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“Stuff Goes into the Computer and Doesn’t Come Out” A Cross-tool Study of Personal Information Management
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This paper reports a study of Personal Information Management (PIM), which advances research in two ways: (1) rather than focusing on one tool, we collected cross-tool data relating to file, email and web bookmark usage for each participant, and (2) we collected longitudinal data for a subset of the participants. We found that individuals employ a rich variety of strategies both within and across PIM tools, and we present new strategy classifications that reflect this behaviour. We discuss synergies and differences between tools that may be useful in guiding the design of tool integration. Our longitudinal data provides insight into how PIM behaviour evolves over time, and suggests how the supporting nature of PIM discourages reflection by users on their strategies. We discuss how the promotion of some reflection by tools and organizations may benefit users.
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... Bates (2002) proposed the concept of an individualized information world for users, wherein users find information by creating subsets of information sources according to the use of information (e.g., work, entertainment, and daily decisions). Boardman and Sasse (2004) also reported that individuals usually created files for various projects and named the files after the projects' names. When projects had relatively longer duration time or more complex internal structures, individuals tended to create subsets of files for the projects. ...
... This self-awareness of improvement in information literacy skills through serious leisure is a potential area for further exploration. Boardman and Sasse (2004) noted that individuals often named files according to the project names and created subset files as the project progresses. This finding was corroborated in the current study. ...
Introduction. Research on personal information practices has increased in recent decades. Building on this current of thought, the present study explores information practices in the context of serious leisure, looking specifically at the Rey Cosplay Community Facebook group, an online community of Star Wars cosplayers. The work discusses how these fans seek, organize, and share relevant information during the process of making costumes. Method. This study used participant observation and semi-structured interviews to investigate information behaviours, including information seeking, organization, use, and sharing, of seventeen members in the Rey Cosplay Community with a purposive sampling strategy. Analysis. The researchers transcribed and jointly coded the collected data with an open coding scheme to identify themes that emerged from the data. Results. The cosplayers used a myriad of tools to seek, organize, and share information about costume making. Participants identified that their information practices had evolved over time, and they shared sophisticated strategies for sharing work-in-progress photos and updates as well as methods for organizing information for later use. Conclusion. There are a variety of information practices used when making a costume. Participants often seek and acquire relevant information on online platforms and use a combination of traditional physical tools and modern electronic tools to organize information. They also display a rich culture of sharing information when responding to other fans’ information needs. The overall structure that these information practices take can be neatly articulated as a sort of informational “cosplay journey”.
... For example, recurrent themes of discussion include the use of folders versus tags (Bergman et al., 2013a;Civan et al., 2008;Voit et al., 2012) and navigation versus search (Bergman et al., 2008(Bergman et al., , 2013bFitchett and Cockburn, 2015;Teevan et al., 2004). Many excellent studies focus on how people use and organize specific forms of information, e.g., their email (Bellotti et al., 2003;Capra et al., 2013;Hanrahan and Pérez-Quiñones, 2015;Whittaker et al., 2011) and bookmarks (Abrams et al., 1998;Boardman and Sasse, 2004;Jones et al., 2002), but this also makes the field of PIM fragmented. PIM is also related to the notion of quantified self, which is concerned with the tracking of personal activities, often through a dedicated hardware device (e.g., physical fitness monitors and activity trackers such as smartwatches) (Gurrin et al., 2014). ...
This paper presents an ecosystem for personal knowledge graphs (PKG), commonly defined as resources of structured information about entities related to an individual, their attributes, and the relations between them. PKGs are a key enabler of secure and sophisticated personal data management and personalized services. However, there are challenges that need to be addressed before PKGs can achieve widespread adoption. One of the fundamental challenges is the very definition of what constitutes a PKG, as there are multiple interpretations of the term. We propose our own definition of a PKG, emphasizing the aspects of (1) data ownership by a single individual and (2) the delivery of personalized services as the primary purpose. We further argue that a holistic view of PKGs is needed to unlock their full potential, and propose a unified framework for PKGs, where the PKG is a part of a larger ecosystem with clear interfaces towards data services and data sources. A comprehensive survey and synthesis of existing work is conducted, with a mapping of the surveyed work into the proposed unified ecosystem. Finally, we identify open challenges and research opportunities for the ecosystem as a whole, as well as for the specific aspects of PKGs, which include population, representation and management, and utilization.
This short paper reflects on previous personal information management (PIM) research using the theme of “invisible PIM.” Three scholars gathered to reflect on how this theme is relevant to their research. After comparing reflections, the following threads of invisibility are highlighted as holding potential for future exploration: the role that PIM can play in reinforcing invisibility, the concept of maintaining information over time as being more likely to be labeled as invisible labor, and a focus on non‐work experiences of sample populations. This work in progress concludes with suggestions of how reflecting on themes versus following PIM activities (a departure from previous practices for these researchers) was a useful activity to think about a future PIM research agenda.
While all individuals deal with increasingly large amounts of digital information in their everyday lives and professionally, prior works suggest visual artists have unique information management practices and challenges. This study therefore examined the personal information management (PIM) practices and challenges of six practising visual artists using guided tours and short interviews. It was found that the visual artists had some unique practices connected to their strong emphasis on serendipity, inspiration, and visual dimensions of information. Like non‐artists, the participants faced challenges across all phases of PIM, chiefly an excess of information and fragmented organisation, and they found it especially hard to assess how personal and valuable their information could be. After characterising this rarely discussed PIM demographic, we draw on the findings to provide concrete recommendations for artists doing PIM, for information and cultural heritage institutions, and for designers of PIM software.
Retrieving files is a daily occurrence for most computer users. Thus, a variety of strategies are introduced to better fit these tasks, including the use of different search engines and the introduction of modern menus. Even yet, it's still common practise to browse file hierarchies and search for specific data. Despite this, surfing takes an average of 10-15 seconds per file, on average. Some of the user's issues have been alleviated by the advancement of interfaces for gaining access to information. Access to the most up-to-date and frequently used files is facilitated by a number of new features. Improved file browsers have also been made, which is critical for browsing in accordance with user preferences. Users may add tags or labels using a variety of file browsers that support specified rules. This is in the user's best interest since features like virtual folders and saved searches contain dynamic information based on predetermined instructions that don't need any prior organising effort on their part. Enhancement and the management of private data retrieval are on our radar in this thesis. To determine the pattern of file access by users is the second component of this examination. the creation of new interfaces to aid in the recovery of lost data. Icon Highlights, Hover Menus and Search-Directed Navigation, are three novel approaches that extend the normal navigation interface to speed up private data retrievals based on the information gathered from this analysis: Back-end prediction algorithms developed in this thesis are also used in these strategies. This characterisation explains how three new approaches were developed to aid with speedier data recovery and improve the quality of the navigation interface: Highlights of icons, search-driven navigation, and Hover menus. These strategies for using powerful back-end prediction algorithms are also described.
p>Apresenta os estudos em Gestão de Informações Pessoais (PIM) como indicadores de comportamento na criação, manutenção, avaliação, seleção e preservação de arquivos pessoais digitais, bem como esses estudos podem contribuir para o tratamento e desses arquivos.</p
Task management tools allow people to record, track, and manage task-related information across their work and personal contexts. As work contexts have shifted amid the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become important to understand how these tools are continuing or failing to support peoples’ work-related and personal needs. In this paper, we examine and probe practices for managing task-related information across the work-life boundary. We report findings from an online survey deployed to 150 information workers during Summer 2019 (i.e., pre-pandemic) and 70 information workers at the same organization during Summer 2020 (i.e., mid-pandemic). Across both survey cohorts, we characterize these cross-boundary task management practices, exploring the central role that physical and digital tools play in managing task-related information that arises at inopportune times. We conclude with a discussion of the opportunities and challenges for future productivity tools that aid people in managing task-related information across their personal and work contexts.
The digital age has seen a rise in digital hoarding behavior, which is defined as the behavior of accumulating digital files, resulting in stress and disorder. However, little is known about the causes and psychological mechanisms of digital hoarding. To address this research gap, this study proposed and empirically tested a moderated mediation model of social networking site (SNS) users’ causes of and psychological motivation for digital hoarding behavior using an online questionnaire method. We surveyed a total of 556 SNS users online. The results revealed that social comparison of this sort increased individuals’ digital hoarding behaviors and that fear of missing out (FoMO) mediated this effect. In addition, dispositional greed moderated the relationship between this comparison and FoMO as well as the relationship between FoMO and digital hoarding behavior such that these relationships were stronger for SNS users with high dispositional greed. Our research improves our understanding of the operative psychological mechanisms and boundary conditions in the relation between upward comparison via SNSs and digital hoarding behavior.
Email is one oftl~ most successful computer applicmiom yet devised. Our empin~:al ct~ta show however, that althongh email was origiraUy designed as a c~nmunica/ons application, it is now used for ~tional funaions, that it was not designed for, such as tab management and persona/ afoOt/v/rig. We call this ernt~l oveHoad We demonstrate that email overload creates problems for personal information manageaa,cnt: users eden have cluttered inboxes cor~mining hundreds of n~:age~¢, incl~rling outstanding tasks, partially read documents and conversational threads. Furthermore,, user attemt:Xs to rationalise their inbox~ by ~ing are ~Ron unsuccessful, with the consequence that important rr~ges get overlooked, or "lost" in archives. We explain how em~l over/oad/ng arises and propose technical solutions to the problem.
Email has come to play a central role in task management, yet email tool features have remained relatively static in recent years, lagging behind users? evolving practices. The Taskmaster system narrows this gap by recasting email as task management and embedding task-centric resources directly in the client. In this paper, we describe the field research that inspired Taskmaster and the principles behind its design. We then describe how user studies conducted with ?live? email data over a two-week period revealed the value of a task-centric approach to email system design and its potential benefits for overloaded users.
This paper summarizes and synthesizes two independent studies of the ways users organize and find files on their computers. The first study (Barreau 1995) investigated information organization practices among users of DOS, Windows and OS/2. The second study (Nardi, Anderson and Erickson 1995), examined the finding and filing practices of Macintosh users. There were more similarities in the two studies than differences. Users in both studies (1) preferred location-based finding because of its crucial reminding function; (2) avoided elaborate filing schemes; (3) archived relatively little information; and (4) worked with three types of information: ephemeral, working and archived. A main difference between the study populations was that the Macintosh users used subdirectories to organize information and the DOS users did not.
This observational study investigates the methods people use in their workplace to organize web information for re-use. In addition to the bookmarking and history list tools provided by web browsers, people observed in our study used a variety of other methods and associated tools. For example, several participants emailed web addresses (URLs) along with comments to themselves and to others. Other methods observed included printing out web pages, saving web pages to the hard drive, pasting the address for a web page into a document and pasting the address into a personal web site. Differences emerged between people according to their workplace role and their relationship to the information they were gathering. Managers, for example, depended heavily on email to gather and disseminate information and did relatively little direct exploration of the Web. A functional analysis helps to explain differences in “keeping” behavior between people and to explain the overall diversity of methods observed. People differ in the functions they require according to their workplace role and the tasks they must perform; methods vary widely in the functions they provide. The functional analysis can also help to assess the likely success of various tools, current and proposed.
In 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.
Virtual environments based on the desktop metaphor provide limited support for creating and managing project-specific work contexts. The paper discusses existing approaches to supporting higher-level user activities and presents a system named UMEA (User-Monitoring Environment for Activities). The design of the system is informed by activity theory. The system: (a) organizes resources into project-related pools consisting of documents, folders, URLs, and contacts, (b) monitors user activities, (c) automatically adds new resources to pools associated with active projects, and (d) provides personal information management tools linked to individual projects. An empirical evaluation of the system is reported.
With the increasing flow of email, strategies for organising email messages become more important. Research describes various strategies used for archiving and retrieving messages. Categorising these strategies is important to identify special needs, problems and solutions for users of each strategy. This study extends earlier categories by grouping users after folder usage and cleaning frequency. Conclusions are that the strategies are affected by the choice of mail tool and number of incoming messages, but no influence by the work task or position could be found. Some advice on interface design to support the different strategies is given.