Towards an optimal resolution to information overload

Abstract

The rapid growth of Internet and the improved accessibility of web information amplify the problem of information overload in our modern life. Information overload affects not only individual's work performance, but also business productivity on an organizational level. In this paper, we investigated the information overload problem as reported by five industry cases and identified three common factors that are related to the problem: information quantity, information format and information quality. We found that in the current practice of infomediary models, solutions to the information overload are mainly established through the control of information quantity, while the two additional dimensions are partially ignored or not resolved in an optimal manner. We thus conclude that the effective resolution to information overload may only be reached after a fully evolved infomediary approach is implemented. Such approach integrates all three aspects of information overload, with information format and information quality being considered as having an equal significance as information quantity.