DROWNING IN INFORMATION, BUT THIRSTY FOR KNOWLEDGE

A lack of structure, not the amount, is the reason for our growing inability to cope with information today. Through the advances in information technology, information has lost the connection with its carrier; therefore, the medium can no longer be used as a reliable indicator of information type. The classical methods of information handling are not sufficient for the growing amount and the new forms of information. In an information society, the individual needs a more comprehensive system of information management. The suggestion is to use four universal structuring dimensions - selection, time, hierarchy and sequence - and apply them to information, regardless of the information carrier. Information producers, as well as information consumers, can use this tool-set to profit more fully from the growing mass of information.