This dissertation examines the way that demands for more control over the collection, processing, and sharing of personal data are being managed by both government and industry leaders with strategies that appear to comply with regulations, but that fail to do so. These are “by-design” strategies used by individuals to unilaterally manage their data with automated tools. I take a multimethod approach that combines autoethnography, reverse engineering techniques, and data analysis to assess the implementation of by-design services implemented by Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram in compliance with current European Union regulations for access and portability. I also employ archival research, discourse analysis, interviews, and participant observation. I argue that self-led, by-design approaches do not answer the demands for more control over personal data. The regulatory and technical resources put in place for individuals to control their data are not effective because they turn over decisions about execution to an industry with no interest in sharing that data or being regulated. If policymakers continue to pursue by-design approaches, they will need to learn how to test the techniques, and the execution of the techniques, provided by industry. They will need to assess the impact on data that is made available. So that results can be evaluated, by-design tools like the ones I assessed must be accompanied by clear and detailed details about design choices and procedures. In this vein, I offer directions for critical scrutiny, including standards and measuring the impact of APIs. I conclude that self-managed, by-design approaches are not the source of the problem. But they are a symptom of the need for critical scrutiny over the execution of tools like the ones offered by Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Ultimately, I found that portability and access are legally and technically fraught. However, despite the shortcomings of by-design approaches, personal data can be more effectively regulated in Europe than in the United States as the result of current regulations.

Die Forschungsarbeit beabsichtigte den Zusammenhang zwischen Kultur und der wahrgenommenen Bedienbarkeit der PIM Software seitens deutscher und indonesischer Anwender, welcher in zwei Experimenten untersucht wurde, zu erforschen. Die Entwicklung der PIM Technologie in beiden Ländern, sowie deren kultureller Wert, insbesondere Unsicherheitsvermeidung (UA) und Individualismus-Kollektivismus (INCOL), repräsentieren die zentralen Beweggründe der vorliegenden Untersuchung. Der betrachtete kulturelle Hintergrund und die verwendete Methodik stellen die Verbindung zwischen der ersten und zweiten Studie dar. Die Experimente waren in zwei Studien aufgeteilt, da jeder kulturelle Hintergrund ein unterschiedliches Erhebungsdesign benötigt: UA steht in Beziehung mit der ersten vs. der zweiten Aufgabe und INCOL wurde mittels zwei verschiedenen Wegen der Vervollständigung erfasst (Individual- vs. Gruppenaufgabe). Während sich der Fokus der ersten Studie auf den Vergleich zwischen der deutschen und indonesischen Kultur richtet, konzentrierte sich die zweite Studie auf Kulturen zwischen (Deutschland vs. Indonesien) und innerhalb eines Landes (Individualismus vs. Kollektivismus). Die Ergebnisse legen dar, dass deutsche Anwender ein höheres Level an Unsicherheitsvermeidung als indonesische Anwender zeigen. Lediglich hinsichtlich der Zufriedenheit weisen indonesische, verglichen zu deutschen Benutzern, einen höheren Wert auf, wobei der Haupteffekt der Zeit nur bezüglich der Höhe der Effizienz signifikant ist. Es zeigte sich außerdem ein positiver Zusammenhang zwischen UA und der Effizienz beider Aufgaben, sowie eine negative Korrelation zwischen UA und der berichteten Zufriedenheit. Hinsichtlich der Höhe von UA und der Effektivität ließ sich kein negativer Zusammenhang nachweisen. Desweiteren, betreffend INCOL, lässt sich zusammenfassen, dass der Hauptinteraktionseffekt Aufgabe*INCOL statistisch signifikant ist. Bezüglich Effizienz und Zufriedenheit ist entscheidend, dass, je höher die Ausprägung von Individualismus und Kollektivismus auf Seiten der Anwender ist, desto weniger Zeit beanspruchen diese für die Ausführung individueller Aufgaben und desto zufriedener wenden die Benutzer das PIM und GIM Tool an. Mit eingeschlossen ist jedoch, dass sich zwischen Individualismus und Kollektivismus deutscher und indonesischer Bediener kein Zusammenhang mit der Höhe der Effektivität darstellen lasst. Zusammenfassend ist festzuhalten, dass die Entwickler der PIM Software mit einer internationalen Anwendergruppe beachten sollten, dass die Ergebnisse von Usability Messungen seitens Benutzeranfänger in verschiedenen Kulturen unterschiedlich sein können.:1. Abstract 2. Chapter 1: Introduction 3. Chapter 2: Research Paradigm 4. Chapter 3: Uncertainty Avoidance and Usability of Personal Information Management 5. Chapter 4: Do Individualistic and Collective Persons Measure Usability of Personal and Group Information Management differently? A Culturability Study with German and Indonesian Users 6. Chapter 5: Summary and Conclusion 7. References

Introduction. The aim of this master thesis is to examine how students at Uppsala university manage, organize, and preserve their study-related information in a digital environment. It also investigates the motivations for personal information management (PIM) among students, and explores the concepts of sense making as both an activity and a desired outcome. The thesis focuses on the respondents’ experiences and behaviours in terms of PIM in relation to their digital collections.  Method. The research is based on 12 interviews with 9 exchange students, which were audio recorded and transcribed. Transcripts constituted the data for analysis.  Analysis. Interview data was analysed qualitatively with Nvivo software. Concepts were defined so that they could be used in the survey. Results. The study found that the five metalevels of PIM activities proposed by William Jones (2008) were applicable to the interview data, and that the respondents used a variety of digital tools and storage options, including cloud services, text editors and desktop applications, to organize and manage their information collections. Results are also presented in relation to Soo Jin Park’s (2011) three types of organizing and managing information collections.  Conclusion. The results showed that reflection on PIM and planning over time can lead to meaning-making and motivation for personal development. The degree of effort in organizing and managing information collections varied according to the individual values, personality, and contextual situations. The participants’ most common software for data storage were cloud services, text editors and web pages, with laptops, computers and mobile phones being the most popular devices for data storage. Some also had external hard drives as backup solutions and strict rules for discipline regarding PIM. While many participants trusted cloud storage when it came to privacy, some participants were skeptical of large IT companies and tried to find their own strategies to become less dependent on them. The majority made informed choices due to the risk of data loss and fragmentation. They had a profile of cognitive skills that included the ability to use visual messages to create unification and transparency in systems. They had a mix of dynamic and large collections of data.  They preferred to structure their files in a specific and structured system. Some preferred to file in more well-defined locations, while others used a more flexible method of organization. The majority had a one folder filing strategy. Some had file systems with a top-down approach, while others used incremental bottom-up strategies. They used a variety of PIM tools and strategies to meet their changing needs, such as using descriptive file names, splitting projects into smaller collections, regularly reviewing and deleting older files and categorize files by date. The study provided valuable insights into the process of managing digital information and the importance of continuous evaluation and adaptation of PIM tools and strategies to meet the changing needs of participants.  This is a two years master’s thesis in Archival Science.

In order to improve the quality of care, there is urgent need to involve patients in their own healthcare. So to make patient centered health care system Personal Health Records are proposed as viable solution. This research discusses the importance of a Patient Centric Health Record system. Such systems can empower patients to participate in improving health care quality. It would also provide an economically viable solution to the need for better healthcare without escalating costs by avoiding duplication. The proposed system is Web-based; therefore it has high accessibility and availability. The cloud computing based architecture is used which will allow consumers to address the challenge of sharing medical data. PHR would provide a complete and accurate summary of the health and medical history of an individual by gathering data from many sources. This would make information accessible online to anyone who has the necessary electronic credentials to view the information. / by Vishesh Ved. / Thesis (M.S.C.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Personal document management is the activity of managing a collection of digital documents performed by the owner of the documents, and consists of creation/acquisition, organisation, finding and maintenance. Document management is a pervasive aspect of digital work, but has received relatively little attention from researchers. The hierarchical file system used by most people to manage their documents has not conceptually changed in decades. Although revolutionary prototypes have been developed, these have not been grounded in a thorough understanding of document management behaviour and therefore have not resulted in significant changes to document management interfaces. Improvements in understanding document management can result in productivity gains for knowledge workers, and since document management is such a common activity, small improvements can deliver large gains. The aim of this research was to understand how people manage their personal document collections and to develop guidelines for the development of tools to support personal document management. A field study was conducted that included interviews, a survey and file system snapshot. The interviews were conducted with ten participants to investigate their document management strategies, structures and struggles. In addition to qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews, a novel investigation technique was developed in the form of a file system snapshot which collects information about document structures and derives a number of metrics which describe the document structure. A survey was also conducted, consisting of a questionnaire and a file system snapshot, which enabled the findings of the field study to be validated, and to collect information from a greater number of participants. The results of this research culminated in (1) development of a conceptual framework highlighting the key personal document management attitudes, behaviours and concerns; (2) model of basic operations that any document management system needs to provide; (3) identification of piling, filing and structuring as three key document management strategies; (4) guidelines for the development of user interfaces to support document management, including specific guidelines for each document management strategy. These contributions both improve knowledge of personal document management on which future research can build, and provide practical advice to document management system designers which should result in the development of more usable system.

Personal digital records are one of the most underrepresented areas of archival theory and practice. Documentary forms created by private persons have long been victim of a poverty of professional attention, and much of the literature on the appraisal and preservation of records has tended to focus on those generated by government and other organizational entities. And strategies developed for the archival management of digital records have similarly placed strong emphasis on business functions or corporate transactions as the primary unit of analysis. This scholastic deficit has severely impaired the ability of the archivist to comprehend and effectively meet the many challenges of archiving personal records in the digital age. This thesis demonstrates how investigations of the original context of creation and use of records in contemporary personal computing environments are integral to the development of comprehensive strategies for the capture and preservation of personal digital archives. It is within these digital domains that archivists come to see cultures of personal recordkeeping, private appraisal decisions based on unique designations of value, and the complexities of both online and offline personal digital preservation strategies. A keen understanding of how individuals create and preserve their digital records across time and space should be of the utmost importance to archivists for, if nothing else, these pre-custodial activities are the principal sites of archival provenance. Chapter one discusses past and present responses to both paper-based and electronic personal archives. The discussion begins with the definition of the personal record as essentially non-archival by early leading archival theorists and how these definitions, though first advanced in the early to mid-twentieth century, continue to find resonance in contemporary archival ideas and institutional mandates. This chapter then illustrates how ideas predicated on the management of electronic government records, and metadata standards developed for formalized electronic recordkeeping systems, are not easily transposed to personal domains. Chapter two takes a critical look at the often oversimplified personal digital archiving environment to expose the many nuances in the context of creation and use of records by individuals in the digital era. Chapter three explores a number of emerging approaches to the professional archiving of personal digital records and reveals how the proper management of these materials requires multiple hardware and software applications, concise acquisition strategies and preservation methodologies, and diligent front-end work to ensure personal digital records cross the threshold of archival repositories. The thesis concludes with a summary of the main arguments and collates the best ideas, approaches, and technologies reviewed throughout to propose a hypothetical strategy for archiving personal digital records in the present. This thesis argues that significantly more work with records creators earlier in the record creation process must be done when archiving personal digital records because more proactive measures are required to capture and preserve these materials than was previously the case with paper-based or analog documentary forms.

Personal digital records are one of the most underrepresented areas of archival theory and practice. Documentary forms created by private persons have long been victim of a poverty of professional attention, and much of the literature on the appraisal and preservation of records has tended to focus on those generated by government and other organizational entities. And strategies developed for the archival management of digital records have similarly placed strong emphasis on business functions or corporate transactions as the primary unit of analysis. This scholastic deficit has severely impaired the ability of the archivist to comprehend and effectively meet the many challenges of archiving personal records in the digital age. This thesis demonstrates how investigations of the original context of creation and use of records in contemporary personal computing environments are integral to the development of comprehensive strategies for the capture and preservation of personal digital archives. It is within these digital domains that archivists come to see cultures of personal recordkeeping, private appraisal decisions based on unique designations of value, and the complexities of both online and offline personal digital preservation strategies. A keen understanding of how individuals create and preserve their digital records across time and space should be of the utmost importance to archivists for, if nothing else, these pre-custodial activities are the principal sites of archival provenance. Chapter one discusses past and present responses to both paper-based and electronic personal archives. The discussion begins with the definition of the personal record as essentially non-archival by early leading archival theorists and how these definitions, though first advanced in the early to mid-twentieth century, continue to find resonance in contemporary archival ideas and institutional mandates. This chapter then illustrates how ideas predicated on the management of electronic government records, and metadata standards developed for formalized electronic recordkeeping systems, are not easily transposed to personal domains. Chapter two takes a critical look at the often oversimplified personal digital archiving environment to expose the many nuances in the context of creation and use of records by individuals in the digital era. Chapter three explores a number of emerging approaches to the professional archiving of personal digital records and reveals how the proper management of these materials requires multiple hardware and software applications, concise acquisition strategies and preservation methodologies, and diligent front-end work to ensure personal digital records cross the threshold of archival repositories. The thesis concludes with a summary of the main arguments and collates the best ideas, approaches, and technologies reviewed throughout to propose a hypothetical strategy for archiving personal digital records in the present. This thesis argues that significantly more work with records creators earlier in the record creation process must be done when archiving personal digital records because more proactive measures are required to capture and preserve these materials than was previously the case with paper-based or analog documentary forms.

Personal document management is the activity of managing a collection of digital documents performed by the owner of the documents, and consists of creation/acquisition, organisation, finding and maintenance. Document management is a pervasive aspect of digital work, but has received relatively little attention from researchers. The hierarchical file system used by most people to manage their documents has not conceptually changed in decades. Although revolutionary prototypes have been developed, these have not been grounded in a thorough understanding of document management behaviour and therefore have not resulted in significant changes to document management interfaces. Improvements in understanding document management can result in productivity gains for knowledge workers, and since document management is such a common activity, small improvements can deliver large gains. The aim of this research was to understand how people manage their personal document collections and to develop guidelines for the development of tools to support personal document management. A field study was conducted that included interviews, a survey and file system snapshot. The interviews were conducted with ten participants to investigate their document management strategies, structures and struggles. In addition to qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews, a novel investigation technique was developed in the form of a file system snapshot which collects information about document structures and derives a number of metrics which describe the document structure. A survey was also conducted, consisting of a questionnaire and a file system snapshot, which enabled the findings of the field study to be validated, and to collect information from a greater number of participants. The results of this research culminated in (1) development of a conceptual framework highlighting the key personal document management attitudes, behaviours and concerns; (2) model of basic operations that any document management system needs to provide; (3) identification of piling, filing and structuring as three key document management strategies; (4) guidelines for the development of user interfaces to support document management, including specific guidelines for each document management strategy. These contributions both improve knowledge of personal document management on which future research can build, and provide practical advice to document management system designers which should result in the development of more usable system.

Personal document management is the activity of managing a collection of digital documents performed by the owner of the documents, and consists of creation/acquisition, organisation, finding and maintenance. Document management is a pervasive aspect of digital work, but has received relatively little attention from researchers. The hierarchical file system used by most people to manage their documents has not conceptually changed in decades. Although revolutionary prototypes have been developed, these have not been grounded in a thorough understanding of document management behaviour and therefore have not resulted in significant changes to document management interfaces. Improvements in understanding document management can result in productivity gains for knowledge workers, and since document management is such a common activity, small improvements can deliver large gains. The aim of this research was to understand how people manage their personal document collections and to develop guidelines for the development of tools to support personal document management. A field study was conducted that included interviews, a survey and file system snapshot. The interviews were conducted with ten participants to investigate their document management strategies, structures and struggles. In addition to qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews, a novel investigation technique was developed in the form of a file system snapshot which collects information about document structures and derives a number of metrics which describe the document structure. A survey was also conducted, consisting of a questionnaire and a file system snapshot, which enabled the findings of the field study to be validated, and to collect information from a greater number of participants. The results of this research culminated in (1) development of a conceptual framework highlighting the key personal document management attitudes, behaviours and concerns; (2) model of basic operations that any document management system needs to provide; (3) identification of piling, filing and structuring as three key document management strategies; (4) guidelines for the development of user interfaces to support document management, including specific guidelines for each document management strategy. These contributions both improve knowledge of personal document management on which future research can build, and provide practical advice to document management system designers which should result in the development of more usable system.

Personal document management is the activity of managing a collection of digital documents performed by the owner of the documents, and consists of creation/acquisition, organisation, finding and maintenance. Document management is a pervasive aspect of digital work, but has received relatively little attention from researchers. The hierarchical file system used by most people to manage their documents has not conceptually changed in decades. Although revolutionary prototypes have been developed, these have not been grounded in a thorough understanding of document management behaviour and therefore have not resulted in significant changes to document management interfaces. Improvements in understanding document management can result in productivity gains for knowledge workers, and since document management is such a common activity, small improvements can deliver large gains. The aim of this research was to understand how people manage their personal document collections and to develop guidelines for the development of tools to support personal document management. A field study was conducted that included interviews, a survey and file system snapshot. The interviews were conducted with ten participants to investigate their document management strategies, structures and struggles. In addition to qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews, a novel investigation technique was developed in the form of a file system snapshot which collects information about document structures and derives a number of metrics which describe the document structure. A survey was also conducted, consisting of a questionnaire and a file system snapshot, which enabled the findings of the field study to be validated, and to collect information from a greater number of participants. The results of this research culminated in (1) development of a conceptual framework highlighting the key personal document management attitudes, behaviours and concerns; (2) model of basic operations that any document management system needs to provide; (3) identification of piling, filing and structuring as three key document management strategies; (4) guidelines for the development of user interfaces to support document management, including specific guidelines for each document management strategy. These contributions both improve knowledge of personal document management on which future research can build, and provide practical advice to document management system designers which should result in the development of more usable system.