Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
What I've tried to do with Information Trapping: Real-Time Research on the
Web is to give you the framework for an inexpensive way to identify and
track topics in which you're interested, and put the results in a form that's
presentable to others. Following that framework to a “T” is a tall order. You
may decide you don't want to set up every possible monitoring permutation
in this topic. hat's ine. It's better to set up a partial program that you can
keep up with, rather than a full program that quickly overwhelms you.
his bonus chapter looks at ways you can hone the practice of consistently
keeping up with your information traps—how to instill sound monitor-
ing habits, decide when to change the keywords you're monitoring, keep
abreast of new sources to monitor, and reevaluate your sources.
Unfortunately, a lot of this guidance boils down to a “gut feeling.” I can't tell
you, “When you're only getting x alerts a month for this keyword, switch
to keyword y for additional relevance.” I can point out symptoms of things
that might be going wrong, reasons you might be feeling uneasy, and little
clues to which you might want to pay attention. But in the end, you are the
best judge of whether your traps are working.
As you get more and more experienced with information trapping, you'll
learn you can very much rely on your instincts to determine when you've
got it right. his kind of thinking reminds me of the topic Blink , in which
author Malcolm Gladwell talks about how people can make decisions in
just a fraction of a second, based on a lot of subconscious cognition that
they might not be aware of. As you monitor your topic, as you read about
it, as you write about it, and as you organize information about it, I suspect
this will happen to you as well.
But it doesn't happen magically. First you have to get in the habit of moni-
toring every day.
Brush, Floss, and Trap
How much time you spend every day monitoring the Internet for informa-
tion really depends on how many topics you're monitoring and how much
news they generate. But even if you're only watching for news on antique
woodworking tools, it's best to do it every day, so that you get into a rhythm
of checking and you get a sense of what's normal in terms of how much
information your traps routinely uncover each day.
 
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