The Technology of Advice.
By Gareth Morgan Managing Director, Ferret Information Systems.
In November 1996 the UK Government released a Green Paper: 'Government
Direct: A Prospectus for the Electronic Delivery of Government Services'.
(http://www.open.gov.uk/citu/gdirect/ind1.htm)
The Green paper indicates strongly that Government expects that within ten
years many systems which are currently paper based will become electronic,
with citizens accessing information through public kiosks or 'set top boxes'
linked to TVs.*
There is already some experience of these systems. Here Gareth Morgan, Managing
Director, Ferret Information Systems, explains potential benefits.
Information
technology is increasingly being seen as an effective way of providing information
to the public. The growth in means of delivering information has been progressively
in the direction of interactive delivery, that is where the person seeking
information is able to ask for, or seek from a list of some sort, information
which he or she specifically wants.
Established Trends
This use of technology encompasses a variety of delivery systems including
telephone advice lines, viewdata systems using computers and modems, teletext
systems such as Ceefax from TV broadcasters, much information on the Internet
and the World Wide Web as well as the more familiar media such as public
information broadcasts and advertising, which are targeted by the providers
rather than searched for by the user.
The advantages of providing information using new technologies are clear.
- They allow for control over the content so that the information should
always be current and accurate, there should be no danger of somebody making
an important decision on the basis of information contained in a 3 year
old leaflet, long out of date.
- They remove the need for expensive staff to spend time repetitively
providing the same information to different users.
- They allow for different language versions to be available where provision
of multi-lingual staff would be impossible, and in some cases they allow
for versions appropriate for disabled users to be provided.
- They allow valuable expertise to be captured and distributed in an
effective and easy to understand way - if well designed!
Extended Interactivity
What they do not allow, is for the information to be specific to the circumstances
of each individual user. There will often be much which is not relevant
to the needs of the user in the information provided and much which would
be important may not be included.
It would be impressive, technologically and in terms of resources, if a
user could look up a list of available information which included "Mrs
Jones, 25 The Crescent, information about when the council will repair the
back door". Even ignoring questions of data protection, it isn't going
to happen.
To provide tailored, personalised information and advice requires a further
step in interactivity beyond that of choosing a prepared information item
from a list of those available. It needs a way of passing information to
the provider. Fortunately that can be done in many of the systems now available.
It also requires a method of linking databases to public access technology,
an area which is attracting much interest and activity.
Let me divide the information and advice provision into two categories.
Personal information
The first is, as in the example above, where the information required is
absolutely personal. When is MY door going to be repaired? For this sort
of information there are a number of criteria which must be considered.
- There must be a way of ensuring the identity of the person asking
the question, PINs or smartcards are potential ways of controlling this
even from public information kiosks.
- The information should be well protected from unauthorised access.
- The information must be available in some form which can be accessed
by computer, there is not a lot of point in allowing someone to ask the
question if it requires the person with the information to have to run around
in person trying to find out the answer.
- The information is only going to be provided for the people in the
provider's area of concern, a user will not be able to rely on getting information
anywhere outside the local area.
- Any follow up will generally involve the information provider directly.
Tailored information
The second category of provision is that where the information is tailored
to the circumstances of the enquirer but not necessarily unique to them.
It is often unnecessary to know who the user is when providing such information.
Welfare Benefits as a Model
Entitlement to welfare benefits, the area my company specialises in, is
such an example.
Entitlement to benefits depends on a large number of factors including the
number and ages of the people in the family, their savings, their pay and
hours of work, type and cost of housing, their health, other people in their
house and many other items. But this information when provided will allow
an accurate estimate of their entitlement to a variety of benefits to be
calculated without requiring them to identify themselves. For a demonstration
of this see the on-line calculator of this on our WWW site at http://www.ferret.co.uk.
How much better this sort of tailored information and advice to the user
is than the electronic equivalent of a leaflet and a list of benefit rates.
This sort of information differs from the personal type in a number of ways.
- There is no need to know who the enquirer is.
- The information does not require protection from unauthorised access
although the advice giving software must be protected.
- Again the information must be available in some form which can be
accessed by computer but for this type of information provision those areas
which are particularly appropriate are those where there are clear cut rules
which could be expressed in a flow chart or which require standardised calculations.
- The information is not only going to be of use for the people in the
provider's area of concern, users outside the local area may find the information
useful.
- Any follow up may involve agencies other than the information provider,
for example the Benefits Agency may receive the queries generated.
Information and advice provision in this tailored form carries many of the
advantages of the less personalised versions, for example in multilingual
provision and staff savings, but it requires an even greater commitment
to maintenance.
Information provision of this sort should never be considered unless the
provider recognises the very real resource implications involved in keeping
the systems up to date. There is little as dangerous as an out of date information
system. Personalised advice systems require a constant effort in ensuring
that external and internal information is monitored. This means that someone
has to be responsible for ensuring that the current house repairs status
is on-line or that court cases on benefits law are being monitored and taken
into account in the information provided. Again some of this must be done
by the provider while some may be done more appropriately by outside specialists.
The vital point is that it must be recognised as a continuing task.
However if this commitment is taken on board then the scope for advice work
of this sort, and the value of the information to the user, is enormous
and the benefits are very real for both the user and the provider.
gmorgan@cix.compulink.co.uk
* Posting from David Wilcox to the IACN mailing
list summarising key points
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