There is a Japanese concept called Poke Yoke that in oversimplified terms means mistake proofing by design. This is a brilliant and reassuring strategy when it works as intended…But it is massively frustrating when it doesn’t. I don’t think I am the only person that has ever tried to force Read more…
Too many organizations focus their information strategy around departments and job functions…and while this approach seems rational, I wonder if it is a totally backward model information centric organizations. The brilliant Peter Marks of Design Insight once wrote about the irony of supposedly customer centric organizations that were so structured Read more…
As a society, we have more classifications and hierarchies than we know what to do with. But the thing is that these can also be refined even more. Sure hierarchies and classifications are useful. But every new hierarchy or classification creates exponentially more complexity. And because the complexity is hidden, Read more…
Knowing how to use a computer and how to manage information effectively are two very different things. Using a computer or a digital device has become an extremely common capability. Everyone with a smart phone is using information technology, but is information being effectively communicated. But knowing about how to Read more…
On the whole, we don’t know how to deal with information, but we all think we have a way of managing information. The fascinating thing about information is that it is both personal and communal. There is big information. Everything out in the public domain in some shape or form. Read more…
Do you ever feel like you are just force fitting what you want to do into digital form Digital offers many advantages. But many of these advantages are illusory The ability to quickly copy, alter and exchange information its digital form is pretty remarkable, but the advantages dissipate when everyone Read more…
Love may be blind, but data is certainly not blind. But data doesn’t always help you to see. It may help you hear if you’re willing to listen. Data produces all kinds of noise. There is always something in the data that doesn’t fit. Like the gloves in the OJ Read more…
There’s monitoring and then there is monitoring…. Dashboards have become very popular tools for monitoring and measuring all kinds of activities. Based on the metaphor of the car dashboard, these dashboards are supposed to give you the information that you need at a glance. The flawed assumption is that dashboards Read more…
Information theory is about as arcane as the word arcane. Information theory is not so much about content, but more about how information is transmitted and received. It is also about the efficiency of that transmission. In one definition, information theory is about how many bits are needed to move Read more…