Information Overload: A System for Better Managing Everyday Data

PREFACE

This age is heralded as the information age. We live in a world more filled with information than any of our predecessors. We have to deal with huge amounts of information every day, information that affects our daily life and activities. Most people want to be "in the know." From early in the morning, when we watch the news or read the paper, until late in the evening when we talk to friends and relatives, we are exchanging information, including all that comes from our emotions. Indeed, we live and breathe information, as our five senses are continuously bombarded with stimuli to interpret. It is surprising that we human beings can still survive in today's world, where so much more attention is needed than a century ago but as a species, we continually get used to the increased amount of information and learn to live with it.

As a society, we have arrived at a point where almost all information is available to almost everyone. Information is no longer scarce; instead, it's overwhelming. And in the next five years, the amount of information available is expected to increase tenfold, mostly thanks to the Internet. However, the Internet only shows information available to the general public; it doesn't include all the information stored within organizations or in private homes that is not yet accessible to the public, not to mention the information that people have stored in their own digital memory, their brain.

The sheer amount of it makes some people nervous and tense. They ...