64 The Multiplication of Information Effect. - Information Theory (Information Research)
Description
This article is from the Information Research FAQ, by David Novak david@spireproject.com with numerous contributions by others.
64 The Multiplication of Information Effect. - Information Theory (Information Research)
Just as the internet permits a multitude of voices and perspectives, so
it permits - and promotes - a multitude of the same information. Yes.
For a several reasons we shall explore first, the internet multiplies
the amount of information there is on a topic. This insight can be used
to improve searching for information, as I will show at the end of this
article.
The internet is a system of communication. Like all other systems
(books, articles) the internet systems affect the way we communicate in
different ways. The absolute number of books depends on what is thought
can be commercially viable. We could say books permit, and promote a
limited number of books on the same topic.
The internet does the opposite.
The sheer ease of publishing information on the net is one factor in
information overkill. The net is an easy place to publish information,
requiring only individual effort. There is no budgetary concerns, nor
does attracting an audience initially enter into the publishing
process, as they would with articles or books.
The ageless state of the internet also rapidly builds information. Old
information is not removed from the web automatically as in mailing
lists. Old books go out of print and past magazine articles are
shelved, indexed and categorized so we must intentionally include them
in our search. The web is not built this way, and information well past
its natural expiry date remains.
A dramatic change is also occurring as our society becomes digital. In
the pre-internet economy experts and specialists in every field are
distributed to meet needs. In the networked world, expertise is not
only shared more rapidly, but is required in less places - whether we
speak geographically or intellectually. Said another way, in
cyberspace, competition for expertise is most fierce. To be an expert,
you need to be more expert than others within reach - and since
gradually more and more experts are within reach - digitally - we form
a glut of experts.
Oh, this is not a doomsday message - merely a middle ground on the way
to increased specialization and focus. Historically we can easily see
Newton was a Scientist but Einstein was a nuclear theorist. Today we
have quantum theorists. The future is full of very long job titles.
A by-product of this movement is a current glut of experts - perhaps a
permanent glut of experts. With more people connected and satisfied
with distant communication, a vet who writes about immunizing your dog
becomes one of many you can reach for, in several countries. Previously
we may have been limited to those in your state - but no longer! Now we
can pick up immunization recommendations from any number of experts
previously separated by distance or with minimal overlapping media
outlets.
We can see this clearly on the web. I wrote an article on country
profiles and yes, as expected, the UK, US, Canada & Australia all write
and publish traveler advice notices on the web. Are they different?
Occasionally. Is this a case of multiplication of information? Yes. We
have reached beyond the applauded internet trait of permitting a
multitude of communication and reached a state where similar
information is interpreted by different organizations, and distributed
electronically.
This is not unique to the internet. News stories also contain
considerable overlap from one newspaper to another. A search for dog
immunization on one of the large news databases will result in numerous
articles all presenting essentially similar information. Business
periodicals also have considerable overlap, and while each may attempt
to differentiate their articles from others, there are severe limits -
and besides, most likely articles do not have an overlapping clientele.
But on the internet, there is overlapping readers. An article written
for the web is an article written for everyone. Anyone can read it.
Thanks to the popularity of search engines, it can be available to
anyone. At least in theory.
This leads us to internet promotion. Information on the web is
sometimes so difficult to locate we have an almost continual need for
more publishing. Real traffic is difficult to promote normally, so
websites devoted primarily to delivering information have a real
difficulty reaching their audience. This translates either to the need
for expensive commercial promotion, which often can not be justified,
or into reaching only those who search carefully for your information.
The latter means multiplication of the same information.
In writing this article, I see the effects mentioned will lead to
changes in the future. As I write "attracting an audience initially
enter into the publishing process", I think to myself this will
obviously change. Attracting an audience will emerge in time as the
primary step in publishing. There are many places to take this
discussion, but my job is a researcher, or rather an internet-focused
search theorist. (Long job titles will be in vogue). Let us focus on
how these changes effect this internet as an information resource.
1) Any effort to organize the internet is diluted because of these
efforts.
2) Any effort by the researcher to find different perspectives will be
confounded by the number of people with the same perspective publishing
in the same medium.
3) Certain fields are more heavily hit than others. Internet advice on
what search engines to use is ubiquitous. Java Programming hints are
numerous. More specialized topics (like internet-focused search theory)
are less affected.
4) Viral marketing - a catchword for sure, hopes to achieve promotion
by seeding many sites with information. Perhaps an innovative way
around accepting the multiplication of sites delivering the same or
similar information.
In phrasing the question you wish to answer, before the search,
experienced researchers will focus on what information is likely to be
available in numerous overlapping versions. These questions can be
answered with the search tools that cover information in a more random
manner: Search Engines do this very well. Tightly focused questions,
less likely to be distributed so completely, should be approached with
different tools: mailing lists and nexus points, long complex search
queries and index points.
In conclusion, the internet will become far more cluttered than we had
expected. I had previously predicted that search engines would grow to
meet the needs, but this is not to be. Search engines will continue to
serve up answers available from multiple places in the world. There is
market enough in this, and minimal need to tackle anything more.
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