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To grow in wisdom: vannevar bush, information overload, and the life of leisure

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David M. LevyAuthors Info & Claims

JCDL '05: Proceedings of the 5th ACM/IEEE-CS joint conference on Digital libraries

Pages 281 - 286

https://doi.org/10.1145/1065385.1065450

Published: 07 June 2005 Publication History

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Abstract

It has been nearly sixty years since Vannevar Bush's essay, "As We May Think," was first published in The Atlantic Monthly, an article that foreshadowed and possibly invented hypertext. While much has been written about this seminal piece, little has been said about the argument Bush presented to justify the creation of the memex, his proposed personal information device. This paper revisits the article in light of current technological and social trends. It notes that Bush's argument centered around the problem of information overload and observes that in the intervening years, despite massive technological innovation, the problem has only become more extreme. It goes on to argue that today's manifestation of information overload will require not just better management of information but the creation of space and time for thinking and reflection, an objective that is consonant with Bush's original aims.

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Cited By

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Kennedy S(2024)Algorithmic Recommender SystemsAmerican Philosophical Quarterly10.5406/21521123.61.4.0361:4(327-338)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2024
https://doi.org/10.5406/21521123.61.4.03
Khan A(2023)Enabling user access to increasingly complex systems via Kano analysisIEEE Potentials10.1109/MPOT.2015.242307142:1(15-20)Online publication date: Jan-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/MPOT.2015.2423071
Schmitt U(2021)Reframing a Novel Decentralized Knowledge Management Concept as a Desirable Vision: As We May Realize the MemexSustainability10.3390/su1307403813:7(4038)Online publication date: 5-Apr-2021
https://doi.org/10.3390/su13074038
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Index Terms

To grow in wisdom: vannevar bush, information overload, and the life of leisure
1. Information systems
  1. Information systems applications

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Published In

JCDL '05: Proceedings of the 5th ACM/IEEE-CS joint conference on Digital libraries

June 2005

450 pages

ISBN:1581138768

DOI:10.1145/1065385

General Chair:
Mary Marlino
DLESE Program Center, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR)
,
Program Chairs:
Tamara Sumner
University of Colorado at Boulder
,
Frank Shipman
Texas A & M University

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Published: 07 June 2005

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June 7 - 11, 2005

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Kennedy S(2024)Algorithmic Recommender SystemsAmerican Philosophical Quarterly10.5406/21521123.61.4.0361:4(327-338)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2024
https://doi.org/10.5406/21521123.61.4.03
Khan A(2023)Enabling user access to increasingly complex systems via Kano analysisIEEE Potentials10.1109/MPOT.2015.242307142:1(15-20)Online publication date: Jan-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/MPOT.2015.2423071
Schmitt U(2021)Reframing a Novel Decentralized Knowledge Management Concept as a Desirable Vision: As We May Realize the MemexSustainability10.3390/su1307403813:7(4038)Online publication date: 5-Apr-2021
https://doi.org/10.3390/su13074038
Mahdi MAhmad AIsmail RNatiq HMohammed M(2020)Solution for Information Overload Using Faceted Search–A ReviewIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2020.30055368(119554-119585)Online publication date: 2020
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3005536
Schmitt U(2017)Shortcomings of the web of documents and data for managing personal knowledge and collaboration2017 1st International Conference on Next Generation Computing Applications (NextComp)10.1109/NEXTCOMP.2017.8016171(23-29)Online publication date: Jul-2017
https://doi.org/10.1109/NEXTCOMP.2017.8016171
Paul CArgenta CElm WEndert A(2014)Future directions of humans in Big Data Research: Summary of the 1^st workshop on Human-Centered Big Data Research2014 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (Big Data)10.1109/BigData.2014.7004321(903-904)Online publication date: Oct-2014
https://doi.org/10.1109/BigData.2014.7004321
da Silva SBorth MFerreira JFeltrim V(2012)An approach to enrich users’ personomy using the recommendation of semantic tagsJournal of the Brazilian Computer Society10.1007/s13173-011-0055-118:4(283-298)Online publication date: 28-Jan-2012
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13173-011-0055-1
Aikat DRemund D(2012) Of Time Magazine , 24/7 Media, and Data Deluge: The Evolution of Information Overload Theories and Concepts Information Overload10.1002/9781118360491.ch2(13-40)Online publication date: 15-Oct-2012
https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118360491.ch2
Shtykh RJin Q(2011)A human-centric integrated approach to web information search and sharingHuman-centric Computing and Information Sciences10.1186/2192-1962-1-21:1Online publication date: 22-Nov-2011
https://doi.org/10.1186/2192-1962-1-2
Harper S(2010)'As We May Think' at 65ACM SIGWEB Newsletter10.1145/1721871.17218722010:Spring(1-3)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1721871.1721872
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From Bush to Engelbart: 'Slowly, Some Little Bells Were Ringing'

Past visions of hypertext and their influence on us today

Eat, Cook, Grow: Mixing Human-Computer Interactions with Human-Food Interactions

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