Monday, July 22, 2002

Organizational Memory

With overtones of Englebart's groupware idea this is a great paper about developing software for "organizational memory". He talks about how information has a duality like photons. It's also alarming to think that in order to avoid litigation companies are purging their corporate knowledge bases. He also suggests that people listen in meetings - we can all dream.

"An organizational memory that consists only of formal knowledge is bare and lifeless. It is like describing the ball game by giving the statistics, or the mystery novel by simply relating the plot outline. It also lacks the history and context behind the formal documents, and as result, the organizational "memory" is essentially an immense heap of disconnected things, a giant organizational attic. Documents that contain formal knowledge that the organization has paid dearly to create live somewhere on the corporate network with enlightening names like "H:\org\finan\arc\drg\693plan.doc." (Note 6)"

http://www.gdss.com/wp/DOM.htm

No comments: