INFO 202 Fall 08 Blog

Here’s a video of a talk from the recent Web 2.0 Expo NY: Clay Shirky talks about how information overload has been an issue not just since the explosion of the web, but since the printing press. He says that we need to assume that the volume of information will always grow. Managing information at the source isn’t a feasible solution anymore, and we need to design new filters.

Unfortunately, he didn’t present ideas about what the new filtering tools might look or act like. Given the Weinberger-encouraged proliferation of metadata and the recording and saving of basically all electronic communication, how can we design systems that don’t bother us with information we think is unimportant? How can we teach computers which social information we want to see without detailing each type of information and from which sources?

Information overload warning: the video is slightly over 20 minutes.