topic 4 knowledge management too big to know
TRANSCRIPT
Knowledge Management: TOO BIG TO KNOW?
David Weinberger
Andrea HernandezHaitao WangXintong Li
HOW COULD WE DEAL WITH KNOWLEDGE IN A WEB SOCIETY?
In the past, we had the following assumptions about knowledge:
Knowledge will create a picture of the world.
We can build up knowledge brick-by-brick (even if it takes long time).
We can take it into pieces and nail it down (and that part won't change).
Knowledge is the real stuff, and like gold, we can filter it out from vast amount of ideas.
What is the knowledge?
The system is designed to have stopping points. If we trust the expert, and he/she gives the answer, we can close the issue, we don't need to repeat the experiment or ask another one.
Stopping Point
Knowledge on the Paper
A perfect stopping point A hugely disconnected medium Investigation gets very expensive Very restricted
Knowledge On The NetThe medium is changing from Paper to Net:
Issues:I.Information OverloadII.MessyIII.UnsettledIV.Scattered
I. Information overload1. New knowledge appear every day:
So many books and periodicals So many web pages
2. Problems:
Getting information more than you can process
Poor memory retention Endless search for answers
Filters in the printed world1. Old Filter :
The local library Deleted or disconnected
ManuscriptsLibrary
Knowledge on the Net really doesn’t have a shape
It is
No foundationBoundary-freeWideInfinite
Internet Information Messiness
III. Unsettled
Every link expresses some difference between the page that we are on and the one that we are being sent to.
Is only because of this Link - Difference the web has a value.
Problem:
What we see on the web, is only disagreement.
Echo ChambersWe like to be with people who are like us.
If we are living in echo chambers on the Internet, then it doesn’t matter how many differences, disagreements, and points of view are present.
• Knowledge is hiding from diversity.
• We exclude more differences
than ever before
IV. Scattered
The knowledge on the Net is scattered, and doesn't follow the
long-form arguments like a book
“Web-form”“Long-form”
• In a book we start from A and we try to get to Z.
• Books are loosing their place as the Pyramid of Knowledge
• Knowledge lives on the Network now
Knowledge lives on the network
Knowledge actually lives on this network, of people corresponding, disagreeing, agreeing, enhancing, differing in every possible way
Why old knowledge systems are so fragile?
Traditional
Knowledge
Bounded Settled Ordered Proceeded step by step
Knowledge in the
Age of Internet
Unbounded Overwhelming Unsettled Messy
How could we deal with network knowledge in a web society?
Strategies: Networking of Knowledge
1. open access journals, repositories, encyclopedias, etc.
2. Provide the hooks for intelligence: create more metadata to solve the information overload problem.
3. Link everything
4.Leave no institutional knowledge behind Institutions provide isolates thought. The Net is not going to tear down all institutions Institutions need to be fierce contributors to the Net Toward knowledge and not dazed ignorance.
5.Teach everyone: How to use the Net How to evaluate knowledge claims How to love difference Net provides us with growth and knowledge