KnowledgeForward

Information Overload in Two Acts

I’d like to draw your attention to two attention management-related posts I put up on the Gartner Blogging Network:

First is Please Stop Blaming Everything on Information Overload.  It describes how I’m getting tired of the word “overload” being applied to everything in IT, such as this example from Thomas Claburn in the InformationWeek Google blog: “Expect to see more App Stores because aggregation is a necessary defense against information overload.”  I try to assist organizations address attention management, and “information overload” abuse does not help.

Second is EAM Meets Social Software.  Information overload coverage is predominantly about e-mail. That’s understandable – it’s where the message pipe into information workers’ brains tends to be at fire hose levels, threatening to fill their heads like balloons. But I’ve started to get questions on how social software will add to the overload and gave my thoughts and some ways to mitigate the risks in the posting.