Irrespective of the size and motivation of organizations there is a commonality in information management needs. Identified needs include form-building, data or content gathering and community-network structuring; while taking for granted search and match, access control, authentication, communication, dissemination and reporting tools.

PANTOTO brings together these common information management solutions under one umbrella and allows users to customize and then delegate the management of information. The only interface with the software is through a browser and the training required is up to one week depending on the role of the user in the community. This enables an organic process of continuous evolution of information structures and purpose-based sub-community formation.

Deployment Process

Two people are trained for one week. During this period they are coached in building one information management model (simple Web application) and also go through a train-the-trainer exercise. This includes in-depth demonstrations of how other organizations are using the software.

As information needs change, authorized users can create new categories of information, define or refine how information will be gathered, define read/write access levels to categories, and define parameters on which information in the category will be searched. One can optionally specify slices or domains that define alternate entry points and look and feel.

User Perspective

Categories of structured information are organized in the form of a tree, which can be browsed. Users can recommend and take editorship of new categories. An editor of a category can share responsibilities with other users. The editors decide the access rights of the categories. Editors also define the information structures/forms that will be used to collect information. Users post and search for information using the form and can post remarks or send private messages. In a PANTOTO Community, a posting is referred to as a pagelet.