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ICT FeatureThe Malta Independent | Thursday 3 February 2011

Welcome to the second week of TheMalta Independent ICT Feature. Thisweek’s edition includes an articleabout the benefits that economicplayers can get by having a degreeof foresight into the procurement ac-tivities of a large organisation oper-ating within their territory. We canalso read about the scope and pro-gramme of works of the eSkills Al-

liance Malta – a body which bringstogether decision-makers from aca-demia, ICT industry and govern-ment.

We will also tackle the issue of in-formation overload. How often haveyou tried to search something off theinternet and ended up with hun-dreds, if not thousands of results?Or have you ever tried finalising a

report but kept being interrupted byemails? Reality is that we’re living ata time where information managesto find us even in times when we’renot actively searching for it. In thisweek’s edition we’re including afeature article with some tips onhow we can be successful in holdingoff information when we don’t wantit.

The Malta IndependentICT Feature

RoderickSpiteri

Victor Camilleri

FabianneRuggierAlexander

Borg Since its inception in the early nineties,the Internet has spawned many waysof interconnecting people. For severalyears email and static websites consti-tuted the main medium of communi-cation. Eventually, as technologiesevolved, more sophisticated, cus-tomisable sub-types emerged in theirvarious forms: internet forums, socialnetworks, instant messaging, internettelephony… For those of us who usethem, services like CNN and BBCnews feeds, Facebook, Twitter,LinkedIN and Gmail have all becomevery au courant in our day-to-day jar-gon. Even Skype has found its wayonto most business cards.

In parallel with this evolution, thegiant strides made in computer tech-nology have slashed the cost of datastorage and processing power to un-precedented levels. This has led toever growing vast volumes of dataflooding the web ready for consump-tion – according to estimates by TheEconomist ,150 exabytes (billion giga-bytes) of data in 2005 and 1,200 ex-abytes (eight times as much) in 2010.The Internet has not only reshapedand revolutionised the world of com-munication, it has begun to seriouslychallenge our ability to process andcope with this veritable data deluge,and keep abreast no matter what.

Hooked on emailWith so much information inundatingthe net, and with many of us feelingthe pressure to be ‘always-on’ at alltimes and being constantly updatedon all facets of our job, “informationoverload” is now a much talked aboutphenomenon. In brief, this is definedas the “difficulty a person can haveunderstanding an issue and makingdecisions that can be caused by thepresence of too much information” .

In this age of ‘info-mania’ email is un-reservedly the primary source of dataoverkill we have to contend with. Inaddition to filtering out spam mail,we also have to deal with the growingnumber of voluminous attachments,not to mention the countless RSSfeeds and social network updates re-ceived.

To prove the extent of the phenome-non, a 2008 AOL survey of 4,000email users revealed, for example,that 46% of Americans were hookedon email, and that 60% of them wentto extremes like checking their mailwhile in the bathroom. In a recent ar-ticle The Daily Telegraph quotes astudy that found that each bit of newinformation gleaned from the internetcauses the brain to release a dose ofdopamine, a pleasure-inducing chem-ical which has been linked to addic-tive behaviour . Studies aboundabout the way online informationhogging our brain hinders deep think-ing, memory and learning abilities.

Loss of creativityPsychiatrist Dr Edward Hallowell as-serts that information overload canlead to loss of creativity and AttentionDeficit Disorder (ADD). The latter is acondition induced by a hectic lifewhich compels us to cope with somany information inputs and outputsthat we begin to feel distracted, irrita-ble and restless. In extreme cases, wemay even be made to feel inadequate,inept, and above all underachieving –in spite of all the work we seem to putin. ADD, Dr Hallowell says, can actu-ally undermine an organisation’s“most valuable asset, namely theimagination and creativity of thebrains they employ, by allowing ADDto infest the organisation”.

Contrastingly, in a context where the

internet has increased productivity inabsolute terms, information overloadis at the same time actually hinderingproductivity. No matter how efficientusers are in their stratagems in filter-ing and optimising traffic, the ubiq-uity of email means that it alsobecomes a source of frequent inter-ruption and distraction if used andmanaged incorrectly. Few realise thatusers are compelled to engage in amental effort of frequently trying tostructure and make meaningful senseout of information, which is intrinsi-cally unstructured, duplicated andoriginating from multiple sources.Performing this mental process sev-eral times a day while doing a job, canbe mentally taxing and should not beunderestimated. Indeed, pundits nowargue that multi-tasking, fashionablein the gung-ho pre-2008 crisis years,causes more harm than benefit to thetimeliness and quality of work out-puts.

Email - a solution becoming aproblem? A study by Microsoft researchersfound that a user replying to an in-coming email alert pop-up, may actu-ally translate to a 24-minuteinterruption by the time that user re-turns back to the task put on hold . Ina special survey Intel found that in acontext where an average of twohours a day are spent processing ap-proximately 350 emails a week, theirstaff believed that one-third of theseemails were actually unnecessary .

Web technologists are aware of theseproblems, and an area where consid-erable research is carried out to struc-ture better information on the web isthe “semantic web”. This can beloosely defined as the ability of com-puting devices to understand the

meaning of information on the web toallow users to find, share and com-bine it with other information moreeasily. In other words, if we could usesystems that exchange data in a morestructured and meaningful way, therewould be less need to resort to an un-structured form of communicationsuch as email or open-ended websearches to exchange information.

Beating the InformationOverloadTo better structure information withinorganisations, the market has longbeen able to offer solutions – though,admittedly, this is a complex areaunder constant evolution. Neverthe-less, enterprise content managementsystems, records management sys-tems and work folk solutions can allprovide a shot in the arm to stream-line and better structure informationflow and corporate memory withinorganisations.

Enterprises will soon realise howimportant it is to start investing in sys-tems that give more structure to in-formation to mitigate impact onemployee creativity and productivity;and that if they do not innovate onthis front they may in the long runsuccumb to competition.

Until new research gives us bettertools on how our brains can cope bet-ter with storing, structuring and pro-cessing information, simple measurescan still be taken to mitigate and helpbetter manage information overload(see Tip Box). The web itself is repletewith articles and research papers onthe matter. If not for the advice of-fered, reading through one or two ofthese is useful to understand that weare not alone in weathering the datadeluge, and that help is athand…from the web itself.

If you thought you were alone inweathering the data deluge on the web, help is at hand… from the web itself

Alexander Borg is a Client RelationshipManager at MITA

Victor Camilleri is the departmentmanager of the Sourcing and VendorManagement Department at MITA.

Fabianne Ruggier is a Consultant onHuman Capital and the Executive Secre-

tary of the eSkills Alliance Malta

Procurement Outlook – providing economicoperators a degree of foresightThe ability to foresee the future, evenif to a certain degree, is somethingwhich every economic operator wouldlike to posses. This will not only allowthe organisation to prepare itself bet-ter but also to carry out any necessarychanges that will allow it to be in a bet-ter position for the anticipated future.

Besides the political, economic andsocial environments of where they op-erate, economic operators are also in-terested to know from beforehandwhat certain large organisationswithin their economic region are plan-ning. Being the largest ICT organisa-tion on the island, the MaltaInformation Technology Agency(MITA) has understood that its pro-curement plans are of interest to bothlocal and international economic play-ers.

Therefore, since June 2009 MITA hasbeen issuing a regular ProcurementOutlook listing the intended procure-ment needed to fulfil the Agency’s andGovernment’s IT and IS needs. MITAbelieves that the private ICT sector hasa vital role to play in the delivery andimplementation of its programmes.

The publication of MITA’s Procure-ment Outlook therefore eases partici-pation in such tenders by givingadditional time, above the tender pub-lication period, to interested suppliersto identify a solution that can best

meet MITA’s requirements, includingpartnering with other large suppliersand build the relationship and trustthat such projects often necessitate.This will result in the Agency engag-ing the best services available for Gov-ernment to derive maximum value forinvestment.

Even though the agency is very care-ful as to which procurements shouldbe included in the outlook, sometimesit has no control on the issuance ofthese tenders in the indicated periods.In its bid to ensure that tenders are is-sued within the indicated periodsMITA will be introducing more flexi-ble, efficient and innovative procure-ment processes to eliminate thesedelays.

All planned procurements within theProcurement Outlook are subject to re-vision or cancellation. The informationis provided for planning purposesonly and does not represent a solicita-tion or constitute a request for pro-posal. It is neither a definitive nor anexhaustive list and is compiled ac-cording to general information avail-able to MITA on the date ofpublication.

A new version of the ProcurementOutlook listing all the intended pro-curement activities for the next sixmonths will shortly be published bythe Agency.

10 ways to help mitigatethe effects of emailoverload

Some useful tips on how to bettermanage email overkill. Most weregleaned from the web, while a feware based on personal experience.

For the organisation• Adopt a policy on a email use andetiquette guiding your employees onwhat use to make of email, coveringaspects such as limiting the length ofan email, how many recipients toinclude, avoiding abuse of the Replyto All feature, refrain from ‘dumping’information on a sender (simply fordue diligence purposes), sending non-urgent emails beyond a certain time,etc.

• Deploy a well designed intranet forthe publication of news, updates andother announcements to avoid usingemail as the sole means ofinformation dissemination. Use theintranet as a repository for widelyused documentation such as qualitymanuals, business plans, templates,progress reports and so on withdifferent access levels.

• Promote a culture change byshowing your employees that you areaware of the need for making theirlife easier in the management ofcommunications. Do so by setting theexample. Do not send any blanketemails to all staff just for the sake ofall-round visibility if thecommunication is about something ofspecific interest only to some.Consider adopting “email free”afternoons to give employees somerelief from the interruptions and focuson their work (this ban mustobviously not be extended to emailtraffic in and out of yourorganisation).

• Consider integrating tools to yourmail service that can optimise theuser experience by prioritising,flagging, filtering out and automatingtraffic, or even integrating your emailsand attachments within sharedrepositories with controlled access tospecific groups of users.

For the individual• Keep your emails concise andbulleted. Because it is email and weare always in a hurry, we are oftentempted to just write instinctively offthe top of our head. Spend that extraminute or two checking your emailand empathising with your intendedrecipients. That might save them fromhaving to spend several minutes todecipher your message. If necessary,extract relevant parts of a documentand paste them into the email ratherthan sending the entire document.

• Switch off your automated incomingemail notification pop-up when youare doing something which requiresconcentration. Then set specific timesduring the day when you look at yourmailbox.

• Resist the temptation of promptlyresponding to an email even if youbelieve that it will take you a ‘fewminutes’ to verify the informationrequested. Often those few minutesmay become an hour or more. Opt forbatching replies into a specific time ofthe day, or just politely tell yoursender that you cannot respondimmediately, and give a date whenyou are likely to revert with therequested response.

• If you are not the anxious type,simply accept that you cannot readevery single tweet, email andattachment you receive, or ‘befriends’ even with people you oftensip coffee with in the canteen.

• Be pragmatic, if filing your mail byname or topic takes up too much ofyour time, simply refrain from doingso, or maybe just file the key ones.Nowadays email search facilities arepowerful enough to enable you toretrieve what you are looking for.

Instead of triggering email ping-pongs, just pick up the phone if all yourequire is a clarification. Or directlydrag that email into your calendar andschedule a meeting if there is a needfor one. Email ping-pongs becometerrible time-wasters which confuserecipients often stokingmisunderstandings.

Joining forces for a worthy cause– the eSkills Alliance MaltaThe scope of establishing an eSkillsAlliance Malta is for Government towork closely with relevant stakehold-ers in determining its future policy,programmes and incentives to ensurethat Malta offers the right quality andquantity of e-skills for the ICT indus-try to thrive and flourish. The Al-liance was launched on 13 October2010 by Hon Minister Austin Gatt inthe presence of key ICT industry play-ers, the University of Malta rector andrepresentatives of MCAST and theprivate training industry.

Key employers, such as 6PM, Com-putime, Crimsonwing, Bank of Val-letta and Loqus Group areparticipating as Governors of the Al-liance shaping the human resource re-quirements for the industry. TheChamber of Commerce and the MaltaEmployers Association, who in turnrepresent further ICT employers de-manding e-skills, also form part ofthis group. The Board of Governors ofthe Alliance involves also decision-makers from the supply-side of ICTeducation and skills such as the Uni-versity of Malta, MCAST, the MaltaCouncil for Science and Technologyand the Ministry for Education, Em-ployment and the Family.

MITA is driving the working-levelrepresentatives of the Alliancethrough an executive committee,whilst the industry-veteran John Am-brogio is chairing the decision-mak-ers/Governors of the Alliance.

The Alliance has an important andextensive programme of works aimedat addressing the gaps and mis-matches between the demand andsupply of ICT professionals. The Al-liance is currently discussing the cre-ation of a Maltese e-CompetenceFramework and an e-skills taxonomythat defines ICT jobs and links educa-tional pathways to an ICT career.

The industry will benefit from thisframework as CEOs and managerswill be able to use it as a tool for the

management of ICT talent withintheir companies. On the other hand,ICT students will be able to use theframework to get a much clearer pic-ture of what sort of skills are expectedby employers for the different ICT do-mains and roles. Finally the frame-work will also serve as an officialguideline for an ICT career delineat-ing the different career progressionpaths and the related certificationroutes required. This will be highlyuseful for established ICT profession-als who want to progress in their ca-reer and also for those individualswho want to make a career switch.

The Alliance executive committee isalso extending the discussions it isholding at the working-level withother industry players who are notformally represented in the Alliance.This involvement is done by nominat-ing ambassadors from within the in-dustry to participate in committeemeetings and present the industry’spositions on different themes.

One of the committee’s priorities atthe moment is the setting-up of anICT Professional Body. A body of thissort will guide ICT professionals on

the ethical standards requested by theICT and ICT-using employers in theprovisioning of services and/or prod-ucts. The indigenous recognitionmechanism which this body will beusing in levelling the ICT professionwill endow each of its members withthe advantage of being a nationallyreputable and trusted expert inhis/her respective field in the local in-dustry.

At the working-level, the represen-tatives of the education sector are veryactive. Discussions on future joint ac-tions and programmes have been heldwith the Directorate for Quality andStandards in Education and the ICTFaculty at the University for closercollaboration between academia andthe ICT industry. For the students,this will mean that during their edu-cational experience they will be ableto participate in initiatives which willboost their workplace knowledge andaptitudes. This translates into an in-creased potential for succeeding in in-terviews and employmentopportunities because ICT employerswill be more satisfied with the im-proved technical and soft-skills pro-file that these future graduates will bepresenting.

The members of the Alliance havejoined forces to work towards thesame cause. The members are in factcommitted to take action today andinvest time and effort to improve thepublic and private synergies for theimprovement of the national e-skillsbase.

The executive committee of the Al-liance is looking for further industryrepresentatives who would like to actas industry ambassadors and provideinput to the creative work undertakenby the committee in devising actionplans which seek to improve ICT ed-ucation opportunities and strengthenthe ICT profession. If you are inter-ested in participating, send your de-tails on eskillsalliance.mita@gov.mt

All planned procurementswithin the ProcurementOutlook are subject torevision or cancellation.The information is providedfor planning purposes onlyand does not represent asolicitation or constitute arequest for proposal

”“

The Alliance executivecommittee is also extendingthe discussions it is holdingat the working-level withother industry players whoare not formally representedin the Alliance

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