There is now a critical mass of digital information resources that can be used to support researchers, learners, teachers and administrators in their work and study. The production of information is on the increase and ways to deal with this effectively are required. There is the need to ensure that quality information isn’t lost amongst the masses of digital data created everyday. If we can continue to improve the management, interrogation and serving of ‘quality’ information there is huge potential to enhance knowledge creation across learning and research communities. The aim of the Information Environment is to help provide convenient access to resources for research and learning through the use of resource discovery and resource management tools and the development of better services and practice. The Information Environment aims to allow discovery, access and use of resources for research and learning irrespective of their location.
• What should be your role within this environment?
Information is the foundation of sustainable development and is fundamental to successful planning and decision making. If decisions are made without sound data and information, they will be little better than best guesses and are likely to be wrong. Economic and social data are widely available and are relatively reliable and well understood. The situation with environmental data and information is somewhat different. High quality, comprehensive and timely information on the environment remains a scarce resource, and finding the 'right' information can pose problems: data are more difficult and expensive to obtain. It is also difficult to find indicators that capture and reflect the complexity of the environment and human vulnerability to environmental change. Environmental data acquisition remains a basic need in all countries.
Despite the problems, scientific consensus based on best available data and knowledge, although sometimes partial and limited, has proved a powerful tool for bringing environmental issues to international attention, and prompting action. There have been great improvements in environmental research and monitoring but it is important that these efforts are maintained and improved to ensure a flow of timely and reliable information. A sub-set of that information needs to underpin early warning in relation to disasters and emerging issues, and to the factors underlying human vulnerability to environmental change.
The global economy and energy system are interdependent strands where changes in one will often cause fluctuations in the other. This relationship was highlighted by the recent economic crisis which saw cumulative effects in other spheres including world energy demand.
The provision of information will benefit from:
• Structured and nested monitoring and observing systems including global satellites for collection of timely and reliable data on environmental components, using harmonized units of measurement and terms.
• An effective, globally acceptable environmental information system supported by a harmonized set of data, indicators and indices and closely integrated with socio-economic information systems to provide basic information for decision making.
• Maximizing the use of the Internet as a cheap and effective means of information exchange worldwide.
• Identifying indicators and indices to capture the sustainability of environmental trends as well as trends in human vulnerability to environmental change.
• Tools to create a knowledge base accessible to environmental policy and decision makers.
• Presentation of complex data and information in an easily understandable form to decision makers.
• How can the principles of information organization and representation help you in performing this role?
THE ORGANIZATIONAL/POLICY DOMAIN
Principle One: Organizational Security Policy
The organization will establish an inclusive set of rational and systematic policies for information assurance. These will be derived from a commonly accepted model of expert best practice. They will serve to ensure the protection and management control of the complete set of identified information and IT assets. This array of policies will be implemented through a strategic planning process. It will accurately reflect the long-term protection needs of each component of the information and IT resource base. It will ensure full and ongoing protection of all information assets. It will be continuously audited and enforced by the business.
Principle Two: Defined and Documented Security Infrastructure
The organization will design, implement and enforce a logical and consistent information assurance infrastructure. The infrastructure will be operated and maintained systematically and immediately responsive to the protection needs of the information and IT resource base. The architecture of this framework will embody procedures tailored to the particular organizational instance. These procedures will be based on as well as substantiate explicit best practice control objectives identified during the policy formulation process. The control objectives that the design process identifies as appropriate will be audited for conformance.
Principle Three: Education
A proactive program will be established and maintained to ensure that the human resources of the organization are fully and continuously aware of security requirements and procedures relevant to their work. In addition the organization will develop a comprehensive plan to ensure that staff security capability will be maintained at acceptable levels, based on defined criteria. Finally, the organization will develop managerial capacity both with respect to security strategic planning and also with respect to supervision and control of the information resource.
Principle Four: Asset Management
The organization will establish an identification process and a baseline control scheme for the purpose of specific asset accounting for security control. The baseline will document and maintain a specific record of the status of each instance of an information resource element. Every item in the baseline will be identified, given a unique identifying label and will be maintained as an entry within an asset accounting repository. A designated decision maker will authorize material changes to the form of any entry in the repository. Upon completion the change must be verified as correct before being recorded as the current version in the repository.
Principle Five: Business Continuity
The organization will establish and maintain a comprehensive action plan and defined practices to insure that business processes will not be disrupted if the information base is illegally accessed, or harmed. That includes procedural mechanisms for the preservation and recovery of information that might have been lost. Additionally it will involve the implementation and documentation of a consistent mechanism for the safe backup at a proscribed point in time and storage of all information assets. It will further include technical processes for the insurance of continuous operation of the information processing and storage function should harm occur.
Principle Six: Regulatory Compliance
The organization will establish comprehensive control procedures to identify and ensure the compliance of the information processing function and the information and IT asset base with all stipulations of contracts regulations and laws. This will include the definition of an oversight and accountability scheme to insure that due diligence will be continuously practiced.
• What are the challenges facing you in performing the role? How will you address these challenges?
The explosion of unstructured information such as emails, instant messaging, audio, video, blogs and web pages provides a new richness of information for organizations to leverage for business value and competitive advantage. However, it also introduces new challenges and risks regarding performance management, business operations and compliance and risk analysis. In order for computers to automate the processing of this information, a fundamental shift in computing needs to occur - one beyond legacy keyword search and structured relational databases.
Sources
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/themes/informationenvironment.aspx
http://www.grida.no/publications/other/geo3/?src=/geo/geo3/english/588.htm
http://dlist.sir.arizona.edu/2144/• What should be your role within this environment?
Information is the foundation of sustainable development and is fundamental to successful planning and decision making. If decisions are made without sound data and information, they will be little better than best guesses and are likely to be wrong. Economic and social data are widely available and are relatively reliable and well understood. The situation with environmental data and information is somewhat different. High quality, comprehensive and timely information on the environment remains a scarce resource, and finding the 'right' information can pose problems: data are more difficult and expensive to obtain. It is also difficult to find indicators that capture and reflect the complexity of the environment and human vulnerability to environmental change. Environmental data acquisition remains a basic need in all countries.
Despite the problems, scientific consensus based on best available data and knowledge, although sometimes partial and limited, has proved a powerful tool for bringing environmental issues to international attention, and prompting action. There have been great improvements in environmental research and monitoring but it is important that these efforts are maintained and improved to ensure a flow of timely and reliable information. A sub-set of that information needs to underpin early warning in relation to disasters and emerging issues, and to the factors underlying human vulnerability to environmental change.
The global economy and energy system are interdependent strands where changes in one will often cause fluctuations in the other. This relationship was highlighted by the recent economic crisis which saw cumulative effects in other spheres including world energy demand.
The provision of information will benefit from:
• Structured and nested monitoring and observing systems including global satellites for collection of timely and reliable data on environmental components, using harmonized units of measurement and terms.
• An effective, globally acceptable environmental information system supported by a harmonized set of data, indicators and indices and closely integrated with socio-economic information systems to provide basic information for decision making.
• Maximizing the use of the Internet as a cheap and effective means of information exchange worldwide.
• Identifying indicators and indices to capture the sustainability of environmental trends as well as trends in human vulnerability to environmental change.
• Tools to create a knowledge base accessible to environmental policy and decision makers.
• Presentation of complex data and information in an easily understandable form to decision makers.
• How can the principles of information organization and representation help you in performing this role?
THE ORGANIZATIONAL/POLICY DOMAIN
Principle One: Organizational Security Policy
The organization will establish an inclusive set of rational and systematic policies for information assurance. These will be derived from a commonly accepted model of expert best practice. They will serve to ensure the protection and management control of the complete set of identified information and IT assets. This array of policies will be implemented through a strategic planning process. It will accurately reflect the long-term protection needs of each component of the information and IT resource base. It will ensure full and ongoing protection of all information assets. It will be continuously audited and enforced by the business.
Principle Two: Defined and Documented Security Infrastructure
The organization will design, implement and enforce a logical and consistent information assurance infrastructure. The infrastructure will be operated and maintained systematically and immediately responsive to the protection needs of the information and IT resource base. The architecture of this framework will embody procedures tailored to the particular organizational instance. These procedures will be based on as well as substantiate explicit best practice control objectives identified during the policy formulation process. The control objectives that the design process identifies as appropriate will be audited for conformance.
Principle Three: Education
A proactive program will be established and maintained to ensure that the human resources of the organization are fully and continuously aware of security requirements and procedures relevant to their work. In addition the organization will develop a comprehensive plan to ensure that staff security capability will be maintained at acceptable levels, based on defined criteria. Finally, the organization will develop managerial capacity both with respect to security strategic planning and also with respect to supervision and control of the information resource.
Principle Four: Asset Management
The organization will establish an identification process and a baseline control scheme for the purpose of specific asset accounting for security control. The baseline will document and maintain a specific record of the status of each instance of an information resource element. Every item in the baseline will be identified, given a unique identifying label and will be maintained as an entry within an asset accounting repository. A designated decision maker will authorize material changes to the form of any entry in the repository. Upon completion the change must be verified as correct before being recorded as the current version in the repository.
Principle Five: Business Continuity
The organization will establish and maintain a comprehensive action plan and defined practices to insure that business processes will not be disrupted if the information base is illegally accessed, or harmed. That includes procedural mechanisms for the preservation and recovery of information that might have been lost. Additionally it will involve the implementation and documentation of a consistent mechanism for the safe backup at a proscribed point in time and storage of all information assets. It will further include technical processes for the insurance of continuous operation of the information processing and storage function should harm occur.
Principle Six: Regulatory Compliance
The organization will establish comprehensive control procedures to identify and ensure the compliance of the information processing function and the information and IT asset base with all stipulations of contracts regulations and laws. This will include the definition of an oversight and accountability scheme to insure that due diligence will be continuously practiced.
• What are the challenges facing you in performing the role? How will you address these challenges?
The explosion of unstructured information such as emails, instant messaging, audio, video, blogs and web pages provides a new richness of information for organizations to leverage for business value and competitive advantage. However, it also introduces new challenges and risks regarding performance management, business operations and compliance and risk analysis. In order for computers to automate the processing of this information, a fundamental shift in computing needs to occur - one beyond legacy keyword search and structured relational databases.
Sources
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/themes/informationenvironment.aspx
http://www.grida.no/publications/other/geo3/?src=/geo/geo3/english/588.htm
http://www.etalk.com/products/challenges-of-information/index.htm
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