I am slowly getting my head around the Linux installation on this PC. Some people may be able to work all this out for themselves, but I still need to read books before I get very far with most computing. So I’ve been to that great old fashioned institution the *public library* and ordered some books.

Part of the process is learning where to start and what is relevant for what I want to do.

I have a germ of an idea about open source information management.

Most organisations I’ve worked with this year have poor information architecture across their organisatoins. I’ve not worked with one organisation that has a coherent file plan which cuts across all the information resources they have - including the internet, databases, email accounts, intranet and the contents of individuals PCs. Information chaos and confusion rather than information management.

What is also striking is how reluctant people are to reveal the contents of their own work machines. This isn’t to invade people’s privacy - its to able to look at how they have organised information locally so that they can be helped in organising and retrieving what they have. In at least one organisation I’ve worked in, the best way to describe how people find things (on their own machines, let alone shared drives) is ‘retrieval by memory’. They remember where things are (mostly) rather than having any systematic and organised retrieval mechanism or tool.

Categorisation is one method to help, but it is partial and inexact (for example, does this post go under the category of ‘information management’ or ‘open source’?)

Perhaps a small way to help people understand this would be to make the contents of everyone’s work PCs visible to everyone else in the organisation (including email - with FOI its pointless to try and hide most of it anyway) and even if corporate file plans are not developed, at least guidance and best practice could be shared.

So much information, so little organisation.