In case anyone is still reading this blog the Online Information Show (2007 edition) takes place next week at Olympia.
Over 200 exhibitors
Co-located with the Information Management Solutions Show
Sold-out conference programme featuring Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia
Full details about this year's show can be found here. This blog will be resurrected as the home of news about future shows. Keep it bookmarked.
The Online Information Team
www.online-information.co.uk/
David Weinberger, co-author of the Cluetrain Manifesto, offers this remark about how we may be learning from Wikipedia:
What are our students learning from the success of Wikipedia? We hope they're learning that they can't be passive recipients of knowledge. But they're also learning that authority doesn't come only through chains of credentials; that we can get on the same page about what we know; that knowing involves be willing to back away from your beliefs at times; that knowledge is a social product, or at least heavily socially contextualized; that the willingness to admit fallibility is a greater indicator of truth than speaking in a confident tone of voice; that knowledge lives in conversation, not in the heads of experts; that certain people who do not need to be named are just impossible.
Yes, David's comment was directly aimed at students, but anyone who has even the most minimal experience using Wikipedia can probably relate to some of the sentiments he relates. Now ask yourself: Could I, or anyone in my company, or my customers, benefit from moving that experience from the personal to the business realm?
You may not think so, but even the most basic office functions could benefit from wikis. Too much dynamic content is locked up in static formats. Even if you only grow by a few heads a year, how much sense does it make to keep a staff phone list in an Excel spreadsheet? And I bet there's a lot of information floating around your company, and that everyone has some of it, but no one has access to all of it.
Are you using wikis at work? If so, how? The applications are endless, but I'm interested to hear how you may be using them.
Again, apologies for not getting details straight, like surname, but I can work out that he's saying McGill University in Montreal. Anyone know Louis and able to supply a full name?
Sorry my Hungarian friends, I didn't get your surnames and I can't make out clearly enough from the video where it is that you work, but I trust some eagle-eyed commenters will be able to fill in these blanks.
"Create a strategy for information - how do you know what it should be? Well whatever it is you need to do it, you need to have one. If Knowledge is Power then why don't we have a strategic approach to information - how are we going to use it. MOst people would tacitly agree, but they would have no idea how - maybe they could look to you. Basic point is If we deliver the right information to the right people in the right way it will help us meet our goals. There are no villains here, it's that they really don't know - it's not neglect it's lack of understanding - this is a whole new idea, a new discipline. Either get a strategy, or quit saying Information is Power, because you're not behaving as if it were. Bring this contradiction up, talk about it, work out whether and how information is valuable to your organisation."
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Blogs were the big talking point on the second day of the conference. Blogger accreditation was kindly provided by Nancy Garman of Information Today.
]]>We were not allowed to take photos (boo) but there are plenty here. You get the idea.*
*Before you ask, yes, she was fully clothed.
]]>Here you will meet the charming Matthew Gerry. He will be able to run through all aspects of blogging, demo blog software and, hopefully, answer all your burning questions about blogging.
Don't be scared, blog people don't bite.
]]>So for those of you who aren't here, this is the hugely condensed version.
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David Weinberger, in his usual fashion, this morning stirred up an audience of information professionals by telling them the "old ways are dying, if not already dead".
Nervous laughter echoed around the room. But, in between the laughter, you could almost hear some deep thinking taking place. Engage with the New World or seek early retirement.
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Oh, sorry, I thought you said Le Meur...
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