Comments on: Information Overload – It Isn’t Just Too Much E-mail

By: Manu

Manu — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 13:11:53 +0000

Taroby is a great tool to be mentioned in this context. It handles e-mail in such a way that
a)we can delegate the work to the team by assigning the email to the team member. It is far better than the conventional way of forwarding e-mail.
b)we can collaborate using comments, which reduces the e-mail round trip
c)we can view the history of actions done on any e-mail
d)the filter is so effective that io is reduced by 75%

By: KG Tiger - Overcome Information Overload « The Strategic TAO

KG Tiger - Overcome Information Overload « The Strategic TAO — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:25:00 +0000

[...] [Thanks, Jonathan Spira] [...]

By: KG Tiger - Multitasking Hurts Corporate Recruiters, Too « The Strategic TAO

KG Tiger - Multitasking Hurts Corporate Recruiters, Too « The Strategic TAO — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:53:31 +0000

[...] the workplace, the costs are financial – and they are real. Jonathan Spira, CEO and Chief Analyst at Basex, writes that “knowledge workers lost as much as a quarter of the workday due to interruptions and [...]

By: Combat Information Overload! « Rovers Bay

Combat Information Overload! « Rovers Bay — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:49:06 +0000

[...] Information Overload: It isn’t just too much e-mail (http://www.basexblog.com/2009/08/20/io-it-isnt-just-too-much-e-mail/) [...]

By: Glenn

Glenn — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:47:25 +0000

IO isn’t so much a consequence of too much information but rather poorly organized information. In other words, too much information at any single point in time. One fundamental rule to good organization is to group related things together. I like to cook. In my house, the pot and it’s top go together because whenever I need to use, I also need to use the other.

That is why email is a poor repository for information. Emails are grouped by date, sender, or subject. I want to see the messages that discuss a particular document, deliverable, or artifact. To me, that is a much more relevant grouping.

See http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/future-of-work/5-reasons-why-you-should-stop-using-email-to-collaborate-34094 for more reasons why email isn’t a good format for enterprise collaboration.

By: A Day Without E-mail » Basex Blog »

A Day Without E-mail » Basex Blog » — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 20:49:25 +0000

[...] is far more complex than too much e-mail. It’s too much content, poor search tools, the list goes on and [...]

By: Sarah Johnston

Sarah Johnston — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 22:00:53 +0000

Very interesting and astute post.

Note that the first two comments here are not new information or even comment; rather, they are prods and pointers, which in themselves are useful, but which add to the burgeoning mass.

Organizations can relieve I O by using librarians and indepenent researchers to handle in-depth or specialized research. We have the tools and the skills to get past the IO and noise to find information of value and present it concisely and efficiently.

By: Bill Kirwin

Bill Kirwin — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:47:12 +0000

Spot on. I O is like autism, which is typically a constellation of disorders, some of which are dominant, some less so, but all contributing to the manifestation of the disability. I submit that, today email is the dominant disorder in I O and needs to be given special attention. It is mis-categorized as a new technology tool. Email is a mature platform that is often misused to compensate for the lack of other collaborative knowledge work technologies. It is a proxy for social networking and even content search (how often have you emailed a colleague to have them send you a document that you cannot find?) Email is the primary source of interruptions for those that have not turned off the Pavlovian new message chime.
Just as Sirius is the brightest star in Canis Major (the Great Dog),email is the brightest star in the constellation of disorders that contribute to I O. It’s a “Sirius” problem and deserves a category of its own.

By: Slife Labs Blog » Blog Archive » Notes from Information Overload Day

Slife Labs Blog » Blog Archive » Notes from Information Overload Day — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:34:04 +0000

[...] posts, comments and highlights from the event are now available. This post and this other post summarize the day in a few paragraphs. Here are some key [...]

By: ResourceShelf » Blog Archive » Information Overload – It Isn’t Just Too Much E-mail

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 21:08:00 +0000

[...] From the Blog Post by Basex Analyst Jonathan B. Spira: One might assume that pinpointing the sources of Information Overload is relatively black and white, i.e. it’s just too much e-mail. In reality, nothing could be farther from the truth. [...]