70
Personal Information Management in Theory and Practice Danmarks Biblioteksskole William Jones April 11, 2008
| Date post: | 28-May-2015 |
| Category: |
Education |
| Upload: | williampauljones |
| View: | 353 times |
| Download: | 0 times |
Personal Information Management in Theory and Practice
Danmarks Biblioteksskole
William Jones
April 11, 2008
William Jones 2
About the InstructorDr. William Jones is an Associate Research Professor in The Information School where he manages the Keeping Found Things Found project (funded by the National Science Foundation, http://kftf.ischool.washington.edu/index.asp ; see also http://pim.ischool.washington.edu/ ). Dr. Jones received his Ph.D. from Carnegie-Mellon University for research in human memory. He has published basic research in cognitive psychology as well as more applied research in personal information management (PIM), information retrieval and human-computer interaction. He has worked as a program manager at the Microsoft Corporation, where he was involved in the production of information management features for both Microsoft Office and MSN Search. He also worked as an internal consultant at Boeing, where he led an effort to create an information repository for flight deck problems and design rationale. Dr. Jones holds 5 patents relating to search and PIM.
William Jones 3
Tutorial Structure 9:10 Introductions, objectives, agenda
9:30 What is Personal Information Management and why should we care?
An Analysis of PIM
10:20 Break.
11:15 Tools of PIM; Tips, traps & tradeoffs of PIM
The present and the future of PIM
12:00 Adjourn
Personal Information Management in Theory and Practice
An Introduction to PIM
Unit 1
William Jones 5
A Definition
Personal Information Management (PIM) refers to both the practice and the study of the activities a person performs in order to acquire or create, store, organize, maintain, retrieve, use and distribute the information needed to complete tasks (work-related and not) and to fulfill various roles and responsibilities (as parent, employee, friend, member of community, etc.). PIM places special emphasis on the organization and maintenance of personal information collections (PICs) in which information items, such as paper documents, electronic documents, email messages, web references, handwritten notes, etc., are stored for later use and repeated re-use.
William Jones 6
An Ideal of PIM
… without a lot of fuss or muss. (We don’t spend a lot of time filing and organizing).
We have more time to make creative, intelligent use of the information at hand in order to get things done.
We have the information we need, when we need it, where we need it, in the right form, enough (but not too much)…
William Jones 7
Information Fragmentation
“About 85 per cent of my ‘thinking’ time was spent getting into a position to think, to make a decision, to learn something I needed to know . . . my choices of what to attempt and what not to attempt were determined to an embarrassingly great extent by considerations of clerical feasibility, not intellectual capability. (Licklider, “Man-Computer Symbiosis,” 1960, p. 4)
William Jones 8
The Reality: Our Personal Information Is Fragmented…
By “form”:
- Paper
- E-docs
- Web references
- Calendars
- Music clips
- Video clips
- “E-notes” (Tablet PC)
- …
By location:
- Home
- Office
- “Road”
By maintainer:
- Doctor, HMO
- Credit company
- Bank
- Employer
- IRS
-…
William Jones 9
Individuals collect many different types of informationradio news & information
Email messagesbooks
newspaper articles
telephone numbers
budgets
websites
contact lists
calendar appointments
MAGAZINES & JOURNALS
graphs & charts
images
bills
television news & information
accounts
photographs
signs & instructions
deadlines
schedules
William Jones 10
The Benefits of Better PIM
Enough (but not too much) useful information at the right time, at the right place, in the right form/format…
Better management of our resources: time, money, energy, etc.
Better productivity
Better coordination with others
Better leverage of “me”
William Jones 11
A Historical Perspective: Some Conceptual Influences on PIM In the 1940s Memex, Vannevar Bush. Information Theory. Claude Shannon & Warren Weaver.
In the 1950s. People as information processors. Donald Broadbent.
(Integrating ideas from communication theory.) Computer modeling of human cognition
– Herbert Simon and Allen Newell.
In the 1960s IA, Intelligence Augmentation, Douglas Engelbart Hypertext, Ted Nelson
William Jones 12
Exercise
Picture your office or primary workplace. How many piles of paper do you see? (on the
floor, the desktop, in bookshelves, on tables, etc.).
Count them.
Write this number down.
William Jones 13
Exercise, continued
Now think of your primary email account (the one you work with most often during the day). If you have two or more 'primary' accounts, think of them both. At the end of a typical day, roughly how
many email messages are in your inbox?
Write this number down.
William Jones 14
Some Enduring Truths.PIM is…
A highly creative, individual activity. Each of us is unique. Our information needs
are unique. There is no single “right” way that works for
everyone. On-going, experimental, trial-and-error,
evolving, and never-ending.
William Jones 15
To File or “Pile”?
Various information types each have their own support for filing
Paper
Edocs
Favorites/Bookmarks
…
William Jones 16
These information types also have a way to “pile”… Email
The inbox
Edocs The desktop, “My Documents”, …
Favorites/Bookmarks Leave at top-level, don’t file away in folders.
…?
William Jones 17
Are Piles Bad? Why Pile?
William Jones 18
Are Piles Bad? Why Pile?
Wait and see. Delay or avoid the difficult, costly and error prone activity of filing.
Reminding.
Fast access.
The path of least resistance.
But our ability to keep track of (and feel good about) piles is limited…
William Jones 19
From a Survey in the KFTF Project: Results and Key Concepts The same strategies are listed by different
people as both working and not working. Leaving things in piles. Filing everything into folders.
People are sometimes “binge organizers”.
People are searching for sustainable strategies of PIM that are “just right”.
William Jones 20
Many Types of Information Have Their Own Distinct Form… Distinct organization.
Distinct supporting applications and tools.
Distinct patterns, methods, habits of use.
Examples: Paper files, electronic files, email, web references, ….
and the list continues to grow.
William Jones 21
Information Fragmentation Creates Problems at Several Stages of PIM Encountering new information.
Do I keep it? Where? How? In which organization? On which computer? Do I already have this information (somewhere)?
Finding old information. Where to look? Which folder? At home or at work? On which
computer? In which email account?
Organization and maintenance. Too many organizations! One (or more) for electronic documents,
paper documents, email, web references (Favorites/Bookmarks).
Using information to get something done. We may spend several minutes gather information together to
work on a task – even if we know where it is.
William Jones 22
Some Historical Perspective:Let’s Go Back 22 years or so … PCs were new and expensive. Computer use for
most users meant terminal access to a mini- or mainframe computer.
Digital storage was expensive. E-mail was just beginning to be used and then only for communication. Messages were rarely archived.
The Web… not yet.
Paper was the preferred form for information storage.
William Jones 23
Now in 2008…
We have desktop, laptops and palmtops…
The cost of digital storage is low. PCs now come equipped with gigabytes of storage.
Email use is widespread and email messages are archived.
The Web…
But… paper is still very much with us! (see Sellen and Harper, 2002)
William Jones 24
What are we really managing?
When you’re young, you have time and energy but no money.
When you’re middle-aged, you have energy and money but no time.
When you’re old, you have time and money but no energy.
William Jones 25
What are we really managing?
What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence, a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.
-- Herbert Simon, 1971.
William Jones 26
Information, The Consumer of… Time
Money
Energy
Attention
Space, digital & physical
… Well-being?
William Jones 27
Seminar Objectives
A better understanding for what PIM is (and isn't) and the benefits for doing it better.
A ability to map from key activities and fundamental problems of PIM to an evaluation of tools and strategies.
An understanding for directions in research & development and their likely impact on our practice of PIM.
William Jones 28
What else? What would you like to get out of this seminar?
William Jones 29
Tools and information as a cushion between people and their immediate environment
“environment”
Behavior of person
Cushion provided by tools
William Jones 30
The senses in which information can be personal.
Relation to “me” Examples Issues
1 Controlled by, owned by me
Email messages in our email accounts; files on our computer’s hard drive.
Security against break-ins or theft., backup, virus protection, etc.
2 About me Credit history, medical, web browsing, library books checked out.
Who sees what when (under which circumstances)? How is information corrected or updated? Does it ever go away?
3 Directed towards me
Phone calls, drop-ins, TV ads, web ads, pop-ups.
Protection of me and my money, energy, attention and time.
William Jones 31
The senses in which information can be personal (cont.)
Relation to “me”
Examples Issues
4 Sent (posted, provided) by me
Email, personal web sites, published reports and articles.
Who sees what when? Did the message get through?
5 (Already) experienced by me
Web pages that remain on the Web. Books that remain in a library. TV and radio programs that remain somewhere in “broadcast ether”.
How to get back to information again later?
6 Potentially relevant (useful) to me; about to be experienced by me.
Somewhere “out there” is the perfect vacation, house, job, life-long mate. If only I could find the right information!
If only I knew (had some idea of) what I don’t know. How to filter out or otherwise avoid information we don’t wish to see? (How to do likewise for our children?)
A Personal Space of Information
04/12/23 32
5. already experienced by me 1. owned
by me
6. useful to me
2. about me
3. directed to me
4. sent by me
A World of Personal Information
04/12/23 33
William Jones 34
Some Working Definitions An information item is a packaging of information.
Examples of information items include: 1. paper documents; 2. electronic documents and other files; 3. email messages; 4. web pages; or 5. references (e.g., shortcuts, alias) to any of the above.
An information item has an associated information form which is determined by the tools and applications that are used to name, move, copy, delete or otherwise organize or assign properties to an item. paper documents, e-documents and other files, email
messages and web bookmarks.
William Jones 35
Which objects qualify as information items?
Copy? Move? Retrieve? Delete?
Computer file folder Copy & Paste
Drag & drop “Open” “Delete”
Computer file Copy & Paste
Drag & drop “Open” “Delete”
Paper bank statement
Photo-copy “Pick up and place”
Open Toss or Shred
Email message Copy & Paste
Drag & drop “Open” “Delete”
Web bookmark Copy & Paste
Drag & drop “Open” “Delete”
Web page ? Save as file(s)
? “Open” ?
Human “engram”[1] No No Remember No
Antelope in zoo Cloning? Carefully… Walk to the cage.
Kill, cook and eat?
PIM as a Mapping Between Information and Need (that We Each Have)
04/12/23 36
Keeping According to Anticipated Uses
04/12/23 37
Schemes of Maintenance and Organization
04/12/23 38
Strategies for Information Flow
04/12/23 39
Supporting Tools
04/12/23 40
William Jones 41
Units of Analysis in PIM
Task – Something we might put on a to-do list. “Return Henry’s phone call.” “Shop for dinner on the way home from work.”
Project – composed of any number of tasks and subprojects. Has internal structure and… … duration from several days to several months.
William Jones 42
Personal information collections (PICs)
A personal information collection, referred to as PICs or simply collections in the remainder of the book, are personally managed subsets of a PSI. PICs are “islands” in a PSI where people have made some conscious effort to control both the information that goes in and how this information is organized.
William Jones 43
Break – 10 minutes
Personal Information Management in Theory and in Practice
Tools in support of PIM; How to evaluate their usefulness and usability?
Unit 2
04/12/23 45
Support Needed for Each Sense of Personal Information 1. Controlled by, owned by me. Security against break-ins.
Support for back-ups and updates. Support for organization and maintenance.
2. About me. Privacy laws. Support for privacy preferences (e.g. P3P). Ability to correct. How come each doctor runs the same tests?
3. Directed toward me. When can I be interrupted? PDAs that know where we are and what we’re doing.
4. Sent (posted, provided) by me. Where does the information go? How is it used? What impact does it have? Am I getting credit?
5. (Already) experienced by me. What is my information diet? What biases does it introduce?
6. Relevant (useful) to me (or not…). Anticipatory, adaptive filters that learn over time?
Tradeoffs for Each Sense
04/12/23 46
1. Controlled by, owned by me. More time to keep and organize now or more time to find (and organize) later? Copy or reference? (Integrity vs. speed & convenience?)
2. About me. “I agree”? Is the risk worth it?
3. Directed toward me. Need to know vs. need for privacy. “Reach” vs. respect for current situation.
4. Sent (posted, provided) by me. Need to get information out there but need not to be scooped or plagiarized. The art of email
5. (Already) experienced by me. Need to remember, need to forget and start from scratch.
6. Relevant (useful) to me (or not…). Filters that work but not too good. Need for controlled chaos? Not everything we need can be articulated. We don’t always know what’s good for us.
PIM as a Mapping Between Information and Need (that We Each Have)
04/12/23 47
William Jones 48
Questions & Problems Can Arise with Each PIM Activity Keeping
Where does new information go? Where? In what form? Do I have it already?
How much effort should I expend to keep? Finding
Look “in here” or “out there”? Remembering where to look. Remembering to look at all The “re-collecting” of information needed to
complete a task.
William Jones 49
Questions & Problems Can Arise with Each PIM Activity (cont.) Maintaining/organizing.
How can I maintain consistency between so many different organizations?
Do I really need all this “stuff”? When can I safely delete?
When to pile? When to file? Are my strategies and structures really working for
me? Should I get this “cool new tool”? Am I making
effective use of the tools & techniques I already have?
William Jones 50
Exercise: What Do You Do When You Can’t Find Something You “Have”? Think of a time recently (past week or so if possible) when you had
difficulty finding a paper document (bill, article, memo, report, financial statement, etc.) that you really needed.
Where did you look? In which folders? Which piles? Home or at work?
Did you try different ways of looking? How long did you spend overall?
What finally happened? What finally worked? Did you finally find the paper document? If so how? Where? Did you give up? If so, did you do without the information of the document? or did you try to get in another way?
How might you have kept the information better originally to avoid the trouble you had re-finding it?
Find a partner and share your experiences. Please take notes.
William Jones 51
Re-finding Exercise, continued.
Now do the same for an piece of electronic information. Pick one of the following:
An electronic document (file). An Email message. A web page.
Where did you look? Did you try different ways of looking? How long did you spend overall? What finally happened? How would you keep things differently next time?
William Jones 52
Re-finding Exercise, Discussion How long did you spend? Did you succeed finally? What worked? How would you do things differently next
time? Would you keep the information somewhere
else?
William Jones 53
Re-finding Is Multi-Step (with Many Stumbling Points)
Remember to look Remember where/how to look Recognize the information you seek when it’s
in front of you. “Re-collect” the information you need to
complete a task.
William Jones 54
Keeping Is Multi-faceted, with Many Choices to Make (Wrong?) Is this/could this be useful? Act now or wait? Do I need to keep or can I get back to it
anyway? Where to keep?
On which computer? On paper? In my cell phone? Where/how will I need to use the information later?
Pile or file? In which folder?
William Jones 55
Meta-level Activities Are Important,But Often Happen “After” Everything Else
Maintaining and re-organizing. Managing privacy & information flow Making sense of an information collection (PIC) Measuring and assessing effectiveness of
current tools and strategies. How soon/often should you answer email?
Putting More “Meta” into a Daily Practice of PIM Incidental
Instrumented versions of everything. Information fades away with disuse? Item event logs
Incremental Case by case decisions for flow
Integrative Don’t organize. Plan!
04/12/23 56
William Jones 57
Individuals collect many different types of information
radio news & information
Email messagesbooks
newspaper articles
telephone numbers
budgets
websites
contact lists
calendar appointments
MAGAZINES & JOURNALS
graphs & charts
images
bills
television news & information
accounts
photographs
signs & instructions
deadlines
schedules
William Jones 58
There are many (many…) tools to help
William Jones 59
Another Tool, Yet Another Information Form: Notes in OneNote®
William Jones 60
The Organization of “Notes”
Roughly equivalent to but distinct from existing ways of organization email, e-documents, web references and email…
William Jones 61
Some Ways to Classify a PIM Tool
Information form: support for specific form of information (email, web references, electronic documents, paper) vs. many forms
Audience: Tools for general audience vs. tools focused on a particular kind of user and task (e.g. sales & marketing)
Task management: Does the tool support time and task management?
Commercial vs. research: Is the tool a commercial product or a research prototype?
Another way…
For which PIM activities does the tool provide help?
William Jones 62
Key PIM Activities and Awareness
Meta-level
What information do I need?
What information do I have?
What is this information? Do I have it already?Where, when, how will I need it?
Working with Information
Keeping Finding
Information “In here”…
Information “Out there”…
William Jones 63
Where and How the Tools are Helping?
Keeping Finding
Meta-level
??
?
? ?
? ?? ?
? ?
? ?
?
?
?
?
? ?
William Jones 64
New, Cool Tool? Some Questions to Ask:1. Does the tool help in the management of tasks? Time? Energy?
2. Is the tool primarily focused on one form of information? If so, which? Email? Web? Files? Paper? Or is the tool integrative?
3. How does the tool help on the keeping side? (reminders, history lists) How does the tool help on the finding side? (alerts, search) Does support on the two sides fit?
4. How does the tool help with maintenance? …(re-)organization? Does it enable an integrative organization of information regardless of form? By Tasks? Projects? Does it identify patterns or clusters?
5. Does the tool help in measuring effectiveness – its own or other tools?
6. What about other meta-level support? Does it help me to make sense of my information?
7. Does the tool help me to understand the relevance of incoming info? Examples: Auto-summarizing. Highlighting of relevant passages.
8. Does the tool help me to understand the information I have already?
9. Does the tool help me to assess my information needs current and future?
William Jones 65
Exercise: Evaluate a PIM Tool or Tool Feature
William Jones 66
On to the Future! Trends and Trade-offs Keep Everything vs. Keep Nothing
Search Everything and Organize Nothing? cross-form searching
Organize by/for me vs. Organize by/for others social tagging PIM vs. Group) IM
Unify & Integrate Everything single organizational scheme
William Jones 67
Open discussion
What would you like to see?
How does your personal space of information look in five years?
William Jones 68
What Have We Covered Today?
1. A look at what PIM is, both as an everyday activity and as a field of inquiry.
2. A brief overview of historical influences on PIM research and development.
3. An analytical breakdown of PIM with respect to key challenges of information management.
4. A review of recent findings in PIM-related research.
5. A practical review of PIM tips.
6. An selective overview of the many tools that promise to help in PIM.
Read on?
04/12/23 69
PERSONAL INFORMATION MANAGEMENTEdited by William Jones and Jaime Teevan
Keeping Found Things Found: The Study and Practice of Personal Information Management
William Jones 70
Follow-on Questions or Comments?
Please email me: [email protected]
Also, visit the Information School web site on PIM: http://pim.ischool.washington.edu/
Also, visit the Keeping Found Things Found web site: http://kftf.ischool.washington.edu/ Or simply search for “KFTF” in Google or another search
service.
