Building the Knowledge Management Network: Best Practices, Tools, and Techniques for Putting Conversation to Work

Part 1. Cave Walls to CRTs: The Landscape of Knowledge Networking

The first three chapters of this book bring us up to date with the status of knowledge networking as we enter the 21st century. Chapter 1, "Knowledge, History, and the Industrial Organization," is meant to remind us that sharing what we know is an important part of our human heritage. Our current efforts to rediscover and reactivate these ancestral skills have been complicated in large part by the hierarchical management philosophies that grew out of industrialization and its emphasis on feeding the demands of mass markets. Chapter 2, "Using the Net to Share What People Know," takes us through the transition from Industrial Age mentality to Information Age mentality and the accompanying transformation of management philosophy that has come with the widespread adoption of the Internet and the Web. Information management has become a necessity, and as the tools and connectivity have advanced, the concept of knowledge networking has been born. Chapter 3, "Strategy and Planning for the Knowledge Network," considers the many challenges that organizations face in changing their cultures, perspectives, and habits to support the smooth and efficient flow of knowledge and competence among their workers using the new tools of the Net.