Information Resilience: the nexus of responsible and agile approaches to information use

The appetite for effective use of information assets has been steadily rising in both public and private sector organisations. However, whether the information is used for social good or commercial gain, there is a growing recognition of the complex socio-technical challenges associated with balancing the diverse demands of regulatory compliance and data privacy, social expectations and ethical use, business process agility and value creation, and scarcity of data science talent. In this vision paper, we present a series of case studies that highlight these interconnected challenges, across a range of application areas. We use the insights from the case studies to introduce Information Resilience, as a scaffold within which the competing requirements of responsible and agile approaches to information use can be positioned. The aim of this paper is to develop and present a manifesto for Information Resilience that can serve as a reference for future research and development in relevant areas of responsible data management.

Level and contributing factors of health data quality and information use in two districts in Northwest Ethiopia: social-ecological perspective

Background The health management information system has been implemented at all levels of healthcare delivery to ensure quality data production and information use in Ethiopia. Including the capacity-building activities and provision of infrastructure, various efforts have been made to improve the production and use of quality health data though the result is still unsatisfactory. This study aimed to examine the quality of health data and use in Wogera and Tach-Armacheho districts and understand its barriers and facilitators. Methods The study utilized a mixed-method; for the quantitative approach, institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the quality of health data and use by 95 departments in the two districts. The qualitative approach involved 16 in-depth interviewees from Wogera district. A descriptive Phenomenological design was used to explore factors influencing the quality and use of health data. The quantitative data were expressed descriptively with tables, graphs, and percent whereas the qualitative data were analyzed with content analysis guided by the social-ecological model framework. Result The average levels of information use for Wogera and Tach-Armacheho districts were estimated at 29 and 35.9, respectively. The overall average level of accuracy of reports for six different health services in the HCs of Wogera and Tach Armacheho districts were 0.95 and 0.86, respectively. The qualitatively identified factors that influence the production and use of quality health data include valuing data, getting staff training, being a patriotic staff, and getting supportive supervision, were identified from individual-level characteristics; similarly, coaching, supportive supervision, and peer-to-peer learning from relational/interpersonal level characteristics, and organizational culture, incentive, infrastructure establishing accountability, and staff turnover, were identified from organizational level characteristics. Conclusion The quality of data and routine information utilization was low and were influenced by a number of actors presented in and around the health system including individual, interpersonal, and organizational characteristics. Incentive affects data quality and information use directly or indirectly after modifying factors at all levels of the social-ecological model. Therefore, interventions should gear towards addressing multiple social-ecological factors of the health system concomitantly or intervene on incentive which has a multifaceted effect on the outcome.

What Privacy Is

Privacy issues are everywhere in our society, but we struggle with them in part because we lack a clear definition of privacy on which we can agree. Scholars have struggled to define privacy, but lots of concepts in our law, like “free speech” and “equality,” have been protected without clear agreement on a specific definition. Thus, we need not let our hang-ups about privacy’s definitional problem stop us from talking about it and protecting it. The chapter offers a working definition of privacy for the book as “the extent to which human information is neither known nor used. This definition focuses on (1) information privacy rather than other kinds of privacy; (2) information about humans; (3) the use of information rather than its mere collection; and (4) the importance of thinking about information use as a matter of degree rather than a binary on/off state.

Study on the use of information by chiropractors

<p>A study of the use of information by chiropractors in New Zealand was undertaken in order to produce guidelines for the establishment of library services to practitioners, and to fill a gap in the body of user studies knowledge. This study used a survey to collect data which was then analysed using descriptive statistics. It was found that: The library will need to market its services strongly to the practitioners Chiropractors are different to orthodox medical practitioners in that they use monographs more than journals and colleagues, but are similar to medical physicians because they rarely use libraries and prefer using their own personal collection . Electronic information use is low in spite of high computer use and will therefore need special marketing and training to create awareness and use. There does not seem to be a need for special recent graduate services as there is no significant linear relationship between professional age and print information use Rural chiropractors and urban chiropractors do not use electronic information any differently, so will probably not need special training or services in this area. They can be accommodated into services as a group.</p>

Study on the use of information by chiropractors

<p>A study of the use of information by chiropractors in New Zealand was undertaken in order to produce guidelines for the establishment of library services to practitioners, and to fill a gap in the body of user studies knowledge. This study used a survey to collect data which was then analysed using descriptive statistics. It was found that: The library will need to market its services strongly to the practitioners Chiropractors are different to orthodox medical practitioners in that they use monographs more than journals and colleagues, but are similar to medical physicians because they rarely use libraries and prefer using their own personal collection . Electronic information use is low in spite of high computer use and will therefore need special marketing and training to create awareness and use. There does not seem to be a need for special recent graduate services as there is no significant linear relationship between professional age and print information use Rural chiropractors and urban chiropractors do not use electronic information any differently, so will probably not need special training or services in this area. They can be accommodated into services as a group.</p>

"It Isn't All about You": The Management of ICT and Non-ICT Information Resources via Human Information Behaviour

<p>"Applications that gather dust... Technologies no one understands... Information that's ignored... [thus, there is still very much a need to] pay attention to Information behaviour" (Davenport, 1997, p.2). Human Information Behaviour is as important a concept today as it has ever been, as there are still millions of dollars going into improving information technology. While information seeking behaviour has been rigorously studied over the years, information use has not received the same attention. Neither has the IT artefact or choice of such technologies at the hands of users of information. This research paper aims to produce a taxonomy of the information use behaviours and ICT and non-ICT resource use of IT academics through a qualitative study involving both observation (incorporating thinking aloud) and structured face-to-face interview techniques. The research question asks "How do IT Academics manage the integration between various Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and non-ICT sources to support their information behaviours (IB) and, therefore, achieve their desired outcome? We observed and interviewed six IT academics carrying out their normal working activities, looking into actual information events as they occurred, information outcomes, information behaviours, and the technologies used by academics in their daily interactions with information. We developed a systems model, informed by activity theory, to frame the discussion. What was uncovered by the study was a tendency for academics to converge on a single technology - that of the laptop. This together with email was what academics tended to prefer to use, both at the office and in their homes; a surprising find as it was assumed that there would be a plethora of different ICTs in use. We found that technologies contributed to a blurring of the work/life equilibrium for many academics. Academics did exhibit a wide range of behaviours in their laptop and email use. Many of them were relatively unproductive, and involved moving information from one place, or one form to another, and finally ending in deletion rather than active use. Many of our interviewees reflected a need to use their time wisely through time management, and the impact of email on time management. These results also yielded the justification of Activity Theory which was used in the study, and of the systems framework which was constructed for the study. The study also confirmed the importance of environmental influences on academic's working lives, which tended to create a somewhat cyclic nature to their information events. Overall, it was not clear that patterns of use of ICTs contributed to effective information use behaviour by IT academics.</p>