Oops, no irony intended, I am sure.
Information as power zone in customer relations
We are reminded constantly of the power of interconnected tools to allow all of us to share information in real time, improving efficiency and enabling companies to connect with customers. In some ways this is undeniable but the ability to network also creates a new category of information, which when considered from a user’s perpsective, is partially useless, aggravating and even misleading.
UPS provide a great example of this at the moment. Currently struggling to move packages backlogged in Dallas (again) they provide numersous ways for customers to track and receive updates on the status of their items. Similarly, they usually allow sellers like Amazon to directly link into their tracking system so customers can access information at the point of purchase. So, no longer just waiting, shoppers can ostensibly track the progress of their packages acriss the country from source to destination. The trouble here is that UPS, once it has issued initial tracking info, does not actually update this information reliably and predictably, and makes it quite difficult to ask further questions.
Items backlogged this week are sitting in what UPS euphamistically term ‘exception’ status, and are tagged with the stock message that the anticipated delay is ‘one business day’. This day comes and goes and the update never changes. Some reports online indicated delays of more than 10 business days without this message ever being updated, and there is speculation that once in ‘exception’ status, your package is the lowest priority as the company tries to maintain its on-time record up with fresher shipments that have not yet hit a lag. UPS allows you to request updates but all this does (after asking for your email address again) is send you that same old message, nothing new. So yes, they provide online tracking but it is not real-time, not useful, and allows you little chance of estimating reliably when you may actually receive an item. One might consider this an information gap.
Of course, the beauty of the web is that one need not just accept this. The aptly named ‘pissed off consumer‘ contains numerous postings about the problems of UPS and their rather poor customer relations, including numbers to call. Some of the stories here are excrutiating. I tried contacting the company who sold me the item I am waiting for and they at least managed to get more info from UPS than I could. Most distressing for many online was that UPS knew days ago that anything entering the Dallas area was just going to pile up but they still accepted the orders, even with expedited shipping fees from late Xmas shoppers.This much one could determine with a little exploration online. Unfortunately, despite the supposed democratization of the web, too few sellers allow the buyer to choose preferred carriers, or else I suspect UPS would be in real difficulty in Texas and its serviced areas.
All this information power is potentially impressive for the companies perhaps but from a consumer side the black hole of holding patterns one ends up in quickly after the initial update is a guaranteed source of frustration. It may even be that the lack of tracking info from the start would be better than what is on offer here. Suddenly, the idea of network tracking seems less informative than it might be and the old power differential between informed and uninformed is magnified. Real world information and real world people seem mismatched. Unintended consequences of IT, again?
Best intelligence books?
Good alternative link to Intelligence reads published today in the Sources and Methods blog. As noted, these books might not be the typical ones you read for intelligence studies. I can certainly confirm this. I’ve been slowly working my way through the standard textbooks on intelligence work as we develop our program here in the iSchool and I can safely say that if you imagine intelligence work to be dry, method-bound, and slow moving, these books will serve the stereotype. Of course, intelligence work is so much more, but you have a hard time knowing this from the most commonly recommended books on the topic. Please someone, submit a proposal to me for a better book. I’ve decided to push people at Susan Hasler’s Intelligence: a novel of the CIA, as an alternative window. The work seems mind-numbing at times in this too but you get a sense of how it works on a human level far better than most textbooks suggest.
New intelligence book, free download now
I’ve been struggling through a number of intelligence texts over the last year since attending AIFIE. Have to say, there are lots of books out there but most make pretty dull reading. Before I put a master list together for students, I’ve been seeing what’s out there that does not require significant expenditure. Here’s one of possible interest: a free download of Intelligence Analysis: Behavioral and Social Scientific Foundations now available at the National Academies Press website.
Ninja librarians own the intelligence world
NPR ran a piece this week with Kimberly Dozier, intelligence correspondent for the AP, talking about the use of social media to gather open source information for intelligence. As Dozier notes, most of these professionals have ‘masters of librarian science’ (!) which enables them to find material ordinary folks never could, earning the title ‘ninja’ for their skills. The story even made Forbes. Few seemed to suspect anything really worrying in this or in the potential for such work to extend into our discomfort zones though there are some who are thinking a little more deeply about this (thank you, Kris Kotarski of the Montreal Gazette) I suspect we will be seeing more educational opportunities like our own certificate in Global Media and Research which aims to educate information professionals for intelligence work. Yes, there really is an art and science to mining information from open data sources and the intelligence community is very aware of it. As I blogged earlier on my experience at the IAFIE conference this year, there is a significant gap between existing intelligence education programs and the information educators that each group could usefully try to bridge.
[that ‘masters’ title mistake apparently irked some listeners and forced NPR to run a follow up explaining the correct form of degree for aspiring LIS folks. Can I suggest “Ninjomatics”? Ah, too late, it’s taken ]Information is intelligence
I enjoyed the IAFIE conference this week where educators in the field of intelligence gathered to discuss their work. In so many ways, the parallels to information conferences were uncanny. At a workshop on curriculum I was surprised to hear calls for greater standards and the value of accreditation through ABET or CHEA being discussed by the group. The general concern seemed to be that intelligence education was in danger of being overrun by diploma mills and that the relatively small number of serious programs needed to ensure quality control. I argued that there seemed too few schools in the intelligence arena to warrant heavy investment of time and resources in establishing accreditation standards when we stood to make more progress at this point sharing curricular ideas and experiences, and working on articulating the nature of intelligence work that we could support through education. A vote on the group’s plan was taken at the end but the results were not tabulated until later so we shall see.
Surprised as I was by the nature of the discussion in the opening workshop, I should have been better prepared for the experience over the next few days when presentation after presentation spoke of information collection and organization, analysis and mining etc without once mentioning librarianship or archival practice. A highly engaging keynote by Brigadier General Vincent Stewart raised the need for better evaluation of open source materials, less emphasis on tools and IT infrastructure and better means of identifying skilled intelligence practitioners in advance. He quickly listed 19 countries that are viewed as failing or failed states which he monitors daily, many of whom are allies of the US. Some of the variables they measure are wealth distribution, political stability, youth demographics, corruption, internet usage etc to gain an index of a nation’s likely stability. Pointing to the harrowing cost of intelligence mistakes in his world, he made a compelling case for improving the education of future practitioners that struck me as a natural charge for some iSchools.
An interesting group of papers explored the predictive accuracy of individual analysts or the use of supplementary models to enhance predictive power. In much the same way as we might model medical predictions by doctors, intelligence researchers are trying to determine the accuracy, biases, and shortcomings of analysts’ processing of intelligence data so as to improve outcomes. There were also many papers outlining specific programs at universities across Europe, North America and Australia, and one pertinent paper from Canada pointing to the lessons learned from competitive intelligence. All in all, this is an emerging area that is seeking some improved collective identity and structure but there is no doubt that this is potentially fertile ground for graduates of information programs.