Research – Page 27

Stephen J. Boyd: Taking the Challenge of The Big Swim

May 7, 2019 rbudd Leave a Comment

Big Swim

Have you ever considered swimming across the Northumberland Strait? Most haven’t. But for those who have there is the BIG SWIM, your chance to do something truly epic. The BIG SWIM is a supported event held in August each year that combines an epic feat of endurance with the opportunity to raise funds for an awesome charity. The BIG SWIM is not a race and supports swimmers of all abilities to get out into the Northumberland Strait and achieve the unimaginable.” The Big Swim

Stephen Boyd is taking on the challenge of the Big Swim to be held August 18, 2019. In the coming months, Stephen will be focused on training for this “epic” swim. CEGE Connection is pleased to advise that we will be covering this event over the months, following Stephen on his journey. This is the first in the series of The Big Swim – A Give to Live Project.

Big Swim

Stephen J. Boyd (Class of 2018):

Life has so many wonderful opportunities to offer

As mentioned in a previous post, I am recovering from an injury that will prevent me from competing this summer in my first 100-mile ultramarathon. During my period of self-pity, Sarah (my best support and spouse), suggested I consider the BIG SWIM event, where athletes of all abilities swim from New Brunswick to Prince-Edward-Island. For normal people who cross the Northumberland Strait by bridge or ferry, the distance is roughly 13 Kms. Due to currents, and other unknowns, I am told that the average swimmer will cover 15+ Kms.

The Big Swim – Give to Live gives participants the opportunity to accomplish a feat that few have, while raising funds for a charity that supports children. It is a great opportunity to give back to my community. Without any hesitation, or putting any thought into logistics, I registered the moment the portal opened.

For the last month or so, I have been swimming at Dalhousie’s recreation and athletic center, where I log miles in the pool. Since there are not too many of us who show up for 5:45 am (other than the varsity teams), I have had the opportunity to speak with one of the “regulars”. One on occasion, he asked me if I was training for anything in particular; I went on to explain that I was intending on swimming across the Northumberland Strait. As is the case with most people, his question to me was: “why?”

My immediate response was: “why not?” I further elaborated on the importance of my two kids embracing that life is about going beyond the ordinary, and welcoming the unknown.

Recently, during an exchange of correspondence, Rebecca Budd (CEGE Editor) reminded me that on occasion we have re-evaluate our priorities, and that success in life goes further beyond our careers. Don’t misunderstand me; I appreciate my professional career, but it is only a small part of who I am. Later in the spring, Sarah will be competing with her synchronized swimming team in Quebec City. Despite working full-time and being an exemplary mother of two, she has the tenacity to train hard during the week; that is success I admire.

Some years ago, I had the opportunity to speak with someone that had reached the summit of the world’s highest mountains. His advice to me was to never forget that we really only compete against ourselves, and to keep winning; perhaps, that was some of the best advice I’ve ever received. Besides, ordinary is exactly as it sounds. As Mark Twain once wrote:

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”

I look forward to sharing my thoughts as I embark on the exciting journey.

John Waldron: Collateral Damage of a Fragmented Securities Industry, Part I: Financial Literacy

April 30, 2019 rbudd Leave a Comment

John Waldron, MBA (FS) Class of ‘08

Unlike most countries, Canada’s securities industry is provincially and territorially regulated – not federally regulated. This means that instead of having one national regulator governed by one Securities Act, there are 13 regulators governed by 13 Securities Acts. This might have made sense many years ago, before the steam engine, but in an age of information there are no benefits for maintaining such a fragmented system.

Having 13 securities regulatory authorities is not only archaic and extremely inefficient, but it actually conflicts with their common mandate of protecting investors.

Take financial literacy, for example. Many Canadians feel there is a lack of financial literacy resources available to them. And yet, all 13 regulators offer their own version of a financial literacy resource. Imagine how much better a financial resource would be if they all collaborated together, pooling their resources and created one definitive financial literacy resource instead.

To be clear, Canada does not lack financial literacy resources. There are a lot of available resources. So many, in fact, that a Canadian Financial Literacy Database was created, which currently lists 1,362 available resources for Canadians. And there is the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC), which is the closest we have to a national financial literacy resource. So why then do we have so many competing resources? If the goal is to protect investors, the better option is for all Canadian securities regulators to work together and maintain one definitive financial literacy resource for all Canadians.

Discussions to create a national securities regulator have been going on for years decades. We may not see a national regulator in our lifetime, but that does not mean they cannot work together to create a unified approach to financial literacy. It not only supports their mandate to protect investors, it is also the right thing to do.

Having 13 financial literacy resource from each of Canada’s securities regulators is not nearly as good for investors as having one resource supported by all 13 regulators. This is how we can make meaningful change for Canadian investors, even if we cannot agree on modernizing the securities industry.

John Waldron MBA (FS) Class of 2008
Founder of Learnedly and purveyor of accessible education for financial professionals

John is a repeat contributor on CEGE Connection. We invite you to read John’s posts on CEGE Connection.

Dr. Louise Spiteri: Information Governance Models

March 8, 2018 Louise Spiteri Leave a Comment

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In my last post, I talked about underlying principles of Information Governance. In this post, I will present two popular Information Governance models.

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The Information Governance Reference Model (IGRM) The IGRM was developed by EDRM, now a part of the Duke Law Center for Judicial Studies, which creates practical resources to improve e-discovery and information governance. EDRM developed this model to create a framework by which to bring together the key players in information governance:

Business users who need information to operate the organization,
IT departments who must implement the mechanics of information management, and
Legal, risk, and regulatory departments who understand the organization’s duty to preserve information beyond its immediate business value.

IGRM represents the functional areas that are directly responsible for the governance of information across an enterprise:

Legal: Responsible for determining the risk profile of an organization based on litigation exposures, international privacy requirements, intellectual property protection, working environment, and more.
Discovery: Responsible for the communication, instruction, and coordination with business units or individuals related to information that must be located, preserved, and produced to satisfy litigation requirements.
Risk: Responsible for the protection of the organization’s brand, finances, and operations by managing and mitigating risk exposures. This requires a full understanding of the organization’s risk profile (litigation, investigations, regulatory requirements, protection of private information, and protection of intellectual property).
Compliance: Responsible for ensuring that the organization is aware of, and meets the requirements of rules and regulations imposed by a variety of authorities (federal, state/provincial, and local governments; regulatory agencies; data privacy authorities, and industry groups).
RIM: Responsible for the development and publication of the RIM Program policy for paper and electronic records.
IT: Responsible for the management of the high volume of data being created and received, and the reduction of costs, particularly around redundant technologies and storage.
Privacy: Responsible for managing the risks and business impacts of privacy laws and policies, and the use of personally identifiable information.
Security: Responsible for the development, implementation, and management of the organization’s security vision, strategy, policy, and programs.
Information Architecture: Responsible for the organization of information and database development to support the business needs.
Business: Responsible for compliance with the Information Governance policies.

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The Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles (The Principles), were created by ARMA International as a common set of principles that describe the conditions under which business records and related information should be maintained. The Principles were designed to guide:

CEOs in determining how to protect their organizations in the use of information assets;
Legislators in crafting legislation meant to hold organizations accountable; and
Records management professionals in designing comprehensive and effective records management programs.

The principles:

Accountability: A senior executive oversees the information governance program. The organization adopts policies and procedures to guide personnel and ensure that the program can be audited.
Transparency: An organization’s business processes and activities are documented in an open and verifiable manner, and available to all personnel and appropriate interested parties.
Integrity: Information generated by, or managed for, the organization has a reasonable and suitable guarantee of authenticity and reliability.
Protection: Protection of records and information that are private, confidential, privileged, secret, classified, essential to business continuity, or that otherwise require protection.
Compliance: Compliance with applicable laws and other binding authorities, as well as with the organization’s policies.
Availability: Maintenance of records and information in a manner that ensures timely, efficient, and accurate retrieval of needed information.
Retention: Records and information are kept for an appropriate time, taking into account legal, regulatory, fiscal, operational, and historical requirements.
Disposition: Appropriate disposition for records and information that are no longer required to be maintained by applicable laws and the organization’s policies.

Dr. Louise Spiteri
Academic Director
Master of Information Management at Dalhousie University

Dr. Louise Spiteri: Information governance – A core principle of Information Management

January 4, 2018 Louise Spiteri Leave a Comment

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An area of growing importance in information management (IM) is the concept of information governance. The term data governance is sometimes used as well, but I find this term to be rather narrow in scope, as it is often used to refer to data resources, rather than the broader concept of information. Information governance is defined by Gartner as:

The specification of decision rights and an accountability framework to ensure appropriate behavior in the valuation, creation, storage, use, archiving and deletion of information. It includes the processes, roles and policies, standards and metrics that ensure the effective and efficient use of information in enabling an organization to achieve its goals.

Some information management activities that fall under information governance include:

Records management
Regulatory compliance
Storage and archiving
Information security
Risk management
eDiscovery

The need for information governance is driven by a number of factors, including:

Exponential growth of digital data
Increased complexity of regulatory environment
Business value and risks are often unknown and unmanaged
Increased sharing of information outside the organization
Prevalence of social networking and mobile applications
Increased risk of security breaches or data loss

In most organizations, the volume of information continues to grow exponentially and has become more mobile, making the job of protecting it even more difficult as requirements to do so increase. Information managers must deal with ever-increasing and more complex legal and regulatory requirements. Legal discovery requirements continue to become more standardized, with courts having less tolerance for noncompliance with established standards.

Good information governance makes good business sense. Most organizations are quickly realizing the need to manage information more effectively on an enterprise basis. The evolution of information governance is an essential business requirement to mitigate risk, reduce cost, and increase revenue. Market pressure for increased revenue is driving efforts to find creative ways for organizations to leverage the large volumes of information they retain to increase market share, drive revenue, and maintain a competitive advantage. Organizations often become aware of the importance of information governance when they face a data breach. Organizations are becoming increasingly aware of the financial implications of data breaches, both in terms of costs incurred in dealing with these breaches, as well as those associated with the damage to an organization’s reputation. The figures below show some of the costs involved in Canadian data breaches in 2016, based on a study conducted by the Ponemon Institute:

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Information governance is a key component of the Records Management course I teach in the Master of Information Management program. In my next post, we will look more closely at information governance principles.

So, what is it that information managers do?

November 1, 2017 Louise Spiteri 1 Comment

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An interesting aspect of working in the information management field is the difficulty in explaining clearly and concisely the nature of the field. Many professions have a reasonably clear public profile, such as medical doctors, nurses, accountants, lawyers, and so forth. Information managers, on the other hand, often find themselves in the position of having to explain what they do. The same is true also for those of us who teach and conduct research in this area.

There is no standard definition of what constitutes information management (IM). The Government of Canada defines it as a discipline that directs and supports effective and efficient management of information in an organization, from planning and systems development to disposal and/or long-term preservation.

Wikipedia defines IM as [the] cycle of organizational activity: the acquisition of information from one or more sources, the custodianship and the distribution of that information to those who need it, and its ultimate disposition through archiving or deletion.

At the School of Information (SIM), we define information management as a people-centred approach to discovering, organizing, analyzing, representing, and accessing data, information, and knowledge. Effective IM gets the right information to the right people at the right time. I am undoubtedly biased, of course, but I think SIM’s definition captures the main functional areas of IM very well. We propose also the following areas of competencies for IM professionals:

Information management leadership
Enterprise architecture
Risk management
Information security

The Government of Australia has a very well-crafted information management standard that could be applied to any organization, either public or private. The standard outlines eight principles for the management of business information:

Business information is systematically governed
Necessary business information is created
Business information is adequately described
Business information is suitably stored and preserved
How long business information should be kept is known
Business information is accountably destroyed or transferred
Business information is saved in systems where it can be appropriately managed
Business information is available for use and reuse

The graphic below, from K.L. Scott & Associates, provides a good summary of IM processes:

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This graphic shows the business value of IM to an organization:

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In this column, we will explore a number of IM areas, particularly in relation to events in the news, as well as relevant research. IM is a truly exciting field, as I hope we will discover together.

Liseanne Cadieux: Social Media and Information Management

August 29, 2017 rbudd 2 Comments

Liseanne Cadieux (MIM 2017)

Social Media connects our global community and allows information, ideas and messages to be shared in real-time from any location that has access to WIFI technology.

In recent posts, Binod Sundararajan suggested that social media allows us to share critical data that serves the greater good, bringing together interdisciplinary teams to work towards solutions that will benefit society. Tanya Chedrawy, a recent MPA(M) graduate, discussed how she uses social media to highlight stories of individuals who are making a difference in their local communities.

Liseanne Cadieux (MIM 2017), a recent graduate of CFAME’s Master of Information Management program, continues the CFAME Connection dialogue on social media from the perspective of a professional in the field of information management

“There is no doubt that social media will continue to evolve and transform the way in which we participate within a wider audience,” Liseanne noted in a recent WebEx conference call with CFAME Connection.

“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 influence 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.

I chose the CFAME’s program, Master of Information Management, 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.

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 as effective in social media spaces (they are all unstructured environments). I look forward to sharing more on this topic in future CFAME Connection posts.

Category: MBA (FS)