>Conclusion: While we might strive to improve information management and
>decision making by the use of technology and the discovery of new ways to
>conceptualize the common characteristic of time, if we are not striving to
>solve the growing dilemma of practical selection methodologies, we may be
>part of the dilemma not the resolution.
Steve:
IMHO, What you describe appears to be the beginning of the end of the
generalist, for a while at least. You are correct, I feel, in the
implication of a dilemma in the choosing of the materials that are
important to any given topic. With the explosion of the ability to post,
transmit, and communicate effectively any and all ideas whether factually
based or the ranting of a deviant mind, the ability to choose and to use
becomes ever more important. This is, I feel, where the science - yes
science - of Knowledge Management will mature. The big push in Education
for the last half century has been the use of technology as a tool to
improve the delivery of learning. Now that the tool is self-perpetuating
and the amount of information and material is growing on an exponential
scale there will be another "dark age" of information. The last dark age
was, to some extent, a time when the amount of information available to
the masses was too overpowering. The idea that the earth was not the
center of the universe and that there was a possibility of other people
and countries besides European was an informational overload. At the same
time theories and tales and manuscripts (mostly religion based) espousing
all manners of new and different things led people to pull into their
philosophical and ideological turtle shells and hide from the world. We
are at the same cross roads again. This "dark age" will only last a short
while because we are recognizing the signs and symptoms earlier and are
being pro-active in finding solutions. But until we develop the system
you are talking about we are going to have the chaos of At and a slight
halting of forward progress, a kind of stuttering of the time line. We
are at one of At's bifurcation's.
My $0.02 !
Bruce W. Jones
Organizational Development Specialist
Northwest Texas Healthcare System
Amarillo, Texas
brucej@nwths.com
brucewj@amaonline.com
http://www.scenemaker.com/anon/495/cover.dhtml
--"Bruce Jones" <brucej@nwths.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>