cni-directories: Re: Information overload
Re: Information overload
Mr. Chuck Blunt (BLUNTCR@SNYCENVM.BITNET)
Thu, 30 Jan 1992 07:21:07 EST
Date: Thu, 30 Jan 1992 07:21:07 EST
From: "Mr. Chuck Blunt" <BLUNTCR@SNYCENVM.BITNET>
Subject: Re: Information overload
In-Reply-To: Message of Fri, 24 Jan 1992 12:18:12 CST from <MEDS002@UABDPO>
A.J. Wright make a good point that "Information Overload" is not a new idea or
concern. There are, however, some differences today that may make a real
difference on how information systems and communication channels are developed
and deployed to be effective. I have heard that the great majority of ALL PhDs
who have ever lived, are alive today and publishing...the geometric growth in
the output of higher education has been phenominal. Additionally, this is not
the only group that now contributes to the growth in the world's scholarly
information. This, combined with the "paradigm shift" identified in the
"Information Age", contributes to an acceleration in the rate that materials
are "published", reproduced (sometimes re-published?), communicated, etc.
Since we see no real increase in the human capacity for handling this expanding
volume of data, unless tools are developed to augment the individual's ability
to manage data/information, we generally cope by ignoring all that we can't
handle. This may well lead to us running an increasing risk of overlooking
relevant materials while wasting further time sifting through increasing
volumes of less useful stuff. I also believe that in many fields, the
"half-live" of information (in the global, increasingly competitive market for
good ideas) is changing. We need to not only create aids to finding relevent
information, this must also be accomlished within new metrics of time and costs
I suspect that each major milestone in our development (creation of a written
language; invention of movable type, electroninc communications and computers)
opens a few more opportunities and challenges than were apparent before. I
think that the distance between "milestones" is shrinking and that, while the
challenge of "information overload" is not new, it is now profoundly different.
Chuck Blunt
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