Raising the Problem's Profile

Feature: Staying Afloat in a Digital Flood

Raising the Problem’s Profile
The newly formed Information Overload Research Group will promote research studies and delve into solutions for information overload, including technology tools and training strategies.

n June, a coalition of academics, large companies and tech-related vendors formally launched a nonprofit organization in an effort to elevate information overload from water-cooler griping to more research-driven solutions.

    The group, the Information Overload Research Group, will promote research studies and delve into solutions, including technology tools and training strategies. The newly launched Web site lists roughly two dozen participants, including Google, Intel, Microsoft and Morgan Stanley. An inaugural conference will be held July 15 at the Penn Club in New York.

    Many of the players first gathered in early 2007 at Microsoft in Redmond, Washington, where they held a two-day conference to discuss the scope of the information overload problem. The group’s site already provides numerous links to research studies. A tips archive, members’ blogs and other resources will be added.

    "Ideally we would like to influence policy and the behavior of companies," says Nathan Zeldes, a longtime advocate for information overload solutions and president of the newly formed group. "I have a passion about this subject because it’s destroying people’s lives all over the world."

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