Questions for Feb. 8

Eppler and Mengis questions

Rating: 4

1) Does Information technology cause more problems than it solves? It seems to cause a lot of information overload, but there are also obvious benefits to using, say, email. Do these benefits outweigh the drawbacks? How does the implementation of countermeasures to fight information overload affect the issue?

2)Are the publication timeline figures useful for future research? They are only partial pictures of what is being written since they don’t contain “all the articles per field and show all the references to other overload articles” (337). How can the reader be sure that Eppler and Mengis are not missing out on a larger number of relavant articles that would change the conclusions one might reach by consulting the figures?

3)When it comes to symptoms Eppler and Mengis are really only concerned with how the symptom affects decision accuracy, decision time, and general performance. Why might they have focused on these issues and for whom are these the “correct” issues on which to focus? What groups might be interested in other symptoms like cognitive stress or low job satisfaction?

Attwood et al. questions

Rating:5

1)Looking at figure 12, isn’t it possible that by linking all of the existing information together you increase information overload instead of decrease it? The page on the right looks so busy that it would be hard to concentrate on the text. And besides making it more difficult to read you are opening the door to scads of other online sources. Sure you have access to all kinds of related articles and databases, but if there are too many of those it will be all too easy to drown in a sea of digital content.  How can we create something that forms the types of interconnections Attwood talks about without falling into the trap of feeding our readers a drink from the fire hose?

2) Many groups have already begun creating their own standards or ontologies to deal with the issues raised in this article. If we could get all interested parties to agree that universal standards are needed how do we determine which system is best? I think about the layout of our keyboards today – they aren’t even close to being the most efficient layout, but back when competing typewriter companies were hawking different keyboard configurations QWERTY somehow won out. How can this be prevented for online standards?

3) Eppler and Mengis talk about causes, symptoms, and countermeasures for information overload and how the three are related. Attwood’s article deals with countermeasures needed to combat information overload. How would Eppler and Mengis view these countermeasures? How would they say the countermeasures proposed by Attwood affect the causes of information overload?

Paul and Baron questions

Rating:2

1)The new era of writing technology discussed in the article is compared to the importance of the emergence of the printing press. The printing press allowed the renaissance and the reformation – what cultural revolutions are facilitated by the digital age? Do these revolutions overall have a more positive or negative effect on our civilization?

2)Obviously, when large amounts of information (such as millions of emails) are involved in litigation there must be some way to sift through it to find relavant information. If we turn to statistical sampling, however, the problem arises that important evidence may be missed. Should this happen and that evidence comes to light after the court proceedings have concluded how do we deal with the resulting dilemma? There could have been evidence not included in the case that would have changed the outcome.

3)Would products like those described in the Attwood article be of benefit here? What legal issues would be raised if we were to create a technology that would link all emails generated by the White House relating to the same topic?