Craig Roth

A member of the Gartner Blog Network

Craig Roth
Managing Vice President: Communication, Collaboration, and Content
4 years at Gartner
25 years IT industry

Craig Roth is a vice president and service director for Gartner Research, in Burton Group's Collaboration and Content Strategies service. Mr. Roth covers a wide range of knowledge and Web-related topics at the intersection of collaboration, content… Read Full Bio

Coverage Areas:

← →

Enterprise Attention Management Document from 2007 Revisited

by Craig Roth  |  June 4, 2012  |  Comments Off

Wow, quite a lot has happened since I first introduced Enterprise Attention Management in a January 2007 report at Burton Group.  In the past five years I’ve had many meaningful discussions with audience members and 1:1, kept up with the swirling media whirlwind on this topic, and read many of the books in the “information overload” space.  And I’ve blogged a lot on the topic and learned a lot from the comments that have been posted.  It was time for a refresh.

Here is a summary of what’s in the new version, now named “Enterprise Attention Management: An Enterprisewide Response to Information Overload” (client access only):

  • This doc combines two docs into one.  What a bargain!  The old “"Techniques to Address Attention Fatigue and Info-Stress in the Too-Much-Information Age" was blended/combined with "Quick Start: EAM" so both documents can now be retired.  The Quick Start material especially informed my recommendations.
  • I have synced this with my newer document on information abundance so they work together as a set.  My views on "information overload" are left to the “The Joy of Information Abundance (and Why Information Overload Is the Wrong Story).” document while this one focuses on describing the Enterprise Attention Management model.
  • I added a new section on "key attentional technologies and capabilities" describing the 3 capabilities and top 4 technologies that I think will make a difference for EAM.
  • I added pointers to research in the emerging Context Aware Computing research area.
  • There’s a whole dollop of material on interruptions, including a whole section on the dangers of individuals getting militant about shutting out interruptions.
  • I added an evolutionary psych section since I see that explanation being used too often to explain the perils of information overload.
  • I added some thoughts on "attentional experience" design – how system design and UI design can be improved by studying EAM
  • Oh, and the title changed.  I think "Enterprise Attention Management: An Enterprisewide Response to Information Overload" is more digestible and informative than "Techniques to Address Attention Fatigue and Info-Stress in the Too-Much-Information Age"

I hope you get a chance to read the new version and please let me know what you think through this blog or the commenting feature for documents on Gartner.com!

Comments Off

Category: Attention Management     Tags: