Multiverse of Information Channels

Lets see, I was thinking about my information foraging habits. The extent to which we use different streams is truly remarkable!  Following is a (partial) list of channels that are typically "on" during any given work day:

• GMail is my primary email address. I also have a few other email accounts (2 ids from school) that auto-forward to gmail. This really saves a TON of my time. I pretty much have one tab in my browser dedicated to GMail.
• Gtalk I don't have Gtalk open all the time but I prefer to receive the IM messages in my GMail tab.
• Twitter This can be a real tricky one! While Twitter is all about streaming updates from my social network, it can at times be pretty distracting. Especially when I have it buzzing my GTalk every couple of minutes while I listen to music or work on my code!
• Facebook is my favorite time sink. I love to go there when I want to just relax or scrap on my friends' walls. Orkut happens to be another social network where I am not quite active but every once a while I keep getting either scraps or friend requests.
• Google Reader is mostly what I use for my feed reading. I have always loved Bloglines. But somehow feel that they have stopped innovating lately. I follow a good bunch of feeds and its getting even more difficult to keep up with it these days.
• Techmeme, like for many folks, is my staple diet. This is one tab always open in my browser. Google news is my source for daily news but I might perhaps go to it once in the morning when I come into work and later in the afternoon or at night while watching TV.
• Phone and SMS. I sometimes wonder why I pay $45 for a cell phone contract. I haven't been using the phone much these days. Occasionally I do tend to use SMS and for the price we are charged, frankly its ridiculous! It is quite frankly hard to believe that the phone is still not as "social" as one would expect. I used to receive my twitter updates on the cell phone until it became unmanageable since I started following too many people.
• Skype is working out great for my international conversations. I spend an hour or so once a week talking to friends and family on skype/Gtalk. For landline calls I use a calling card that is usually way more expensive.
• Late at night I watch the Daily Show while surfing the Web alongside. After a healthy dose of laughter its time for some more at Google Videos or YouTube.

These and many more sources have become so integrated into our daily lives that its almost difficult to get through the day without them. And I have not even mentioned the obvious ones that we take for granted everyday -- Web Search engines and Wikipedia.

The real challenge is how to deal with the constant stream of attention seeking memes that keeps coming at you relentlessly. I have found that an effective way that works for me is not to jump to react at each interesting meme that comes to me, but to let it accumulate for a while before I get to it. Sounds simple and obvious, but is often hard to stick to!

Comments

[fitzgeraldsteele]

One emerging research area studying this exact problem of managing your Personal Space of Information (PSI) is called, Personal Information Management. Not the most original name, but that seems to be how the field is coalescing. Check out the Keeping Found Things Found lab at U Washington (http://kftf.ischool.washington.edu/index.htm), or the book titled Keeping Found Things Found.

- Jerry (I found this blog via the ICWSM site, although it turns out I had read your Microblogging paper).

[Akshay Java]

Cool! Thanks for updating me about the KFTF project at U Washington. I shall definitely check it out. I hope to catch up with you at the conference.