Beyond Email Information Overload Blogs, Wikis Always Connected? Why? Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner

Beyond Email

Information OverloadBlogs, Wikis

Always Connected? Why?

Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner

Beyond Email – Information Overload

• Can you have too much information?



• Can you be “Too Busy to Notice You’re Too Busy”?

Alex Eben Meyer

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/31/business/31shortcuts.html?_r=1&oref=slogin



• Google – type in “Information Overload” • You get 3,630,000 hits. Last semester at this point

in the semester there were 1,900,000 hits.

• An entire series of photos and cartoons are available to browse

• Research papers have been published from all over the world.

• There was more information, on information overload than I could actually manage



Is this the image of an Information Junkie?http://www.mathewingram.com/work/tag/cool/page/2/



http://www.usg.edu/galileo/skills/unit08/credit08_01.phtml





Know what you knowAre you suffering from information overload? We develop technologies that enable access to your hidden

knowledge and help you manage your data efficiently. http://www.kno10.com



http://pro.corbis.com/search/Enlargement.aspx?CID=isg&mediauid=DA083866-353A-4525-B3C2-9B86BE395F79



• Issue is mainstream when articles appear in• New York Times• Readers Digest

• Books about it available on Amazon• The Overflowing Brain: Information Overload and the

Limits of Working Memory (2008)• Bit Literacy: Productivity in the Age of Information and

E-mail Overload (2007)• Surviving Information Overload: The Clear, Practical

Guide to Help You Stay on Top of What You Need to Know (2004)

http://www.amazon.com/Surviving-Information-Overload-ClearPractical/dp/031025115X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237997588&sr=8-2



Look at this quote:“Fighting data asphyxiation is difficult but possible” “Data is like food. A good meal is served in reasonably-

sized portions from several food groups. It leaves you satisfied but not stuffed. Likewise with information, we're best served when we can partake of reasonable, useful portions, exercising discretion in what data we digest and how often we seek it out.

Unfortunately, we often do the opposite, ingesting information constantly to the point of choking on it. The risk of information asphyxiation touches all of us -- managers, Web surfers, even lazy couch tubers.” William Van Winkle

http://www.gdrc.org/icts/i-overload/infoload.html

Beyond Email – Information OverloadLook at this quote:“Of all the tools we use in the modern office, few are the

double-edged sword that e-mail has become. Once a method for quick and easy communication, e-mail has evolved into a time-consuming—but necessary—evil in today's workplace. In fact, the average user spends over 30% of his day creating, organizing, reading and responding to e-mail.

But it's not just overflowing inboxes that vex today's knowledge worker. Blogs and RSS feeds keep you constantly connected to the world at large. Social groups such as Facebook and LinkedIn keep you continually networking. Then there's the actual work you have to do. In fact, on average, you start doing something new every three minutes.

This is more than a busy day. This is information overload.”

http://www.ibm.com/ibm/ideasfromibm/us/email/20081020/index.shtml


• Can there be too much information?• Can there be too many books in a library?• Too many movies?• Too many music CDs?• Too many papers to read?• Too many web sites to visit?• Too many videos?


Beyond Email – Information OverloadCan there be too much information?• “The Internet, as we know it, removed previous barriers to

publication: the money required to buy a printing press or a transmitter or…”

• Before the Internet, “information” was limited but an unintended consequence was that the amount of information was also manageable.

• “The amount of stuff on the Internet is of a magnitude larger than any previous collection of any sort.”

• “We’re reaching the point where it’s too large to be effectively, searched, filed, indexed, briefed, organized, or numbered.

• But we still try.”Kantor, Andrew, http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/andrewkantor/2007-06-14-internet-

organization_N.htm


Beyond Email – Information Overload Can there be too much information?

• “Search tools dispense with categories and let users define their needs ad hoc.”

• Everything's in a pool• Keywords narrow it down.

• Search tools have become less useful over the last few years

• “too much stuff to search”• Without very, very careful categories a search results in

hundreds of thousands of hits.• New and better ways of searching the Web are needed.

− Lots of ideas to make the searching more manageable− More specialized searching

– Tools like Wikipedia and it’s sister sites


Beyond Email – Information OverloadCan we handle all our information Toys?

• First there was Email• Then there was Email with SPAM• Then there was Email with filters that filter some SPAM

and well..

• Then there was the Web• Can we get through a day without checking key web sites

• Class sites• News sites• Business sites• Political sites• Games sites• Music sites• Wikipedia



• Enter My/Our World!• Check Email (on multiple accounts)• Check regular web sites• Check Email• Then my Palm (personal digital assistant –Ugh!) reminds

me of a meeting or a class• Attend meeting or class• Then I get a text message, or a phone call or both• Then of course there is my Email• Then someone comes to my office• Then of course there is my Email• And somewhere in between, I try to get some work done.

• And the pattern repeats all day long


Beyond Email – Information OverloadCan we handle all our information Toys?

• Workers in the “Information Age, need to develop skills for managing information overload.”

• This overload is caused by the “rapid rate of growth in the amount of information available”

• While days remain 24 hours long • And our brains remain roughly the same as they

were in caveman days.

Krill, Pau, http://www.infoworld.com/articles/ca/xml/00/01/10/000110caoverload.html



• Do we really need all these Toys?• Do we need to be connected 24/7?• Has all this information made us better – somehow?• How much information is enough? You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ia5FxoeFJWI

http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/ipod-shuffle-video(iPod Shuffle. )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yhZaJnqdRY (information overload) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv99WA0xyNk (Ted Koppel on

Info. Overload)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INFe-YkHjbw (Info. Overload Ex.)



Headlines like these should scare us into thinking hard about Information Overload:

• Reuters Study Reveals Growing Danger Of Information Addiction Worldwide And A New Generation Of Dataholics (1997)

• Information could become the ‘drug of the nineties’http://www.netaddiction.com/bio/reuters.htm

• Information Overload: Is There a Cure? (2008)• Between meetings, mobile phones, e-mail and IM, we're failing

victim to the stresses of daily business. Interruptions are here to stay.

http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3737601

• Is Information Overload a $650 Billion Drag on the Economy? (2007)

• an estimate of the “cost of unnecessary interruptions” http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/20/is-information-overload-a-650-billion-drag-on-the-economy/



• Technology isn’t the solution to everything?• We need to set limits and boundaries.• “Key to information management is focusing on the

quality of the data your receive.”• Recognizing quality is hard• Who do you believe?

• Alan Lightman, an MIT humanities professor and physics lecturer said,

“ I think that the high-speed information technologies, while very useful in many ways, have robbed us of our necessary silences of time to reflect on values on who we are and where we’re going.”



Beyond Email – Information OverloadWays to beat back the overloadDo

• Develop an information management plan that works for you.• Filter information.• Recognize that you cannot possible look at all relevant data before

you make a decision.• Attempt to recognize quality data.• Take control.• Create “down” time

Don't• Let information take control of you by working 60 to 70 hours per

week.• Take cell phones or computers on vacations.• Attempt to examine every piece of data available.• Focus on things beyond your control, such as the idea that every

minute there is more and more information out there…..



Beyond Email

Organizing Information might be a way past Information Overload!

WikisBlogs


Beyond Email – Collaboration Wikis

So what’s a Wiki? http://en.wikipedia.org

Great Idea: • “A wiki is software that allows registered users or anyone

to collaboratively create, edit, link, and organize the content of a website, usually for reference material. “

• Wikis are collaborative websites and are often used as a way to keep data on community websites up-to-date.• Wikipedia is the best known wiki. • Wikis are used by businesses on intranets as a way of

managing information (reducing information overload). • Ward Cunningham developed the first wiki originally

described it as “the simplest online database that would possibly work.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki


Beyond Email – Collaboration Wikis

• Wikis are for collaborative writing• Groups of individuals, anywhere, working together in a

written, web format• Website is hosted making it available to users• Can be a collection of connected sites, and hyperlinked

documents• “A wiki is essentially a database for creating, browsing

and searching through information.” (Leuf, Bo. & Cunningham, Ward, The Wiki Way: Quick Collaboration on the Web., 2001)

• Easy to create, easy to edit, easy to update• NOT reviewed by anyone other than the users• Kids in High School and Middle School create group

projects using wikis• It is an easy way to comment on and enhance each others

work


Beyond Email – Collaboration Wikis• Public Wikis

• Public group forums for sharing information• Usually require user accounts and special logins so

everyone in the wikis’ community knows who is changing the material

• Edits are in real-time and instantly appear on the web making it possible for unhappy users to abuse the wiki.

• Some public wikis (ex: wikipedia) have a site moderator who can lock down abused sites.

• Private Wikis• Often require user authentication to edit and change pages• Can be hosted on systems not directly on the Internet but

only on a local Intranet• Check out: http://www.wikispaces.com/


Beyond Email -- Blogs

Great Idea:• A blog (an abridgment of the term web log) is

a website, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. • Entries are commonly displayed in reverse

chronological order. • "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to

maintain or add content to a blog • A software environment that runs as a web page

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog



• Blogs are online diaries• Can provide news and commentary on events• Often include text, pictures and sometimes video• Readers can comment on what the blogger reports• Unlike a wiki, readers cannot change the bloggers

content



• Blogs come in all shapes and sizes and cover all topics• NY Times, and other media outlets, has blogs where the

newspaper can report and receive comments from readers• http://www.nytimes.com/ref/topnews/blog-index.html

• Personal Blogs• Corporations have blogs to increase communication and

disseminate information• By “readership”: education blogs, political blogs, travel

blogs, movie blogs, fashion blogs, you name it there’s a blog for it.

• Dilbert Bolg http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/• The Facebook Blog http://blog.facebook.com/





• There are free blogger sites: https://www.blogger.com/start• How do we know our content is secure?• How do we know where to host a blog?

• Review of Blogging sites:− http://hosting-review.com/?

gclid=CLjmx8z34pICFQNEPAod4SWSdw

• Gaggle, Launches Safe Blogging site for Schools and Students. http://www.cheaphostingdirectory.com/news-blog-website-gaggle-launches-safe-blogging-site-for-schools-and-students-1926.html


Beyond Email

• Information Overload is a part of our lives• Whether we embrace it or not, it is here to stay• There is some value in being disconnected for some

period of time, each day, each week, each….

• Wikis and Blogs • Help us organize our information• But what we say and how we say it can then become

who we are forever, and for every one.

• Data can haunt us or help us or both• Finding Balance is the critical question


Documents

Beyond Email Information Overload Blogs, Wikis Always Connected? Why? Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner