Why a Master of Information Management (MIM)

We have the ability to store vast amounts of data. Our challenge is to manage the flow of information.  We need to be strategic in our custodianship of knowledge.  How do we pull value from an overwhelming amount of information spread across the internet?

Management of information is embedded in our lives and influences community volunteer programs, educational facilities, business entities and governments worldwide.  Whether we organize family vacation photos or structure sophisticated business reports – everyone is engaged in a plan, formal or informal, to safeguard valuable knowledge.

Management Information Systems (MIS) are increasingly becoming more adept at collecting, storing, and organizing data. The result is that relevant information is retrievable and available.  It is about getting the right information to the right person, at the right time.

Why Online/Blended Learning

I chose the Master of Information Management program because of its blended learning opportunity. I found the weekly discussions promoted an accelerated method of learning because of the knowledge sharing from such a diverse range of student backgrounds. We also had the opportunity to meet in person and collaborate on issues that are currently coming up in the management of information space. For me, this form of learning was extremely compelling.

My Work

Currently, I am involved in piloting a semantic technology program that facilitates categorization and retrieval.  The approach and overall objective is to teach the tool to find certain information we know to be of value and find it across terabytes of unstructured repositories. The information then gets classified according to a taxonomy and migrated to an official system of record/EDRMS for long term preservation and sharing.

While the project has not matured to the social media stage, in theory this tool could be effective in social media spaces (they are all unstructured environments).