Avra S. Michelson
Principal, Information Management
MITRE Corporation
Michael Olson
Distributed Systems Principal Engineer
MITRE Corporation
This project briefing will report on a special initiative by the MITRE Corporation’s Information Technology Center to explore the unique aspects of the information management challenge in the digital world. The last 30 years have witnessed an evolution from paper to digital environments, yet little has changed in our approach to managing information. While paper persists as a medium of convenience, the dominant means of storing, retrieving, and managing information occurs within the digital environment. What does the transition to the digital environment imply about the efficacy of information management practices in use today that largely were derived from the paper-based world?
Appreciating that information management practices are not static but change over time, our objective is to stimulate a broad re-examination of information management practices in the digital age. Toward this end, we will present our understanding of digital information management, current approaches for addressing the challenges, and the limitations of those approaches. We will also present initial thoughts on “next generation” information management, including a set of life cycle processes, guiding principles, and areas in greatest need of focused research. This work is exploratory in nature and we invite your feedback and contributions.