The Information Family Tree

The organising principle behind our Information Family Tree is the degree to which information raw materials have been organised, interpreted and packaged into readily understandable, self-contained information entities.

The Tree may be divided into three major domains:

1. the roots that nourish the entire tree

2. the trunk that supports the tree and distributes nourishment to the branches with their 'fruit'

3. the different varieties of 'fruit' ie. the products of information processes.

Start at the bottom of the tree diagram and click on each of the boxes to find out more about the roots, trunk and the different 'information fruit'.

THE ROOTS:

This domain is the 'engine room', where business processes generate data that is organised and packaged to become meaningful forms of information - documents and databases.

This documentation reflects the requirements and processes of those that created it in the conduct of affairs and centres upon protecting and serving the personal, business and regulatory needs of the creating entity. It documents the decisions, actions and/or transactions carried out by the creating organisation or person. It derives its value and meaning from its usefulness for those particular purposes and is not readily or meaningfully useable by anyone other than the persons who created or acted upon it in performing their particular functions.

Information in documents and databases that must be retained as vital evidence of the responsible conduct of business is further captured or recorded as a record within a recordkeeping system.

THE TRUNK:

As work progresses, individual records produced in the course of business accumulate in organic 'flows' known as record series. These documents and business processes work much like frames of a motion picture film.

These bodies of related evidence are protected and managed by an organisation-wide recordkeeping regime. Access to these documents, databases and records is restricted to those inside the organisation who are doing or managing the work. Only persons with an intimate knowledge of the organisation and its activities are able to understand and utilise information in these raw or primary, original forms. There are usually substantial penalties for loss, alteration, damage, alienation, negligence and improper use of such entities.

These primary entities form the building blocks creators use to produce the various secondary forms of information 'fruit' we see on our tree's higher branches.

THE LOWEST BRANCHES:

In-house Research and Management Reports
Record series are regularly studied and analysed to determine the status of various work activities, assess productivity, evaluate quality or develop new products. The fruits of these investigations are formal or informal reports, or interpretations gleaned from the records, which help managers make appropriate business decisions. These reports are useful for managers within the organisation and, again, are often considered confidential or proprietary information for approved in-house users only.

In fact, all of the information entities discussed so far - raw data, records, files, record series, technical and management reports - comprise an organisation's CORPORATE KNOWLEDGE BASE, which is managed for legal, fiscal and administrative usefulness for varying periods of time. Archives comprise the most significant long term envidence within this knowledge store.

Access to the information entities on the tree's lowest branches is restricted because of the need to protect commercial and operational information and expertise. Thus only users with the appropriate background knowledge and authorisations, such as employees of the organisation and selected outsiders (suppliers, clients, directors, government regulators, consultants/researchers-in-confidence) - are able to access and utilise the information resources of these domains.

THE MIDDLE BRANCHES:

Industry & Government Reports & Statistics; Technical, Technical and Specialist Literature, Databases & Internet Resources
It is at this point that information moves outside its context of origin into the wider world. As one moves up the Information Family Tree, the user's need for special understanding of and permissions from the discipline and context of creation/publication diminishes.

Beginning with the next branches, information is further processed (selected, aggregated, summarised), interpreted and packaged into products for ever more general consumption.

For example: Statistical and other confidential in-house reports are generalised, to become Annual Reports which are understandable to government regulators and stockholders or become raw material for specialist research databases (Chemical Abstracts, Medline, Lexus etc) or technical publications accessible via the Internet. These materials are searchable by indexing systems appropriate for their in-depth specialist users and it may be necessary to pay a subscription fee to access particular resources.

THE UPPER BRANCHES:

Moving higher up the branches of the tree, you enter the domain of research and public information which is associated with special, academic/research and general libraries.

Academic Journals; Scholarly and Reference Books
The scholarly monographs/books and academic serials/journals here have been intentionally authored for distribution to audiences far beyond the boundaries of a single organisation.

Writers select and interpret information 'fruit' from our tree's lower branches to produce books and articles with bibliographies and footnotes to identify and acknowledge the sources that underpin their opinions and interpretions. Each work carries its own identifiers (title, contents, list of authors and cataloguing or bibliographic notes) and explaining its nature, content and\or methodology (author's introduction, publisher's notes, indexes). Often the content inside can be searched using powerful indexes, allowing users to pinpoint specific people and events of interest.

General Knowledge Compilations

These sources distill the knowledge of the academic world into smaller and more easily understandable 'sips' readily consumed by users with little or no prior knowledge.

Students searching for information on a general topic are often directed to use these resources as a starting point. Examples of this sort of entity include: encyclopediae, dictionaries, directories, anthologies, Who's Who and similar sources held in most public libraries.

THE HIGHEST BRANCHES:

Popular Books & Magazines; Media & Internet Info-Tainment
The very top branches of our Tree are the ultimate off-spring of the information process. The popular literature of books and magazines and articles in newspapers and on television extensively mine and summarise lower branch resources into entertaining and informative stories and programs. However, few of these formally acknowledge the specific resources used to support their facts and opinions. Although the publisher or broadcaster may provide a list of credits or acknowledgements identifying individuals and organisations that were consulted in the production of a piece, the viewer has no guarantee about the quality of the work. Viewers can only rely on the overall reputations of the author, publisher and/or broadcaster to gauge the quality of the offering.