The
Web has been the proving ground of much that can now be brought into
the enterprise network, and not the least of its great achievements has
been demonstrating that the uncertain science of knowledge management
can spread its wings and soar using the lessons of Web 2.0 tools and
events.
Luis Suarez in his ITtoolbox blog alerts us to an important piece of work contained in a podcast interview last month:
“Yes, indeed, I am talking about the superb podcast
put together by Jon Husband interviewing Dave Snowden on the Impact of
Web 2.0 on Knowledge Management and knowledge workers. I realise that
there is very little that I would need to add to describe the stunning
piece of work that both Jon and Dave have done over the course of the
years around the subject of Knowledge Management, but when Jon advised
me the podcast was live I just couldn’t help bouncing up and down as I
knew I was off to a wonderful trip down the memory lane on where KM was
and where it is today with regards to social computing.” – The Impact of Web 2.0 on Knowledge Work and Knowledge Management by Dave Snowden and Jon Husband – Part I
A podcast is a two-edged sword for a
publisher, and a compromised medium for a consumer. In a digital age
the podcast reverts the situation to analog by requiring that each
minute of spoken voice takes an equivalent minute of somebody’s time to
hear. Absent a written, digitized transcript, all the technological
advantages of the current age are lost.
Ironically,
as digital technology allows increasingly more people to work from
home, only the remaining commuters in their cars have the time to
listen to a podcast. We've written about digital voice.
“The advent of digitized knowledge changes
everything. Knowledge reduced to text is explicit, and can be
digitized, and meta-described, and managed by software.
“This is why spoken voice is only used in knowledge
management to the extent that it can be transcribed. Don’t look for a
network of podcasts and speakerphones to become the enterprise
knowledge management system, not unless perfect text transcription
accompanies them. Voice recognition is still not perfect, but is hugely
important for the future capture of ambient knowledge.” – Web 3.0 and Enterprise Knowledge
All this aside, the discussion between two
experts in the field of knowledge management and knowledge work in the
knowledge economy is a landmark, and worthy of attention. We’ll spend
some time reviewing conclusions and commentary on the themes of the
interview.
Thanks to other bloggers like Luis we have partial transcription of the interview, and here’s a taste of summary from Ray Sims:
“If you are asking ‘how to create a knowledge sharing
culture?,’ you really don’t understand. It is a stupid question.
Rather, ask ‘what you can do to encourage and facilitate connections?’
Leading to…the best role for a KM Director today is to help facilitate connections.” – Great conversation: Dave Snowden and Jon Husband
