I recently read a post titled “The Prefect Watchtower” by Julien Smith (of Trust Agents fame). In the post Julien says the following…
Productivity people talk all the time about how you have to stop checking email, you have to stop checking Twitter, in order to start doing real work. I’m not sure checking email is the problem. I think improper filters are.
Let me say it another way. Since the invention of the web, the real-time web has been kind of inevitable. So many updates, so fast, mean updates must get shorter, which in turn means they must be updated faster, and so on. Endless cycle, leading to endless updates.
What we really need to be working on right now is proper filtering methods for this always-on web.
As I read the post it reminded me of a video I had see of Clay Shirky giving a presentation called Information Overload is Filter Failure at the O’Reilly Web2.0 Conference in 2008.
The gist of Sharky’s argument is that prior to the internet there was a larger amount of RISK associated with PUBLISHING information. Publishers took on that risk, and thus they acted as filters. Now-a-days the internet has made it easy for everyone to pump out content / information in MANY different formats (blogging, podcasting, vloging, pictures, etc) with virtually no risk whatsoever. Thus there is a lot of content being “published” which lacks quality, and people need to become better consumers of content / information by developing their own effective filters.
To see for yourself watch the video below.
It seems to me that Julien is making the same point as Shirky, and seeing as how they are both very intelligent people saying more or less the same thing, I think it is important to take note.
My Thoughts:
In short: I agree with the argument that people NEED to become better consumers of information. However, just because there is a need does not mean that (the masses of people called) ”the public” will heed said need. In fact history is filled with examples of the general public of many civilizations ignoring a need in favor of convenience, which is what I fear will happen in this case.
What I would like to see happen is a major paradigm shift in the way that people perceive their personal responsibility to adequately vet content / information.
I can’t say that I know how to make such a sea change occur, but I’m guessing that the first step is making it as much a part of the public discourse talking about it when we can.
Side note (and some pointless self promotion):
As of late I’ve been (attempting) blogging about “style”. One thing I’ve started to notice since starting the style blog is how many tech / social media savvy people don’t seem under stand the distinction between dressing up and dressing well, and I want to give mad style points to Julien because (as anyone who has hung out with him can attest to) he is one of the people who DOES understand this distinction.
And while I love Mr. Shirky’s ideas… well… he could (in my very humble opinion) stand to take a play or two from Julien’s style book.
Other Relvant Links:
1. Clay Shirky’s internet writings.
2. Clay Shirky on Twitter.
3. Julien Smith on Twitter.
4. Chris Brogan co-author of Trust Agents.
Last night I went and saw the new 
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Jul 10
I love comment sections.
I recently gotan iPhone 4, and of course it has the reception problems that people have been reporting. Today I saw a post overat Gizmodo about a $80-100 case called a Vapor4. The post states…
The case does lookreally awesome, and at first I thought “Maybe I should shell out the cash for it.” Then I started to read the comments section on his post.
A reader named NatureNerd stated…
Anther reader named rahad123us states…
Makes sense to me. I love comment sections.