PIM 2022: Successfully Aging with Our Information and Our Information Tools


Saturday, October 29, 2022 @ASIS&T2022 | Wyndham Grand, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Successful aging is for all of us! Even as we enter our 20’s, we begin a gradual decline by some measures of ability, cognitive as well as physical, while by other measures of cognitive ability we continue to show improvement as we age into our 60’s and beyond. To be sure, aging, of societies as well as individuals, can bring transition and crisis. To age successfully is to show resilience in the face of age-related declines while taking full advantage of the knowledge and wisdom that come with age. In this eighth in a series of workshops -- the third to be offered at ASIS&T Annual Meetings -- to discuss issues of personal information management (PIM), special focus will be given to the ways in which our information and related tools might support us throughout our lives.

Online, asynchronous, pre-workshop discussion aims to engage a wide range of researchers and practitioners working in areas related to the workshop theme, including cognitive science, artificial intelligence, knowledge management, information behavior, health informatics, and more. The workshop will be full-day, in-person, and followed by a collaborative article detailing current knowledge, gaps, and especially promising directions of future research. Endorsed by ASIS&T Special Interest Groups SIG-KM and SIG-USE.

Organizers


Dates

  • August 8, 2022. Optional deadline to ensure notification in time for ASIS&T “Early Bird” registration.
  • September 26, 2022. Deadline for submission of position statement via EasyChair.
  • October 11, 2022. Notification.
  • October 11 - 25, 2022. Extended online discussion in preparation for the workshop and to include participants who cannot attend the in-person workshop.
  • October 25, 2022. Bio slide and (optional) full paper due for upload to the workshop website.
  • October 29, 2022. Day of in-person workshop.
  • January 10, 2023. Targeted date for completion of an article describing the workshop and its (provisional) conclusions. All participants who wish can participate as co-authors.

Questions about the workshop should be sent to Dr. Maja Krtalić at maja.krtalic@vuw.ac.nz

Objectives

We encourage submissions that consider research and direct experience relating to roles that information and information tools might play in successful aging:

  • How can information tools support us better as we age? We consider tools that reduce demands on facilities such as working memory, which is shown to decline gradually with normal aging beginning as early as when a person turns 20, while possibly increasing reliance on facilities such as vocabulary and general world knowledge, which improve steadily with normal aging. The broad perspective of PIM encourages a consideration of tools that integrate across functions such as journaling and task/to-do list management to provide support for both episodic and prospective memory, both shown to decline with normal aging. This perspective also considers tools of health informatics to support the tracking and interpretability of measures relating to our health and well-being.
  • What can we do, right now?...in the organization of our information and our choice of information tools towards more successful aging? Considerations include long-term collection planning, deliberate training to proficiency in tools and techniques of PIM, and development, through subscriptions and personal relationships, of information channels.
  • What methods scale?...for the exploration and validation of information tools and techniques in support of successful aging? We must consider not only how well people are doing now (across tools and different forms of information) but also how well they will do over the long run. Might some methods scale to be “massive, open and on-line” in ways that support the voluntary participation of a large and diverse number of people?
  • What about policies and regulations? In addition, we consider corporate policies and governmental regulations that might better support SA. What support is needed, for example, to ensure format interoperability so that information itself can “successfully age” for use in newer tools? Also relevant are measures to encourage greater age diversity in workplace teams where, as with other forms of diversity, this is seen not only as “the proper thing to do” but also as advantageous for all concerned.

From the workshop will follow an article reviewing the state of our knowledge with respect to the use of information and information tools in successful aging and serving as a call to action towards further research and development.

Submission


We aim to engage even those who can’t attend the in-person workshop itself, but who are doing relevant work, in an online, asynchronous, pre-workshop discussion, during which contributions can help shape the format and discussion of the workshop itself. All participants, online and in-person, are also invited to contribute to the post-workshop article and to submit a paper for inclusion on the workshop website.

All who are interested in participating (online or in-person), should submit a one- to two-thousand-word position statement via EasyChair (1-to 4-page, excluding references, preferably in APA format, written in English, PDF or MS Word) describing their position and work they are doing as this relates to the workshop theme and objectives. Brevity is encouraged! Please DO NOT anonymize. Please also indicate whether you are able to participate in the in-person workshop or only the online discussion.


Those accepted are expected to:

  • Provide a "bio slide" (4:3) as a PDF file. The slide should describe your background, your recent/current research as this relates to the workshop theme and (optional) include a recent picture of you.
  • Participate (at least 1 hour of time) in an extended online, asynchronous, pre-workshop discussion designed to elicit/elaborate on key issues and areas -- the better to use the limited time of the in-person workshop itself.
  • (Optional) Provide a full paper (approx. 10 pages) for inclusion on the workshop website.

Those who plan to attend in-person are also expected to:

  • Register for the workshop via ASIS&T. Registration for the full ASIS&T Annual Meeting is optional. Note that workshop registration is higher than for other workshops because it is a full-day workshop.
  • Bring a poster-sized print of your "bio slide" with you to the workshop to be displayed on a meeting room wall for all participants to get to know each other. The slides will also be included on the workshop website.

Participants

All participants of PIM 2022 and their accepted position statements are listed below.

Schedule

We encourage participants to bring their laptops or tablets to the in-person workshop for easy access to the shared online documents (e.g., Google Drive) in support of workshop discussions.

  • 09:00 AM: Welcome and Introductions.
  • 09:40 AM: Talk and Discussion -- What is PIM (really?). “Why” is PIM (needed)? Opportunities for synergy under the broad umbrella of PIM. Special opportunities in the area of successful aging (SA). A personal space of information (PSI) to be used now, later and for legacy.
  • 10:10 AM: Practical review of the Wikipedia article on PIM. What updates/changes should be made?
  • 10:30 AM: Break.
  • 10:45 AM: Shift into breakout groups and continue discussion.
  • 12:00 PM: Breakout groups converge and report (10 minutes/group); plan for the afternoon discussion.
  • 12:45 PM: Lunch (included), continue discussion in breakout groups.
  • 03:00 PM: Break.
  • 03:15 PM: Groups converge for general discussion (15 minutes/group).
  • 04:15 PM: Discussion and voting.
  • 04:30 PM: Wrap-up and next steps.
  • [Optional] 05:00 PM: Discuss updates to the Wikipedia article on PIM.
  • [Optional] 07:00 PM: Those who are interested can gather for dinner.