A few days back I finished Everything is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger. I highly-highly recommend the book to anyone who works in technology... It will give you a nice fresh perspective on information organization and the push/pull between structured and unstructured systems. Out of everything in the book, the prettiest gem came on the very last page:
"It's not what you know, and it's not even who you know. It's how much knowledge you give away. Hoarding knowledge diminishes your power, because it diminishes your presence."
I have been thinking about this phrase for almost five days straight now... I don't think there is a better paragraph that single-handedly communicates why social software is necessary. This goes for both personal and professional environments, both behind the firewall and outside the firewall.
I work a lot on Enterprise social software adoption and I am constantly running into "Why should I blog?" or more generally, people wonder what they get out of contributing... I plan to make Weinberger's quote a very big part of my presentations going forward.
Very cool post. I will look into that book too. (although I have to finish the world is flat first)
Posted by: Cherie | August 24, 2007 at 03:34 PM