Thoughts on class March 20

From The Social Life of Information by John Seely Brown, Paul Duguid

Process: how you’re “supposed” to do things, the proper form
Practice: how things really get done, relationships, spontaneity

Information: exists on its own, non-human
Knowledge: applied~the use of information, behind knowledge is always a “knower,” a commodity within people that is often overlooked, hard to quantify

In both of these cases, must contain balance…

“communities of practice”
Vehicles for passing knowledge on

Explicit Knowledge: being able to use a dictionary
Tacit Knowledge: intuitive ideas about what “looks right,” knowledge that resides in the body, that we naturally have access to

Sticky (within an organization, difficult to move, gives advantage) and Leaky (flowing) knowledge “if only HP knew what HP knows,” context makes all the difference

Sticky, stick, stuck
Confusing information with knowledge, hierarchy, strict function and discipline processes, reliance on formal education, assuming essential info is capturable

Leaky
Teams, cross-discipline, social context, when do you not care? When you’re able to do something no one else can do in an artful way you may not care about simply the info

The value of junk time