Customizing information. 1. Getting what we need, when we need it

As we move further into the information age, it is becoming ever more apparent that society as a whole, and information and computing specialists as its agents, will have to confront the general problem of information overload. The rising flood of information will soon compel us to use techniques and resources aimed at maximising our information handling efficiency. Storing and retrieving digital information according to consumer requirements is only part of the equation, information must also be presented in a form suited to the consumer's needs at the time of consumption. We call this information customisation and characterise it as the transformation of information into its most appropriate form. Thus, customisation makes existing information more useful