Information Explosion...


These are the best of times,these are the worst of times.For today we live in a era where almost each one of has access to an unimaginable breadth and depth of information.
But then the era of Information Explosion has more and more air blown into the Bubble.

Thanx to the information explosion.
SPAMMING ,although being the last thing that a marketer would ever like to do , seems to be on a high .
Filtering content is another challenge that people are now getting used to.
And to add to that the hyped Talks ,workshops,Sessions,Lectures are getting monotonous

The podcasts have replaced the interviews.
Slideshare has replaced powerpoint presentaions.
Youtube has better talks or workshops .
Add to that blogs .
To be precise , now you can actually choose to stay out of a event ,since you know for sure, the Internet has better alternatives.

As far as my experience goes ,yes i was a die hard fan of GYAN.
I craved for it.
I used to read almost over 100 blogs a day on social media,SEM-SEO,Blogging,Internet Marketing......
I loved the sessions at Barcamps.
I enjoyed being a part of this ecosystem that was evolving like never before.


But then , i guess what looked like the driving force for joining such communities, turned against itself. And the obvious reason being perhaps the INFORMATION OVERLOAD on the internet
Add to this -the general story telling .

"THE MOST CLICHED STORY"
I was a common man. I had a idea--but had no idea how to implement that. Then we thought over it .
But then we had no money.
Then we bootstrapped Then we hunted for VC's. After n iterations in the product plan,
and 2n meeting's we got funded.
n now ,I am THE ENTREPRENEUR.

With all due respect to the ecosystem and the entrepreneurs .Nobody would or even can/ever raise a question over your credibility as a entrepreneur or the amount of efforts you have put in.
But then,
As the audience we get this story everytime..in Livemint, on Radio,Podcasts,Blogs n everywhere.
If you can present the entire journey as a casestudy , it might add more value to the story.
Telling the general story,i guess really wont attract ME.

So today i think twice before i enter a session on Startup's or VC's speaking, or rules of blogging,tips on Internet Marketing,or for that matter even technology.
And even if i enter it ,the repetition of topics, drives me out.

The freshness quotient ,i guess has been lost or atleast decreasing.
Everytime i see a mailer/poster about a session by XYZ , i think !!!

DO WE REALLY NEED TO GO AND LISTEN TO THEM ?
WHY CANT WE LISTEN TO THEM ON A PODCAST
OR SIMPLY READ ABOUT THE RULES OF .........
WHY DO WE NEED THE SAME THING OVER N OVER N OVER?
DONT U FEEL saturated ALREADY?

I guess i need a break,BADLY. SO I shall logoff from the Community for a while.

3 comments:

  rakesh

October 22, 2008 at 11:39 AM

right back on track!!!!
Now I think we will connect much better!!

  Anonymous

October 22, 2008 at 11:47 AM

Good point Vivek. I think this post gives some good ideas on how to share info without the info overload
http://blog.miteshashar.com/indias-startup-communities-need-to-be-concatenated/

also it would depend on which channel you are referring ? twitter/news/blogs/chat/bar camps/ each channel has a different kind of info sharing and may not be everyones cuppa mocha :)

  Anonymous

October 23, 2008 at 6:31 PM

Thanks Vivek.

What you need are a few filters to not to overwhelm you with information.

I use the Jack Welch rule: fire 10% of your RSS feeds every month. This way, you'll only keep up with the best of the best blogs out there.

I also try to follow just 30 blogs (although right now I have about 41 feeds in my reader.) 30 is more than enough to keep you up-to-date and give you new ideas.

In summary: read fewer blogs. But read only the best blogs.