iorgforum.org Blog » research http://iorgforum.org/blog IORG members post on information overload topics Wed, 27 Jan 2010 03:38:35 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Calculating Information Overload – Find Out Your Organization’s Cost http://iorgforum.org/blog/2009/01/13/calculating-information-overload-find-out-your-organizations-cost/ http://iorgforum.org/blog/2009/01/13/calculating-information-overload-find-out-your-organizations-cost/#comments Tue, 13 Jan 2009 16:26:00 +0000 Jonathan Spira http://iorgforum.org/blog/2009/01/13/calculating-information-overload-find-out-your-organizations-cost/ A year ago, Basex announced that Information Overload would be the 2008 “Problem-of-the-Year.”  Now that we know that Information Overload costs the U.S. economy a minimum of $900 billion per year, it appears that it will be 2009’s problem as well.

Whether sitting at a desk in the office, in a conference room, in one’s home office, or at a client, the likelihood of being able to complete a task (what many call “work”) without interruption is nil.  Content creation has gone off the charts and new forms of content are being pushed towards us at an ever increasing pace.  It’s not just e-mail, junk mail, text messages, phone calls, and monthly reports anymore.

Information Overload causes markedly lower productivity, diminished comprehension levels, compromised concentration levels, and less innovation.  According to a recent Basex survey, it also causes health problems: 35% of knowledge workers experience work-related back and/or neck pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, eye strain, headaches, or stress related symptoms.

One reason the problem continues unchecked is that few people seem to recognize its cost to their organization.  Last month, to help companies understand the extent of their financial exposure, we released a free, Web-based Information Overload Calculator.  The calculator allows you to calculate the impact of the problem on your own organization.

So far,  thousands of people, in industries ranging from advertising to zoology, have calculated their exposure.  If you haven’t yet calculated your exposure, please fasten your seatbelt and do it now.  You’ll be glad you did.

Jonathan B. Spira is vice president of research at the Information Overload Research Group (IORG) and chief analyst at Basex.

]]> http://iorgforum.org/blog/2009/01/13/calculating-information-overload-find-out-your-organizations-cost/feed/ 3 Lots going on in the information overload world http://iorgforum.org/blog/2008/08/22/lots-going-on-in-the-information-overload-world/ http://iorgforum.org/blog/2008/08/22/lots-going-on-in-the-information-overload-world/#comments Fri, 22 Aug 2008 01:31:05 +0000 deva http://iorgforum.org/blog/2008/08/22/lots-going-on-in-the-information-overload-world/ IORG isn’t the only group of people interested in the problem of information overload.  Here’s a glimpse at some of the other stuff going on in the IO world.  On the academic side, a workshop on enhanced messaging was held at AAAI 2008 with a bunch of interesting presentations.  In the media, there have been a flurry of articles revolving around the problem of information overload that I’ve been informally collecting on this FriendFeed page (where anyone is welcome to submit links and comments).  We’re working on an updated and upgraded version of our IORG resource center to collect links to research papers, articles, and much more information around IO.  And the business world is starting to take notice as well, with industry conferences like Defrag springing up to address IO topics (full disclosure – I’m speaking at Defrag and know the organizers).  It’s great to see so much activity around this problem!

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