Comments on: Remember to share and play nice

By: Information Wants To Be Free » Blog Archive » My year in blog

Information Wants To Be Free » Blog Archive » My year in blog — Wed, 16 Nov 2005 13:25:30 +0000

[...] November 2005 Favorite Post: So far, Remember to share and play nice Important Event: Writing and writing and writing [...]

By: Ryan

Ryan — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 19:08:35 +0000

As much as I appreciate the importance of knowledge sharing, I’d like to remind people just how far the world has come on this end in just about 15 years. I mean, imagine how powerful the systems people were before the introduction of Windows-like technology. When Steven Jobs designed the Mac, and when Microsoft mass-marketed Windows, they freed many institutions from the tyrany of the techies. Before Windows, everything required the stamp of approval from a techy, because most of the world did not know DOS or C or BASIC or Assembly or whatever. Now, most of us can be our own techies and create and design our own innovative IT solutions to regular problems. Hurray!

Partnerships are always tricky when it comes down to it. Sharing “ideas” is not always given due credit when it comes down to negotiating agreements, and even when you are totally forthcoming with your institutional knowledge, you are still apt to hear “they don’t really give us anything substantial” and then you find yourself shafted when the tangible resources (money, collections etc.) are being distributed. That’s not a reason not to share ideas, but it does get frustrating at times.

By: Dorothea Salo

Dorothea Salo — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 13:58:40 +0000

We can’t undermine that complexity; it’s inherently complex. Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.

What you describe frustrates me too, Meredith. I tend to think of it as software developers do their competitors: there’s little point to hoarding knowledge about your code, because every minute your competitors spend reading and trying to imitate it is a minute *you* can spend innovating to stay ahead of them.

That’s not, however, a message that seems to go all that far in librarianship, sadly…

By: Schneidevich

Schneidevich — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 00:06:26 +0000

Notwithstanding the valuable techniques for knowledge-sharing touted by knowledge managers everywhere and for good reason, knowledge-sharing takes place intuitively through basic social interactions. Of course, knoweldge managers want jobs as do librarians. No one particular ‘information professional’ (or, if you prefer, knowledge professional), can know everything. This much is clear from the example of academic librarians in Vermont (or anywhere else for that matter). Now, as diverse individuals with diverse talents it makes sense to pool our resources and benefit from our respective expertise. As reference librarians we also need to educate our clients without undermining the complexity of both the virtual and physical bibliographic universe; otherwise they’ll think they know everthing and we’ll be left to look for minimum-wage telemarketing positions in the new economy.

By: K.G. Schneider

K.G. Schneider — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 00:11:16 +0000

Rock on. I hear you a thousandfold.