1. Unstructured Information, Information Audit / Workflow and Discovery
Peter Fox
Xinformatics 4400/6400
Module 9, March 27, 2017 1 1

2. Contents Information Audit Unstructured Information 2 2 2

3. Businessdictionary.com
Analysis and evaluation of a firm's information system (whether manual or computerized) to detect and rectify blockages, duplication, and leakage of information. 3 3

4. Objective?
The objectives of this audit are to improve accuracy, relevance, security, and timeliness of the recorded information. 4 4

5. What is an information audit?
An information audit is a process that effectively determines the current information environment within an organization by identifying and mapping:
What information is currently available?
Where the information lives?
Npoki.org ( adapted directly from. 5 5

6. Results/ format (e.g.)
The results of an information audit are twofold: there is a detailed report which includes:
What information do staff acquire? Where from? At what cost? How is it used?
What information do staff create? What happens to it? Where does it go?
Npoki.org 6 6

7. Results/ format (e.g.)
What information is stored and why? What purpose will it serve?
What information is passed on or delivered? To whom? For what purpose? In what form?
Npoki.org 7 7

8. Results/ format (e.g.)
Is there a gap, or a match, between that which is available and that which is needed?
What are the skills and responsibilities of the people who carry out these tasks?
What equipment and tools do they have available (hardware, software, filing cabinets, web sites, etc)?
Npoki.org 8 8

9. Results/ format (e.g.)
Are there any control documents, such as policy statements, guidelines, service level agreements, procedures, manuals?
Is any of the information (produced, acquired, processed, re-delivered, or stored) superfluous to needs?
Are any of the information-handling activities non-productive?
Npoki.org 9 9

10. Results/ format (e.g.) There is also a detailed flow chart:
A visual map that show the areas, processes, functions and activities through which information passes, clarifying gaps or fault-lines that need to be plugged or bottlenecks and overflows that need to be unblocked
Sound familiar?
Npoki.org 10 10

11. How to use?
An information audit can be used as a baseline for making major improvements to the business process of an organization.
It is extremely helpful in the identifying, buying, and implementation of enterprise systems
finance systems, portfolio management systems, document management systems, learning and knowledge management systems, etc.
Npoki.org 11 11

12. Remember the use case doc?
Present the tabular form of the Burnett format since it shows the integrative information and is the main difference between the formats
Developed for NASA TIWG 12

13. Developed for NASA TIWG
Event/application
Developed for NASA TIWG

14. Remember It never hurts to know what you have
Build it into the routine and do not leave it as an after-thought (yep, just like documenting your code!)
To help – MIF – Management Information Format (supported by MSDN applications, like SMS) 14

15. 15 15

16. Sources and uses of unstructured information
- audio, video, graphics, social media messages, etc. – that which fall outside the purview of traditional databases 16 16

17. Data<->Information<->Knowledge
Where is the structure?
Experience
Data
Information
Knowledge
Creation
Gathering
Presentation
Organization
Integration
Conversation
Context 17

18. Informatics Oh, wait – people structure information!
Cognitive processes
Semiotics
Mental representation
Intuition
Expertise
But not in the same way computers can! 18

19. http://www. dashboardinsight 19 19

20. So what happens?
If a structured representation of fundamentally unstructured information is useless?
Why would it be?
What role does visual representation play in structuring information? Hint: 20

21. More than 10 years ago…
Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA) from IBM
“Unstructured information management (UIM) applications are software systems that analyze unstructured information (text, audio, video, images, and so on) to discover, organize, and deliver relevant knowledge to the user. In analyzing unstructured information, UIM applications make use of a variety of analysis technologies, including statistical and rule-based Natural Language Processing (NLP), Information Retrieval (IR), machine learning, and ontologies.
IBM's Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA) is an architectural and software framework that supports creation, discovery, composition, and deployment of a broad range of analysis capabilities and the linking of them to structured information services, such as databases or search engines.
The UIMA framework provides a run-time environment in which developers can plug in and run their UIMA component implementations, along with other independently-developed components, and with which they can build and deploy UIM applications.” 21

22. From way back… 22

23. 23

24. Data<->Information<->Knowledge
Future?
Experience
Data
Information
Knowledge
Creation
Gathering
Presentation
Organization
Integration
Conversation
Context 24

25. Reading for this week http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_audit
UIMA -
SPAR - 25

26. Logical Collections
The primary goal of a Management system is to abstract the physical collection into logical collections. The resulting view is a uniform homogeneous collection.
Note the analogy with logical models and information integration: so EARLY ON
Identifying naming conventions and organization
Aligning cataloguing and naming to facilitate search, access, use (who uses?)
Provision of **contextual** information 26

27. Physical Handling Note analogy to physical models
Map between physical and logical.
Where and who does it come from?
Is there a transfer into a physical form?
Is it backed-up, archived, cached? …
What formats?
Naming conventions – do they change?
Note analogy to physical models 27

28. Interoperability Support28

29. Security
Access authorization and change verification. This is the basis of trusting your information.
What mechanisms exist for securing? Who performs this task?
Change and versioning (yes, the information may change), who does this, how?
Who has access?
How are access methods controlled, audited?
Who and what – authentication and authorization?
Encryption and integrity 29 29

30. Ownership Who is responsible for quality and meaning 30
Science commons
Rights and policies – definition and enforcement
Limitations on access and use
Requirements for acknowledgement and use
Who and how is quality defined and ensured?
Who may ownership migrate too?
How to address replication?
How to address revised/ derivative products? 30 30

31. Metadata Recall metadata are data about data. Metainformation? 31
Metainformation are information about information
How to know what conventions, standards, best practices exist?
How to use them, what tools?
Understanding costs of incomplete and inconsistent metadata
Understanding the line between metadata and data and when it is blurred
Knowing where and how to manage metadata and where to store it (and where not to) 31 31

32. Persistence
Deployment of mechanisms to counteract technology obsolescence.
Where will you put your information so that someone else (e.g. one of your class members) can access it?
What happens after the class, the semester, after you graduate?
What other factors are there to consider? 32 32

33. Discovery
Ability to identify useful relations and information inside the collection
More on this later in this class
If you choose (see ownership and security), how does someone find your information?
How would you provide discovery of collections, versus files, versus ‘bits’?
How to enable the narrowest/ broadest discovery? 33 33

34. Dissemination
Mechanisms to make aware the interested parties of changes and additions to the collections.
Do you rely on information retrieval? The Web?
Who should do this?
How and what needs to be put in place?
How to advertise?
How to inform about updates?
How to track use, significance? 34 34

35. Summary of Information Management
Creation of logical collections
Physical handling
Interoperability support
Security support
Ownership
Metadata collection, management and access.
Persistence
Knowledge and information discovery
Dissemination and publication 35 35

36. Note for your project writeup!
Information management! Cover the 9 areas. 36

37. Information Workflow What is a workflow? Why would you use it?
Key considerations for information, cf. data
Some pointers to workflow systems 37

38. What is a workflow?
General definition: “series of tasks performed to produce a final outcome” (taxes?)
Information workflow – involves people but potentially want to
Automate jobs that a person traditionally performed manually
Process large volumes of information faster than one could do by hand
NB difference from data workflows – it reaches out to encompass the user (e.g. ‘unrecorded actions’)
Adapted from Slides by Bill Howe UW 2006 38 38

39. Background: Business Workflows
Example: planning a trip
Need to perform a series of tasks: book a flight, reserve a hotel room, arrange for a rental car, etc.
Each task may depend on outcome of previous task
Days you reserve the hotel depend on days of the flight
If hotel has shuttle service, may not need to rent a car
Prior information, experience, preferences…
Adapted from Slides by Bill Howe UW 2006 39 39

40. Tripit.com? 40

41. What about information workflows?
Perform a set of transformations/ operations on information source(s)
Examples
Generating images from raw data
Identifying areas of interest from a large information source (e.g. word cloud)
Classifying a set of objects
Querying a web service for more information on a set of objects
Many others…
Adapted from Slides by Bill Howe UW 2006 41 41

42. More on Workflows Can process many information types:
Archives
Web pages
Streaming/ real time
Images
Semiotic systems
Robust workflows depending on formal (concept and logical) models of the flow of information among components
May be simple and linear or very complex
Adapted from Slides by Bill Howe UW 2006 42 42

43. Challenges Questions: Mastering a programming language
What are some challenges for users in implementing workflows?
What are some challenges to executing these workflows?
What are limitations of writing a program?
Mastering a programming language
Visualizing workflow
Sharing/exchanging workflow
Formatting issues
Locating datasets, services, or functions
Adapted from Slides by Bill Howe UW 2006 43 43

44. Workflow Management Systems 44 44

45. Benefits of Workflows Documentation of aspects of analysis
Visual communication of analytical steps
Ease of testing/debugging
Reproducibility
Reuse of part or all of workflow in a different project
Adapted from Slides by Bill Howe UW 2006 45 45

46. Additional Benefits
Integration of and between multiple computing environments
‘Automated’ access to distributed resources via other architectural components, e.g. web services and Grid technologies
System functionality to assist
with information integration of
heterogeneous components and
source
Adapted from Slides by Bill Howe UW 2006 46 46

47. Why not just use a script?
Script does not specify low-level task scheduling and communication
May be platform-dependent
Can’t be easily reused
May not have sufficient documentation to be adapted for another purpose
Based on Howe (2006) 47 47

48. Why can a GUI be useful? No need to learn a programming language
Visual representation of what workflow does
Allows you to monitor workflow execution
Enables user interaction (though not necessarily collaboration)
Facilitates sharing of workflows
Adapted from Howe (2006) 48 48

49. Some workflow systems Kepler SCIRun Sciflo Triana Taverna Pegasus
Some commercial tools:
Windows Workflow Foundation
Mac OS X Automator
See reading for this week 49

50. Discovery How does someone find your information?
How would you provide discovery of
collections
files
‘bits’
How would you find -> 50

51. Discovery Search (Federated Search) Helped by Find photos of Kim
Folksonomies (user contributed)
Intelligent Agents
Search Engines
Taxonomies
Find photos of Kim
Boy or girl? 51 51

52. Use cases
Find a sound recording of a swallow.
Excuse me? 52

53. Use cases Find a sound recording of an African Swallow
Find a sound recording of a bird that sounds like an African Swallow
Media types – how can you discover them? 53

54. Use cases
Find the movie that Jean Tripplehorn first starred in/ that was her most successful/ was lead actress?
Has anyone gene sequenced a mouse?
Find images of primary productivity in the North Atlantic
Discovery can often involve information integration (or is it *almost always*?) 54

55. Three level ‘metadata’ solution for DATA
Data Discovery
Data Integration
Level 1:
Data Registration
at the Discovery Level,
e.g. Volcano
location and activity
Level 2:
Data Registration
at the Inventory Level,
e.g. list of datasets,
times, products
Level 3:
Data Registration
at the Item Detail
Level, e.g. access to
individual quantities
From GEON, ack Krishna Sinha
Earth Sciences Virtual Database
A Data Warehouse where
Schema heterogeneity problem is
Solved; schema based integration
Ontology based
Data Integration
Using scientific
workflows 55
A.K.Sinha, Virginia Tech, 2006 55

56. Three level ‘metadata’ solution?
Information
Integration
Information Discovery
Level 1:
Registration
at the Discovery Level,
e.g. Find the upper
level entry point to a
source
Level 2:
Registration
at the Inventory Level,
e.g. list of datasets,
using the logical
organization
Level 3:
Registration
at the Item Detail
Level, i.e. annotation
e.g. tagging
From GEON, ack Krishna Sinha
Catalog/ Index
Schema based integration
Integration
using mapping
management 56
A.K.Sinha, Virginia Tech, 2006 56

57. Information discovery
What makes discovery work?
Metadata
Logical organization
Attention to the fact that someone would want to discover it
It turns out that file types are a key enabler or inhibitor to discovery
Result ranking using *tuned* algorithm
What does not work?
Result ranking algorithms that depend on unconventional information types (icon, index, symbol) 57

58. Federated search
“is the simultaneous search of multiple online databases or web resources and is an emerging feature of automated, web-based library and information retrieval systems. It is also often referred to as a portal or a federated search engine.” wikipedia
Libraries have been doing this for a long time (Z39.50, ISO23950)
Key is consistent search metadata fields (keywords)
E.g. Geospatial One Stop
Implement metatags on your and your partners web sites
Update content frequently
Utilize annotation, e.g. RDFa, or support schema.org
Register your site with the major search engines (tools exist to aid in this process)
Perform a basic study of where your site results within the major search engine providers
Do not spam the search engine providers
Re-evaluate your web site directory structure to ensure information is appropriately categorized/ described within your URL strings
Look through your server log files to determine what users are trying to find on your site and/or the path they are using to find information
Perform basic usability testing of your site to determine what users expect and can easily gather from your site. This also may determine why users go to an Internet search engine provider versus accessing your site directly.
Realize that Internet search engines dont all act the same, index at the same time period, and often value a particular metatag, document date, etc. more than another vendor product. 58 58

59. Smart search
Semantically aware search, e.g. ,
Faceted search, e.g. exhibit (MIT), S2S (RPI )
Open search is hope you can choose search engine providers in your browser but it can be a lot smarter
Elastic search - – json based (flattened and indexed), RESTful 59

60. NOESIS 60

61. Faceted search 61
logd.tw.rpi.edu

62. Summary - discovery
Useful to write a few discovery use cases to drive how your design is developed
Evolution of your role in facilitating discovery and what/ how others implement access to your information 62

63. Reading for this week
Is retrospective 63

64. Check in for Project Assignment
Prototype deployment of an information system content and architecture, design, etc.
A new use case 64

65. What is next Today – project group meetings/ check in
April 03 – Information Discovery and Retrieval, Knowledge Representation
April 10 – Information Quality and Bias
April 17 – Global Change Information System
April 24 – final project presentations (BE ON TIME, i.e. 5-10mins BEFORE 3PM) Final project due
Be prepared to be asked (and answer) questions 65