Sorting through the mess of information

Posted: August 2nd, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Social Media, Web 2.0 | Tags: , , | 3 Comments »

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3 Comments on “Sorting through the mess of information”

  1. 1 Andy Shaindlin said at 5:46 PM on August 2nd, 2009:

    As usual, Ron, good topic and good commentary. Thanks.

    I mentioned recently (in a blog post that was part of all the noise you and the Times author are pondering) Clay Shirky’s take on this problem. Instead of “sorting” he talks about “filtering.” I thought of this the other day while taking in the snail mail at my house. About 80% of it can be junk mail, personalized or not, that I don’t open or even consider at all. It goes straight into the recycling. I don’t open each envelope and compare offers for products I don’t want, or services I won’t purchase. I just decide “this is junk!” and toss it, based on some unscientific but fairly accurate filtering algorithm that accounts for envelope size and shape, personalization, return address (or lack of one), bulk rate-ness, etc.

    We’re just at the very beginning of learning how to filter (sort?) the barrage that comes electronically, and yes it’s different – if only because even after self-selecting for friendness of the sender we are still inundated with crap. I love my very best real-life friends dearly, but I don’t ever want to know what pizza topping they are according to a Facebook quiz. The filters and sorting will improve over time. We’re just at the beginning.

  2. 2 Ron Bronson said at 9:05 PM on August 2nd, 2009:

    Thanks for the comments, Andy. It might be time for me to reread my copy of “Here Comes Everybody.” I appreciated what he was saying, loaned it to a friend just as I finished it and I think I need another dose of it.

  3. 3 Michael Stoner said at 6:21 AM on August 3rd, 2009:

    Great post, Ron. I had a conversation with someone about this last week, complaining about how poor our filtering tools are for the mass of information to which we’re exposed. And even as tools get better, getting them to the point where they are good enough for me is going to be very difficult.

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