I know that information technology is big business and that vendors want to push up their sales.
I know that IT often provides great tools that make us more productive or creative.
And I know that without IT most companies would be unable to operate.
But I can’t help feeling really strongly that we focus too much on the T and not enough on the I - that most of us (either as individuals or organisations) don’t spend the time learning how we can use information more effectively.
This is of course one of the key themes in my book, Information First … it is the key reason why I called it Information First - we need to understand our need for information before we deploy information technology.
But I think that we (information using people anywhere) need to learn more about how we use information and how we could improve our use of information.
I recently saw Dr Edward de Bono talk about the need for better thinking skills. His ideas are now almost universally recognised, and many individuals and organisations have benefited from his thinking skills and techniques.
What do you think? Do we need better skills in using information? I’d be interested to know what others think on this.
Roger
02/05/2007 at 02:49 am
As a creative designer, I am often exposed to clients who do not fully understand the scope and use of their business information, they concern themselves with future projections etc instead of the instant message that their next design piece communicates to their desired audience. I believe that we are, now more than ever, taking on the role of Information filters, having to very quickly and efficiently sift through huge amounts of growing company data/info so that we can effectively communicate the correct messages. Messages that are often becoming buried beneath the growing mountain of everyday knowledge; would it be beneficial for every company to have an information architect on board? I believe so.
In my experience, I notice many people caught up in the mass consumption of information whether it be from the web, advertising or viral marketing on phones/email. On the one hand this does allow us as human doings to continue learning at increasing rates, but is this information really useful to our daily lives or are we becoming vessels for fragmented data, knowing small amounts about lots of things and does this have an effect on our main knowledge base?
I wonder if the future will allow us to focus the information that we experience, in some ways we are the ones that will have to control this; will we be able to refrain from multi-tasking constantly while on the web? Can we stop our reactions to advertising even when it has personally directed content? Screen calls from marketing companies who know more about us than we would like?
As the world speeds up so do our lives. I wonder if our brains and current technology will continue to cope with the massive accessibility of information, will we continue to adapt so that the ability to focus on ONE thing is not lost.
Dan
02/05/2007 at 09:02 am
Thanks Dan. I couldn’t agree more with your comments. I think there is some serious thinking to be done about our use of information, and in particular our use of information available via the Internet.
03/05/2007 at 03:34 pm
Awareness increases response/ ability. Technology may help the process of creating awareness. The development of IT seems to become more exponential and in our current way of thinking, it is unavoidable that we need to unlearn before we are able to learn. I believe that nothing can be perceived without a form of change and to change we need to progress. Our brains do not communicate on their own, but are able to use technology to interact and progress will mean developmental technology. I think that information and technology go hand in hand.
Dr Eddy Kloprogge. Mind Gliding Ltd
03/05/2007 at 04:15 pm
Thank you for your comments.
Yes - information and technology certainly go hand in hand. Do you think that, for several years now, our focus has been so much on IT that we have overlooked information itself?
I regularly see examples in my work and in reports of organizations that spend vast sums on new technology with little thought for improving the skills of people using information.
Roger