Personal Information Management

Effective Data Mining Support for Personal Information Management

by Korinna Bade

(Gregory et al. 2010) Data, Information and Knowledge; a candid and pragmatic discussion

by Mark Gregory

Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Advanced and Systematic Research, Zagreb, Croatia, Nov. 11th.-13th, 2010

As knowledge workers, we engage daily in meta-cognitive processes through which we build our own personal knowledge... more As knowledge workers, we engage daily in meta-cognitive processes through which we build our own personal knowledge concerning our own cognitive processes and learning-relevant properties of knowledge, information or data. The commonly accepted understanding that data is transformed into information and information then feeds or becomes knowledge does not encompass the reality of personal knowledge management across all areas concerned by knowledge creation. There is an insufficient level of understanding of how to make the best use of information systems to extend the power of knowledge workers to think and to create. Systematic self-observation in parallel with action research might prove to be efficient and scientific qualitative methods allowing for gathering accurate descriptions of one’s own experience while managing personal knowledge. It may also assist with the subsequent design of information systems that would truly help knowledge workers create, make explicit and enhance their knowledge.

A reflection on Personal Information Management Systems - final

by Mark Gregory

Gregory, M., 2012. A reflection on Personal Information Management Systems. Dans PIM Workshop 2012, part of CHI 2012. Bellevue, Seattle, WA.

This paper reconsiders the term Personal Information Management System PIMS and compares and contrasts it with the... more This paper reconsiders the term Personal Information Management System PIMS and compares and contrasts it with the similar terms Individual Information System IIS as discussed by Richard Baskerville and User Generated Information System UGIS as introduced by Philip DesAutels. However, this paper contends (with Baskerville) that it is the personal work system constituted when a human user makes use of a PIMS which exhibits a systemic nature. The paper introduces specific research questions which relate to PIMS and demonstrates their emergence on the basis of reflection or reflexivity. It suggests as a potential contribution the theoretical and practical necessity for modelling a PIMS in order that the PIMS constructed using that model be maximally effective for the individual who uses it. That contention is the subject of ongoing research.

Mentored action learning applied to personal knowledge management

by Mark Gregory

(Gregory, Kehal and Descubes 2012)
UKAIS 2012: Proceedings of the 2012 conference of the United Kingdom Academy for Information Systems, New College, Oxford, March 2012

This paper positions and justifies an ongoing research project, the doctoral research of the first-named author. Two... more This paper positions and justifies an ongoing research project, the doctoral research of the first-named author. Two of the authors have previously critically reviewed the literature concerning the relationships between data, information and knowledge (Gregory & Descubes 2011a). This paper introduces personal information management systems PIMS as a mechanism used to support the personal knowledge management of knowledge workers. Its first contribution is to identify PIMS with the recently-identified individual information systems IIS of (Baskerville 2011) and to draw a close parallel with the user generated information systems UGIS of (DesAutels 2011).
Research design based on action research enabled by peer and dialogic mentoring (Bokeno & Gantt 2000) as nourished by reflection and reflexivity, is suggested in a second potential contribution as the basis for further research into PIM systems, effective personal knowledge management and deep learning by those who collaborate in that research and its application in practice. Parallels are drawn to Action Learning (Revans 1998) and distinctions are identified.

(Gregory & Descubes 2011) Structured reflection in information systems teaching and research

by Mark Gregory

Gregory, M. & Descubes, I., 2011. Structured reflection in Information Systems Teaching and Research. In: UKAIS 2011: Proceedings of the 2011 conference of the United Kingdom Academy for Information Systems, St. Catherine’s College, Oxford, April 2011. Oxford, England.

This paper contends that improved teaching and the emergence of research questions may be based on reflective... more This paper contends that improved teaching and the emergence of research questions may be based on reflective self-observation, structured by means of personal knowledge management tools, often between and after cycles of action research. The paper revisits the concepts of data, information, knowledge, meaning and action. It proposes that knowledge be enacted in engaged teaching and research. It discusses how reflection on teaching and research can be structured as self-observation made visual in the form of concept maps. Concept maps are used both to illustrate learning and as a means of making initially personal knowledge more explicit, particularly in the early stages of inquiry and learning and particularly as part of an abductive logic of enquiry. Structured self-observation is distinguished from merely descriptive auto-ethnography by means of explicit model building informed by Ashby’s law of Requisite Variety and Conant and Ashby’s Good Regulator theorem. The method used to illustrate the paper’s propositions is case-based reflection on a teaching situation. Similar reflection in the research context is additionally informed by a discussion of Checkland’s LUMAS (Learning for a User by a Methodology-informed Approach to a problem Situation). We conclude by suggesting that enquiry may initially be informed by structured self-observation and then proceed by further learning, informed by theory and enacted in practice.

Auditing Personal Information Management

by Mark Gregory

Gregory, M.R. & Norbis, M. (2009a) 'Auditing Personal Information Management'. Paper presented at the UKAIS 2009 conference, St. Anne's College, Oxford in April 2009.

This paper firstly introduces personal information management using computers. It then describes a suggested approach... more This paper firstly introduces personal information management using computers. It then describes a suggested approach to auditing the information needs which are personal to a knowledge worker. As part of an overall research programme in personal information management, the paper describes a personal auditing approach which is positioned as part of the experimental research aspect of the overall research. The paper aims to give practical guidance including on the effective classification of an individual’s data.
• Keywords: PIM, Semantic Web, GTD – Getting Things Done, KFTF – Keeping Found Things Found

Towards a Systematic Evaluation of Personal and Small Group Information and Knowledge Management

by Mark Gregory

Gregory, M.R. & Norbis, M. (2008a) 'Towards a Systematic Evaluation of Personal and Small Group Information and Knowledge Management'. Paper presented to 5th International Conference on Cybernetics and Information Technologies, Systems and Applications: CITSA 2008, in July 2008.

This research presents the hypothesis that individuals working in groups should be motivated to make better use of the... more This research presents the hypothesis that individuals working in groups should be motivated to make better use of the available tools for information management and that the tools themselves should evolve into or be replaced by better ways of representing information and knowledge. As a first step, it is necessary to classify and evaluate the effectiveness of existing tools and techniques. This paper summarizes current trends in the academic and practitioner’s literature in the areas of knowledge representation and communication by individuals and small groups. The paper also suggests that a judicious mix of existing and emerging tools, coordinated by semantic desktop approaches, will permit evolution or revolution in the management of individual and shared information and knowledge.

Collaboration and end-user information management tools

by Mark Gregory

I gave this paper at AMCIS 2010, Lima, Peru: Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS) AMCIS 2010 Proceedings

Knowledge and information workers work as individuals within virtual team structures. Those teams may be small,more Knowledge and information workers work as individuals within virtual team structures. Those teams may be small,
or they may in fact form part of larger groups which continue to share similar objectives. Knowledge workers
therefore acquire and manage personal and group information which they may choose to manage themselves using Personal and small-Group Information Management tools and techniques (PIM, GIM). This paper summarises some
earlier research into PIM and GIM before addressing its objectives, which are to:
* Consider the use of PIM / GIM techniques as the basis for collaboration within those virtual teams
* Discuss collaboration and community involvement in the actual development of PIM/GIM tools
* Identify the need for formalisms and abstraction skills in effective personal information management.
Keywords:
Personal information management (PIM); Group information

The business of personal knowledge

by Mark Gregory

Gregory, M.R. & Norbis, M. (2008b) 'The business of personal knowledge.' Paper given at the 8th International Conference on Knowledge, Culture and Change in Organisations, at the Cambridge University, United Kingdom between 2008/08/05 and 2008/08/08.

Knowledge and information workers work as individuals within virtual team structures. As individuals and as team... more Knowledge and information workers work as individuals within virtual team structures. As individuals and as team members, they acquire information, which they store in a number of complex ways: some paper-based, but increasingly computer-based. There are a number of computer-based tools, sometimes referred to as Personal Information Managers or PIMs (Kelly 2006 and Teevan 2006) which can assist in the storage and management of such information. However, little is understood about how people use these tools, how they learn new ones, the ways in which the tools constrain how people work and think, and how best to educate people to make the right choice of the right tools. The underlying hypothesis of the research-in-progress presented in this paper is that individuals working in groups should be encouraged and educated to make better use of the available tools, and that the tools themselves should evolve into better ways of representing information and knowledge.

The object of this paper is to present a limited view of current trends in the academic and practitioners’ literature in the areas of knowledge representation and communication by individuals and small groups (Boardman et. al. 2004) in search of a better understanding about the way people use these tools and learn new ones, in order subsequently to find strategies on how best to educate people to make the right choice of the right tools. The paper suggests a classification scheme for these tools based primarily on their data representation: e.g. spreadsheet, relational database and semantic web represented at the desktop level (Sauermann, et. al. 2005). Specific difficulties associated with certain of these data representations are identified. The paper also suggests that a judicious mix of existing and emerging techniques and tools will permit evolution or revolution in the management of individual and shared information and knowledge.

Keywords: PIM, GIM, Classification, Knowledge Representation, Semantic Web

Using the web to explore scientific knowledge and extend the desktop information space

by Fernando Figueira Filho

Co-authors: Brendan Cleary, Wendy Mackay, Paulo Lício de Geus

We conducted a study on how academic researchers manage multiple documents acquired from the web for later retrieval.... more We conducted a study on how academic researchers manage multiple documents acquired from the web for later retrieval. We interviewed 11 participants and identified their strategies when trying to re-find specific documents. We found that they often prefer web-based search for re-finding documents, despite knowing that the document of interest is stored on their computers. We argue that Web search engines can act as an extension of the desktop information space. We found that users choose keyword-based search not only when the document’s location is unknown but also when the retrieval cost is very low: they do not bother about properly storing files because most files are easily found again with a web-based search engine. We close by discussing the implication of these findings for the design of future document management tools.

Architecture for Integrating Desktop and Web 2.0 Data Management

by Michael Grossniklaus

Proc. IWWOST 2008

A new form of personal information fragmentation is arising due to the rapid growth in Web 2.0 applications and their... more A new form of personal information fragmentation is arising due to the rapid growth in Web 2.0 applications and their use for the management of data typically associated with desktop applications. We propose a data management architecture that allows data to be shared between desktop and Web 2.0 applications. The architecture supports a separation of concerns between the management of personal data and its publication on the Web to social networks.

Synchronising Personal Data with Web 2.0 Data Sources

by Michael Grossniklaus

Proc. WISE 2010: pp. 411-418

Web 2.0 users may publish a rich variety of personal data to a number of sites by uploading personal desktop data or... more Web 2.0 users may publish a rich variety of personal data to a number of sites by uploading personal desktop data or actually creating it on the Web 2.0 site. We present a framework and tools that address the resulting problems of information fragmentation and fragility by providing users with fine grain control over the processes of publishing and importing Web 2.0 data.

Spatial tools for managing personal information collections

by Pierre Fastrez

Co-authored with Dan Bauer and Jim Hollan
Published in 'Proceedings of the 38th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences', 2005

Dynapad is a development environment designed to support research prototyping of multiscale workspaces. In this paper... more Dynapad is a development environment designed to support research prototyping of multiscale workspaces. In this paper we describe applications designed to facilitate visual access to and spatial organization of digital photo collections and personal libraries of PDF documents. The research objective is to explore a generalization of the notion of a “pile” as a foundation for a versatile suite of tools to provide unobtrusive assistance for organizing collections and other sensemaking activities. We detail the architecture underlying the applications, explain how it supports diverse functionality and interaction styles, and abstract a set of principles for designing spatial tools.

Computationally-enriched "piles" for managing digital photo collections

by Pierre Fastrez

Co-authored with Dan Bauer and Jim Hollan
Published in 'Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing', 2004

We explore and extend the metaphor of “piles” to include computationally-enriched piles, portable regions of... more We explore and extend the metaphor of “piles” to include computationally-enriched piles, portable regions of automation in Dynapad, a multiscale workspace. We describe these collection-management tools and how their design was informed by bserving people organizing collections of personal digital photographs.

Personalized Structuring of Retrieved Items

by Korinna Bade

User oriented hierarchical information organization and retrieval

by Korinna Bade

OntoFM: A Personal Ontology-based File Manager for the Desktop

by Jenny Rompa

Co-authored with Giorgos Lepouras, Costas Vassilakis, and Christos Tryfonopoulos

Personal ontologies have been proposed as a means to support the semantic management of user information. Assuming... more Personal ontologies have been proposed as a means to support the semantic management of user information. Assuming that a personal ontology system is in use, new tools have to be developed at user interface level to exploit the enhanced capabilities offered by the system. In this work, we present an ontology-based file manager that allows semantic searching on the user’s personal information space. The file manager exploits the ontology relations to present files associated with specific concepts, proposes new related concepts to users, and helps them explore the information space and locate the required file.

Keywords: ontology, file manager, personal information management

El correo electrónico está de aniversario: cumple 40 años

by Jorge Franganillo

Email is fourty years old this year. This tool, which is essential for the daily work of millions of people, has... more Email is fourty years old this year. This tool, which is essential for the daily work of millions of people, has changed little since its invention. Yet it's not just a communication system; people are using it in a more rich and diverse way that includes personal archiving and contact and task management.

Gestión de información personal: elementos, actividades e integración

by Jorge Franganillo

Personal information management (PIM) studies how people should organize and use the information they get to solve... more Personal information management (PIM) studies how people should organize and use the information they get to solve everyday needs, in order to take full advantage of personal resources (time, money, energy, attention) and thereby increase productivity and improve their quality of life. This paper presents the components and activities where PIM is articulated and describes how to promote the integration of personal information that is generally scattered in different forms, applications and devices.

Paper-Digital Meeting Support and Review

by Beat Signer

Adriana Ispas, Nan Li, Moira C. Norrie and Beat Signer, Proceedings of CollaborateCom 2010, 6th International Conference on Collaborative Computing, Chicago, USA, October 2010

Paper notes are still widely used during meetings for the capture and review of information created in meetings.... more Paper notes are still widely used during meetings for the capture and review of information created in meetings. However, personal notes are limited in terms of providing an overview of collaborative work practices and reflecting the evolution of data along successive meeting phases, especially taking into account actions performed on paper and digital media. We propose a solution for the review of meeting data captured along three dimensions of collaboration: paper-digital interaction, private and shared documents as well as pre- and in-meeting information. Based on a general data model, our system enhances the transition between succeeding meeting phases and improves the review of personal and collaborative cross-media meeting material.