One recurrent theme which guides my research interest these days, is to fathom out how people are using information management technologies and solutions in order to get that much coveted information edge or more importantly solve their day-to-day information management problems.

While researching more about these realistic but niche information-pain spots, I am trying to keep in mind a few provisoes - which in fact in more happier economic climate would have been labeled very much as "in-the-box" thinking:

• It is very important not to invent information management problems
It is also equally important not to focus on hidden solutions to
• solve information management problems
• Focus on areas where there is a felt need for an information management solution.
• Not to restrict the search to any particular segment of users.

I have already looked at one of these segments in my earlier posting (See all the postings starting from Information Management and Crime Investigation below).Over the last two weeks I have studied (mostly based on web based research) how the information management technologies were used by campaigners in the recent US elections.

One thing which could be noticed without much research, was that there hasn't been a huge brouhaha over about this election being "cyber" or "wired" election, compared to the last election.

This does not mean that the candidates and the political parties did not use technological means to win over voters. Here is a brief description of the Information Management technologies used by the candidates and the political parties:

• Campaign Management Software Solutions
• 
  This breed of solutions helped candidates and parties in:
  • Tracking the volunteers and campaign staff
  • Managing campaign resources and funds
  • Targeting voter demographic groups
  • Managing mail outs, voter letters, contribution requests and thank you letters
  • Tracking membership and donation funds
  • Targeting prospective contributors
  • Making effective use of time and resources
  • Maintaining clear and accurate overview of campaign success

• Elections Handicapping and Surveys

These services based on online and offline tracking of information (the usual time-tested way of measuring the pulse of the voters) was used this time around too.
• On Line Campaigning

This included from a basic online presence of the candidates to Voice Broadcasting Campaigns; Email Marketing Campaigns; Video games, and Online Advertising.

But during and after the election campaign there has been very little discussion or an in-depth analysis (except the Slate item mentioned below) about the efficacy of these information management technologies for campaign management. The limelight, I guess, was hogged by the new devices used for the actual election proceedings (Will high-tech save or sink future elections? ).

I found only one in-depth analysis (in a trustworthy magazine - despite its MSN association -called Slate) which focused on information-readiness of the candidates and the political parties:

No, Really, This One's a Net Election

The article reviews 8 races asking a question whether it mattered to be wired or not. The article notes that 6 out 8 races yielded positive results - of course no body can claim that this was only due to their information readiness.

So my question is whether it would have mattered if the candidates had used an intelligent information management solution? A solution that would not have just managed what information generated by the candidate's campaign staff but a solution which provides some form of election information intelligence which would have scored the following results for him/her:

a) Projection of the candidate/party in the media and whether the media is altering/enhancing the perception of the candidate
b) Track the Press Releases - compare projected perception with what actually get projected.
d) Track what the opponents and the surveyors are saying about the candidate/party
e) Track any discrepancies in the internal information sources such as campaign leaflets, emails

It seems that using this type of solution will be a logical step towards next level information-readiness in the forthcoming election campaigns, providing a possibility to the candidates/political parties to turn the information edge into an election victory.