Cold War all over again?  Not really – it’s obvious what happened here.  But I think this is a great example of how the semantic web will wrap people, places, and things with context, and these types of issues will become a thing of the past!

Instead of “Georgia”, a semantic agent will see something like http://dbpedia.org/page/Georgia_(country) or http://dbpedia.org/page/Georgia_(U.S._state) and thus have an understanding of how to differentiate the two.

The areas of technology that interest me, as you could probably tell, are within the areas of portable data (DataPortability) and semantic web (Linking Open Data).  I see these as two complimentary ways of diminishing the effects of “information overload” (and there’s certainly some overlap here):

1.  DataPortability aims to reduce the instances where data is redundantly generated (such as social network contacts between MySpace and Facebook) by promoting the implementation of open data format exchanges between heterogeneous web services.

2.  Semantic web technologies aim at redefining how information is located and retrieved.  To be able to quickly and precisely acquire information means not having to deal with as much “noise” surrounding search results, and hence, information overload is abstracted away from the user.  (Next post is around some insight around this where Sherman Monroe at Linked Data Planet likened conventional Internet search to finding detailed photographs on a low resolution monitor.)

I think these two related initiatives aim to cure information overload from a technical standpoint.  But what are some other initiatives that aim to bring some sanity to the deluge of information that bombards our screens every day?

Here’s an interesting organization that I was just informed of from a work colleague called the Information Overload Research Organization (IORG).  According to their site, their mission is to:

“…work together to build awareness of the world’s greatest challenge to productivity, conduct research, help define best practices, contribute to the creation of solutions, share information and resources, offer guidance and facilitation, and help make the business case for fighting information overload.”

The organization is planning a day-long “inaugural” event filled with breakout sessions to discuss topics surrounding information overload.  Although I’m not entirely certain the exact nature of what will be covered, I was interested to see some of the IORG members on the list – including Microsoft and Google.  I noticed a few members who work in the areas of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), which got me thinking a bit. We’re tackling information overload from a data perspective, but will this ultimately solve all of our problems?  How would I render and display a complex query again semantic metadata that returns back thousands of triples?  This is where I see portable/linked data spanning into other disciplines such as HCI.  Can conventional web interfaces handle all of this robust data so that it’s intuitive to the user?  There’s certainly a lot more room for different concentrations to attack these issues.

I threw up the IORG Inaugural Event in Yahoo! Upcoming here, as I certainly plan on attending with my schedule permitting.  I think a lot of the things discussed there will in fact complement the more technical focus around portable/linked data.  What do you thing?

Is anyone more familiar with IORG and would like to comment?  I’m certainly interested in hearing more about the organization and the event!