This sounds like an April Fools’ joke to me.
Information overload is fracturing attention spans and hurting productivity. But now the very companies that helped create the flood (including Microsoft, Intel, Google and IBM), have founded the IO Research Group to fight the deluge.
But that’s what it says in the IHT and on the IORG’s homepage.
Weird.
Personally, I can still deal with email, chat, mobile or texts. Yet no doubt I suffer from IO as well. My unread feed count of 4,722 is a testament to that. Glad Twitter doesn’t keep track of missed tweets. And don’t mention Friendfeed, which I still can’t get into.
My to-do list is daunting — both at work and privately. The number of photos not yet uploaded has escaped me. And then there’s the things I have to read, write, send, file, look at, comment on, share, store, bookmark, clean up, dismiss, show, sort, update, build, refresh, transfer, remember, look up, prepare, alter, get rid of, call about, investigate, try, enjoy, make, break, like, dislike, or forget.
Hard.
Perhaps this IORG’s not such a joke after all. Let them come and clean me up and out. Gimme peace. Shut me down and lay me to rest, because boy that buzz can be annoying sometimes.
(via Experientia)
Tags: friendfeed, google, IBM, information, IO, IORG, microsoft, overload, research, twitter
17 June 2008 at 10:39 am
For me the only problem when it comes to IO is my RSS reader. I subscribe to any blog/site that I’m even remotely interested in. And that’s a problem. I can handle everything else (I closed my FF account and rarely visit Twitter). Now what I do with sites that I like to read but those that publish too often (including news site) is bookmark them. So that way the number of unread items stays low and I don’t feel pressured. I go visit the site when I feel like it.
17 June 2008 at 10:39 am
Spelling and grammar mistakes. Sorry. :(
17 June 2008 at 10:46 am
Ah, yeah, I’m the same. I tend to subscribe like a madman, often to my own detriment.
Your idea isn’t so bad though. I’ve never felt comfortable subscribing to rapidly and massively updating sites like Techmeme, but others have outgrown whatever chances I have for keeping up as well. Even things like Chawlk have become too prolific.
Maybe I’ll try and go back to bookmarking locally for these too (as I do with classic news sites like the Beeb). The only disadvantage I can see is that this overrides the ease-of-use of a feed reader and throws you back to locally stored profiles and data. Hello 1998!
18 June 2008 at 11:46 pm
Same. Just clearing my 750 unread feeds, I reply to Tweets when I’m on Twitter and I’m not a big FF fan.
19 June 2008 at 9:59 am
Yeah, FF is hard somehow to get into. Not sure what it is. Their design remains ugly and unappealing, maybe that’s it. And the noise is overwhelming of course…
Have you tried setting up Twhirl for FF? I now have the two running side by side (a Twhirl window for each, T and FF) and I tend to look at FF more now. Twitter still gets precedence though.
Thanks for engaging in the conv Joe!
20 June 2008 at 4:49 am
You and I, Nils, are having the same info overload. I must say though that I have no feed. When I need a Nils fix, I know where to find you. (And I hope you’re well, by the way.) xo, L
20 June 2008 at 7:58 am
I love that the IO people are having a conference- a forum to discuss IO. Yes, you may be suffering from information overload, but just squeeze this one more teensy thing into your schedule and it will be all better. Only $150!
20 June 2008 at 8:29 am
@Bloglily Thanks L for those kind words. I don’t want to add to your IO, but the feed’s always here. But I’m perfectly happy to have you drop in as you please. It’s an honour.
20 June 2008 at 8:34 am
@JoeD LOL as always. You should do more jokes, or comics… oh, wait…
;)
Take care!