Andrew Rowsell-Jones, vice president and research director for Gartner's CIO Executive Programs predicts that managing the infoglut of the future will be done by "mentats" (a name derived from Frank Herbert's classic sci-fi novel "Dune" but used by Rowsell-Jones to mean computer programs that will analyze data, spot patterns, and make decisions). "Mentats don't exist yet, but they are appearing. Use a search engine and you're using a baby mentat. Yahoo!'s information hierarchies, for instance, are a well-known example of an I-filter. They organize information and screen or demote stuff that's supposedly less relevant. But search engines have two agendas, one overt, the other covert. The overt agenda is to present information that's precisely relevant to the user's interests. The covert agenda is to present information that's relevant and for which advertising fees have been paid." As a result, mentats and I-filters are both "necessary and dangerous."
posted by Marcus Zillman |
4:15 AM
