cni-directories: RE: Information overload
RE: Information overload
Fred Ryan (fred_ryan@MSMAILGW.CSUCHICO.EDU)
Thu, 30 Jan 1992 13:47:34 U
Date: Thu, 30 Jan 1992 13:47:34 U
From: Fred Ryan <fred_ryan@MSMAILGW.CSUCHICO.EDU>
Subject: RE: Information overload
Some recent comment regarding "information overload" leads me to make 2
observations:
1) the fact that the ancients fretted about "information overload" is
interesting but not too persuasive. For millennia mankind has worried about
topics like energy use/conservation (even if that meant just keeping a few dry
logs accessible for a fire) or weapons use/abuse. Can anyone seriously question
whether the energy and weaponry problems today are both quantitatively and
qualitatively different from what they were thousands of years ago? The
"information overload" label may be the same, but the content of the issue is
vastly different.
2) <There is also an unpleasant comment about the user when we
<speak of "information overload" that seems to imply that the
<reader is incapable.
The stark fact is that the reader/viewer is indeed "incapable", and "design" is
not the culprit. The human capacity for information processing has not
increased greatly in the last 100 years, and the information available far
exceeds any human ability to scan, absorb or comprehend. Remember that the
original encyclopedias were in concept supposed to encapsulate the sum of
recorded knowledge--today a ludicrous idea. "Design" (organization of both the
production and presentation of information) could truly be improved
dramatically (and MUST be if the future nets are to function as we hope), but
the core problem of vast amounts of information to which "design" must apply
itself is all too real.
In friendship, not flameship
Fred Ryan
_______________________________________________________________________________
To: Fred Ryan; Deborah Hunt
From: Coalition for Networked Information Working Group on
Directories on Thu, Jan 30, 1992 9:09 AM
Subject: Re: Information overload
When we talk about "information overload", I fear that we use
the conditions of increased information creation, flow, and
availability as an excuse in the same way we hear our local
utilities explain away billing errors as "the computer made a
mistake".
I agree that we are faced with the awareness of the existence of
much greater quantities of information, and because we are aware
that this information exists, we want to do something with it.
Still, we seem to be denying our own responsibility to understand
and analyze where the problem really lies: the manner in which
we present information seems to be the real culprit.
Envisioning Information by Edward R. Tufte is a beautifully
designed presentation of information (it's a BOOK!), and it poses
some interesting thoughts:
"Confusion and clutter are failures of design, not attributes of
information. And so the point is to find design strategies that
reveal detail and complexity -- rather than to fault the data
for an excess of complication."
There is also an unpleasant comment about the user when we
speak of "information overload" that seems to imply that the
reader is incapable. Maybe its our design and presentation
that overloads and prevents the reader from using information
appropriately.
Thanks,
Greg Anderson
![[CNI Home Page]](/Images/home.gif)
|
