There is a constant flood of new information, meta information, and computing devices to use. The best technical people I've met constantly keep abreast of new advances in technology and still have trouble keeping it all organised. We need a professional to help manage it all. This profession has yet to be created. The professional Information Advisor. They'll be similar to Financial Advisors or Doctors, helping people understand and manage the plethora of information technology. Critically though, they will save their client's time by removing or streamlining processes that their client's deal with every day. Information Advisors will also recommend best practises for accomplishing tasks, handling data, or interacting with their computing device. I just won't be able to touch on all the things that an Information Advisor can cover. But what I do want to convey is they idea that something like this would be soooo useful in helping people optimize and balance their digital lives in the information age.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LANDSCAPE
Ever since the advent of the internet, there's been constant innovation and introduction of new information & standards. Think of online location and mapping information (google maps, mashups, GPS), business and consumer pricing information (ebay, bizrate), and online access to our financial information (paypal, micro-payments, online bank account access). There's new meta information for describing and connecting info such as tagging (del.icio.us, semantic web) and micro formats for journalists and writers. There are new computing devices that carry and use that information. Phones, PDAs, appliances such as fridges and even cars have computers and need to interface with your personal data. Even IT professionals do not have time to integrate all of this new data and functionality on all of the devices in their lives.
AVERAGE USER PROBLEMS
The average user (and even the advanced user) has limited time to synthesize so much new information and ways to connect that information to their lives and routines. Users have imperfect knowledge of best practises to use and connect that new information. And there's just an overwhelming amount of data to manage and people with which to co-ordinate that data. We need a service or professional to help us synthesize all this information in our digital lives.
- Financial Data ( co-ordinate with your Accountants, Financial Advisors )
- Medical Data ( co-ordinate with your Doctors )
- Business Data; Projects & Schedules ( co-ordinate with your Business Analysts, Information Architects, Engineers )
- Personal Data ( co-ordinate with your Car Dealers, Mortgage Lenders )
- Location Data ( help you co-ordinate data such as best restos in area, bus stops, weather, etc )
- much more
INFORMATION ADVISOR RESPONSIBILITIES
My big idea is that professional Information Advisors would help us average users with all this fan-dangled techno whiz bang. They could have some core responsibilities such as:
- help us provision and use our computers
- help us use personal data on our computers and on networks
- demonstrate different options for software performs tasks with that data
- show different ways to connect / interface that data with other data
- show different ways to protect that data through encryption
- recommend best practises for accomplishing tasks, handling data, or interacting with our computing device
- they could specialise based on whether they are dealing with individuals, groups, professions, etc.
This profession could go along the lines of a Doctor or Financial Advisor, where your data needs are diagnosed and there is a solution or set of solutions offered based on your access needs to the data, security needs, devices used, budget, etc.
WHAT'S AVAILABLE NOW
The only avenues available to the average user are friends and / or family that are Software Developers, services such as Geek Squad, and support lines from your software or hardware vendors (Apple Support). There's nowhere the average person can turn to to help them understand and manage their digital lives. This is where Information Advisors come in. Users could visit to their Information Advisor every 6 months, once a year, or however often they feel is necessary. Finding new or better avenues for managing email, bookmarks and schedules can be to the middle class user, as learning video streaming technologies available for people or groups that are aspiring Content or TV production companies. Securing everyone's data across all devices should be a high priority to preserve privacy. The possibilities are endless, but the mission is to help people, professionals and organisations find, manage and organise data and applications necessary to optimize their digital lives in the information age.
