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- There's Much More to Information than Meets I.T.
- Managing information about information manages all information about everything else.
Turning Information Management Right Side Up
What the IT Industry Has Never Understood
- What the IT Industry Has Never Understood
- Where I.T. goes wrong.
- A False Discipline
  - A False Discipline
  - What we don't understand because we don't understand information.
- The I.T. Penalty.
  - The I.T. Penalty.
  - The costs and consequences of not understanding information.
- Accounting Systems
  - Accounting Systems
  - Legacy concepts that are based on and still assume we're using quill pen and ruled ledgers.
- CRM, ERP, SAP
  - CRM, ERP, SAP
  - Partial solutions that obstruct whole solutions.
- Databases & Spreadsheets
  - Databases & Spreadsheets
  - Automating pencil and paper instead of information.
- Word Processing
  - Word Processing
  - Making it pretty but not informative.
- Operating Systems
  - Operating Systems
  - Making how technology works more important than how information works.
- Enterprise Modeling
  - Enterprise Modeling
  - Expediting the problem.
- Information Architecture
  - Information Architecture
  - Re-designing what already exists naturally.
- Normalization
  - Normalization
  - Force-fitting function to follow (third normal)form to justify foregone conclusions.
- Object Orientation
  - Object Orientation
  - Assuming an implementation tactic makes up for the lack of an effective information strategy.
- System Development
  - System Development
  - Planning the least benefits at the highest cost.
- Data Mining
  - Data Mining
  - Gold or fool's gold?
Managing Information to Its
Full Potential
- Managing Information to Its Full Potential
- Managing information by how it CAN be used regardless of circumstances instead of restricting it to how we think it WILL be used in a specific circumstance.
When Information Is More Important than Technology
- When Information Is More Important than Technology
- Planning solutions by how information works instead of by how technology works vastly improves how we use both, slashing costs by well over half.
Learning to Think about Information
- Learning to Think about Information
- Resolving incomplete concepts and contradictions that make it difficult to think about information.
- Informability
  - Informability
  - The four corners of information capability.
- Planning Change
  - Planning Change
  - Making change a part of systems instead of something that happens to systems.
- Data vs. Information
  - Data vs. Information
  - Distinguishing between organizing data-symbols and organizng information-meaning.
- Technology vs. Information
  - Technology vs. Information
  - Making technology fit how information works instead of making information fit how technology works.
- Process vs. Function
  - Process vs. Function
  - Putting function (what we accomplish) ahead of process (what we do) to eliminate process-oriented anti-functionalities hidden in conventional systems.
- Goals vs. Purpose
  - Goals vs. Purpose
  - Assuring how we achieve our goals (win battles) doesn't violate our overall purpose (lose the war).
- Results vs. Capability
  - Results vs. Capability
  - Planning systems with information capablities ("teach to fish") instead of providing a relative handfull of results ("give fish").
- Design vs. Discovery
  - Design vs. Discovery
  - How information fits the real world (discovery) instead of how it fits technology (design).
- Efficiency vs. Efficacy
  - Efficiency vs. Efficacy
  - Planning that how well we do something (efficacy) takes priority over how fast we do something (efficiency) while still improving efficiency.
How Information Works!
Information Topography
- Information Topography
- The natural organization of meaning. --- What we need to know about to know about something. --- What information tells us and what it tells us about.
- Information Layers
  - Information Layers
  - The layers within which meaning develops and builds from one layer to the next.
- Information Types (Topologs)
  - Information Types (Topologs)
  - The ingredients of meaning. Meaning possibilities within each meaning layer.
- Proto-Contexts
  - Proto-Contexts
  - "Things" (entities) and how they fit tigether (predicates) regardless of circumstances.
- Contexts
  - Contexts
  - Entity and predicate meanings; functionally the same in every situation but which we uniquely name for each situation.
- Sub-Contexts
  - Sub-Contexts
  - Informational possibilities within a context: identification, classification, correlation, collective, and comparison.
- Facts
  - Facts
  - What information means when we express it ... when we finally put it into data.
Information Mechanics
- Information Mechanics
- The "Physics" of Information
- Information Origins and Precedence
  - Information Origins and Precedence
  - How we become informed.
- Information Dimensions
  - Information Dimensions
  - The four dimensions of information.
- Information Vectors
  - Information Vectors
  - Paths followed within information dimensions to derive new information from existing information.
- Supercession
  - Supercession
  - Just because informaiton is no longer current does not mean it is no longer information.
- Delta Vectoring
  - Delta Vectoring
  - What did we know, when did we know it, and what did we do about it?
- Information Correlations
  - Information Correlations
  - Beyond hierarchies and relationships. How information correlates.
Making Information Work!
Information Cartography
- Information Cartography
- Mapping the Information Content of a Business
- Defending against preclusion
  - Defending against preclusion
  - Assuring that no legitimate use of information is made impossible by how it is developed and organized.
- Policy vs. Reality
  - Policy vs. Reality
  - Managing information means reflecting reality, not creating or enforcing policy.
- The Importance of Context
  - The Importance of Context
  - Protecting against taking information out of context.
- When information becomes
  data
  - When information becomes
    data
  - Giving system users control over their own destiny.
- Choosing the Right Data Form.
  - Choosing the Right Data Form.
  - What does it look like and what does it mean?
- Whole information.
  - Whole information.
  - Identifying whole instead of partial information.
- Single Meaning
  - Single Meaning
  - Keeping meaning simple and uncluttered.
- Overcoming Our Own Vocabulary
  - Overcoming Our Own Vocabulary
  - What we call it affects our ability to think about it.
- Merging Maps
  - Merging Maps
  - Seamlessly putting two or more information maps together.
The Information Engine
- The Information Engine
- An information intelligent tool ... a vehicle ... that has everything we can do with information already built in allowing for the implementation, maintenance, and evolution of complex information systems with no software development.
Making Information More Important than Technology
Training
- Training ... Understanding information as a discipline, separate and distinct from technology, requiring new and different skills, knowledge, and perspectives. Making what we could and should accomplish with information more important than just using computers.
Consulting
- Consulting ... Advising / mentoring organizations and project teams in identifying and solving information problems built into and perpetuated by conventional IT products and practices.
Information Audits
- Information Audits ... Audit existing and proposed systems for informational lapses, inadequacies, and failures.
Strategic Planning / Needs Analysis
- Strategic Planning / Needs Analysis ... Planning effective information management based on how information works instead of how technology works.
Printable Overview/Summary
- Printable Overview/Summary
- A three page PDF overview/ summary on Rethinking Information Systems and Technology.
Printable Information Map
- Printable Information Map
- A PDF Information Map example of a Public Utility.

Results vs. Capability

Give a man a fish and you
feed him for a day;
Teach a man to fish and you
feed him for a lifetime.

- Anonymous -

This homily illustrates the difference between providing results and providing capability. The IT industry views its mission as providing informational results, not informational capability. Planning results instead of capability imposes a perpetual and wholly artificial need for the results provider (i.e. an IT department).

The results recipient is dependent on ... even hostage to ... the provider.

Though unintentional with no subterfuge, IT departments need to keep their clients dependent to justify their own existence. Making information more important than technology turns IT right side up, substantially altering the role and activities of IT departments.

Providing informational capability ... working to the highest levels of information possibilities and potential ... is a completely different game than the legacy limitations of merely providing results. Providing informational capability allows business to use its information as needs arise without waiting for IT departments to spoon feed it each result.

Results vs. Capability

Give a man a fish and you
feed him for a day;
Teach a man to fish and you
feed him for a lifetime.

Terms of use / Privacy

Copyright 2009 ID2100, LLC

Results vs. Capability

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

Terms of use / Privacy

Copyright 2009 ID2100, LLC

Give a man a fish and you
feed him for a day;
Teach a man to fish and you
feed him for a lifetime.