We all love the Information Bus. It rolls down Understanding Highway at a healthy speed, plowing through yellow lights along the way.
Hop aboard! We want our friends and partners on the bus, too. Life is better when we share understanding.
Since the Information Bus ain’t slowing down, we’ve got to help you speed up and merge into traffic.
When I’m bringing new folks onto the Understanding Highway, I look for on-ramps. What do they already know, and where must I catch them up? What direction, or speed, were they going a minute ago? A dude who just got off I-95 and a dude who just turned off a snowy backcountry road are going to look at a 55 MPH speed zone differently.
There’s risk if we forget to do this. When the Information Bus is barreling down the road, we don’t want to run down our friends and cause pain, confusion and missed opportunity. I can’t stop information from evolving and spreading, but I can often take 10 or 60 seconds to set up background, acronyms and relevance before I smack someone with details.
Context matters, for journalists, partners, and the public.
(Photo by Airman 1st Class Solomon Cook, DVIDS)
