As Information Producers, organisations in the education sector need to make information available to others in a way they can find, understand, and use. This can be by collecting and publishing their own information or by adding value to information created by others. The absence of a common Architectural Framework creates a range of information-related problems for producers. As a result, users of information perceive it as not meeting their expected quality standards.
- Accurate
- Different versions of the same information held in different agencies can lead to inadvertent misuse and misinterpretation. It is not always clear which version is the authoritative source. Increasing interoperability between agencies increases reliance on data custodians for ensuring data quality.
- Timely
- Different update cycles in different agencies mean that when information changes, confusion can arise. Different agencies may publish different versions of the same information at different times. Increased information sharing increases the need for information to be available any time, any place.
- Relevant
- As more people get access to more information, it becomes harder to choose what information to make available, harder to ensure it’s searchable and harder to measure its utility. We have to produce many different overlapping sub-sets of the same information for different uses.
- Complete
- We often don’t know what we don’t know, and don’t have a process for finding out what information is “out there”. We don’t know who holds the information we need for our clients. It’s hard to aggregate data from different sources into useful clusters. A lot of information is only available on paper.
- Consistent
- The sector uses different definitions in different agencies for the same data elements. The same element can be interpreted differently in different contexts. Information assembled from different sources can be misleading. Lack of agreement on and adoption of open, published standards for data exchange makes interoperability hard.
- Usable
- People often struggle to make effective use of the information we provide. Problems include technical barriers (old browsers and slow lines); capability barriers (low levels of eLiteracy); and sheer volume (there is so much information, it’s hard to find what you need). Information is often presented from the producer’s, rather than the consumer’s, perspective.
- Granular
- Different agencies hold information at different levels of detail. To avoid duplication and rework, we need to collect and hold information at the transaction level and make it available in a form that supports aggregation and re-purposing. Those collecting the information don’t always have a clear understanding of all its potential uses.
- Efficient
- Agencies’ desire to use open formats can conflict with consumers’ demands for proprietary formats, such as Microsoft .doc. This often means publishing the same information in multiple formats. We also have to make the same information available on different media for different audiences.
- Secure
- We need to make sure that recipients of confidential information are who they say they are and that transmissions are private. We need to ensure that access is available only to authorised users. This can be problematic when access is restricted to “teachers and students in Australia and New Zealand”. Different types of data carry different rights.
- Ownership and Attribution
- For information to be Accurate (see above) it needs to have a clear owner who is responsible and has the authority to ensure it is maintained, monitored and administered (and paid for). We need to ensure that while there may be multiple channels of update (eg the consomer, help desks, producers, etc) where appropriate the history, attribution, and if necessary confirmation or rollback of changes can be accomplished.
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