Personal Information Management (PIM)Presentation by Heather C. Ware

What is Personal Information Management (PIM)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 or not) and fulfill various roles and responsibilities (for example, as parents, employee, friend, or community member). (Jones, 453)

Types of PIM MediaE-mail

Documents (paper and electronic)

Web Bookmarks

Hand written notes (notebooks, post-its, etc…)

Files and folders

Requirements of a PIM SystemThey need to be flexible and adaptable

Each system will be unique because the users are deciding what information will be included

What might work for one person might not work for another

People do not necessarily file information in the same way they retrieve information

PIM FilingPeople use attributes of the information to create

names or titles to categorize informationIt is cognitively difficult to categorize informationContext is remembered more often than keywords

or titlesComputers and internet are creating easy access

to more information that needs to be filedInformation that cannot be found has usually been

misfiledBrowsing is the most common form of document

retrieval

Original ResearchMalone discovered that people organize their

desks not just to re-find information but also for reminders

The cognitive difficulty of filing causes many users to create piles of information rather than filing

People with “messy” offices with a lot of piles find it more difficult to retrieve information than people with “neat” offices

New ResearchElectronic file systems should not be based

on physical file systems due to different individual needs

Electronic PIM systems present their own challenges

Email and accessing multiple systems with different unsynchronized passwords is a user’s greatest PIM challenge

Phenomenon of EmailEmail contains highly varied information that

can be difficult to categorize and file

Email files structures have little in common with folder file structures

There is an increased use and dependence on email and it is regarded as an essential communication tool

Phenomenon of EmailEmail was created as an asynchronous

means of communicationEmail has been adapted as a PIM tool but is

causing information fragmentation because there is not support for these functions

Due to the amount of email received and due to it’s ephemeral nature it is often not filed

Information OverloadInformation overload happens when more

information needs to be processed than possible

Email and internet are the number one contributors to information overload

Inboxes can contain hundreds of messagesDue to the sheer volume of inboxes crucial

information can be overlooked

Information OverloadItems left in the inbox are readily accessible

and available whereas filing can mean the message falls out of mind

There are three types of email filersNo-Filers: keep everything in their inbox and

do not fileSpring-Cleaners: file occasionally when neededFrequent Filers: File aggressively leaving little

in the inboxes

Organizing FilesUsers organize information so it can be

retrieved at a later dateInformation is filed according to the type of

work they are doing and the information they are dealing with

File folders provide a visual representation of stored information

File folders are used as a make shift project manager

Folder hierarchies can be used across projects to create uniformity

Finding FilesPeople re-find information to:

Resolve a problemAnswer a questionAchieve a specific goal

To use a search engine people have to remember details about the file but people are not proficient at remembering detail thus leading people to browse

Finding FilesFinding behaviors for email are different than

behaviors for finding filesPeople generally know what information they

need to help them solve a problemThe sort feature is used in email making it

easier to search on contextual cuesThe most frequently remembered email trait

was the topic

Information ScrapsInformation scraps are notes written on post-

its, on corners of documents, put in pockets, or sent in email messages to ourselves

They are temporary storage, cognitive support, reminders, or recording of unusual data types

It is easier to jot down a person’s name and phone number on a post-it note than into a contact management system

Information ScrapsThe note to one’s

self is the most common information scrap

Scraps are loosely filed if filed at all

They are difficult to handle in large quantities

They tend to be short in nature

Information ScrapsPeople usually retain a good memory of the

meaning of the scrap

Once the scrap task is completed the scrap is discarded

Scraps allow for the avoidance of up front decision making and allows for the postponing of categorization

ProductsLifestreams provides a time-ordered stream

of informationStuff I’ve Seen (SIS) facilitates reuse by

providing a unified index of informationData Mountain allows users to place files

where they want allowing for better recallGoogle Desktop provides internet type

searching across a users desktop

ConclusionWe have learned what personal information

management is and how it applies to each of us individually as well as the strategies used to create, store, organize, maintain, retrieve, use and distribute our information