Howard Rheingold on Infotention: Dashboards, Radars, Filters

How do we handle information overload?  As human beings we managing our attention and learn to focus through a combination of cognitive skills/processes and social processes and situations. But we can assist our internal efforts to direct attention in the face of information overload by using some technical know-how to manage how we interact with information online.

Here in the first of three webcasts, Harold Rheingold talks about how we can use online services, RSS, and other tools to create information dashboards, radars, and filters.  At the center of the practices Rheingold discusses is use and management of RSS, or ‘really simple syndication’, and the tools that allow for the arrangement of RSS feeds.

If you find this video interesting, you’ll find the next two parts at the following links:

Infotention Part Two: Building Information Dashboards

Infotention Part Three: Building Information Dashboards

Although Rheingold is talking to journalists in these videos, his discussion is relevant to anyone who seeks to respond to information with the skills of critical literacy and responsible composition,including our student bloggers, microbloggers, and web builders.