Marc Eisenstadt talks about the information overload that faces the average consumer of information who uses browsers, RSS feed readers, and similar tools to stay informed these days.
The RSS feed aggregator (a tool that lets you scan dozens or hundreds of blogs and other information sources with one common interface) is an obvious time saver, but it still leaves you deluged with information of all kinds from diverse sources.
If I were in the business of designing an RSS aggregator, I would be looking into second generation design (or maybe I missed it and we're already into the second generation).
The features of this new version of aggregator would help me as a reader of information sort through the feeds I subscribe to and provide me with even more options for highlighting the topics that are closest to my interests.
If journalism is my first priority and film is my second, then my aggregator would somehow indicate which of the many feeds I subscribe to have new items about those two topics. And I would have the option of adjusting the viewing order to move my priority items to the top of that feed.
Obviously such a tool would need some way for the user to adjust the feed reader when a tag like "media" is used to describe art techniques, or computer storage devices instead of journalism-related items. Such adjustments could operate like spam filtering software that needs to be trained to recognize e-mail sources that are trusted.
In the long run, it's all about making the search for relevant content easier. Today's tools go partway, but what i need is something that combines the subscription function of current RSS aggregators with the tagging ability of Technorati, and maybe some other user-friendly sorting tools.
Until then, I'll continue to wade through hundreds of postings a day, watching for news and insights that match my interests.
Bill Holsinger-Robinson has similar thoughts about the need for something that makes information easier to sort and absorb:
Smarter systems (i.e. those that account for context and intent) will allow us to create knowledge from all of this data/information we swim in. The question is, "How do you do that?" And ultimately the answer may come back as less about technology and more about people.
Comments