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Dr Leo Sauermann, Dr Bernhard Schandl
founders of gnowsis.com
Thinking Tools
How Personal Information Management Changes our Work Life
Bernhard Schandl
Hardly remembers anything ...
Researcher, Teacher, Entrepreneur
University of Vienna, Gnowsis.com
bernhard.schandl@gnowsis.com
Introduction
Isn’t a (desktop) search engine enough?
search …. ok
4-15% use them
messy people less
perfect search engine is not enough
Teevan et al., The Perfect Search Engine Is Not Enough: A Study of Orienteering Behavior in Directed Search [CHI 2004]
Ofer Bergman et al., Improved Search Engines and Navigation Preference in Personal Information Management, ACM TOIS, 26(4), Sept. 2008
Documents
Private
Projects
CID
Research
Files
© www.flickr.com/photos/christmaswithak/3975103786 cc-by
The Broad Problem
Situation
Average knowledge worker
• ~20,000 files
• ~20,000 emails
• ~400 Calendar entries
• ~4.500web visits/month
• ~300 incoming emails/day
• Multiple Projects
• MS Sharepoint, MS Exchange, Workflow, Corporate Wiki
Behavior
• Tactics?
• Desktop Search only 4–15% >600 Win+Google and Mac users, 2008
• 57% of users keep bookmarks by sending themselves emails, "A Survey of Personal Information Management Practices", Robert Capra, 2009
• Strategy?
• Diskspace is cheaper than worktime.
• Things get in but not out.
“
”
Defining PIM
the organization and maintenance of personal
information collections 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
[Jones, 2007]
The situation today… organize
meeting in
Belfast …
… organize
meeting in
Belfast …
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Earth_seen_from_Apollo_17_trsp_back.jpg
PIM is not a new problem!
Vertical Filing Cabinet (1886)
PIM is not a new problem!
Bush’s Memex (1945)
PIM is not a new problem!
Nelson’s Hypertext Editing System (1967)
PIM is not a new problem!
Engelbart’s NLS (1968)
PIM is not a new problem!
Apple’s MessagePad (1997)
PIM Activities
PIM Key Activities
Filing
Finding Organizing
Filing
Goal
keeping information
“hotel receipt for accounting”
reminding and time management
“put receipt in “todo” folder”
Different Strategies
pilers
few folders, task oriented
“desktop/belfast/”
filers
many folders, structure oriented
projects/CID/trips/Belfast
multi-purpose
many more
strategies,
mixed in use
Finding
Goal
seeking something new
“Hotel in Belfast”
re-finding something old
“Receipt of hotel stay for
reimbursement”
Different Strategies
teleporting to the result
via search engine
“receipt belfast”
navigating and orienteering
Documents\project\Belfast\
receipt.pdf
preferred
approach
main concern
in PIM
designing the organisation
Ad hoc
“desktop! Default folder of
application! Email inbox!”
Planned
“reusable travel template for
tickets, receipts, photos ”
cleaning and reorganising
Regularly, sometimes, when the structure does not work, a new job,
got a new computer, deleting files, cleaning up
analyzing and optimizing
use of time, effectiveness in job, todo-management, project
management, e-learning, staying creative, staying up-to-date in a field
(Re-)Organizing
chances
for tools
competitive
advantage
examine others
and learn
How do people organize?
Reference Information Type Categories
Malone (1983) Paper documents neat, messy
Mackay (1988) Email prioritizers, archivers, requesters and
responders
Whittaker & Sidner
(1996)
Email no-filers, frequent-filers, spring-
cleaners
Bälter (1997) Email folderless cleaners, folderless spring-
cleaners, cleaners, spring-cleaners
Abrams, Baecker &
Chignell (1998)
Web bookmarks no-filer, creation-time filer, end-of-
session filer, sporadic filer
Gwizdka (2004) Email cleaners, keepers
Boardman & Sasse (2004) Documents, Email,
Web bookmarks
pro-organizing, organizing-neutral
Henderson, Personal Document Management Strategies (CHINZ2009)
Pilers, Filers, Structurers
Pilers Filers Structurers
Self-reported level of
organization
Not very
organized
Somewhat
organized
Somewhat / very
organized
Use of search Last resort Second choice Second choice
(sometimes first)
Preferred view List/Details List/Details Details/List
Number of top level
folders
Medium High Low
Number of top level files High High Low
Average depth Low Medium High
Henderson, Personal Document Management Strategies (CHINZ2009)
Getting interviewed
• Being interviewed on PIM influences PIM and can cause
subjects to pick up a strategy learned from the interviewer
• “The study had an immediate "self-auditing" influence on
the behavior of most participants… taking part in the
study caused them to […] plan future strategy changes.
[…] Overall the tool hasn’t done that much, its more the
conversations between me and you”
[Boardman+2004pimstudy]
PIM Tool Support
Standard PIM Tools
• PIM Suites
• Storage, but no management
• Information silos, but no PIM process support
• Data, but no context
• Does not connect
• Things go in but don’t come out
• Outlook, Lotus Notes, Mozilla Thunderbird/Sunbird,
Mail+iCal+AddressBook, Google Web Apps, ...
Standard PIM Tools
• Mind-mapping
• connect thoughts with information
• establish context
• weak in searching and navigating
• weak integration
• no information semantics
• MindManager, Freemind, TheBrain, ...
Standard PIM Tools
• Note-taking
• quick way to capture information
• helps pilers more than filers
• sometimes: support through auto-suggestion
• weak support for structured information (e.g.,
appointments)
• OneNote, Evernote, DevonThink, NoteScribe, ...
Standard PIM Tools
• (Desktop) Search Engines
• find text, but no meaning
• no context, no hierarchy, no organization, no
prioritization
• Windows Search, Google Desktop Search, Spotlight, ...
Semantic PIM
• Associations
a mental model
• Semantics
words connected
with meaning
• and documents
The Semantic Desktop: Associative Assistance
PersonPerson
ProjectProject
Documents
Papers
Projects
CID
Research
Files E-Mails
Inbox
Todo
SAP
CID-proj
Karlsruhe
Contacts
Claudia Stern
Dirk Hagemann
Klaus Nord
MeetingMeeting
LocationLocation
PIMO - a Framework for Representing Personal Information Models
http://www.dfki.uni-kl.de/~sauermann/papers/sauermann+2007b.pdf
CIDCID
DirkDirk
BelfastBelfastClaudiaClaudia
KickoffKickoff
A Working Semantic Desktop: Nepomuk-KDE
http://www2.mandriva.com/linux/overview/
Cluug.com Approach to PIM
• Identify relevant things
• Bring information into context (projects, persons, tasks,
topics, communication, events, ...)
• Re-find information by browsing
• Try to understand what information means
• Assist the user proactively wherever they are
• Be extensible, non-obtrusive, and orthogonal to what is
existing
• Later: share in groups
How can we benefit from PIM?
PIM Benefits
• For organizations: better PIM means better productivity!
• better understanding of information and needs
• better teamwork and group IM
• key to leveraging employee expertise
• For people: better PIM makes happy!
• feel organized
• reduce cognitive overload
Creating PIM Awareness
• Awareness of the challenges and opportunities of active
PIM is important!
• Education and training pays off
• Interviews and discussions help people reflecting their
habits
• “A little PIM can go a long way”
Contact
bernhard.schandl@gnowsis.com
www.gnowsis.com
www.cluug.com
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