Enterprise Architecture is to information as Building Architecture is to space?

I’ve been interested in information for more than 20 years - more specifically, I have been fascinated by two related themes:

1. How can we (individuals or organisations) use information more effectively? - most of what passes for using information is confusion, misinformation or “let’s ignore any attempt to use the available information and just carry on with business as usual.”
2. Can we architect information in such a way that it immediately becomes more useful, more powerful, more awe-inspiring? - is there some way that we can intervene and provide structure, process, templates, guidelines, or whatever it takes to make the information resource significantly more powerful?

Well I am convinced that the answer to both of these questions is emphatically “YES”. But I think there are two habits that sometimes prevent us from getting to yes - in some cases these habits are so entrenched that it will take a huge effort to break out of them.

1. We’re lazy. We don’t like to make changes. We expect to find simple, quick, cheap answers. And often we fall back on the use of information technology (IT) to improve our use of information rather than learn new skills (at the individual or corporate level). That’s not to say that IT isn’t useful - and as Dr Eddy Kloprogge said in a comment the other day:
• “The deveopment of IT seems to become more exponential” - IT is here to stay, and it’s role will become bigger and greater.
• Technology may help to create awareness - we can’t ignore IT; it often helps by providing insights that we couldn’t achieve on our own.
2. We are still learning how to architect information. We don’t have all the answers. Enterprise Architecture is the label that is most frequently used for providing some discipline and structure in our use of organisational information. (I know there are other definitions, but that will do for now.) In this sense, enterprise architecture is to information as building architecture is to space. But there is still a lot to learn about how we do this - and in my opinion, some of the current methods need serious updating (more of this later).

[For more on this theme - see my website Roger Evernden - enterprise architecture with a difference]

Roger

This entry was posted on 04/05/2007 at 08:38 am and is filed under Enterprise Architecture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.