Planning, Strategy Development, Economic Analysis, Design
INFORMATIONAL STRUCTURES
In my professional work, informational structures underpin the intellectual exchanges so vital to organizational decision making and sustainment.
As such, it is important to understand what information is, how it is created and used.
In addition and after decades of work in organizational ddesign, it has become evident that while information is important, knowledge is what really matters.
Unfortunately most organizations focus on data, leaving themselves vulnerable to inaccuracy and incompleteness in decision making.
More importantly, most organizations have limited understanding of how data becomes information and how information becomes knowledge.
The majority of most modern organziations remain transfixed on data - its storage, its accessibility, its utilization.
Informational structures are primary enabling mecahnisms of all organizations. As such, when I do organizational design work I ensure that there is a distinction between"data", "information" and "knowledge".
These terms are not interchangeable.
Data is raw; it has no significance beyond its own existence and is generally a discrete textual or numerical construct (e.g. “well” is a textual construct).
Information, on the other hand, is a set of linked and related data components.
However, the modern organizational environment has progressed towards a fast-paced world of information creation and exchange.
Gone are the days of static databases, data marts, data warehouses and implicit structured queries.
Enter digital technologies that provide the capability to assemble data via Natural Lanaguage Processing, Machine Learning and Semantics Based Queries.
elements of informational structures
Semantics
(Meaning)
Taxonomies
(Classifications)
Ontologies
(Relationships)
Security
Content & Documents
Industry Terms
Structured Data
Unstructured Data
Semi-Structured Data
Meta Data
Organizational Terms
File Systems
Databases
Informational structures informs me of the "language" used in modern organizations.
With this insight I can achieve a deeper alignment of information and work efforts.
The result is an informational environment that assists in inducing optimal businesss decision making.
The development of informational structures assists in determing and shaping information management techniques and information system capabilities.
Given the advancing direction of information creation as assemblied data that is given meaning through association with contextual Ontologies, Taxonomies and a Semantical Base, my organiztional design work has increasingly included an "informational focus" centered on aligning information with specific Workflows.
As orgnizational decison makers and stakeholders have come to realize the important relationship between an organizational environment and information I am often called upon to author technical Whitepapers that provide deeper insight into how organizational transformation will impact their informational structures and enabling information systems.
Over the course of my career I have also seen the integration and closer alignment between software applications and underlying information sources - partly in response to the creation of Natural Language Processing code sets within new web-based applications and increased use of Unstructured and Semi-structured data.
So much so that more organizations have requested my assistance in developing Information-Centric Reference Models.
While accurate and accessible information is important, my design work has established that knowledge (and ultimately wisdom) is only achieved when informational users can apply the information within a cognitive event that leads to a well known outcome.
My design work has provided insight in that knowledge is a deterministic process and requires deep insight into when, where and how information is created and made available, thus supporting the importance in knowing how work is accomplished (via workflows).
Let's discuss how I can assist your organization in creating meaninful informational structures.