INFORMATION OVERLOAD: IMPLICATIONS ON THE MANAGEMENT OF WEB-BASED INFORMATION SYSTEM (Part 1)

The world has moved from the agricultural revolution to an era that could best be described as the Information revolution. In this era, information is considered as a critical resource factor to individuals and organisations. In the past, the consumption of information was passive to a large extent. However, the invention and widespread usage of computers and other electronic devices meant a shift from the traditional creation and management of information where information is generated in handwritten form and managed on papers to a more interactive electronic or digital form where the creation and management of information is handled by the computer.

Today, information accessibility and usage has become relatively easy as a result of the development of the World Wide Web delivered via the internet. The World Wide Web has contributed to an enormous advancement in the volumes and complexities of information and for organisations; the website is the main contributory source of information for their customers. A significant volume of internal and external information generated by organisations could be viewed on their website. The daily inflows and outflows of information in excess amount making processing and administration tasks difficult led to a term coined by Alvin Toffler as Information Overload.

Information overload is not a new concept, but has gained much prominence over the last decade. It is against this backdrop that this piece of writing seeks to examine the concept of Information overload and Web-based Information system. The focus is to analyze the implication excess information or information overload brings to bear on the management of Web-based Information system.

It is not uncommon to hear internet users complaining about the difficulty in accessing Information from websites or electronic databases. A company publishes a news item on its website and a day or week after, the Information could no longer be accessed.

Like many other Internet users and Information explorers, I feel obliged to ask some pertinent questions that come to mind when confronted with the challenges of Information accessibility. First of all, do organisations/Institutions discard in part or entirely information from their website or database when it loses its currency? Or when there is an increased accumulation of Information? Or perhaps the Information may be available but difficult to retrieve.

In the phase of mounting information, NewYork Times electronic resources updates its content on a regular basis and have archives of articles and news items dating back to 1851. However, this scenario is in contrast with many other websites.

International Data Corporation (IDC) considers Information overload not only about the growing mountain of information but also the growing diversity of information. These diversities of information ranges from email request and delivery, articles and news items, product information, messages on blogs, images, video and other multimedia. Information overload is not a new observable fact. Humans have dealt with information in every phase of their lives and every part of their history. The introduction of the World Wide Web however, made this phenomenon manageable. Imagine a situation where the World Wide Web is printed out on a paper. One cannot therefore discount the implications of the growing diversity of this information on the work of web-based administrators.

So how bad is Information Overload?

Information overload, if not well managed effectively becomes a technology pressure to an already existing business pressure. A global survey conducted by IDC in 2008 revealed that 75% of workers in more than 1,000 large organisations suffered from information overload. Of those, 45% indicated that they were “over¬whelmed.” A project report from the European Institute for Research and Strategic Studies in Telecommunication (EURESCOM) in 2001, outlined that the effects of Information overload is manifested in many ways including; health problems, diminished productivity of individuals and companies, organisational inefficiency throughout society, frustration, disillusionment and depression, and impaired judgement and bad decision making.

Continue from part II......

REFERENCES:

EURESCOM (2009). Impacts of Information Overload Available at: http://www.eurescom.eu/~pub-deliverables/P900-series/P947/D1/p947d1.pdf

International Data Corporation (2009). Cutting the Clutter: Tackling Information Overload at the Source. IDC White Paper. Available at: http://www.xerox.com/assets/motion/corporate/pages/programs/information-overload/pdf/Xerox-white-paper-3-25.pdf