Information Overload or Filter Problems?
While I was in New York at the Web 2.0 Expo, I ended up taking several walking trips through Times Square, something I never really did even when I lived in the city. The amusing thing about Times Square is how we simply accept it, but it's also a metaphor for the information overload that many people point to when talking about Web 2.0.
Each time I talk about Google Reader, RSS feeds, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, the mobile Web or anything else coming down the pike, someone shakes their head and says "too much information."
Just look around Times Square, there is simply too much information coming at us. Signs blink, move, talk and do everything but physically grab and shake us (though I'm sure that's coming next). Yet, we have a natural filter where we can quickly get used to this sensory input. We block stuff out, take in what we need and just walk onto the next block.
Yet, even with the multi-million dollar ads shining down from above, commerce still happens with cold-hard cash on the street. There, below the constantly flowing newsfeed from ABC News and the right-wing talk show hosts from Fox News and the Broadway show ads are simple newsstands selling papers, magazines and candy.
In his keynote today author Clay Shirky talked about the fact that we aren't experiencing information overload, but the failure of our filters. In fact, he goes back to the invention of moveable type and points out that by the year 1500 more books were printed than any literate human could read in a lifetime.
That was information overload. But what happened was that filters developed. Publishers started filtering what could be printed for "quality" and people learned to pick and choose what to read.
The same process has happened all through the information age. The problem today is that the old filters don't work in the new environment, so we need to develop new ones. That's coming.
In my opinion what's happening is a shift from someone else deciding what's important to putting the power in our hands to decide for ourselves. I'll write more on this later.
While at the show I met a guy from a company that turns Web content into audio content. One of his customers, the International Herald Tribune, takes things one step further, letting people run searches on different keywords or topics, then creating a customized podcast that can be automatically downloaded every morning. So, in a sense, rather than picking up the paper or even loading it in a browser, you, as the user, receive the information you want in your iPod, then listen to it on your way to work.
That's just one example of the filter and while it's great for conquering information overload, it makes our job as PR people that much more difficult. It eliminates the "discovery" of finding a story in the paper that you didn't expect but still like. That means people need to be looking for what we're selling, not just finding it in order to get our stories.
But these filters aren't just technological, they're human. A person who you follow on Twitter may lead you to great content. A blogger may say something you agree with, you may follow a specific reviewer for good movies or meals. They're all examples of filters and we'll all learn how to use them.
Tags: times square, web 2.0, Web 2.0 expo
Posted by Chuck Tanowitz on September 26, 2008 at 1:35 PM
