Informal knowledge sharing versus knowledge management

There was an interesting post recently by Joe McKendrick in the FASTForward Blog called "Social Media Versus Knowledge Management: Generational War?" The argument is that young and hip workers prefer to share knowledge informally using Web 2.0 tools like a Wiki, whereas the old fogies prefer a top-down approach, driven by a formal knowledge-sharing software tool. The fact is that the old approach has been around for quite some time, and if I'm not mistaken, it hasn't done all that well. The main problem is that when you present a tool with the specific purpose of sharing knowledge, people ignore it.

It could be that people want to squirrel away information because they see knowledge as power--giving it away means you're giving away a piece of your personal fiefdom. Whatever the reason, the "old-fashioned" 90s approach to knowledge management never seemed to catch fire in the enterprise. Everybody recognizes the importance of sharing knowledge in this fashion--and to some extent content management itself helps in this regard--but too few people were willing to do the work to make it happen.

That's what's so intriguing to me about Web 2.0 as a knowledge sharing tool. With this approach, you are not formalizing knowledge management. Instead it becomes integrated in the work flow of your life. You micro blog with your colleagues and it becomes part of the record. You add a comment to a blog and it becomes part of the record. You post a link to your latest report or add a work around to the department Wiki and it all becomes available to the larger community of the enterprise. You are sharing without even thinking about it; and as you share, you become a more valuable member of the community.

For more:
- read the blog article

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Web 2.0 transforms enterprise content management