“The Information Age offers much to mankind, and I would like to think that we will rise to the challenges it presents. But it is vital to remember that information— in the sense of raw data— is not knowledge, that knowledge is not wisdom, and that wisdom is not foresight. But information is the first essential step to all of these.”
- Arthur C. Clark
This is a famous quote from science fiction writer Sir Clark it tells us about the way chunks of data creates knowledge and chunks of knowledge leads to wisdom that could lead to foresight. Internet is a vast repository of data. It could be used to create useful knowledge. In our context that would be defined by four C’s
1. Content creation
2. Communication
3. Collaboration
4. Coordination/discussion/consensus
This is also the process of knowledge creation that is advocated by the Constructivist approach. The importance of the of communication/collaboration/discussion in knowledge creation process makes web 2.o tools ideally suited to implement this process. All the social tools are designed to mimic these processes. In contrast to this Web 1.0 based tools resembled close to old mass media where there was very little participation from the group.
Sir Clark also has another famous quote “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
– Arthur C Clarke’s Third Law.
Tags: Collaboration, communication, constructivism, creation, discussion, knowledge
April 9, 2008 at 9:58 pm |
Although the information era will certainly help the most lagged societies (in terms of human progress) update, the Internet is a wild jungle full of options that is becoming socially overwhelming for a lot of individuals. I am afraid there is a silent need that is not evident now: to gather efforts again pro more comfortable and fair societies. Good post, anyway.