Synopses & Reviews
Personal Information Management (PIM) is attracting increased attention as an area of study in many fields in computer science and information management.
In an ideal world, we have the right information at the right time, in the right place, in the right form, and of sufficient completeness and quality to perform the current activity. Tools and technologies help so that we spend less time with burdensome and error prone actions of information management (such as filing). We then have nore time to make creative, intelligent use of the information at hand in order to get things done. The result for us as individuals is better use of our resources of time, money, energy and attention. The results for organizations are better employee productivity and better team work in the near term, and more knowledgeable employees in the long term.
This book provides a comprehensive overview of PIM, which refers to both the practice and the study of the activities people perform in order to acquire, organize, maintain, and retrieve information for everyday use.
The introduction proves a high level overview of PIM and a sense of its many facets, and is followed by chapters on the basic challenges and fundamental findings: empirical research that relates to PIM and to basic PIM activities including finding, keeping, and m-level activities (maintenance and organization; management of access, privacy and security; manipulation and making sense of information. The book also includes chapters that review technologies, tools, and techniques that can assist people in their practice of PIM, and offers the basics in different appraoches to PIM support, including search tecnnology, indexing, etc.
* First book that focuses exclusively on one of the most interesting and challenging problems in data management and HCI today--personal information management.
* Explores what good and better PIM looks like, and how to measure improved PIM.
* Presents key problems and challenges in PIM, and most promising approaches in development.
Review
"A must- read for designers, developers, librarians, and anyone else who cares about the future of information interaction." -- Peter Morville, Author of, Ambient Findability, and Information Architecture for the World Wide Web "Today, software can deliver unprecedented support for managing our ever more copious information. This landmark book provides detailed knowledge of behavior and technology that is essential for effective design and use of these productivity tools." -- Jonathan Grudin, Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research "This is an important book. Its theme is powerful and timely. The treatment combines keen observation, practical insight, and broad vision in way seldom seen." -- Clayton Lewis, Professor of Computer Science, University of Colorado
"William Jones has written an excellent book that should be read by anyone interested in personal information management, or indeed other subjects such as search and information seeking behavior." -- Professor T.D. Wilson, Editor-in-Chief, Information Research
Synopsis
Keeping Found Things Found: The Study and Practice of Personal Information Management is the first comprehensive book on new 'favorite child' of R&D at Microsoft and elsewhere, personal information management (PIM). It provides a comprehensive overview of PIM as both a study and a practice of the activities people do, and need to be doing, so that information can work for them in their daily lives.
It explores what good and better PIM looks like, and how to measure improvements. It presents key questions to consider when evaluating any new PIM informational tools or systems.
This book is designed for R&D professionals in HCI, data mining and data management, information retrieval, and related areas, plus developers of tools and software that include PIM solutions.
* Focuses exclusively on one of the most interesting and challenging problems in today's world
* Explores what good and better PIM looks like, and how to measure improvements
* Presents key questions to consider when evaluating any new PIM informational tools or systems
Synopsis
WE ARE ADRIFT IN A SEA OF INFORMATION. We need information to make good decisions, to get things done, to learn, and to gain better mastery of the world around us. But we do not always have good control of our information - not even in the "home waters" of an office or on the hard drive of a computer. Instead, information may be controlling us - keeping us from doing the things we need to do, getting us to waste money and precious time. The growth of available information, plus the technologies for its creation, storage, retrieval, distribution and use, is astonishing and sometimes bewildering. Can there be a similar growth in our understanding for how best to manage information and informational tools?
This book provides a comprehensive overview of personal information management (PIM) as both a study and a practice of the activities people do and need to be doing so that information can work for them in their daily lives.
Introductory chapters of Keeping Found Things Found: The Study and Practice of Personal Information Management provide an overview of PIM and a sense for its many facets. The next chapters look more closely at the essential challenges of PIM, including finding, keeping, organizing, maintaining, managing privacy, and managing information flow. The book also contains chapters on search, email, mobile PIM, web-based support, and other technologies relevant to PIM.
*For more information and author blog visit http://www.keepingthingsfound.com/.
* Focuses exclusively on one of the most interesting and challenging problems in today's world
* Explores what good and better PIM looks like, and how to measure improvements
* Presents key questions to consider when evaluating any new PIM informational tools or systems
About the Author
William Jones is a research associate professor at the University of Washington, Seattle, where he manages the Keeping Found Things Found project. Dr. Jones contributed chapters on personal information management (PIM) to the Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, the Handbook of Applied Cognition, and the Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science. He has presented numerous tutorials and courses on PIM, co-edited a book on PIM, and organized two PIM workshops, including an invitational sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Dr. Jones has published articles on basic research in cognitive psychology and more applied research in PIM, information retrieval, and human-computer interaction. Dr. Jones holds several patents relating to search and PIM. He received his doctorate in cognitive psychology from Carnegie-Mellon University.
University of Washington
Table of Contents
I. Foundations of Personal Information Management: Introduction: A study and a practice; A personal space of information; A framework for understanding PIM. II. Activities of Personal Information Management: Finding and re-finding: From need to information; Keeping and organizing: From information to need; Maintaining personal information for now and for later; Managing privacy and the flow of information; Measuring and evaluating a practice of PIM: Is it working?; Making sense of things. III: Solutions for PIM: Email goes away?; Search gets personal; PIM on the go; PIM on the Web; Bringing the pieces together. IV: Finding our way into the future. Appendix: Glossary of terms.