Tools for information overload

Jupiter Research, a leading authority on the impact of the Internet and emerging consumer technologies on business, finds that 63 percent of large companies plan to syndicate content via Really Simple Syndication (RSS) by the end of 2006. According to a new report: "RSS Comes of Age: Budgeting, Deploying, and Measuring RSS" by JupiterResearch Senior Analyst Greg Dowling, currently only 29 percent of large companies (with more than $50 million in annual revenues) publish content via RSS.

Is this research related to The Bivings Report 'The Internet’s Role in Political Campaigns'? The report tells us:

The results clearly showed that while Web use by political candidates increased dramatically since 2002, politicians are still failing to take advantage of all the Internet has to offer. 96 percent of this year’s Senate candidates have active websites, while only 55% of candidates had websites in 2002. While most candidates use a set of core Web tools, the majority of candidates are refraining from using newer and more sophisticated Web strategies, such as blogs and podcasts, on their campaign websites.

We seem to have the technology but more effort is needed to get it into mainstream use. Is it the terminology that puts off people -readers- using it? or, as I suspect, is it the presentation of how to use the technology? We all have DVD players and digital cameras packed full of options that are never used or for most of us we are not even interested that they are there because we just don't need them.

Do we really need the capacity to read 100 different 'news' sources or have the time to search for and listen or watch countless radical/independent/citizen audio/ video recordings? The answer is obviously no, but the development of the tools currently available is prompting me to consider how I can best manage the information and entertainment sources available to me and to be in control of them.

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