From PIM to GIM: Personal information management in group contexts

The sharing of personal information with networked groups and institutions through a new field of enquiry, group information management, is discussed. Personal information management (PIM) plays both instrumental and symbolic roles, enhancing the impressions by user performance. PIM is a private activity where users often create personal information with sharing in mind. When personal information is shared, it produces tensions between the ends for which it is shared and the not-necessarily desirable symbolic inferences it may support. Group information management (GIM) is used to refer to PIM as it functions in more public spheres. GIM helps in sharing personal information with a group, emphasizing the norms that underlie that sharing and the ways participants negotiate these norms in response to the tensions. GIM includes email, Webpages, wikis and online calendaring. GIM can provide a forum for consolidating social, legal and business issues emerging in a number of domains.