further consideration

Last Thursday, we all went to hear Peter Bromberg. Good food. Good information. And good times! What stood out to me as being most related to this project was his discussion of the increase in the pace of change. He stated that changes in information and information retrieval happen upon the invention of "disruptive technologies". Currently, these "disruptive technologies" are introduced more and more frequently which has caused our pace of change to increase rapidly. (Are we sprinting yet?) As a result, he feels we are in a state of "Permanent Beta" which means that programs, particularly those on the internet, rarely make it past the Beta release stage before a new "disruptive technology" comes along to change the flow. Because of this, Bromberg feels:

"We have to be in a continual state of learning."

Lifelong Learning! Of course! We, as information professionals need to keep current and know and understand these Beta programs. We must remain in a perpetual state of learning.

Because, as Bromberg went on to say, people are living with an over-abundance of information. They are drowning in it. And now our role is changing to that of a filter so that we can help people decipher between the different information. And what better way to help than to introduce tools. And what better tool may there be than the latest Beta?