Introduction

Do you still remember the time when you were waiting your mother for looking for a telephone number in her cumbersome contact book? After hardly finding the personal, poor handing writing became another challenge for her, as she had to guess what she actually wrote down. Back to the age when email was not popular, when computer or the Internet was hardly accessed, communication within distant people mainly relied on massive posts. You may not realize, information management was done in both cases as a personal was trying to organize information in a deliverable manner to others or his/herself.

The term “information management” may be quite unfamiliar to general public. People would think that it might be related to computer science and information technology, which are newly brought out in this century. By the Dr. T.D. Wilson (University of Sheffield), information management refers to how information is acquired, organized, controlled and disseminated (Wilson). Indeed, information management has long been existed and “living” with us.

Experts have different comments on Information management models. Some said models are typically wrong in nature but somehow useful (Box & Draper 1987). To summarise the features of IM model, it could be the representation of structure or diagnostic tool (HKU). This essay introduces four information management models and how they are involved in daily life. Each model would be illustrated with certain examples to let readers have a better understanding. In this essay, four information management models are discussed, namely Shannon Weaver Communication Model, 5 Rings Information Model, Kuhlthau’s Research Model and Information Transfer Cycle.

A. Shannon Weaver Communication Model

Shannon Weaver Communication Model is a cycle with several stages and steps published in 1948, titled “A Mathematical Theory of Communication”. It became an important finding in communication studies. The graph below shows the detail of this model. Figure 1: Shannon Weaver Communication Model
(Source: georgiehoon.blogspot.com)
In the field of experience, sender would interpret the meaning of information, which is going to be sent, through the channel of communication. On the other hand, the receiver receives the information and interprets the meaning in his/her own way. A case of sending a voice message through a social application with using a smartphone would be illustrated in the following detail description of steps.

Encode / Decode
In the sense of information transmission, the meaning of encoding is quite broad. The sender converts a message (a concept or non-written idea) into readable form, for instance words, graphs, video, speech and so forth. The other example would be a case of sending voice messages. A person speaks to a smartphone, which would convert the analogue signal to digital signal (encoding), since only digital signal could be read by computer (smartphone). The idea is the same for receive and the action of decoding, but in the reverted manner. The smartphone of receiver would decode the digital signal of voice message into an analogue one, because human being could only listen to analogue signal.

Noise (Physical and Semantic)
Noise could be defined as physical and semantic disturbance of the process of information transmission. Physical noise is more likely to be external noise, for example poor technology, reception problem or competing noise (notes). On the other hand, semantic noise could be associated with both senders and receivers, which is usually an internal noise. This refers to the difference of understanding of the meaning of same piece of information, which could be caused by cultural difference or emotional effects.

When recording a voice message, background noise (physical) may cause great influences of the clearance of voice recorded. The quality of voice of the origin record may already be low. There may be some missing wording; the meaning of the entire message may change. A person tries to record “I am fine, but the weather is bad”. “…fine, but the weather is…” is accidentally missed due to the background noise. The receiver will grab the meaning of “I am bad” which is totally different in meaning from the original one. The semantic noise may occur when sender and receiver interpret a same word. For instance, in the voice message “Good Luck!” is recorded. The interpretation of this phrase for sender would be a wording of encouragement. But the receiver may think that it is sarcastic. Misunderstanding is caused by such semantic noise.

Response and Feedback

To complete the cycle, receiver would have response toward to information and hence feedback would be sent to the sender. This action is called feedback loop. After listening to the voice message, the receiver may choose to either send back a text message or voice message. The sender may become a receiver at this moment, since he/she is receiving signals.

B. 5 rings of information model

Wurman developed the model in 1989, published in information anxiety. 5 rings model is a hierarchy information model showing various degrees of information related to ones life (St. Cloud of State University). From the innermost step to the outermost shell is the sequence of personal and concrete information to less customized and relatively abstract.

Figure 2: Five rings of information model
(Source: http://web.stcloudstate.edu/kewing/im552/inquiry.html)

The graph above shows the five “layers” of this model with internal information being the innermost layer. Reaching out to the outer part are conversational, reference, news and cultural information (Wilson, 2001). All rings would be elaborated and the thought of contraception would be applied as an example.

Internal Information

This comprises of the information that facilitate ones internal systems and enable on to function. For example, a person would feel the pain of wounds.

Conversational Information

It is about the interaction between people in either formal or informal ways. Conversation, indeed, is an important source of information transmission. In this stage, that person would discuss with others about how to handle the wounds.

Reference Information

This is the level we try to put communicated information into specific knowledge. The information that people transmitted could become reference in different extents. That person would find the solution from the first aid handbook.

News Information

The news information is a bit similar to reference information, but in a broader sense. One case is the information (current news) transmitted through media to the public. He uses the certain approach to handle the wounds.

Cultural Information

The last (outermost) information concerned is cultural information. It is the collaborative attempt from different fields to bring out civilization. Information in different rings would be gathered in this ring to generate social belief and the form of society. Later on, everyone follows his way to handle wounds.

5 Rings example - The formation of “HKU uniform” - Hollister

There is an example of the generation of “HKU uniform” in recent years. The students in the University of Hong Kong have a sense of dressing in a more elegant way. They wish to be more presentable and distinguish themselves by a specific dress code (internal information). A group of male students, having similar thinking, start discussing how the dress code should be in normal school day. Before going to references, they gather and discuss their points of views. They exchange their opinions towards that specific dress code, each of them is thinking of the style of it. They come up with several suggestions of brands (conversational information). The follow-up action for them is to search for fashion magazine for teenagers. There are many young adult fashion magazine in HK, namely Fashion & Beauty and STYLE. They search for the brands with celebrities’ promotion and the style of noble (reference information). After filtering out some unsuitable brands, the students search for more information in a broader extent. They browse “facebook” pages to see the fashion trend, collect comments of girls on their view on male fashion because of the opposite sex attraction. They also reference the foreign fashion trends to choose the best brand (news information). Finally, they choose the brand of Hollister Co. which is an American brand targeting the young. The style of this brand is liberty and excitement. That group of boys wears the clothes of this brand everyday to school and gradually more students follow such a dressing code. A tide of Hollister Co. clothing is formed the HKU, and people say it is the uniform for HKU students (cultural information) (Appendix 1).

C. Kuhlthau’s Research Model (Information Search Process) (Contraception)

Kuhlthau’s model was introduced in 1991, describing the feelings, thoughts and actions of information seeking (Kuhlthau 2004). The graph below shows the 7 steps of the process, and the example of contraception would be cited accordingly to each step for reference.

Figure 4: Kuhlthau’s Research Model
(Source: http://www.dol.govt.nz/publications/research/providing-information/providing-information-fig-03-large.asp)

The first stage is task initiation; people may feel uncertain about what they feel. They tend to start thinking of the problem encountered. It is the start of the research. Secondly, for the topic selection, people would feel optimistic about the problems, as they have already defined it. During the process, participants may think of some alternative topics related and see the available resources for investigating the topics. In the third stage of exploration (pre-focus exploration), people would feel confused as they are surrounded by much useful and non-useful information. They would locate the appropriate sources for the topics and develop the focus for it. The forth step is formulation, this is much related to the clear focus of the topics, since the person already have enough access to the information required. With the concrete plan of work, he/she might design the strategies to accomplish the goals. After developing the clear topic, collection (gather information) is done. People are highly confident in completing the tasks. They organize the searched information and group the useful resources. Opinions and arguments would also be collected. Presentation (Conclude the research): information seekers may feel satisfied in this stage, since most the work has been done. Further amendment would be identified and add the extra information. They may also confirm the findings. The last step is evaluation, which could be done by seeing evidence of the focus and proofreading the work. People in this final stage would be relieved or disappointed if the results are not satisfied, as they want.

An example applying Kuhlthau’s Research Model – Choosing contraception method

A couple would like to practice contraception to avoid pregnancy. At the very beginning, they only have little knowledge towards the approaches of contraception, and then they try to find out the possible ways of contraception (task initiation). They find out there are both chemical and physical contraception measures. They decide to search for further information for these two main directions (topic selection). There is thousands of information available in the Internet, including both accurate and inaccurate information (the personal opinions or experiences without medical proof) (exploration). The couple decides to use physical contraception in order not to cause unknown effect to bodies (formulation). They try to collect and gather the information about the correct approaches of physical contraception, namely using condoms, diaphragm, sterilization and calculating menstrual cycle from the web resources with the certification from experts (collection). The couple decides to use male condom, as it is the least costly and common. The medical researches prove that condom is very reliable on contraception; it makes the couple confident (presentation). When using the male condom, contraception is really achieved and the couple evaluates this physical method is a good approach (evaluation).

D. Information Transfer Cycle

Information Transfer Cycle (ITC) is the formation of repeated processes to accomplish the transfer of a certain type of information. The publication of the ITC is from Singapore Libraries in 1996 (Choy, 1996). Though there are several versions of the cycle modified by different information professional, the concept of the cycle does not change at all. The graph below shows the origin of the ITC. After discussing the cycle briefly, the case of charging method of bus in the past and nowadays would be used and contrasted to illustrate the concepts of this cycle.

Figure 5: Information Transfer Cycle
(Source: The University of Hong Kong – Faculty of Education)

As shown above, ITC involves seven steps. Normally, use is seen as the first step, with the meaning of utilize the information generated through the previous steps. There are two types of Create, basic search and applied search. Basic refers to some fundamental search, while applied search is more specific, for example a drug development. Collect simply refers to retrieve the recorded information. After gathering the information, several actions could be done, namely creating subject and format the information. It is called organize. Store means the way to store or save the information. The way people could reach the recorded information is access. The final step is deliver, it is the process of getting contact with the information through a media, e.g. the Internet. The information seeker can then use the information.

Information Transfer Cycle for analysis of bus companies (Past)

Thanks to the advancement of technology, the cases of charging the bus fare in HK in the past and nowadays are two different information transfer cycle. In 1950s, citizens should buy tickets inside the bus before getting a seat. Ticket price varies with different destination, and passengers should tell the ticket seller which stops they would get off. There was nearly no interaction between the bus driver and passengers. There were two sides of the tickets, one was for passenger, and another one was for ticket seller to save it for record. The record was extremely for certain purpose (use), for instance business analysis, route design, tax, and so forth. Before extracting those useful information from the tickets collected, several steps were needed to be executed.

The reserved side of tickets are collected and categorized into different location, time and date. For example, the volume of passengers and most travelled destination of one day are recorded (create). Staff of the bus company would gather the records of all routes everyday (collect). After getting all the record of a certain week or month, analysts would input the data into a company and sort the data into different categories (organise). The recorded data would be stored in the database (store). Once there is the need of practice analytical work, e.g. foreseeing income, analysts would enter the queries or other searching statements to the database (access). The final stage is to generate report or information files, which are readable for both information professionals as well as general people (deliver). The ITC graph below summarizes the process of whole transfer process. cycle Figure 6: Information Transfer Cycle (Past practice of bus company) Information Transfer Cycle for analysis of bus companies (Today)

Nowadays, octopus system facilitates the whole charging system. Passengers do not need to bring cumbersome coins for paying the bus fare, but use octopus cards instead. There is an octopus card reader on every bus and passengers just need to put the card near to the reader and the whole charging process is done. (Sometimes the fare is different for different destination within the same route, the bus driver would alter the fare value stored in the octopus card reader.) The octopus card reader would store the total amount charged and other information within the journey; bus company could get the money from the Octopus Company in monthly basis, which is a batch process.

The concept of transferring information from charging bus fare into the valued information available for critical use or analysis is the same. The practice changes due to the invention of the smart card. Company staff retrieves the data from the drive of the octopus card reader (create). The staff then groups the digital record of the all routes (collect). The data is input in a database readable format with different categories (organize). The rest of the practices are quite similar to the past. After storing the information in database, analyst could access the analytical reports would be generate for the use of analysis and business forecasting.

Figure 7: Information Transfer Cycle (Today practice of bus company)

The two information transfer cycles illustrate the approaches to transfer information with and without the implication of information technology. The way of gathering and modifying information is different, but the analytical process and the use of information is rather the same.

Conclusion

The demonstration of the four information management models above shows that information management is not something solely related to computer stuff. The examples cited above show that in our daily life, many actions are actually applying the concept of different models. The way to effective organization of information becomes the important trend in this era. Without effective information management, our lives would be brought with a divergence of troubles (McNurlin and Spraque).