Knowledge Management Systems - Readings - Issues Blogging More Commentary Evaluations of the blog process Projects and Papers

Systems, Uses and Habits What client(s) do you use? - Why? - How Long? Multiple Mailboxes? - How many & for what? - How long do you keep them? Filters? - How many & for what? - Searching instead of filtering? Searching - How often & why? Other Devices? An Influence on Social Networks Protocols

as Habitat Traditionally - Messaging - Communication - One to One, One to Many Communication Increasingly - Information Management Access to Documents Address Books - Contacts Portal for (Networked) Information - Coordination and Collaboration Tasks -To Do’s -Reminders Workflow -Document Creation and Editing -Meeting Planning and Coordination

as Habitat 2 PC Users Spend Most of Their Day in their Application - Defining “Knowledge Workers”? - Support Staff Personal Information Management - To Do (Marking up or Sending to Oneself) - Contact Management Project Tracking for EVERYTHING?

as Habitat 3 Too Much of a Good Thing - Filters - Folders Searching May Be Faster - Time to File - Time to Find Searching Not Helping to Build (Traditional) Conceptual Model of Tasks or Messages

as Habitat 4 Types of Folders - Who – Sender - Where – Organization of Sender(s) - What – Project - Personal Interests Professional Private - What Else? Archives Templates

as Habitat 5 Problems with Applications - Folder Organization - Sorting - Finding - Filtering Easier to Set up Filter after Reading or Event One Application Not Suited for All Users - Outlook - Outlook Express - Status & Occupation - Roles and Responsibilities

as Habitat 6 More Exposure to Use = More Checking - Alternate Devices - Always-on Devices More Experience = More Feature Use Different Features for Different Users Different Features for Different Uses Projects Types of Tasks

Improving Threads of Messages - “Conversation Tree” - Automatic vs. Manual Configuration - Types of Conversations (GIBIS) “Thrasks” - Individual (feedback) - Group (assignments) Views & Visualization - Oldest/First at Top (contrast with blogs) - Multiple Windows, Icons, Graphics

Overload: Exploring PIM New Uses Causes Overload -Task Management -Personal Archiving -Asynchronous Communication Study of Mailboxes and User Interviews Does Speed/Reliability of Transmission and Replying Change It’s Use? -Conversational -Accountable not “One touch” (informational) Changes Work Throughout the Day Constantly Checking

Sequence & Reply Relationships Messaging is a type of conversation - What are the characteristics of a conversation? - How are conversations conducted in other media? Envisioning as conversations adds context and removes redundancy - Time - Complexity of topic - Number of participants

Models of Conversations Sequence Model - First message - Before (context) - After (how long to wait vs. too long?) Tree Model - Root message & Replies to root - Any replies, some replies or ranked replies? - Replies to replies (eliminating redundancy, but not losing context) Visualization for each won’t be universal Mailing lists could be improved for support

Taking to Task Many of us work out of our InBox becomes task-centric, not just info - Actionable - Trackable Study looked at “live” use - Filters are a key - Examine Addressing and Threads - Watched triage

Task Results Quick responses Offline research or task required before reply - To Dos - Events later - Delayed, dependent to dos Overload measure - Number of threads/day + length of intervals between messages in threads Message drift out of view in a mailbox Context is lost

Task Problems Keeping track of concurrent actions - Your to dos - Others, dependent todos Marking items as more important Managing over time Managing deadlines and reminders Collating collections of messages Application switching & window mgmt Task overview needed

Is always the right tool? What functions make the most sense for ? Is better suited to some situations? What working styles are more & less conducive to being productive with ? Are there personality types or work roles that is best for?

TaskMaster 1.Keeping Track of Concurrent Actions 2.Marking Items 3.Managing Activities Over Time 4.Managing Deadlines and Reminders 5.Collating Related Items and Associated Files and Links 6.Application Switching and Window Management 7.Getting a Task-Oriented Overview Easily

TaskMaster Helping with Overload - Number of Threads - Frequency of Related Messages Assigns Meta-Information - From the Thrask View - Within an Open Item (Contact Info) Warning Bars Action Clusters Task-Specific Contact Lists

TaskMaster

Reinventing What Kinds of Messages are Suited for (Current) ? What Other Types of Messaging Tools? - Instant Messaging - Newsgroups - Document Management Annotations Approval Distribution Lists

Reinventing Separation or Integration? - Messages - Address Book – Contacts - Documents - Links - Web (other) Indexing and Classifying - Logging (transaction, permission, task) - Searching (internal, personal, external) - Ranking (most currently equal)

Redesigning for 21 st Century Little Change – GUIs & Attachments Overloaded & Overwhelmed - Slow Response – No Response - Loss No One Solution - Multiple Features - Appropriate for each User, Organization or Task - Improved Interface & Interaction Timelines Document Summarization Annotations

21 st Century Interfaces

Bitfrost Categorizing Messages from Inbox Automatically “Programming” Filters Too Difficult Categories of Interest Improve on Known Use - Four Types of Users - Filters vs. Losing Sight of Understanding Automatic Categorizing Difficult for Users Too Much Categorization? Categories vs. Folders New Messages Difficult to Deal With Notification vs. Filing or Hiding

MailCat Filing with an Intelligent Assistant - Adaptive Text Classifier for Guessing (3) Folders - Action Classifier? (Maxim’s Memory Based Retrieval Matching) % Accurate Filing Can Compliment Searching - How Many Actions to File? Multiple Locations (Aliases, Links) Simple (Only) Interface (“Move To” buttons)

Ishmail Support 3 Basic Methods - Don’t File & Search - File Frequently in Many Mailboxes - File Intermittently Server-Based with IMAP extension Filtering -Alarms -Mailboxes -Incoming & Outgoing Interface with Multiple Windows/Views Deferral of Message (Sending) Delivery Archiving – Periodic & Stack Personas

Back to basics: Protocols POP - Decentralized Storage - Personal Archives IMAP - Centralized Storage - Server Archives How Will New Devices Extend These Protocols? - Filtering as Ringtone? - Caller ID How Will P2P or other Collaborative/Cooperative Technologies (or paradigms) Change Use? - Always On (for Categorizing, Filtering and Automatically Respondng)

on the Desktop? Computers have transitioned from calculating tools to communication tools. Studies show that is the #1 internet use. Integrate Mailboxes with OS File Structure Group Files and Messages in Interface Provide Direct and Indirect Manipulation of Information - Centralized on Servers - Synchronized with All Devices (PIM Hub) Does embedding into the operating system make more efficient, pervasive, overly important or all three?

Use Improvement New System Evaluation (for Improvement) - Real Users - Actual Work Difficult to Get Individuals to Switch to New Applications or Technologies - Current Features Not Used - No Learning Curve for Critical Application - Lock-in vs. Import/Export More Difficult to Get Organization To Switch - Installed Base - Migration - Licensing - Training

Issues should be used for Offload messages for other tasks to the appropriate applications - To Dos - Contact Information - Documents - Projects Tasks Threads Update intervals - How often do you check? - How often do you act?

Social Computing vs PIM MIME & Web server based application specific (and attachment) handler and viewer - like Web pages Designs for working with threads Trackback for RSS newsfeeds instead of How fits into a framework for a KMS “Smart” with built in logic Sending, reading & retrieving with different interfaces Messages integrated with todo lists

& (knowledge) work? Does create more work? Does cause more work? - Increased volume of work - Increased pace of work How does change knowledge work? Is managing a KM process? - Efficiency vs. Costs - Lost time vs. gained time Including attachments Inserting task & appointment information Process & project tracking - How can it be verifiable? - Legally binding? What’s the role of metadata in use & archving (retrieval)