Information Overload Summit Identifies Overload As a Challenge
November 17, 2009
is it my imagination or are there lots of summits? Conferences are a big business. I liked the word “conferences”, but it has fallen into disfavor. I read about the Information Overload Summit in “Top 10 Issues Overloading IT Managers”. When I saw the connection to the Information Overload Summit, I was curious if this problem was related to the information superhighway. If so, hit overload brake. Budgets and managing humans contribute to IT crashes. There is a New Age touch too. Cloud computing, Web stuff, and security make life interesting as well.
What struck me as I worked through these issues is that information technology professionals are not overloaded. These folks are under siege. I do not see a light at the end of the two-lane tunnel. Without resources, information technology simply becomes a bigger and bigger traffic jam.
In terms of information access, information technology professionals are becoming less and less informed about the whizzier technologies. The here and now is more important than the tomorrow and beyond. I participated in a series of meetings last week in which IT professionals made it clear that change was not of much interest. I did not disagree. These folks were certified and knew one vendor’s system reasonably well. There was neither time nor energy to look for alternatives.
If there is an information overload summit next year, I would wager one dime that the list of challenges will be almost the same. In fact, these challenges are persistent. Talking about overload won’t resolve overload.
Stephen Arnold, November 15, 2009
I wish to disclose to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics that I was not paid in truck stop goodies to write this article about overload on the information superhighway. That admission lightens my load, good buddy.
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