An Executive Forum presentation at the Federal Executive Institute, December 6, 2012 as part of LDS384.

1. Data, Information and Knowledge
in the Life of the Federal Executive
Richard Huffine, LDS384
Library Director
U.S. Department of the Interior, Geological Survey

2. Data, information and knowledge today
• We are inundated with data and information in our
careers and in our personal lives
• How you manage this challenge and how you ensure
you know what you need to know… will be a big
factor in your success
• Data, information and knowledge are what you need
to make good, sound decisions as a government
executive
• Hopefully, this presentation will give you some help
with this challenge… not add to the issue!

3. The hierarchy
http://www.lanl.gov/collaboration/tech-transfer/tech-transfer-summaries/monitoring-surveillance-enhanced.php

4. The hierarchy at play
Data – raw inputs, worthless out of context
Information – Data in context
Knowledge - Understanding
Wisdom – The application of knowledge
Judgement – Making choices
• The strategies for managing objects in each of these levels are
often similar and complimentary.
• Just remember that in a digital world, this content will not survive
benign neglect the way data and information did in the print era.
Knowledge has been largely passed down through oral tradition.

5. Is this your office?

6. Personal Information Management
• Activities you perform to acquire, organize, manage,
retrieve and use information for future use in
accomplishing personal goals.
– You need to have the right information at the right time.
– It needs to be in the right form and complete enough to meet
your needs.
– Getting this right helps us spend less time looking for
information.
– We can then make better, more creative, intelligent decisions.
– And we have more time in our lives for what we really value.

7. What do you value?
• Do your information choices reflect your values?
• Do you:
• Forward • Include
• Summarize • Exert
• Reference • Redact
• Read • Share
• File • Protect
• Delete • Search
• Archive • Trust
• Taking no action at all is also a choice. If you don’t do
anything, you can easily be overwhelmed.

8. Devices
• Computer • Paper
– PC, Mac, Nexus, etc. • Binders
• MiFi • Books
– personal Internet • Journals
connection • Reports
• Smartphone • Handouts
– iPhone, Android,
Blackberry • Notepad, pen, pencil
• Tablet
– iPad, Kindle, Surface
• USB stick
• Cloud Storage

9. What do you consume?
• Direct Communications
– E-mail – direct, group, broadcast
– Voicemail, postal mail
• Internal Knowledge
– Meetings, Gossip, Dashboards, Wikis
• News
– Newspapers, News shows, Web sites, blogs, RSS Feeds
• Technical Knowledge
– Journals, Newsletters
– Books, Industry and Technical Reports

10. Applications
• Computer Applications
– Word processing, spreadsheets, databases
• Internet Applications
– Web sites, Wikis, data systems, Sharepoint
• Mobile Applications
– Notetaking - ThinkBook
– Collecting Information - Evernote, Bento
– Managing tasks – RTM (Remember the Milk), Orchestra
– Keeping Up-to-date – Flipboard, Pulse Reader
– Wellness – MyFitnessPal

11. Beyond what is free and online
• How do you get information that you cannot find for
free and online?
– Your colleagues will often find and share information that
they have access to.
– Some Agencies have commercial subscriptions for you.
These could include aggregate databases or direct
specialized sources
– Agency libraries can often borrow material for you from
other libraries. They can also purchase material you need.

12. How you contribute what you know?
• E-mail
• Shared drives
• Web sites
• Blog posts
• Wiki entries
• Reports to supervisors, subordinates
• Newsletter and journal articles

13. Things to remember
• Copyright and Licensing
– As a Federal employee, things you produce for work are in the
public domain.
– You have to respect the copyright of the publishers of
information you receive.
– There are exceptions for “government purposes” and “fair use.”
Check with your librarian.
– Some of the information we buy (including contract
deliverables) are restricted based on the license we sign. Those
licenses trump copyright.
• The current administration believes in “transparency” and
“open government.”
– Usually, that means being more participative in decision-making
and sharing as much information as possible.

14. Knowledge Management
• KM is an emerging discipline of study that
explores how we create, manage, use,
and share knowledge specifically.
• There are KM efforts in several Federal
Agencies that are trying to expand the
practice and improve agency
performance
• Success requires the definition of a Knowledge Strategy
that articulates how to accomplish the mission and the
role of data, information and knowledge in achieving the
mission

15. Knowledge Services
• In order to achieve the goals of a Knowledge Strategy,
agencies need to align resources and coordinate the
services including:
– Records Management and Archiving
– Libraries
– Communities
– Customer and Information Services
– Freedom of Information
– Publishing and Web Content Management

16. The convergence
• The reality is that our personal habits
and the organization’s capabilities are
coming together
• If you:
– practice good personal information
management;
– contribute what you know to your
organization, and
– support a robust knowledge strategy
• Then you can leverage data,
information and knowledge to further
your personal and professional goals.

17. Who is responsible
for what you don’t know?
• Ultimately, you must seek the information you
need;
– determine its value and validity;
– decide if you have what you need to make a decision;
– stand by the decisions you make; and
– determine when new information calls a decision into
question.
• What you keep, toss, manage and create reflects
your values; and
• There is help available. Seek out an information
professional when you need help.

18. Questions and Discussion
Richard Huffine
rhuffine@usgs.gov
richardhuffine@yahoo.com
703-648-7182 o
Twitter: @rlhuffine
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
All of the images in this presentation were taken from Web-based materials on .gov domain hosts.
Their use here is presumed to meet all requirements for a non-commercial fair use.