WikisVsInformationOverload

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Wikis have unique, powerful features to fight InformationOverload.

The most important of these is LessRedundancy.

Refactoring also alleviates InformationOverload for a more fundamental reason; information that can be refactored will end up being more concise (and quicker to read, if that is desired).

So I am interested in using/adapting Wikis to become a device for combating information overload. More specifically, Wikis for propagating news (instead of WebLogs), Wikis for discussing politics in both small and large groups, Wikis for propagating technological and scientific knowledge. I would rather be reading news on a Wiki, or something derived from a Wiki, than on nytimes or Slashdot.

-- BayleShanks

Having a web of information often causes overload. I felt overloaded on initial contact with both MeatBall and WardsWiki, simply due to the volume of information: the number of pages and all the cross-links between them. StartingPoints help alleviate this.

: I found myself first having a load of tabs open and then having a bookmark folder to drag new words into. It can indeed be challenging to navigate a wide net-shaped entity like a wiki. If you skip to see a new term and in the broad explanation skip forward for another term, it tends to get harder to backtrack. If you just dive forward, it's harder to guess whether you already read a link you saw in full or just briefly before jumping to something else from it.

WikiMedia offers [Wikinews].

WikisVsInformationOverload

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