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Organisations in the social housing sector have a model of how to use information to monitor the outcomes of their activities. Drawing on research which places information in its organisational context, the mechanism of Knowledge Transfer Partnerships has been used to enable Nottingham City Homes to pioneer the evaluation of its activities focusing on a major investment programme called Decent Homes. Cited in Parliamentary debates, not only has the impact shifted the strategic direction of the organisation's activities, but also it has been adopted as a model of best practice for the sector.
Research by Raab (1998-2013) on data protection, privacy and surveillance has influenced political debate and regulatory practice. First, Raab's central role in reports for the UK Information Commissioner's Office and the House of Lords and his advisory work with NGOs have contributed to a more robust regulatory framework for information privacy and have informed media and NGO critiques of the social ramifications of surveillance. Second, his insights about the need to understand privacy as a social good have informed the principles and practices underpinning information processing in several areas of UK and Scottish Government policy, including health, social care, digital public services and ICT, as well as informing regulatory practice in Canada and Australia.
Between 2010 and 2012, Professor Luciano Floridi transferred knowledge about epistemological issues in the philosophy of information to Sogeti, an international information technology consultancy; and, via Sogeti, to technology and business leaders in Europe and beyond, influencing their planning for and adaptation to technological change. In the realm of public policy, Floridi developed guidelines and protocols surrounding ethical problems concerning digital and online information. He chaired a European Commission group whose `manifesto' forms part of the EU's Digital Futures initiative; influenced thinking around IP and international trade agreements; and contributed to a UNESCO action plan on ensuring equitable access to information.
Twelve years of our research into users' information behaviour has helped a wide variety of learners and Internet users to interact better with web-based information by equipping them with the skills and knowledge to develop their own agile models of information behaviour in the web environment. It has produced practical tools such as a toolkit for service providers, a methods book and awe-based resources evaluation framework that are employed nationally and internationally in secondary and higher education. The research is benefiting librarians, educators and learners dealing with complex information environments. Within the LIS (Library and Information Science) community, researchers, academics and practitioners are also benefiting from training current and next generation practitioners in the user engagement methods developed during the research.
One third of a million people each week benefit from using the world's first door-to-door national multimodal travel information service by confirming, identifying or changing their travel plans. Developed by the UK Government, Transport Direct (www.transportdirect.info) integrates details of all travel modes and caters for over 100 billion potential routes. The service has been found to significantly influence intended modal choice. Since its launch in December 2004 it has handled over 110 million user sessions. Professor Glenn Lyons of UWE, and UWE research, played a key part in the shaping of the service design, cited by the Department for Transport (DfT) as an example of good practice in the use of research to support policy.
Scotland's Health On the Web (SHOW) was the first Healthcare Information Network of its kind and was developed in an EU project between 1996 and 1999. The original aim was to develop ways of exploiting the Web to provide trustworthy and authoritative health information in a way that was easy to find. The resulting system was adopted as the major vehicle of NHS Scotland for providing healthcare information to public and professionals. Serviced by a specially appointed team, it currently supports around 400 sites, and in recent years usage has been high, averaging around 50 million website hits per month.
The governance of information and its sharing significantly influences legal decision-making in institutional contexts. This research contrasts this with the social benefits and political desirability of making stakeholders who are the subjects of that information (or intended beneficiaries) participants in decision-making by making them partners in information governance and usage (Grace and Taylor, 2013, and Information Governance Review, 2013).
Through ethical and legal analysis this research seeks to understand the critical factors in practitioner decision-making and in structures of governance (including regulation). The specific impacts of this research have been in the fields of healthcare, and the management and governance of patient information in the NHS in research and commissioning contexts - specifically, the individual rights to reasonable objections, where this is practicable, for patients who feel that NHS healthcare research projects infringe their sense of privacy and confidentiality.
Researchers in the Organisations, Information and Knowledge (OAK) group have developed technologies for large-scale acquisition, integration and sense-making of information acquired from a variety of sources, including textual documents, the Web and multiple devices. These technologies have had:
Improvements in digital screen technology early in this millennium facilitated cost effective use of digital signage (DS) (screens in a public place showing video). The problem was that no research was available on the extent to which consumers welcome DS or on the effectiveness of any advertisements transmitted using this medium.
Brunel research has led to most UK shopping malls now carrying DS and to retail DS ads using more entertaining or affective content that increases `footfall' to advertisers and greater loyalty especially from first time shoppers. The research led to a general impact in terms of improved customer experience and specific impact on sales growth and revenue. The result is greater enjoyment and satisfaction for shoppers and higher sales for advertisers and retailers.
Research in Sheffield since 1993 has focused on developing information-rich systems and services from a user-oriented perspective rather than a more technology-driven approach. This has ranged from the development of theoretical models that describe information behaviour and processes, to the design and evaluation of information-rich systems and services that are based on information behaviour models and that involve end users throughout the design process. The impact includes: (1) enhancements in the practices adopted in systems development within cultural heritage institutions (The National Archives, UK) and libraries (Online Computer Library Centre, US; M25 Consortium of Academic Libraries, UK), (2) improved support for further development and commercialisation of technologies by IT companies (Gnowsis, Austria; Intempra, Italy), and (3) downstream impacts in the form of knowledge transfer leading to new projects to further develop existing technologies and systems (led by Language Technology Centre, UK).