The document discusses the deconstruction and reconstruction of personal information management (PIM), highlighting its significance in human-computer interaction (HCI) and social justice. It examines various popular PIM tools, their functionalities, and the underlying principles of effective collaboration. Key takeaways include the importance of appropriating technology for individual and community benefits, emotional management, and the need for integrated solutions that accommodate diverse user practices.

1. Alan Dix
@alanjohndix
https://alandix.com/academic/talks/PIM-seminar-2024/
Deconstructing and
Reconstructing PIM

2. 2nd edition
coming soon
plus AI for HCI
AI for Social Justice
plugs

4. promise of PIM
PIM research
– does it make a difference?
– ideas and concepts trickle through (Klujn et al., 2015)
e.g. threading MONA => gmail
tech innovation start-ups
– loads of apps!
personal knowledge management, personal productivity tools
(Cockburn & Thimbleby. 1993; Cockburn, 1994)

5. plan …
analysis
– deconstruct Personal Information Management
– examine some interesting and popular apps
synthesis
– technology and features
– human context

7. deconstructing PIM

8. deconstructing PIM
Personal
Information
Management

9. deconstructing PIM
Personal
– organisation–individual conflicts
– friends and community
– informal collaborative systems

10. deconstructing PIM
Personal
– community, organisation, friends
– personal management
of shared/common information
e.g. Snip!t

11. deconstructing PIM
Personal
Information
– knowledge, insight
– purpose? … not autotelic –
if PIM is designed for PIM it
fails
– tasks and action
e.g. to do lists, calendars, …

12. deconstructing PIM
Personal
Information
Management
– disorganisaton, dumping, for what?
99% never accessed … Keeping found things found?
– insight
The Marks are on the Knowledge Worker (Kidd, 1994)
– task-focus
e.g. PARA (project, area, resource, archive)

13. deconstructing PIM
Personal
• informal collaborative systems
• PM of shared/common information
Information
• knowledge, insight, action
• not autotelic – external purpose
Management
• disorganisaton, filing for what?
• insight, task-focus

15. PIM in practice

16. PIM in practice
big ticket players
– Office suites – to do, notes, etc
– Evernote
popular apps
– Workflowy – outliner ++
– Notion – strong on data
– Obsidian – personal Wiki
– Readwise – aggregator

17. clicking a tag
opens a search window
for the tag
outliner-style
with title line, description,
and nested sub-items.
rapid text entry using tab/shift-tab
Workflowy

18. Interlinked wiki-style pages
with both semi-structured fields
and unstructured text
collections of pages can
be treated as a database
with multiple kinds of views
Notion

19. note-taking interface
allowing external URLs, rich formatting
and internal wiki-style links
using [[notation]]
beneath the surface
markdown files
Obsidian

20. low distraction UI
to focus on books
and highlights within books
Readwise

21. lessons
simple functionality
– allowing rich usage
different styles
– but with enthusiastic users
– not ‘baked bean products’
strong communities of shared practice
– ‘hacks’ of usage
– some open API for code sharing (c.f. Xerox Buttons)

22. guidelines for appropriation
• allow interpretation
• provide visibility
• expose intentions
• support not control
• plugability and configuration
• encourage sharing
• learn from appropriation
Alan Dix (2007). Designing for Appropriation. in Proc. BCS HCI 2007,
https://www.alandix.com/academic/papers/papers/HCI2007-appropriation/

24. using technology

25. using technology
• fragmentation and synchronisation
– media
– applications
– devices
– people

26. using technology
• fragmentation and synchronisation
• not an island – connecting and annotating
– cloud sharing and 1970s filing systems
– book and web annotation
– Semantic Desktop … but URLs …
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#label/data/{id}
raw URL:
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/{id}
canonical?
how you found it
order of authenticating
in browser session

27. GLOI
plug-in
OAP
originating
application
LRA
local
resolution
agent
GRA
global
resolution
authority
metadata passed
to appropriate
application
send GLOI as standard
http request
http://...
local resource
located and
opened
Web World
Local Device
RAP
recipient
application
(often browser)
a web page
link to GLOI
within it
enhanced
metadata
returned
http://...
user clicks
GLOI link
metadata
passed
to LRA
we need GLOIs!

28. using technology
• fragmentation and synchronisation
• not an island – connecting and annotating
– cloud sharing and 1970s filing systems
– book and web annotation
– Semantic Desktop
– URLs and GLOIs
need cross-toll integration

29. using technology
• fragmentation and synchronisation
• not an island – connecting and annotating
• numbers and data
– specific visualisations – e.g. fitness, QS
– little for numbers beyond spreadsheets
personal numerical information management

30. ‘till roll’ to see
past calculations
basic four function
calculator
clicking past entry
in till roll
copies the value
into current sum
till roll entries
can be edited
and named
calQ

31. values can
be editable
or computed
from others
ws2 – explorable web calculations

32. using technology
• fragmentation and synchronisation
• not an island – connecting and annotating
• numbers and data
• UI matters
– email & folders
– Dynalist vs Workflowy
– … also habit and investment

33. using technology
• fragmentation and synchronisation
• not an island – connecting and annotating
• numbers and data
• UI matters
• AI is the answer?
– long history of task inference and automatic filing
remember Tom Baker …
– LLMs … PIM data small – transfer learning essential
…. but what about insight?

34. using technology
• fragmentation and synchronisation
• not an island – connecting and annotating
• numbers and data
• UI matters
• AI is the answer?

36. understanding people

37. understanding people
• organisation: when and why?
– collaboration with future self (Bergman and Whittaker, 2016)
– Kidd’s marks – do we need it anyway?
– search – reactive or proactive
direct hyperlinks
from other pages,
entered as [[LaTeX]]
in the markdown
free text mentions

38. understanding people
• organisation: when and why?
– collaboration with future self (Bergman and Whittaker, 2016)
– Kidd’s marks – do we need it anyway?
– search – reactive or proactive
– cost–benefit closer – organisation at point of need
– Kidd’s marks – organisation for insight

39. understanding people
• organisation: when and why?
• communities and appropriation
– support not control
– pluggability and configuration
– encourage sharing

40. understanding people
• organisation: when and why?
• communities and appropriation
• people are different
– different practices similar efficiency (Kaye et al. 2006)
– ontologies: generic, egocentric, idiosyncratic
– cognitive differences – hard to comprehend
… including HCI researchers!
– different solutions for different people
… but how do they collaborate?

41. understanding people
• organisation: when and why?
• communities and appropriation
• people are different
• emotion management
– GTD – The art of stress-free productivity
– to-do list – not-done list – done list
– magick and quests, gamification

42. understanding people
• organisation: when and why?
• communities and appropriation
• people are different
• emotion management

44. take aways …
• informal collaborative systems
• purpose & task-centred
• fragmentation and integration
– GLOIs, cross-tool infrastructure
• appropriation by design
• emotion matters
… designing for solitude

45. Deconstructing and
Reconstructing PIM
Alan Dix
https://alandix.com/academic/talks/PIM-seminar-2024/