Knowledge Strategy in the Networked SocietyChris BattSenior Research FellowUniversity College London

Problem hypothesis

Nature and scope of my research

Some thoughts on what it all might meanThen let’s talk

Agenda

1.

4.

3.

2.

Who was I?

Once upon a time, a librarian

Director of Cultural Services

Libraries

Museum and archive

Performing arts and cinema

Parks and open spaces

Sport

1991 - First public access to the Internet

1991 - First public access to the Internet

Who was I?

Once upon a time, a librarian

Director of Cultural Services

4,300 public libraries

20,000 terminals ($150m)

30,000 library staff trained ($30m)

$75m to create digital services

www.peoplesnetwork.gov.uk

Director of People’s Network Programme

Who was I?

Once upon a time, a librarian

Director of Cultural Services

New strategic government agency

www.mla.gov.uk

Director of People’s Network Programme

Chief Executive of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council

Who am I now?

Occasional consultant

Who am I now?

Occasional consultant

www.ucl.ac.uk/infostudies/research/ciber

Senior Research Fellow

“CIBER research tells us the world as we knew it is being shattered and reassembled by the digital transition, and many of the existing paradigms are bust.”

“It seeks to inform by countering idle speculation, PowerPoint puff and uninformed opinion with the evidence and facts.”

Who am I now?

Occasional consultant

Senior Research Fellow

Knowledge strategy in the networked society

Chrisbatt.wordpress.com/

PhD researcher

What is the problem?

The public sector is not good at dealing

with the future

Will the increasing importance of digital technologies and networks across society require new approaches to public policy formulation, implementation and delivery?

Social change

Social change

Cultural change

Cultural revolution II

Fragmentation

Disintermediation

Participatory culture

End of the Enlightenment?

Social revolution

Music, media, newspapers

Utopia or dystopia?

App-ization

Knowledge is one click away

Always on

Social revolution

Social revolution

Music, media, newspapers

Utopia or dystopia?

Always on

Knowledge is one click away

Wisdom of the crowd

Will the increasing importance of digital technologies and networks across society require new approaches to public policy formulation, implementation and delivery?

New architecturesNew policy frameworks

New professionals

Knowledge and learning in 2050

Museums

Libraries

Archives

Universities

Colleges

Schools

Public service broadcasters

COLLECTING, CURATING,

DISCLOSING

CREATING SKILLING

CONNECTING

INTERPRETING CONNECTING

POPULARISING

PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE INSTITUTIONS

SkylineSkyline

STATUS QUO PLUSSTATUS QUO PLUS

PARTNERSHIPS EXCEPTION NOT NORMPARTNERSHIPS EXCEPTION NOT NORM

Your PaintingsYour Paintings

Public Catalogue Foundation

“Megaphones of informal learning”Martin Bean

Convergence = competition

Who owns the third place?

What is a museum

website for?

The knowledge and learning value chain

is highly fragmented

Museums

Libraries

Archives

Universities

Colleges

Schools

Public service broadcasters

COLLECTING, CURATING,

DISCLOSING

CREATING SKILLING

CONNECTING

INTERPRETING CONNECTING

POPULARISING

Individuals and communities

CompetitionAmazon/Abe

iTunesOn demand

WikipediaGoogle

TechnologyOn the moveSocial networkingeBooksBandwidthAggregation

Public PolicyLearning

Knowledge economyGlobalisation

Funding pressures

SocietyFragmentationThe crowdWeb has the answer24/7

STATUS QUO 2.0STATUS QUO 2.0

If we did not

have libraries,

would

someone

invent them?Straw man argument

Why?

Public sector does not do synoptic change Anyway, change to what?

Lack of broad, long-term strategy

Reactive, not proactive

Pragmatism, overload, protectionism

That the delivery of public value through knowledge and learning based on the binary relationship between institution and user will become more and more ineffective and expensive as online channels become the preferred user choice.

PROPOSITION ONE

That public value will best be achieved by strategic policies that treat end user value as the product of managed flows across institutions rather than as actions based on classes of institutions: the integration of unrelated institutions into a co-ordinated strategy.

PROPOSITION TWO

Institutional architecure

Value flows

Exchange relationships

Public policy

Knowledge

processes

Boundaryexchange

PUBLIC KNOWLEDGEResources that enable people to

understand and learn more about themselves and the world

LEARNINGThe apprehension of knowledge to advantage

Methodology

Museums

Libraries

Archives

Universities

Colleges

Schools

Public service broadcasters

COLLECTING, CURATING,

DISCLOSING

CREATING SKILLING

CONNECTING

INTERPRETING CONNECTING

POPULARISING

PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE INSTITUTIONS

How to st

art a colle

ctive debate

about knowledge in

stitutio

ns in

2050

PEST/SWOT TRIANGLEPEST/SWOT TRIANGLE

Shared value flowsShared value flows

Boundary exchangesBoundary exchanges

Target audiencesTarget audiences

Common policy and outcomesCommon policy and outcomesPartnerships already in playPartnerships already in play

Mission overlapMission overlap

Public knowledge ecosystem model

Public knowledge ecosystem model

PUBLIC NETWORK THEORY

Organisation theory

Policy science

Political science

Policy networksPolicy communities

Public network management

Hypothesis

Ecosystem model

Exploration

Evaluation/outcomes

Networking tool

Network theory

Managed network environment

Radical options review

Build toolkit for strategic thought

Possible examination of futures studiesThe skills of the new professional

THE EXPLORATION (possibilities)THE EXPLORATION (possibilities)

The library in the age of Amazon and Google The app-ization of public service

Product before process

The museum as school

The barefoot knowledge worker

STRATEGIC THINKINGSTRATEGIC THINKING

Browsecasting

The future value of knowledge institutions depends on much more than their

relationship with technology

Citizens and technology

Other knowledge institutions

Status within information society policy

The coming revolution

The knowledge revolution

1. KNOWLEDGE: the raw material of the future

Economy development

Personal well-being/happiness

Creativity and imagination

Social capital

Discovery and understanding

The knowledge revolution

1. KNOWLEDGE: the raw material of the future

Education is not enough

Informal learning is lifelong

Learning to cope and survive

Learning just for fun

2. LEARNING: the engine of progress

The knowledge revolution

1. KNOWLEDGE: the raw material of the future

Content first, institution secondPartnering the crowd

Inclusion and special needs

2. LEARNING: the engine of progress

3. RELEVANCE: Knowledge must be presented to meet people’s learning needs

Let’s talkcbatt@mac.com

www.chrisbattconsulting.com/resourceshttp://www.slideshare.net/Chris_Batt

chrisbatt.wordpress.comTwitter: @chrisbatt

Digipedia Project

Digitisation, Curation and Two-Way Engagement

Tredinnick, L. Digital Information Cultures

Shirky, C. Here Comes Everybody

Keen, A. The Cult of the Amateur

Leadbeater, C. We Think

Postman, N. Building Bridges to the Eighteenth

Century

Galaxy Zoo

Great War Archive

Steve: The Museum Social Tagging Project

Guardian MPs Expenses crowdsourcing

Trafigura and Twitter

Europeana

Strategic Content Alliance

BBC/Public Catalogue Foundation

BBC and Open University

BM/BBC History of the World in 100 Objects

Edgeless University

Open University on You Tube

Open University on iTunesU

Libraries of the Future

Beyond Current Horizons

REFERENCES

www.digipedia13.orangeleaf.org

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/reports/2009/digicurationfinalreport.a

spx

2008, Chandos

2008, Penguin

2006, Doubleday

www.wethinkthebook.net/home.aspx

1999, Vintage Books

http://www.galaxyzoo.org/

www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/gwa/

www.steve.museum/

mps-expenses.guardian.co.uk/

www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/oct/13/twitter-online-outcry-

guardian-trafigura

www.europeana.eu/

www.jisc.ac.uk/contentalliance

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jan/28/bbc-

digitalmedia

www.open2.net/

www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/

http://www.demos.co.uk/files/Edgeless_University_-

_web.pdf

www.youtube.com/user/TheOpenUniversity

Access via iTunes

http://www.futurelibraries.info/content/

www.beyondcurrenthorizons.org.uk/

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