I have decided to include Wurman here as his ideas on information and its design and impact on us all have greatly influenced me. Richard Saul Wurman's more recent contributions are in 'Information Architects' - which defines an information architect is someone who organizes the patterns inherent in data, making the complex clear. A person who creates the structure or map of information which allows others to find their personal paths to knowledge. They are emerging 21st Century professionals addressing needs for clarity, human understanding, and the science of the organization of information. The book is about explaining using over 100 examples of information design.
Information anxiety is the black hole between data and knowledge.
It happens when information doesn't tell us what we want or need to know. He warns that information anxiety limits people to being only seekers of knowledge because no time is left over for them to be reflectors of knowledge. The information itself causes the problem. An explosion of information is available through books, magazines, and periodicals. Even this is dwarfed by the growth of electronic communication, we are in danger of drowning in a sea of intimidating information.