Words of Wisdom from 1994
by Bill Ives
I am old enough to remember when 1984 was the distance future and now 1994 is the distant past. Here are some words of wisdom from Tom Davenport that certainly apply to enterprise 2.0. Thanks to James Dellow for pointing to Tom’s 1994 HBR article, Saving IT’s Soul: Human-Centered Information Management. Here Tom presents a manifesto for building information systems that focus on how people use information, rather than machines. He suggests that human centered information management should:
1. Focus on broad information types;
2. Emphasize information use and sharing;
3. Assume transience of solutions;
4. Assume multiple meanings of terms;
5. Continue until desired behavior is achieved enterprisewide;
6. Build point-specific structures;
7. Assume compliance is gained over time through influence; and
8. Let individuals design their own information environments.
While these are general points that many of us might agree with today, they were more innovative at the time, the early days of knowledge management. They remain relevant today since the non-technical side of enterprise 2.0 is more important than the technical side, just as it was for enterprise .05 (or any other number). People with this vision might be inclined to see enterprise 2.0 as simply a continuation rather than a radical departure as James suggests. Personally while I see the continuation from past attempts at people and process centered knowledge management, I also think there are some radical differences as we have discussed on this blgo and elsewhere.
