Category: Information Management

  | November 25th, 2016 Posted Under: Design, Information Management

INFOGOV16: The Conference of Cthulhu

Six Systemscopers stuck in a sedan for a span… sounds like the punchline of a bad joke, right? It was actually a van, but that would ruin the alliteration and literary elements which were the highlights of our touristy ventures in Providence, Rhode Island – a city known for its association with H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe. Besides roaming the spooky graveyards, awesome libraries, and colonial streets that inspired the literary geniuses, the six Systemscopers road tripped down to Providence for the Information Governance Conference 2016 hosted by the Information Coalition, a group formed to address perceived gaps from other Records and Information Management (RIM) associations and support the Information Governance (IG) community. Our goal was to learn about Information Governance and assess what aspects could be brought into the Government of Canada (GC) context. read more

  | October 12th, 2016 Posted Under: Content strategy, Digital Transformation, Information Management

Five Strategies for Moving Forward on Digital Transformation for Government

How government interacts with its citizens and stakeholders, particularly through digital channels like Canada.ca, is creating an opportunity to think about digital transformation in a new context. What does it mean for government to change the way it organizes, processes, engages and makes decisions about its online services and information? read more

  | August 25th, 2016 Posted Under: Content strategy, Design, Digital Transformation, Information Management

You’re reading this: the case for content strategy

I’m going to share a secret from nearly twenty years of working on the web. Peel the lid back on a major website build, and you’d be forgiven for wondering whether the efforts going into planning, creating and managing the written word are commensurate with the effort going into technical or structural aspects of the project. Put another way: visitors to a site are there for the content. Those who build sites end up putting plenty of time into other aspects of the project first. So why aren’t we putting more effort where the impact is greatest?

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  | August 5th, 2016 Posted Under: Information Management

What’s Your Angle? The Many Benefits of Faceted Classification

Time and again, faceted classification has proven itself to be a flexible and accommodating way to find information. Countless e-commerce sites on the Internet, as well as mobile apps, have made faceted browsing the preferred means of navigating a domain of information, especially those with which one is not totally familiar. Government departments and agencies can benefit from this by leveraging user (civil servants, but also everyday citizens) familiarity in this type of information seeking behaviour (Amazon, eBay, etc.) in their daily lives. read more

  | June 9th, 2016 Posted Under: Information Management

Information Management Visions and Strategies: Aiming for Coherence

Given that the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) is looking to develop a new strategic vision for information management (IM) in the Government of Canada, it is important to consider that the same end goal remains: making sense of the available information resources in order that they be better used by employees and the public.  This translates into the will to implement a policy that allows information to flow freely among all departments in order to provide better services to Canadians. Moreover, such a policy would also promote the idea of sharing information produced by public servants, in accordance with Open Government. Through collaborative efforts, new information can be generated which leads to better outcomes for the users of this information, including employees and the public.

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  | June 1st, 2016 Posted Under: Digital Transformation, Information Management

A firsthand experience with Denmark’s eGovernment strategy

Lost in the blue water between Norway, Sweden and Germany, you’ll find a cluster of islands and a peninsula known as Denmark, but don’t be fooled, this country is anything but off the map. With over 5 million citizens, Denmark is currently ranked as the happiest country in the world by the UN in their World Happiness Report, where Canada is sixth on the list. Denmark seems to have a good understanding of how to please their citizens, so what can be contributing to this overwhelming happiness of citizens? I wondered if it could relate their public services, sustainability, or bicycle culture? read more