Tech Companies Join To Fight Information Overload

Xerox on Tuesday <a href=" http://www.xerox.com/go/xrx/template/inv_rel_newsroom.jsp?app=Newsroom&ed_name=NR_2008July15_Xerox_Joins_IORG_Information_Overload&format=article&view=newsrelease&Xcntry=USA&Xlang=en_US">said</a> it has joined with Google, Microsoft, Intel, IBM, and <a href="http://www.iorgforum.org/MemberDirectory.htm">other tech companies</a> to fight information overload.

Thomas Claburn, Editor at Large, Enterprise Mobility

July 16, 2008

2 Min Read
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The companies that created the information revolution appear to be having second thoughts.

Xerox on Tuesday said it has joined with Google, Microsoft, Intel, IBM, and other tech companies to fight information overload.The companies "are committed to developing solutions to sort and categorize the flood of electronic information that gushes every day from cell phones, e-mail, instant messages and billions of printed pages worldwide," as Xerox put it.

In case you haven't been paying attention over the past few decades, Google, Microsoft, Intel, IBM and Xerox are among the companies responsible for the aforementioned flood of electronic information.

In the tradition of health-conscious tobacco companies and environmentally friendly coal companies, tech vendors are now taking steps to undo the damage done by their products.

Xerox and friends have formed the Information Overload Research Group (IORG) to examine how to make workers overwhelmed with e-mail and other information more productive.

Basex, a research firm, claims that unnecessary interruptions, which account for 28% of the typical knowledge worker's day, cost the U.S. economy $650 billion annually. The remainder of the day, by Basex's yardstick, is content creation (25%), searching (15%), and thoughtful reflection (12%).

Nathan Zeldes, a principal engineer at Intel and co-founder of IORG, has been working on the problem since 1995 and he supports the idea of e-mail abstinence.

"For many years I tried to solve this issue with 'first generation' solutions -- those involving training, indoctrination, tips, and suggestions," Zeldes explained in the first IORG blog post. "It worked well, as far as it can, but there's a limit to what it can achieve; so more recently I'm working on more advanced solutions, like the 'No Email on Friday' pilot that has captured the public's imagination recently."

There you have it. The tech industry's next killer app: the off switch.

As Pogo comic strip creator Walt Kelly put it, "We have met the enemy and he is us."

About the Author

Thomas Claburn

Editor at Large, Enterprise Mobility

Thomas Claburn has been writing about business and technology since 1996, for publications such as New Architect, PC Computing, InformationWeek, Salon, Wired, and Ziff Davis Smart Business. Before that, he worked in film and television, having earned a not particularly useful master's degree in film production. He wrote the original treatment for 3DO's Killing Time, a short story that appeared in On Spec, and the screenplay for an independent film called The Hanged Man, which he would later direct. He's the author of a science fiction novel, Reflecting Fires, and a sadly neglected blog, Lot 49. His iPhone game, Blocfall, is available through the iTunes App Store. His wife is a talented jazz singer; he does not sing, which is for the best.

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