Email connects 85% of the world. This paper explores the pattern of information overload encountered by majority of email users and examine what steps key email providers are taking to combat the problem. Besides fighting spam, popular email providers offer very limited tools to reduce the amount of unwanted incoming email. Rather, there has been a trend to expand storage space and aid the organization of email. Storing email is very costly and harmful to the environment. Additionally, information overload can be detrimental to productivity. We propose a simple solution that results in drastic reduction of unwanted mail, also known as graymail.

Att tillgodogöra sig information och sprida den vidare har i alla tider varit väsentligt för att vi skall kunna utvecklas och fungera tillsammans på jobbet och i övriga relationer i vår vardag. Varje enskild individ exponeras dagligen för en stor informationsmängd, vilket ökar trycket på en bra och tydlig informationshantering. En skolmiljö är ett tydligt exempel där alla individer ständigt utsätts för ett ökande flöde av information både internt och extern. Avsikten med min uppsats har varit att identifiera och belysa de eventuella brister som finns i det interna informationsflödet på en medelstor gymnasieskola. Min undersökningsgrupp är pedagoger, elevvårds- och administrativ personal. Till att börja med undersökte jag hur alla uppfattade att informationsflödet fungerade på arbetsplatsen. Detta gjordes med en öppen fråga via e-post för att se om det fanns ett problem, hur omfattande problemet var och hur många det berörde. Baserat på de mest förekommande synpunkterna utformade jag en enkät med frågor och påståenden, om de förslag och önskemål personalen själva uttryckte utifrån min första fråga. Detta skulle ge mig förbättringsunderlag som personalen själva uttryckte För att verifiera vilka som har ansvar för hur informationen distribueras och genom vilka kanaler de ska presenteras intervjuade jag gymnasiesekreteraren på skolan. På så vis fick jag svar på en del av personalens frågor och ett bättre underlag för en analys och diskussion. Personalen upplever att informationen kommer helt ostrukturerat och i alla möjliga kanaler medan informationsansvarig tydligen har en plan för hur informationen distribueras. Information om information kunde säkert eliminera dessa problem. En inventering av vad som ska distribueras i vilken kanal skulle underlätt för alla. Med tanke på att det finns sjutton kanaler, så är det lätt att information hamnar i fel eller för många kanaler samtidigt. Respondenterna hade många funderingar och bra förslag på förbättringar. Tydligast är att det saknas information om informationen. Känslan av att informationsflödet var ostrukturerat var en återkommande synpunkt. Ofullständig information var ett annat dilemma som många irriterar sig på eftersom informationen hela tiden måste ändras.Undersökningen gav bra förslag på hur man kan förbättra informationsflödet och dess struktur för att alla berörda skall kunna tillgodose sig den information de behöver på ett enkelt och hanterbart sätt. Informationsträd, sökfunktioner och ett intranät var några av förslagen på förbättringar. / Spreading and collecting information is and has always been essential in order to communicate and cooperate on daily basis in a society like owns today. All individuals are being exposed to a large amount of information daily. This increases the demand for reliability and accuracy of the information and also the source that distribute the information. In an environment such as a school both pupils and personnel are exposed to a constant flow of information from both external and internal sources. The purpose of this study was to illustrate and identify the possible and in some cases obvious shortcomings in the internal flow of information in a medium sized upper secondary school. My group of interest have been educationalists, student council personnel and administrative personnel. Initially, I sent out a questionnaire determine general opinion of the flow and distribution of information in our school. Based on the answers, I then designed a questionnaire with more specific and detailed questions about the requirements and complaints my colleagues had expressed initially. The crux after problems seems to be the flow of information is somewhat unstructured and to some extent incomplete. To substantiate where the responsibility lies in distributing information and through which channels they are allocated, I interviewed the school secretary. Thus, I got answers to most of my colleagues questions and a robust foundation for my analysis and ultimately, my discussion. Finally I approached management to interview the person in charge of these questions and how they experienced the situation. My study resulted in many useful suggestions of how to eliminate obsolete and superfluous channels in order to get the most accurate and precise information provided.

Information is one of the most essential resources in our contemporary societies, as it guideshuman thinking, planning and subsequent actions, which in turn generates consequencesthat are desired or not. The Lehman Brothers bankruptcy in 2008, the tsunami in Indonesiain 2004, the Space Shuttle Challenger destruction in 1986 are just three instances ofdramatic situations, emerging continuously, where information plays a crucial role. Thisstudy investigates the phenomenon of the lack of needed information, predominantlyexperienced with difficulties in human, social and industrial affairs. Consequently, thechallenge is to understand why such situations emerge. Two approaches are utilized toexplore this challenge using an interpretivist tradition. The first is a hermeneutic approach,the second a grounded theory approach. The first approach – theoretically oriented –investigates numerous theoretical bodies, selected with the assumption that they can explainthe addressed challenge. The results show that there are no comprehensive theoreticalbodies that can fully account for the phenomenon of the lack of needed information.Furthermore, there is no consensus on what “information” is – the very core of thechallenge, which gave the foundations for a formulation of an alternative notion ofinformation and is instrumental for the present investigation. Thus, no a priori theory isused to guide the empirical investigation. The second approach – empirically oriented –investigates fifty empirical cases, where the lack of needed information is clearly manifested.The results present an initial outline for a possible future theory of information inadequacy,constituted by the dichotomy of information-lack and information-overflow. Informationlackis dominated by: “information is non-existent”, “information is insufficient”, “information is censored” and “information is undelivered”. Whereas, information-overflow isdominated by: “information is ambiguous”, “information is redundant”, “information isirrelevant” and “information is undervalued”. The two main dichotomous characteristics andtheir interrelations result in patterns of various information inadequacies. The keyconclusion of the present study is that while dramatic situations are increasing everyday,there is as yet no theoretical body designed to comprehensively account for the phenomenonin context; only partial accounts are found. Thus, the empirical investigation suggests thatthe phenomenon of the lack of needed information seems to emerge because of diversefactors, ranging from political and cultural structures, through human individualcapabilities, and ending with procedural and technological artefacts. This study advocatesthat further research is needed to fully account for and explain instances of the lack ofneeded information, and that such an account requires an innovative and interdisciplinary focus.

This thesis explores the cultural history of microfilm and microphotography during the period 1900–1970, thus contributing to the broader field of research on the history of 20th century information management in the era before digital technology. The aim is to study how microfilm repeatedly, in various contexts and over time, was described and perceived as a new medium. To this end the book examines and analyses the plans, dreams and visionary prognostics put forth by various historical actors with an interest in microfilm – using case studies situated at different junctures and periods (1904–1910, 1937, 1940–1952, 1950–1970), while also ranging geographically from the United States to Europe and Sweden. From a theoretical and methodological point of view the thesis seeks to understand the historical formation of microfilm by developing the notions of configuration and reconfiguration, employing a perspective which emphasizes the continuous ontological interplay and interdependence of materiality and discourse in the formation of media. Thus, at the empirical level, the analysis takes into account realized technological materialities as well as unrealized imaginary articulations, dreams and expectations integral to the configuration of microfilm within a broader culture of paperwork. As a result of this approach the study draws on scientific texts and articles in journals, as well as newspaper reports, commercial messages, ads, handbooks and various archival documents. The analysis reveals a close relationship between microfilm and experiences of entropy connected to information systems based on paper and paperwork. It is argued that, within the dreams and plans that are studied, the most important function of microfilm was to regulate noise, decay and disorder associated with the materiality of paper – through ordering, operating on and modifying the capacities of paper media. It is also noted that microfilm was perceived and articulated as a new medium over a long period of time, even though very little changed at the technological level. From a historiographical point of view, it is thus argued, microfilm can be characterized as a simultaneously continuous and discontinuous phenomenon, taking part in a history that unfolded through repetitions, returns and non-linear steps rather than along an uninterrupted, linear path.