Knowledge and Learning In The News - 3/9/05

Knowledge at the Top and Bottom One of the most human characteristics of human knowledge is that the "top" of the knowledge heap and the "bottom" of the knowledge heap, while they may seem far apart, are intimately related and not necessarily removed from each other. Blogs and the values of journalism For me, the defining moment at the "Blogging, Journalism and Credibility" conference held at Harvard recently came in an exchange between Jimmy Wales, creator of Wikipedia, and Jill Abramson, managing editor of The New York Times. Abramson was responding to the idea that blogs could displace traditional news-gathering organizations. "Do you know how much it takes to run our Baghdad operation?" she asked. "One million dollars." Wales responded that the Encyclopedia Britannica is a $350 million operation but Wikipedia is "kicking its butt." Teamwork: Close Doesn't Always Count in Winning Games (free subscription required) Social scientists who have studied group performance under pressure say that often it is decentralized groups (like the Yankees) that prove more resilient than strongly connected ones (like the Red Sox); they are better able to weather outside criticism and internal quarrels. Three things about knowledge management FOR many, the main commodity they can trade is knowledge. Our value is based on what and who we know, rather than what we are able to produce.