David Weinberger, the author of (most notably) The Cluetrain Manifesto and other books wondered why, with all the information we have around us, are we not drowning in information. With the question came the answer: the antidote to information overload is more information.
We order ‘stuff’. He used laundry as an example. When folding we first separate it out by person, then body part, then type of clothing on that body part. This order is meta-data. We, as a corporation, like trees. Org charts are the perfect example of trees. The big difference now is that everything is digital. Because of this, there isn’t a difference between data and meta-data.
Imagine – you go to Google Books to look for a specific book by Shakespeare because you don’t remember the names of the two families. You type in “Romeo and Juliet”. You find the Montagues and Capulets. While you are in there you notice that the first line of the book reads, “Two households, both alike in dignity.” What happens when you search for that phrase? That’s right, you get Romeo and Juliet. Everything becomes meta-data. Everything can be searched.
The information we help others learn is the same way. If they want to learn it all they need to do is search it, or a part of it, or any part of it. It doesn’t matter. They can find what they are looking for at any time on anything.
Traditional learning is categorized in a hierarchical structure. “The new employee will learn about mutual funds under 401Ks, under Benefits, under HR.” The structure is meta-data. So we train them on it. What happens when it comes time for them to use it? They have forgotten the information. Oh, that’s right. What class did I learn that in? Which ‘folder’ would it be under?
It is difficult to structure knowledge. Why do it? We don’t know what each person needs when they need it. We can’t tell others what they are interested in. And we don’t have to. Let them figure out what they need and find it.
New ways to structure (if it can even be called that) allows us to find the answer quickly, without knowing the structure. Knowledge is now (or can be) at our finger tips at any time we need it, when we need it and only the parts we need.
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There is one part I want to point out that someone else mentioned. When the web came along people preached the end of the brick and mortar store. Others said that the web wouldn’t change anything. Boy were they both wrong. I agree in the context of learning. I do not propose that training be abolished, that there isn’t a need for structured learning. Up until this time almost everything we did was of this sort. But I do believe that there will be a shift of learning – indeed there already has been a shift. There is a place, however, for traditional training and learning. It will never go away. What I am proposing is that there is a different way, a way in which users will both be engaged and personalize the information to fit themselves. This, used in the right way, is an expansion of the learning structure.
