Information Overload the problem for 2008
The research firm Basex Inc has named “Information Overload “as the problem of the year for 2008 [Source].
According to Basex chief analyst Jonathan Spira:
Information overload isn’t exactly new, but Spira said the problem has grown as technology increases societal expectations for instantaneous response. And more information available, he said, also means more time wasted looking for the right information, whether in an old e-mail or through a search engine.[Source]
Spira further said that:
Workers get disoriented every time they stop what they are doing to reply to an e-mail or answer a follow-up phone call because they didn’t reply within minutes. Spira said workers can spend 10 to 20 times the length of the original interruption trying to get back on track. [Souce]
Interesting. The article further said that these disruptions cost the US economy around $650 billion in 2006.
I’ve been looking into the problem of information overload for a while as I manage a team that is spread across three continents and we are definitely overwhelmed.
I recently purchased Basex’ report (We Have Met the Enemy…) on Information Overload and foundit to be quite helpful. I also took their survey (http://www.basex.com/2008poty) as I figured that if we all contribute more information about how we work, someone (basex?) will figure out how to deal with information overload better.