Week 3 Reading

"We Have the Information You Want, But Getting It Will Cost You: Being Held Hostage by Information Overload" from ACM Crossroads by Mark R. Nelson resonates with me perfectly: the amount of information on the web is absolutely overwhelming. Looking for a simple subject unleashes hundreds of websites with information on that given topic. Trying to sift through what is credible and what is not also plays a major role in finding the material that you are truly after.

Natural language processing systems seem like something that could help mitigate the information overload. Having a program in place that can organize and sort information that the user wants seems like a step in the right direction.

Supposedly spam isn't just bothering me. According to "Information overload, retrieval strategies and Internet user empowerment" from Proceedings: The Good, the Bad and the Irrelevant by Christopher N. Carlson, "AOL blocks 780 million pieces of junk e-mail daily, or 100 million more e-mails than it delivers." Fascinating!


Discussion questions:

1. Is there simply too much information out there?

2. How can you determine what information is credible and what is not?

3. Is the overwhelming amount of information on the internet good or bad? Do more sources = a better perspective on a topic?