Managing information:

Effective coordination requires effective information management. In the coordination context, managing and providing information combines advanced information technology and basic information-gathering and reporting skills. Agencies often make the mistake of assuming that what serves internal information-management requirements will also satisfy the common services needs of inter-agency information management. Managing information for coordination is a multi-disciplinary endeavor, which includes but is hardly limited to standard, more technical information management (map making, creating gap-identification, tools, etc.). This chapter includes some agency-specific guidance but attempts to go beyond it to capture the realistic requirements for managing information in an inter-agency context.