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David Weinberger |
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David Weinberger is an American technologist, professional speaker, and commentator, probably best known as co-author of the Cluetrain Manifesto. (Credit: Wikipedia)
Blog Post ![]() Posted to Gurteen Knowledge-Log by David Gurteen on 26 March 2002 ![]() Gurteen Knowledge-Log, David Gurteen, 29 March 2002 ![]() Gurteen Knowledge-Log, David Gurteen, 24 August 2002 ![]() Gurteen Knowledge-Log, David Gurteen, 29 December 2002 ![]() Gurteen Knowledge-Log, David Gurteen, 23 February 2003 ![]() Gurteen Knowledge-Log, David Gurteen, 2 May 2004 ![]() Posted to Gurteen Knowledge-Log by David Gurteen on 11 February 2010 ![]() Posted to Gurteen Knowledge-Log by David Gurteen on 22 August 2012 ![]() Posted to Gurteen Knowledge-Log by David Gurteen on 18 January 2013 ![]() Posted to Gurteen Knowledge-Log by David Gurteen on 28 May 2014 ![]() Posted to Gurteen Knowledge-Log by David Gurteen on 28 April 2019 Book ![]() The Power of the New Digital Disorder ![]() A Unified Theory of the Web ![]() ![]() ![]() The End of Business as Usual Link ![]() Person ![]() Quotation ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Quotations from David Weinberger: ![]() David Weinberger ![]() You can only have a conversation if you're not afraid of being wrong. Otherwise, you're not conversing, you're just declaiming, speechifying, or reading what's on the PowerPoints. To converse, you have to be willing to be wrong in front of another person. Conversations occur between equals. The time your boss's boss asked you at a meeting about your project's deadline was not a conversation. The time you sat with your boss for an hour in the Polynesian-themed bar while on a business trip and you really talked, got past the corporate bullshit, told each other the truth about the dangers ahead, and ended up talking about your kids - that maybe was a conversation. David Weinberger ![]() Most important in this regard, where the decisions are tough and knowledge is hard to come by, knowledge is not determined by information, for it is the knowing process that first decides which information is relevant, and how it is to be used. David Weinberger ![]() David Weinberger ![]() In fact, it'd be right to say that we already *know* way too much. KM isn't about helping us to know more. It's about helping us to understand. Knowledge without understanding is like, well, information.” So, how do we understand things? From the first accidental wiener roast on a prehistoric savannah, we've understood things by telling stories. It's through stories that we understand how the world works. David Weinberger ![]() We don't understand what's going on in our business, our market, and our world. In fact, it'd be right to say that we already *know* way too much. KM isn't about helping us to know more. It's about helping us to understand. Knowledge without understanding is like, well, information. David Weinberger ![]() It should be about helping us to understand better. David Weinberger ![]() The characteristics of conversations map to the conditions for genuine knowledge generation and sharing: they're unpredictable interactions among people speaking in their own voice about something they're interested in. The conversants implicitly acknowledge that they don't have all the answers (or else the conversation is really a lecture) and risk being wrong in front of someone else. And conversations overcome the class structure of business, suspending the organization chart at least for a little while. If you think about the aim of Knowledge Management as enabling better conversations rather than lassoing stray knowledge doggies, you end up focusing on breaking down the physical and class barriers to conversation. And if that's not what Knowledge Management is really about, then you ought to be doing it anyway. David Weinberger ![]() This professional voice is distinctive. And weird. Taken out of context, it is as mannered as the ritualistic dialogue of the 17th-century French court. David Weinberger ![]() Our voice is expressed in our own words, our tone, our body language, our visible enthusiasms. David Weinberger ![]() ![]() But information is unsatisfying because it's managed; to make it manageable, we strip out context and voice. So, if we identify something called knowledge and then insist on managing it, we'll repeat the problem that gave rise to our desire for knowledge. Conclusion? If you want to get past information, you have to give up all hope of managing your - and others' - understanding of the world. Also, you can't do it yourself: all understanding is social by definition. David Weinberger
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