Personal Information Management System Research Articles

Win at Work With a Smart ‘Game Plan’

Win at Work With a Smart ‘Game Plan’

Project HealthDesign: Rethinking the power and potential of personal health records

Project HealthDesign, a multi-year, multi-site project sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation with additional support from the California HealthCare Foundation, is designed to stimulate innovation in personal health records (PHRs). Project HealthDesign teams employed user-centered design processes to create designs and prototypes of computer-based applications to support and enhance human health for a wide range of patients, from children with chronic health conditions to elders transitioning from hospital to home. A program design philosophy encouraged designers to envision PHRs as a suite of personal health information management tools, or applications, separate from, but drawing upon, personal health data from a variety of sources. In addition to information contained in one’s medical record, these personal health data included patient-supplied clinical parameters such as blood glucose and daily weights; as well as patient-generated observations of daily living (ODLs) – the unique, idiosyncratic cues, such as sleep adequacy or confidence in self care, that inform patients about their abilities to manage health challenges and take healthy action. A common technical platform provided infrastructure services such as data standards and identity-management protocols, and helped to demonstrate a scalable, efficient approach to user-centered design of personal health information management systems. The program’s ethical, legal and social issues consultancy identified challenges to acceleration of action-focused PHRs: personal control of privacy choices, management of privacy in home conditions, and rebalancing power structures in shared decision making.

Static Architecture-Conformance Checking: An Illustrative Overview

In this article, the authors compare and illustrate the use of three static architecture-conformance techniques: dependency-structure matrices, source code query languages, and reflexion models. To highlight the similarities and differences between these three techniques, they describe how to apply some of the techniques' available supporting tools to specify and check architectural constraints for a simple personal information management system.

"Gestión" de información personal, no sólo "recuperación" de información personal

Comparison of the characteristics and behaviour of people who are sorting and archiving physical and digital objects. There is limited selection –and also little interest– in tools for classifying digital objects that subsequently allow easy interaction with them or mental reflection while reviewing them. Thanks to the availability of inexpensive computer memory, people tend to save everything without categorizing, and trust –erroneously– only in good retrieval skills. Much more research in personal information management systems (PIM) is needed.

Experience with the implementation of a web-based teledermatology system in a nursing home in Singapore

We introduced a web-based teledermatology system, the distributed personal health information management system (DPHIMS), into a nursing home in Singapore. The introduction was conducted in two phases. Five staff nurses in Phase 1 and nine nurse aides in Phase 2 performed the data entry and uploaded digital images of the resident's skin condition. By the end of Phase 2, there were 50 residents registered with DPHIMS. The average age of the participants was 82 years and 84% were women. There were 31 first-time referral requests registered in the system during Phase 2. The average time taken to complete a referral request was 86 minutes. The average time taken by the dermatologist to prepare and submit a diagnosis/treatment report was 11 minutes. An online survey form was given to the nurses and the dermatologists to gauge their level of satisfaction and their experience of using DPHIMS. All the nurses said they would readily recommend DPHIMS to other nurses. Overall, the dermatologists felt that DPHIMS was helpful in obtaining specialist care for the residents. However, some skin conditions required a face-to-face consultation. Thus a mixture of face-to-face consultations and consultations via teledermatology may be necessary to provide complete diagnosis and treatment to patients. Our experience suggests that understanding and addressing the organizational concerns is as important as solving the technical problems.

Database using Personal Information Management System

In this paper we propose Personal Information Management System for Library Database. It manages personal search pattern for the given user and provide specific book list for library book search system. With the proposed system, the conventional overlap searching time will be decreased with personalized information and search history. This system manages the individual data according to personal searching pattern, sequence and usability. Therefore, the user can locate necessary book information more accurately with their distinct interest and search history.

Design of Portable Personal Information Management System with XML Technique

Design of Portable Personal Information Management System with XML Technique

The user-subjective approach to personal information management systems design: Evidence and implementations

Personal Information Management (PIM) is an activity in which an individual stores personal information items to retrieve them later. In a former article, we suggested the user-subjective approach,...

In this issue

In this issue

The user‐subjective approach to personal information management systems design: Evidence and implementations

AbstractPersonal Information Management (PIM) is an activity in which an individual stores personal information items to retrieve them later. In a former article, we suggested the user‐subjective approach, a theoretical approach proposing design principles with which PIM systems can systematically use subjective attributes of information items. In this consecutive article, we report on a study that tested the approach by exploring the use of subjective attributes (i.e., project, importance, and context) in current PIM systems, and its dependence on design characteristics. Participants were 84 personal computer users. Tools included a questionnaire (N = 84), a semistructured interview that was transcribed and analyzed (n = 20), and screen captures taken from this subsample. Results indicate that participants tended to use subjective attributes when the design encouraged them to; however, when the design discouraged such use, they either found their own alternative ways to use them or refrained from using them altogether. This constitutes evidence in support of the user‐subjective approach as it implies that current PIM systems do not allow for sufficient use of subjective attributes. The article also introduces seven novel system design schemes, suggested by the authors, which demonstrate how the user‐subjective principles can be implemented.

Do Concerns about Error in Data and Access to Data Affect Students’ Feeling of Alienation?

Organizations such as universities collect and use personal data about customers such as students. How do students feel about their university’s practices related to error in data and access to personal data? Using data collected via a survey of 187 students at a large U.S. university, we investigate the effects of these two privacy and security concerns on students’ feeling of alienation. Implications of the results are discussed in light of ethics, strategy, design, control and administration of personal information management systems.

The use of subjective attributes in personal information management systems ‐ Initial results

AbstractPersonal computers often serve as Personal Information Management (PIM) systems: they allow people to collect items of information and store them outside their cognitive system. Research has consistently shown that users of PIM systems find it hard to remember where they placed their personal information and thus have difficulties in retrieving it. A possible explanation for these difficulties is that PIM system designers are not sensitive enough to the fact that it is a personal system: the same person that stores the information is the one who retrieves it. In a recent article we suggested a user‐subjective approach to PIM system design which advocates that PIM systems should relate to the subjective attributes that the user gives to the data stored in the PIM system. This paper presents preliminary results from a study in which users of personal computers were asked to guide the researcher in their PIM system. The study allows us to test the user‐subjective approach advocated in the mentioned article.

The user‐subjective approach to personal information management systems

AbstractIn this article we suggest a user‐subjective approach to Personal Information Management (PIM) system design. This approach advocates that PIM systems relate to the subjective value‐added attributes that the user gives to the data stored in the PIM system. These attributes should facilitate system use: help the user find the information item again, recall it when needed, and use it effectively in the next interaction with the item. Driven from the user‐subjective approach are three generic principles which are described and discussed: (a) The subjective classification principle, stating that all information items related to the same subjective topic should be classified together regardless of their technological format; (b) The subjective importance principle, proposing that the subjective importance of information should determine its degree of visual salience and accessibility; and (c) The subjective context principle, suggesting that information should be retrieved and viewed by the user in the same context in which it was previously used. We claim that these principles are only sporadically implemented in operating systems currently available on personal computers, and demonstrate alternatives for interface design.

PIM application based on Client/Server architecture

This paper discusses major issues involved in the design and implementation of a cooperative PIM (Personal Information Management) system on network, such as system architecture, implementory interface and human-machine interactive interface. Emphasis has been given to the architecture and interaction. Based on the C/S (Client/Server) architecture we manage the personal informations on the server and maintain all the workstations through TCP/IP protocol. All the querles are done through ODBC. For the cooperation of workstations we select MDI as the basis of our interface and apply OLE technique in it. Furthermore we apply multithread to manage the shared resource and individual resource. Our applications results show that C/S architecture can be an excellent platform for MIS developing and the principles for human-machine interface perform well in this kind of applications.

Empirical assessment of individuals' 'personal information management systems'

A simple pilot study has been undertaken to investigate the use of 'personal information management technologies' (including both traditional and emerging electronic technologies) via a combination of nominal questionnaire and semi-structured interview schedules. The pilot study suggested that the number of users adopting computer-based personal information management technologies is low, as is the combination of computer-based technologies with traditional paper-based technologies in users' 'personal information management systems'.

Context as a factor in personal information management systems

Personal information management (PIM) systems are information systems developed by individuals for use in a work environment. Seven managers were interviewed to observe how their electronic documents were organized, stored, and retrieved. The purpose of the study was to investigate classification behavior both to identify the features of a PIM system and to suggest whether the factors which influence classification decisions in an electronic environment were consistent with the factors that Kwasnik observed for physical documents in an office. It is suggested that these behaviors may be influenced by the hardware and software environment and may impact personal as well as organizational efficiency. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Context as a factor in personal information management systems

Context as a factor in personal information management systems

FARMER'S BOOKSHELF FOR THE IBM: A HYPERMEDIA PERSONAL INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR CROPS

The objective of this study was to develop a computerized personal information management system for use by extension agents and growers. Agents and growers need an easy-to-use computer information system to access quickly information about specific topics for different crops. An information system helps agents provide faster, better service and up-to-date information to their clients. Using the software LinkWay (IBM Corp.) on an IBM personal computer, we developed such a system called the “Farmer's Bookshelf for the IBM.” This information system uses “index cards” with information stored on separate screens called “pages.” Both textual and graphical information may appear on a page. Using a mouse, the user navigates from one page to another by clicking on a “button” on the page. This easy-to-use system requires no typing except to enter a word for the computer to search. The user can easily browse for the desired information and then print it. The “Farmer's Bookshelf for the IBM” provides an easy, fast tool for agents and growers to obtain vitally needed information.

Farmer's Bookshelf: A Computerized Hypermedia Information System for Crops

A computerized personal information management system has been developed to provide information on crop production and industry status to extension personnel and farmers. This hypermedia system, which links interrelated facts, enables the user to browse easily through a mass of information and access specific data rapidly.