EMS Information Systems and Flows

Peter Drucker once said something like, "Recurrent Problems must never recur!" In that vein I am beginning to catch a glimpse of Forest Service EMS information systems needs – else am once-again deluding myself. Here are my ideas.

File and Path Naming Conventions

To effectively structure web-based and other information systems I believe we need naming conventions for all levels (at least to the Forest level) for EMS files and paths to those files (URLs and/or filing conventions).

I am trying to dig up some current conventions, to see if any exist in the FS, in the broader ISO community or elsewhere that might help us. Anybody know of any?

Website Development Dreams

At the WO level, I'd like to see an internet site that would house (via links) basic process requirements, and easily link to other units, required documents, some "in-process" and other documents that provide learning opportunities, and so on.

It might be that the WO and Regional sites, in addition to pointing to basic EMS educational and process materials, would primarily just point to other agency divisions (via hyperlinks or whatever) that have "turned on" their EMS, letting Forest sites carry the bulk of the responsibility for disclosure. The "divisions" (forests mostly I believe) might then have required documents and perchance formats available for the public and others to see on their internet sites. If we have URL "path conventions," it would be easy to structure internet sites and revise them when desired.

Alternatively, the WO might have a database on its server that would show, on demand, various EMS documents from each and every forest. But if this is to work, document development and storage must still reside at the forest as a distributed network. Naming conventions are still a must.

The WO and various divisions might also have an EMS intranet site to house good examples from Regions and Forests that "aren't ready for prime time," meeting (in person, conference calls, etc.) and training schedules, and so on. I have less clear vision here, since my bias is away from the intranet.

Finally we ought to have at least one external/internal EMS discussion forum like this one. Some believe we need at least one (perhaps several) that are internal only, since folks are too timid to openly "air" process improvement discussions and other information. We are right now setting one of these up for techie discussions like this one.

Comments

[Elaine Leyda]

Dave, I agree that we need a place or forum for discussing the particular matters about developing EMS Web pages. This would work just fine, for me, if the discussion was more circumscribed--I think you're setting one up? If there's a category for each of the ISO elements, that might help save folks from hunting frustration. I think one thing that dissuades some people from using blogs for work-related discussion is the difficulty in finding info that's pertinent to what you're involved in. I think that Joan mentioned the planning forum....

File naming conventions
Amen! I've been working on filenaming conventions for use in the e-version of the forest revision planning record (oops, "plan set of documents") here and in R6. I see a deep need for all FS employees to follow some kind of filenaming guidelines, but that's another topic. For the planning record, I have files identified first by date, like 060216_PSICC_4.3.3 for the Feb 16, 2006 version of the PSICC unit's ISO required element 4.3.3. (numerals, I know), then by various abbreviated topic identifiers. While it might be unpleasant to learn the ISO numbering system, I don't think it would hurt us to use it. I am unaware of any filenaming conventions in this agency, though.

[Dave Iverson]

Thanks Elaine,

What I have found so far as per file (and path) naming conventions is that we ought to:

1. Use only lower case characters

2. Have no blank spaces, but rather use the underscore symbol to fill in blanks "_"

3. Reserve periods "." to precede the type file represented.

4. As per "dates," I'm still perplexed. I'm guessing that most file management systems somehow embed dates in metadata so that managers don't have to change the date on the file name all the time. But I don't know.

In addition to file naming conventions, path names for filing would be helpful too. That way web managers throughout the agency can know in advance where to look for files. That too can be quite empowering.

I suspect that this discussion rightfully belongs on ou new more narrowly focused blog: "Forest EMS Support Systems." I set that one up to talk about narrow-niche design topics.