News item describes a boundary-breaking collaboration, funded at $1M for 4 years by the National Science Foundation, between Boston University researchers from diverse departments. The collaboration will look at advanced technology to get a handle on media overload.

Quote: While there are a handful of very good digital reading tools (Pocket, Flipboard, Kindle), the next wave of products will be built to deliver a better news consumption experiences.

Rob Cross offers a good description of collaborative overload (ref link included) and a diagnostic test.

During the 1990’s, organizations shifted from a functional-centric structure to a business process-centric structure. After completing difficult change management actions, benefits were harvested, e.g., reduced cycle time, decreased rework and improved customer satisfaction. Information overload can occur from individual actions during and outside of work as well as team activities. The cited references describe some root causes of collaboration overload and suggests remedies. The benefits from a business process-centric structure can be reduced by collaboration overload. It’s worth reading these materials to achieve your expectations from collaboration benefits. Marty B #IORGforum

Humans are too intelligent and adaptive. That’s the problem we’re tackling.

Swingnow Project is quiet, subtle, and disruptive.

Sending an email or text to the wrong person is embarrassing! Moreover, it can be a personal and, in some cases, a professional nightmare. You certainly do not want your boss reading an argument with your spouse or a friend reading something negative you said about her! Unfortunately, these types of messaging mishaps happen all too often. (more…)

A short discussion about ways to find a balance with our information consumption in order to maximize our creativity and productivity.

Information overload is always a symptom of publishing system failures and it’s nothing new. Rapid advances in paper publishing technology in the 19th century created a huge information overload challenge that was met by the invention of the modern library catalog. Today we face a daunting practical information overload challenge resulting from rapid advances in Internet publishing technology, this is a challenge that results from many remaining technological limitations of today’s rudimentary Internet publishing architecture, it’s a challenge that can only be overcome by developing a new scalable architecture that will serve for many decades to come, and it must be an architecture based on best-practice publishing technology.

The email alert is a trigger to information overload. Mastering email can unload email overload and save thousands of hours of precious time. The MasteringEmail ™ methodology, published in Unload Email Overload, provides the principles, method and details necessary to mitigate information overload–and get home in time for dinner. (more…)

Emphasizing the role of engineers and technical communicators, the book discusses the root causes and costs of information overload within organizations and introduces strategies and proven techniques for reducing information overload and minimizing its negative impact. It offers a theoretical framework and ideas for future research, and features special chapter ‘insight boxes’ that recount different approaches to problems from various multinational corporations.

Think you’re a good multitasker? Know someone who thinks they are? Here’s your chance to put your skills to this test! In this video, Dave Crenshaw walks you through the multitasking exercise he shares in his live keynote speeches and workshops.