UC Berkeley on Information Overload

Certainly one indicator of information overload is that this item has been sitting in my “blog this” queue since October. Nonetheless, it remains an important set of insights about the data and information that is being created on a daily basis. It is an excellent update, by
the folks at the School of Information Management and Systems at the University of California at Berkeley, of a study they first did in 1999.

In the early days of my career, we thought the problem was to capture and record the information managers needed to make effective business decisions. We’ve more than solved the capture and recording side of the problem; what we’re now working out is how to solve the problem created by that “solution.”

Information Overload.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed by information? This site will open your eyes.

Alan Kucheck (a Borland VP)
tipped me off to this research. Perhaps this explains why he doesn’t have is own
Weblog. 😉

If you created 800 MBytes of new information last year, congratulations: You’re as prolific as the average person on the planet.

That’s a big number, but it will likely grow faster than we can imagine. This is the
“information tsunami” that we refer to from time-to-time. Although MyST and MySmartChannels are far from the solution to this rapid per-capita growth of content, they do represent useful tools for chipping away at many of the information problems that are best addressed by lose-coupling applications.

See Also

[Into the MyST]

Snowden’s rules for knowledge exchange

I don’t know how I’ve missed Snowden’s rules for knowledge exchange. Now, I can find them here.. Thank you Judith.

knowledge conversion as a social process….

Today I was reading an article in EContentMag.com titled–Knowledge Management Involves neither Knowledge nor Management–by Martin White.

Among other things, Martin writes about Dave Snowden‘s three rules for knowledge exchange:

“Knowledge can only be volunteered; it can’t be conscripted.”
“People always know more than they can tell, and can tell more than they can write.”
“People only know what they need to know when they need to know it.”

[judith meskill’s knowledge notes…]

Forbidden United Church of Christ ad

Finally got a chance to look at this one from two weeks ago. Worth thinking about on multiple levels, not just on the question of why this should somehow not be fit to televize. A very good friend of mine from b-school days is very involved with UCC. I think I need to follow up
with her to get some more of the story.

The forbidden United Church of Christ ad.. Here is the television ad the networks refuse to play.
It is more than worth 30 seconds of your time. It’s message: No matter who you are, you are welcome here, at the UNITED Church of Christ.

And oh, uh, what you will see at the web site is a very powerful demonstration of how the Internet can be an alternative way to get a message out..

After all, this ad is near the top on Daypop..and I’m hoping it rises..
[Jim Moore’s cybernetics, politics, emergence, etc.]

RealClimate blog takes a look at Michael Crichton’s confusion

RealClimate is a new multi-author blog that identifies itself as a

commentary site on climate science by working climate scientists for the interested public and journalists. We aim to provide a quick response to developing stories and provide the context sometimes missing in mainstream commentary. The discussion here is restricted to scientific topics and will not get involved in any political or economic implications of the science.

I found it courtesy of a pointer in the Technology Review blog. Most of their early postings interpret the science and help make it accessible to the interested lay person. But, they’re also willing to take a look at how popular culture looks at climate science:

Michael Crichton s State of Confusion.
In a departure from normal practice on this site, this post is a commentary on a piece of out-and-out fiction (unlike most of the other posts which deal with a more subtle kind). Michael Crichton’s new novel “State of Fear” is about a self-important NGO hyping the science of …
[RealClimate]

Google’s University library project

Now this sounds fascinating. Both in its own right and it what it may portend for how the relationship between learning and institutions is likely to evolve. One more example
of the resources becoming available to anyone who has the motivation to learn. One thing that suggests to me is a potential role for guides to help others who want to navigate what will be a fairly messy and complex environment over the near term.

Battelle’s scoop on Google’s University library project. Mark Frauenfelder:
John Battelle has the scoop on Google’s “Project Ocean.” From an email he received: “Harvard University is embarking on a collaboration with Google that could harness Google’s search technology to provide to both the Harvard community and the larger public a revolutionary new information location tool to find materials available in libraries. In the coming months, Google will collaborate with Harvard’s libraries on a pilot project to digitize a substantial number of the 15 million volumes held in the University’s extensive library system. Google will provide online access to the full text of those works that are in
the public domain. In related agreements, Google will launch similar projects with Oxford, Stanford, the University of Michigan, and the New York Public Library.”

Link

[Boing Boing]

UPDATE: Edward Vielmetti offers some more information on Michigan’s participation in this project

Cussler’s Black Wind – 50 Book Challenge


Black Wind
Cussler, Clive

If you are a Dirk Pitt fan (I am), this newest book in the line is a pleasure and a reassurance. Classic Cussler with all sorts of bad guys and good guys (of both sexes). Dirk has moved up to management and his son and daughter are taking on the reins of most of the action. Moreover, Cussler is passing the baton to his own son Dirk in this outing which they co-authored. This looks like it’s going to be one of those attempted franchise-extenders that’s going to work. I’m looking forward to the next installment.

Lakoff’s Don’t Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate–The Essential Guide for Progressives – 50 Book Challenge


Don’t Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate–The Essential Guide for Progressives
Lakoff, George

This slim book was Lakoff’s effort to demonstrate the importance (and ultimate success) of efforts by “conservatives” to frame important policy debates in language and thought favorable to their goals. Lakoff’s point essentially is that the “facts” never speak for themselves, but depend on how they are framed and positioned. Frames tend to be set up in a “have you stopped beating your wife” kind of way so that however you respond to questions you reinforce the underlying frame. For example, if you let the argument over taxation get framed rhetorically as “tax relief,” then no matter how you argue your case you are endorsing the notion that taxation in and of itself is bad.

A series of essays on particular topics such as taxes or family values, the book suffers from a good deal of repetition across chapters. Moreover, this is a more polemical book than Lakoff typically writes. Understandable given its topic and timing, but I found it wearing after a while despite agreeing with Lakoff’s arguments and analysis. I’ve certainly bought into some of the frames that Lakoff identifies a lot more uncritically than I care to acknowledge.