Information Aggregation in an Enterprise - Smart Information Systems: Computational Intelligence for Real-Life Applications - page 98

Suzanne sighed and stopped reading. Her current job as a responsible official in
her city's administration office was her dream job: It was challenging enough to com-
pensate for the often quite tough times that she went through while studying part time
for her Master's degree. At the same time, the standard 9-to-5 work hours allowed
her to plan her day appropriately, leaving her sufficient time for her family. And most
of all, having a tenure as civil servant came with its own undeniable advantages. Nev-
ertheless, it were requests like this one that made her moan and wallow in self-pity.
Responding to such letters usually meant digging into the administration's
intranet, browsing through all kinds of legal applications from citizens that were
scanned and saved on different file servers, reading information that was outlined
in the administration's badly maintained Wiki, finding old emails that referred to
similar cases, and so on. Her colleague Barbara had a term for it: “Berry picking”,
as they had to go from source to source to pick up the information they required.
Just like they used to do as kids when they picked berries from different bushes on
their way to school. “Berry picking season once again!” she muttered and started to
concentrate.
The citizen was right. If he wanted to renovate his property, he had to consider
specific regulations to preserve the building for future generations. Suzanne remem-
bered that she had read a memo a few months ago where they were informed about
new regulations that would come into effect soon. She went back to her email client
program and started to search in her inbox…There it was! An email from…, oh
wow! …from over a year ago where they mentioned these new regulations. Suzanne
mugged. “Call me old, but at least my memory is still intact.” She read through the
email. They mentioned that they intended to build a task force with experts from the
environmental, building, and monument protection authorities who should work out
the details to implement the regulations. Unfortunately, they did not mention any
contact persons, which made Suzanne frown. Over the years, she experienced that