Month: October 2002

Human Side of Knowledge Management

The Human Side of Knowledge Management. Slides (pdf) (via Seb and Thomas) from John Seeley Brown, plugging his book “The Social Life of Knowledge”. Basic message is knowledge is socially constructed, so design any system, be it physical office organisation, training courses or computer applications to encourage social interaction – “conversation” metaphor. He’ll get no argument from me. [Some good graphics to re-use elsewhere – Rate of processing power / storage capacity doubling periods + plus the community law, knowledge value equals 2 to the power of n connected users. Explicit vs tacit knowledge iceberg, and several more including the obligatory BCG 2×2 grid and “virtuous circle” cliches.]

Metaphors We Live By

Metaphors We Live By. From JOHO’s booklist. Blogged several earlier mentions about how metaphorical aphorisms often seemed closer to the truth than any apparently rational view of a reality being described. (Part of my main thesis in fact as “many a true word”.) Bizarre, but here’s a book by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson on that very subject. Hmmmm. I’m due to start a new book this week too ?

JOHO also comments on “Affective Computing” by Rosalind Picard [Quote] Raises questions about our assumption that rationality is the king of consciousness. [Unquote] I should say so.

JOHO’s Weinberger is also one of the contributors to “Cluetrain”. Ref The Cluetrain Manifesto : The End of Business as Usual. Intersting that an “e-biz” dot.com marketing hype book should still draw rave reviews in 2002. Good stuff about how it’s “humans” actually communicating even if the medium is the web. The human interactivity theme is very evocative of Douglas Adams thoughts on the web. This one caught my eye [Quote] No.29 (of 95) Elvis said it best: “We can’t go on together with suspicious minds.” [Unquote] IMHO – there is clearly an element of trust across a hyperlink, presumed or negotiated, about the communication you’re about to receive. [Post note – Just started reading Eco’s “Kant and the Platypus”, and he also talks of communicating knowledge being like a contract.]

[Quote] If you only have time for one clue this year [and can’t be bothered to read the other 94], this is the one to get… “We are not seats, or eyeballs, [or hits], or users, or consumers. We are human beings, and our reach exceeds your grasp. Deal with it.”[Unquote]