Johnny D Music News: TMI and the need for better filtering .

TMI and the need for better filtering - John D. Pierce Blog .

By John Pierce

The amazing benefits of modern technology are numerous. I get them with each instant contact with family and friends or when able to work productively from a coffee shop or hotel room.

However, something must be done to cover the tune of too much information.

My next smart phone upgrade will depend on who gives me the best filtering options.

There must be some quick and easy way to say a smart phone (by punching a couple of keys) that I`d rather not receive messages from that sender again. I spend too much time each day stopping to delete something of no business to me.

We are awash with stuff: TMI. How do we sort through it all?

Personally, all technologically connected people deal with this issue. Professionally, many of us do as well - especially in the communications field.

Recently, my friend and colleague Bruce Gourley sent this quote from Editor-in-Chief Tina Brown of the website, The Daily Beast, that acquired Newsweek:

"What a time can offer readers is a way to understanding, a filter to sift out what's important, a break to see things that the Web has no time to explain, a tool to go back over the things we think we know but can't make sense of. A magazine allows the reader to run in a different key."

My understanding of an editor`s role is that of a filter. It`s different than a censor who restricts information based on what suits a personal agenda. Rather it is an effort to determine what is accurate, relevant and of most interest to the specific audience of readers.

Filtering, or editing, is not an exact science but an ongoing act of making judgments about what deserves to wait in print (or online, which has fewer restrictions).

One subscriber and supporter said to me a few years ago: "I`m a very busy person and don`t have time to break through all of the cloth out there. Please give me sight of what I want to stay informed."

In other words, he was calling me to the job of filtering. Finding the right filters, whether gadgets or humans, is essential to our personal lives and professional productivity.

Yet in the daily world of TMI, we are all filters - seeking to see the information we need and desire while not being buried by the avalanche of unwanted stuff flowing our way. Information is good. Too much information is, well, way too much.

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