Entering this class I was not exactly sure what to expect or how I would apply what I learn in this topic. My background from my undergrad and previous courses taken last year at the masters level were in Organizational communications. Prior to starting this class I knew very little about knowledge management, and never really thought twice about how I personally organize my own data and the methods I use. Although we spent the past four months attempting to master this topic and understand how to categorize information, I feel there is still so much to learn. From the lectures and the majority of the presentations I gathered that as technology develops and becomes more advanced so do the methods in which we sort, distribute and categorize data. While researching and preparing this blog entry I came across a few different definitions and terms used to define knowledge management. My understanding based on the lectures and research material is that the definition and methods of knowledge management vary depending on what department it is being used in. In a report titled Knowledge Management: Background Paper for the Development of a Knowledge Management Strategy for Public Health in Canada by Nancy Dubois and Tricia Wilkerson (2008), knowledge management was defined as “the systematic process by which knowledge needed for an organization to succeed is created, captured, shared and leveraged” (p.11). In this report the researchers “provides an overview of KM and identifies pertinent issues, questions and implications surrounding the potential development of a solid, systemic and strategic approach to KM for public health in Canada
An area that was covered in the class and has been discussed in much of the research I conducted both for my book reviews and this blog are the two types of knowledge being, explicit and tacit. As defined in Dubois, N., & Wilkerson, T. (2008), “explicit knowledge can be thought of as ‘book knowledge’ – available in a spoken or written form and is the ordering of data and information according to well-defined, formalized procedures or rules” (p. 11). The explicit knowledge is something that is tangible and codified, which I find to be similar to intrinsic motivation which was discussed by Clay Shirky in Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age. Tacit knowledge however, “resides within the people of the organization and is not formalized into written or documented forms” (Dubois, N., & Wilkerson, T., 2008, p.11). Thinking back to the diagrams we covered in class tacit knowledge must be transformed in explicit knowledge. The interactive diagram shown aboove explains the transformation of tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge (Retrieved from: http://www.research.ibm.com/knowsoc/project_summary.html)
Another way of looking at tacit to explicit knowledge is through the diagram presented by Dubois, N., & Wilkerson, T. (2008) titled From Data to Wisdom: a hierarchy of knowledge. In this diagram they show the transformation of information as a pyramid. It begins with wisdom which is then transformed into insight and knowledge, which leads to meaning and information to form a context and lastly codified into data. What I found really helpful in understanding the future of knowledge and knowledge management, along with a reassurance that technology and the notion of collective intelligence can be a positive move for society are the two independent study books.
The two books provided very different perspectives on technology and how society as a whole is changing as more and more information needs to be sorted. In the novel Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age, Clay Shirky (2010) an area that I found most interesting was when he discussed information sharing. Prior to the internet, consumption was the primary use of media, where as he argues today, “media is actually like a triathlon, with three different events: people like to consume, but they also like to produce, and to share” (Shirky, C., 2010, p. 22). His argument is that society no longer acts as passive viewers. People are interested and excited to share information with their communities. He claims that the invitation to participate and that the “access to cheap, flexible tools removes many of the barriers to trying new things” (p. 17). He breaks down why people get involved into three areas – Means, Motive and Opportunity . As defined in the book, the “means and motive are the how and why of particular action, and opportunity is the where and with whom” (p. 28). Over the years the ‘mean’ has changed dramatically. With the introduction and advancement of the internet and new technologies society has the ability to connect and communication faster and easier. As new forms of communication technologies emerged so did the ability to connect and share information more conveniently. The ‘mean’ extends people sharing opinions and generating discussion on certain issues to sharing information, and creating and publishing material for everyone to access.
What I found even more interesting is what motivates people to get involved or participate in information sharing. Shirky uses Deci’s two types of motivation, intrinsic and extrinsic, “intrinsic motivations are those in which the activity itself is the reward” and “extrinsic motivations are those in which the reward for doing something is external to the activity, not the activity itself” (p. 72). For more information on motivation, particularly in a workplace check out Daniel Pink’s book Drive. Shirky claims that the majority of what is shared online is intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation has two ‘personal’ motivators “the desire to be autonomous (to be determined what we do and how we do it) and the desire to be competent (to be good at what we do)” (p. 75). 
What technology has enabled is the opportunity to explore this intrinsic motivation and information sharing. He claims that “we have always wanted to be autonomous, competent, and connected; it’s just we that now social media has become an environment for enhancing those desires, rather than suppressing them” (p.84). Although some are sceptical of how much information is ‘out there’ and deciphering what opinion or statement is correct, “increasing the amount of knowledge you have can be transformative [and] this is what makes the ways a society shares knowledge so critical” (p. 140). The idea of community and sharing information is thoroughly explored in the book Live in the Future & Here’s How It Works: Why Your World, Work, and Brain Are Being Creatively Disrupted by Nick Bilton (2010). Prior to reading either of these books I myself was a little sceptical of technology and how it is transforming what we share, who we share with and how much information we have access to. However, after this class and the material I have read I understand there is still a lot of research to be done, but if handled and monitored properly collective intelligence and information sharing does not seem so scary.
References:
(May, 2010). Cognitive Surplus: The Great Spare-Time Revolution.Wired Magazine ,18(6). Retrieved October 13, 2011 from http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/05/ff_pink_shirky/all/1
Bilton, Nick. (2010). I Live in the Future & Here’s How It Works: Why Your World, Work, and Brain Are Being Creatively Disrupted. New York
Davis, J. G., Subrahmanian, E., & Westerberg, A. (2005). Knowledge Management : Organizational and Technological Dimensions. Heidelberg , Germany
Dubois, N., & Wilkerson, T. (2008). Knowledge Management: Background Paper for the Development of a Knowledge Management Strategy for Public Health in Canada
Health Agency of Canada
McGronigal, Jane. (2011). Reality is Broken: Why Games Make us Better and How they
Change the World. New York
Pink, Daniel. (2009). Drive: the surprising truth about what motivates us. New York
Shirky, Clay. (2010).Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age. New York
