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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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
The primary impact is AmbieSense Ltd., a start-up that has had up to 8 employees/consultants. The Company pioneered ambient, context-aware mobile applications and has been able to maintain its technological edge throughout. Secondary impact is through products developed and used by companies including Lonely Planet, Oslo Airport. AmbieSense Ltd. products and services have wide reach and social impact: Tourist trails; outdoor museums; educational historic trails. Customers include public sector: Aberdeen City Council. Benefits are a quality content experience delivered in a context-sensitive manner (social/economic). The significance is: information-rich touristic physical space; an enriching educational experience, connecting pupils with environments. Other technologies have also been built on the AmbieSense platform and patents have cited the underpinning work, demonstrating impact on professional services.
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:
The Information Rights Research Interest Group (IRRIG) has worked with a national non-departmental public body, the Marine Management Organisation (MMO), and Durham County Council to define best practice in data handling and sharing of information. Training and consultancy based on legal regulatory doctrinal and theoretical research has led to the MMO altering its policy and procedure in relation to freedom of information legislation and data sharing practice. Durham County Council has consolidated its Environmental Information Regulation work within the Information Management Team to improve the delivery of a consistent, joined up service to all stakeholders and has prepared a revised FOIA Procedures Packet which is widely used in the local authority.
Europeana is the official European Union internet portal for cultural heritage located in European heritage institutions. Based on their research on user centred evaluations of information systems and Digital Library development, Strathclyde researchers were selected to evaluate the user experience of Europeana version 1.0. A series of user studies involving 89 people in 4 countries led to design recommendations based on Strathclyde's research which were incorporated into a new Europeana user interface (Europeana v2.0) leading to significant improvements in search capability and information access for users. Consequently, the latest version of Europeana is used by almost 4 million unique visitors from 241 countries who now benefit from increased user experience
Research at Newcastle has made a significant contribution to the public services modernisation agenda in the areas of inter-agency working and information-sharing. The research showed that effective information-sharing required not just that different information systems are made compatible with each other, but also that people from different professional cultures are enabled to work together through a common understanding of information governance issues. In active collaboration with a range of service providers, a number of processes and tools were developed for the significant benefit of service users. They have been implemented in a variety of policy settings, including children's services and adult social care, and have informed current programmes funded by the UK government.