The world is at my doorstep …and the house is a mess: Putting our information in its place in a digital age.

We need to get our own house in order!” “House” stands by metaphor for those things that are of us, near us or owned by us – those things that ought to be under our control. One thing we might hope to get in order is our own information. The world of information out there is mostly beyond our control. But can we manage our own “houses” of information? This is a basic question of personal information management or PIM that drives the ongoing work of the Keeping Found Things Found (KFTF) group at UW. In this talk, I review results of two recent fieldwork studies of the KFTF group. One study involves a “within-participant” comparison of tag-based vs. folder-based models of personal information organization. A second study explores the reasons for the abandonment (“I give up!”) of well-intentioned systems of PIM. I will also give a demo of the Personal Project Planner which provides an integrative, document-like overview to the file system (Vista) as a means to explore the notion that effective organization of personal information can emerge as a by-product of project planning.

Speaker Details

William Jones is a Research Associate Professor in the Information School at the University of Washington where he manages the Keeping Found Things Found project. Dr. Jones wrote the book “Keeping Found Things Found: The Study and Practice of Personal Information Management” (2007) and has also edited the book “Personal Information Management” (with co-editor Jaime Teevan). He holds 5 patents relating to search and PIM based upon his work for six years as a program manager at Microsoft (in Office and then in MSN Search). Dr. Jones received his doctorate from Carnegie-Mellon University for research into how human memory works.

Date:
Speakers:
William Jones
Affiliation:
University of Washington