By Steve Barth
The point of this column is to explore personal tools that can automate, accelerate or augment human processes of individual knowledge work without being dependent on the technical or financial resources of a corporate IT department. But it's important not to pursue tools for their own sake if they don't truly improve the efficiency and effectiveness in ways that enhance both individual and collective efforts.
One way to maintain that focus is to evaluate PKM tools in a framework originally developed by Prof. Paul Dorsey at Millikin University in Decatur, IL. Dorsey and his colleagues are looking to bridge the skills gaps between information literacy and critical thinking, both of which are needed by students making the transition from academic studies to professional practice.
Originally, the categories applied to information only, and the Millikin team was dissatisfied with the result. How did the categories relate to the essential-but-invisible function of creating knowledge? But to me, that's the point. I like the Millikin framework precisely because it doesn't confuse the raw material with the final products of knowledge work: decisions, recommendations and actions.
Paul gave me license to adapt the framework as necessary, but more and more I have been appreciating the righteousness of his original analysis. Moreover, I think if you add ideas to each of the following seven categories, the framework becomes very useful not just as a taxonomy for knowledge processes and skills, but for tools, as well.
1. Accessing information and ideas
For most people, a cycle of knowledge work begins with a question at the heart of a problem to be solved. Answering that question is a process of research and learning. Accessing information is about locating, identifying, retrieving and viewing documents and data to discover the knowledge contained therein. Accessing ideas is about learning, inquiring and seeking out experts and other colleagues in the network who can help. Asking becomes a key skill, as does the ability to map and navigate vast landscapes of explicit knowledge.
On the information side, tools for this category would include desktop and network search applications such as SERglobalBrain, Web metasearch applications such as Copernic's Agent, and subscriptions to pushed news feeds and special sources such as DialogBusiness that automatically collect material relevant to a standing question, such as What's happening today in biotechnology?
But on the idea side, critical access tools would also include ways to reach out to those who can help you with your question, no matter where you are or where they are, tapping into their education and experience. Besides the collaboration tools below, consider the importance of wireless e-mail, a mobile phone and a portable, searchable version of your contact list, such as might be contained in a PDA.
2. Evaluating information and ideas
Information technologies such as document management and the Internet have led to a triumph of quantity over quality. But after retrieving information and ideas, both quality and relevance to the question at hand must be evaluated.
Evaluation depends more on skills than on tools, although trust in the tools we use is one of the most important factors. These skills include identifying and validating authoritative sources in terms of bodies of information or individuals. Journalists learn to question motives and verify details with independent confirmation. Competitive intelligence professionals learn to qualify and cultivate their sources in advance. Processing a mass of retrieved material requires judgment and at times even intuition.
However, collaborative filtering and rating services such as Alexa can help to automate the process. Search engines such as Google (google.com) do a first pass when their algorithms rank results by relevance to the query. One way those results are ranked can be by how many other trusted sites link to this one, an impersonal version of the trusted recommendations of peers.
