DECISION THEORETIC PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES FOR NOTIFICATION

Performance of a decision-theoretic analysis to determine which notifications as can be received from notification sources should be conveyed to the user, and via which modes of which notification sinks, is disclosed. A value can be determined for each mode of each notification sink, equal to an expected value of information contained within the notification, minus an expected cost of disruption to convey the notification via each mode of each sink, minus an expected value of the user independently learning the information contained with the notification without notification, and minus an actual cost of conveying the notification via each mode of each sink. If this value is greater than a predetermined conveyance threshold for any mode of any sink, then the notification is conveyed via the mode of the sink having the highest such value.