Michelle Gallen :: Blog :: Information vs Knowledge, Bookmarking vs Memorising

http://www.liquidelearning.com/2007/08/information-vs-knowledge-bookma

This post started off as a reply to Christian's comment on my Burning the Libraries - Bombing the Data Centres post. But it wanted more space.

When I was growing up, I learned what I knew from these main sources:

- people teaching me things they knew (like how to tie your shoelaces, where to get the sweetest blackberries in Autumn
- a limited number of books (purchased in bookstores, or borrowed from libraries)
- TV (both educational and entertainment)
- newspapers
- school

I read a book a day as a child. I read anything I could get my hands on, mostly because the supply was so limited. And I learned what I could where I could.

But now the Internet gives us 24/7/365 access to almost any information in a bewildering array of formats. And Christian has asked said that the challenge is not now in getting information to people, but rather in making sure information is "being continuously accessed and kept alive in the minds of individuals...to create the conditions which sustain a dimension of human capital which results in the data being continually accessed and "embedded" in living humans."

I don't think that this is a new problem...we've had this problem for centuries. We've always had information...but have we always embedded it, shared it and used it?

And I feel this issue now compounded by new problems. Our digital information formats haven't been around long - we're still learning how best to use them. We have to figure out how to get people to read and understand our digital information. And once they've read it, how do we get them to remember it?

The way I work now, when I read any information, I make a decision about whether or not I need to store the fact. If it's something I know I can access on the Internet via mobile or my laptop, I often make a decision not to remember the information. If it's something I've read in a book, I often make digital notes so I can quickly access the information later on my trusty laptop, rather than trying to find the book. But this information is just data. It stays on my PC. I can come back and find it, but it doesn't feel like part of the knowledge I carry in my head.

However, some information is so amazing, so sticky, so exciting or so interesting it just embeds itself in my head. I don't get a choice. And this then becomes part of my knowledge.

I agree with Christian - Libraries or the Internet can contain infinite amounts of information. But it's how we use that information, the connections and deductions we make, that create knowledge. I guess data/information are like building blocks. But knowledge is what enables us draw up the architect's plans.