UnaMesa provides infrastructure services for team based public services

Table of Contents

• 1 UnaMesa Association services
  • 1.1 Sharing records for clinics and social services
  • 1.2 Services Index
• 2 Building bridges between organizations and information systems
  • 2.1 SharedRecords: tools to support simple and secure exchange of information between social service providers
    • 2.1.1 Sharing records for clinics and social services
  • 2.2 TiddlyWiki: off-line web applications for exchanging educational materials and other information
• 3 Lowering barriers to exchanging information and learning

1 UnaMesa Association services

The UnaMesa Association offers new types of open source, web-based tools that help noncommercial organizations better store, access, and share critical knowledge at minimum expense. These offerings include case studies, training, support, and ongoing engagement with the community to continually improve and disseminate best practices. UnaMesa serves knowledge sharing by developing and sustaining innovations and best practices that address the common problems faced by schools, clinics, and other noncommercial organizations. These problems include getting the right information into the right hands at the right time while maintaining the security and privacy of personal data and minimizing overhead costs.

1.1 Sharing records for clinics and social services

1.2 Services Index

• SharedRecords - simple, secure record sharing to support a continuum of care
  
  • Technology components including free software for scanning paper documents, encrypting/decrypting confidential information,
    printing and reading barcodes containing access keys
  • High availability web services for storing, retrieving, and distributing encrypted records and associated history ("paper trail")
    
  • Case studies, prototypes, and practical guidance for using these services to share records between clinics, Child and family service centers, Head Start agencies, schools, and other providers
    
  • Community forums for shared learning and support for administrators and end users
    
  • Second and third tier technical support
    
  • Create and moderate contributions to the software and case studies of fielded systems
    
  • Coordination of resources and collaborations to continue developing and deploying systems for care providers
    
• TiddlyWiki.org - locally controlled web application for creating better interfaces to critical information
  
  • Technology components including a standalone, html based wiki, templates, and functional plug-ins
    
  • Web services for sharing educational materials, making local adaptations, synchronizing changes and collaborating across boundaries
    
  • Case studies, prototypes, and practical guidance for using TiddlyWiki documents in education, health care, food certification, and other social services
    
  • Community forums for sharing learning, exchanging technical advice, and developing new features
    
  • Catalogs for registering and locating information, tools, and techniques to address specific information sharing needs
    
  • Create and moderate contributions to the software and case studies of fielded systems
    
  • Coordination of resources and collaborations to develop and deploy templates and background educational materials to address specific community needs
    

2 Building bridges between organizations and information systems

To operate effectively in a community, public schools and hospitals require public roads, water, electricity, and other infrastructure. The lack of shared information infrastructure creates gaps that reduce the quality of education, health care, and other social services. The basic level of connectivity provided by the Internet provides a great starting point but it's kind of like an interstate highway where most of the street signs are billboards erected by corporate interests and every single school and hospital has to pay to build and maintain their own interchange.

Through our field projects (see Projects page) we identify gaps in this infrastructure and provide a combination of technology and services to fill these gaps. These services are provided at low or no cost to noncommercial organizations. Technical and financial contributions from project participants and sponsoring organizations help to subsidize the development and operation of the services and ensure sustainability.

Through these service offerings, we help create a common set of knowledge and tools accessible to every educator, health-care worker, and social service provider. This common infrastructure reduces barriers and encourages best practices for sharing information to help deliver the highest quality education, health care, and other services at the lowest possible cost. By making the tools and information commonly available to everyone, individual practitioners can choose whether and how to use those tools in a manner consistent with their existing environment. We work hard to make sure that the tools can be used independently or in conjunction with existing information systems, so they can be integrated into current work practices without disruption. In this way, the knowledge commons supports the fastest possible spread of innovations and enables continual improvement.

To initial services illustrate the UnaMesa approach. Each of these was developed through open collaboration with university researchers, professional service providers, and technology developers. They have been demonstrated in practical use to solve difficult problems related to sharing information. The first provides a mechanism for simply and securely sharing records between organizations using a combination of paper and a electronic files. The second provides a simple way to create web based interfaces for class notebooks and other information that can be easily shared and improved upon and do not require a connection to the internet. Together they provide a foundation for simple and secure exchange of information that:

• is compatible with existing practices for exchanging documents (both paper and electronic),
  
• does not require expensive infrastructure,
  
• can be adopted with little or no technical support staff.
  

2.1 SharedRecords: tools to support simple and secureexchange of information between service providers

www.SharedRecords.org

The SharedRecords website provides the open-source, high quality software and web based services needed to securely share the digital data associated with paper documents. Operated and maintained by Dimagi, Inc. under a contract to the UnaMesa Association, www.sharedrecords.org provides a free and open service for exchanging secure (encrypted) records. This means that service organizations can experiment with this approach to storing and exchanging information at zero cost without any risk of vendor lock-in or barriers to access.

2.1.1 Sharing records for clinics and social services

• reduce staff time devoted to filing and retrieving paper files
  
• reduce or eliminate "lost" or missing files
  
• reduce or eliminate redundant data entry tasks
  
• give clients greater control over their privacy and information
  
• reduce or eliminate the use of outdated information in advising or caring for clients
  
• reduce the cost and overhead of reporting requirements while increasing transparency
  

2.2 TiddlyWiki: off-line web applications for exchanging educational materials and other information

"TiddlyWiki" is a new type of electronic document that solves a very difficult problem for education, health care providers, and other social services: How to use the advantages of web-based applications without the expense of setting up and maintaining a Web server, and without requiring or relying on full time Internet connectivity for themselves or their clients.

TiddlyWiki documents can be viewed and edited using any Web browser. In many ways, TiddlyWiki documents are similar to Wikipedia articles with the unique feature that TiddlyWiki documents do not require a Web server and can be used either online or off-line. TiddlyWikis have been used in a number of educational settings to provide a combination of course materials, class notebooks, and project materials.

A TiddlyWiki document can be saved on a local disk allowing the user to view and edit the document without a network connection. Any changes can later be synchronized to an online version. This means that a teacher can assemble a collection of web-based materials, such as Wikipedia articles related to a course on biology, combine those articles with their own notes in a TiddlyWiki, and distribute that TiddlyWiki to their students without requiring a Web server, Internet connection, or infrastructure other than some type of freely available web browser.

TiddlyWiki.org complements the SharedRecords backend by providing a web based user interface that requires no infrastructure other than a laptop, PC, or even just a cellphone. Users can directly add, delete, or modify bits of information, arrange those bits in the best way for their task and share that document with others.

Demonstrated uses of TiddlyWiki include shared resources for teaching materials http://parmenides.objectis.net/reason/, a tool for mathematics education http://bob.mcelrath.org/tiddlyjsmath-2.0.3.html, and a complete interface to all class materials for a university in South Australia https://secure.ait.org/wiki/background.htm

3 Lowering barriers to exchanging information and learning

Practitioners can begin using SharedRecords and TiddlyWiki today as a way to improve, not replace, their existing work practices. There are no registration requirements, no complex negotiations, and no requirement to ask permission from IT administrators. Because these systems can function completely independently they can work in environments with no existing IT infrastructure or in very sophisticated IT environments. Once the value of their use has been demonstrated, they can be integrated with existing IT systems for additional productivity gains. Even so, these systems retain the most important and unique feature of UnaMesa services, the ability to easily and securely share data with clients and other practitioners who may have incompatible (or nonexistent) IT systems.

Together, SharedRecords and TiddlyWiki can be used by social service providers to exchange information securely and in the manner they determine to best serve their clients. These tools require little or no IT support and can be easily customized by nonprogrammers to deliver completely customized information interfaces for both staff members (teachers, doctors, social service workers) and clients. These tools:

• build upon the existing methods for sharing documents;
  
• can be used for public educational materials as well as private healthcare information;
  
• can deliver and track information securely with minimal expense;
  
• allow individuals and practitioners to maintain control over their information.
  

Date: 2007/03/17