Archive for the ‘Information Overload’ Category

Laura Carscaddon & Colleen S. Harris write for Library Journal about Working the Social: Twitter and FriendFeed: Let these social networking services do the filtering for you.

“Information overload is so five years ago, but the problem it describes is all too real. Fortunately, there’s hope yet for the savvy librarian: Twitter and FriendFeed turn information dissemination on its head, using friends and subscribers as a filter for the best, most credible, and most engaging information out there. As Clay Shirky said at the Web 2.0 Expo keynote in January, the problem isn’t “information overload. It’s filter failure.””

If you’re having difficulty keeping track of all your social media profiles, you may want to check out Web Worker Daily’s recent post about Options for Managing Many Online Identities. Charles Hamilton recommends several helpful aggregators such as DandyID which is a simple service that will let you specify your online identity for over 330 social networks. See the full article for more.

Josh Catone at Mashable puts together a guide to 10 Twitter Tools to Organize Your Tweeps. This quick list includes annotated resources which will help you:

• Find Out Who You’re Following
• Find Your Friends
• Get Rid of Inactives
• Manage it All

New York Magazine discusses the problem of attention in Sam Anderson’s In Defense of Distraction. The article discusses information overload, the limitations of attention, modern multi-tasking, and the advantages of a “new techno-cognitive nomadism”.

“As we become more skilled at the 21st-century task Meyer calls “flitting,” the wiring of the brain will inevitably change to deal more efficiently with more information. The neuroscientist Gary Small speculates that the human brain might be changing faster today than it has since the prehistoric discovery of tools. Research suggests we’re already picking up new skills: better peripheral vision, the ability to sift information rapidly. We recently elected the first-ever BlackBerry president, able to flit between sixteen national crises while focusing at a world-class level. Kids growing up now might have an associative genius we don’t—a sense of the way ten projects all dovetail into something totally new. They might be able to engage in seeming contradictions: mindful web-surfing, mindful Twittering. Maybe, in flights of irresponsible responsibility, they’ll even manage to attain the paradoxical, Zenlike state of focused distraction.”

Ben Parr at Mashable outlines four useful steps to take to Get the Most Out of Gmail Labs, including taking advantage of new GMail features such as the ability to undo sent messages, insert images into emails, and enable location-based signatures. Additionally he offers a list of 10 Recommended Features some of which include:

• Create a Document: Turn any email into a Google doc with this useful little Gmail Labs feature.
• Tasks: Tasks takes your to-do list and makes it part of Gmail. Tasks makes it easy to add items to your to-do list, even allowing you to take emails and turn them into tasks.
• Multiple Inboxes: If you’re a Gmail power user, like most of us at Mashable, you have a lot of different mail sources and lots of labels. See more information at once by activating Multiple Inboxes. Note: this creates new inboxes for labels, not inboxes for secondary Gmail accounts.

Alexandra Levit writes about how to Use Technology To Spend Less Time Working for Forbes.com. This article, along with an accompanying slideshow titled Seven E-Ways To Save Time At Work discusses several methods to increase work-time productivity including:

• Video Calls
• Webinars
• Google Applications
• Networking Services

via Micro Persuasion

His Holiness The Dalai Lama joined the popular microblogging website Twitter yesterday and already has over 13,000 followers. In other social media news, the Vatican has created a YouTube channel, as has UK Parliament, (which is also blogging, on Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter), The US House of Representatives and Senate. Know of any other interesting personalities or organizations which have recently joined an online community? Please link to them in the comments!

Update: It has been reported that the Dalai Lama Twitter account was actually started by an impersonator - news which hit Twitter almost immediately after the account was suspended. Although the account has been restored, it no longer claims affiliation with The Office of the Dalai Lama.

Too much information and not enough filters? Check out Mashable’s latest article, Slow Feed Movement: 7 Tools to Filter the RSS Flood, which suggests choosing from seven tools to focus the flow of information. Two which caught my eye were the Best of Friendfeed feature and TweetDeck, an Adobe Air desktop application.

The New York Times looks at current news and media consumption habits in a time of burgeoning information outlets. In light of recent economic and politcal events, many people are finding that they are Overfeeding on Information.

“This explosion of information technology, when combined with an unusual confluence of dramatic — and ongoing — news events, has led many people to conclude that they have given their lives over to a news obsession. They find themselves taking breaks at work every 15 minutes to check the latest updates, and at the end of the day, taking laptops to bed. Then they pad through darkened homes in the predawn to check on the Asian markets.”

via Social Media

Author of Here Comes Everybody, Clay Shirky gave a much discussed keynote at yesterday’s Web 2.0 Expo in NYC titled It’s Not Information Overload. It’s Filter Failure. In his talk he posits that the problem is not the enormous amount of information which is now available, but that we don’t have proper filters for it. Here’s a link to his PowerPoint presentation and a video of his presentation. And here is more coverage of his keynote:

• Are you suffering from information filter failure? - ZDNet Between the Lines blog
• It’s Not Information Overload; It’s Filter Failure - Internet Evolution

If you missed the Web 2.0 Expo, you can find highlights, videos, and speaker presentation files here.

Sarah Houghton-Jan writes about managing too much information in Being Wired or Being Tired: 10 Ways to Cope with Information Overload published in the latest issue of Ariadne. This is one I’ll be adding to my Web 2.0 course reading lists as she explores the history and effects of info overload, the role of librarians, and gives ten practical techniques for effective management, which are divided into the following headings:

1. General Organisational Techniques
2. Filtering Information Received
3. RSS Overload Techniques
4. Interruptive Technology Overload Techniques
5. Phone Overload Techniques
6. Email Overload Techniques
7. Print Media Overload Techniques
8. Multimedia Overload Techniques
9. Social Network Overload Techniques
10. Time and Stress Management

via Tame the Web

Have you been spending more and more time “doing” and taking less time to just sit and contemplate? If your thinking time is in short supply, you may want to check out this article from BBC News Magazine which offers some helpful suggestions to effectively create some “oases of thought”:

• CHOOSE YOUR MOMENT: No more lunching “al desko”
• CHOOSE YOUR LOCATION: It doesn’t have to be atop a mountain
• HAVE YOUR PROPS TO HAND: Aristotle or Moyles?
• GIVE YOURSELF LESS TO THINK ABOUT: Your mobile has an “off” switch
• HAVE THE DESIRE TO THINK: You can get it if you really want

And if you think you just don’t have time for this, head over to Zen Habits and check out these helpful articles:

• Reclaim Your Time: 20 Great Ways to Find More Free Time
• How NOT to Multitask - Work Simpler and Saner