurey, J.S. & Raisinghani, M.S., 2001. An empirical study of best practices in virtual teams. Information & Management, 38(8), 523–544.

(Paquette 2002)

Paquette, G., 2002. Modélisation des connaissances et des compétences: un langage graphique pour concevoir et apprendre, Puq.

(Strassmann 1999)

Strassmann, P.A., 1999. Information Productivity, Strassmann, Inc.

(Toffler 1990)

Toffler, A., 1990. Powershift: Knowledge, wealth, and violence at the edge of the 21st century, Bantam.

Thanks for reading so far!  Now here’s a Request:  



If you wish to comment further on this presentation or  paper; Or if you complete the Personal Audit Challenge(!) to be found at A-Form-You-Can-Complete-as-You-Audit-Your-Personal-Information-Mana



; Contact me:

• • 

Put your name on the list Or email [email protected] 

Join Our Gang! We are a community  of people aiming to improve their information management



Over to you… 99