The Hindu Business Line : Hoarding knowledge diminishes power

The new order is changing the way "we think the world itself is organised and who we think has the authority to tell us so." As a result, we are questioning the need for a culture in which "truth means accuracy, effectiveness requires adherence to clear lines of command and control, and knowledge is power." Be ready for the jolt that David Weinberger provides in Everything is Miscellaneous.

You thought information is most valuable when it is kept in neat order. If so, be ready for the jolt that David Weinberger provides in Everything is Miscellaneous (www.landmarkonthenet.com).

Throw the information `into a big digital pile,' and your users will filter and organise it themselves, he advises. Information does not just want to be free; it wants to be miscellaneous, so as to lead you to `a world of knowledge freed from physical constraints'.

Welcome, therefore, the new order: Digital disorder.

The world started out miscellaneous, Weinberger says. "But it didn't stay that way, because we work so damn hard at straightening it up." Allotting everything a place, we establish order "by putting a descriptive sign on the shelf beneath a product, sticking a label on a folder, or using a highlighting pen to mark the passages that we think will be on the test."

That was the first order of order, when we organised things themselves. For instance, "we put silverware into drawers, books on shelves, photos into albums." Then came the second order, as in the case of library catalogue, which "separates information about the first order objects from the objects themselves." This is the stage of metadata, `because it's information about information'.

Both these orders operated within the limitations of the physical world; thus, some things are nearer than the rest, objects can be in only one spot at any point of time, given that human abilities to see and search are limited.

"But now we have bits. Content is digitised into bits, and the information about that content consists of bits as well. This is the third order of order... "

For example, Corbis, the Bettmann's parent company, spends many hours to reduce search time to seconds. "Nine full-time cataloguers categorise each image Corbis acquires, anticipating how users are going to search. When a new image comes into the collection, one of the cataloguers uses special software to browse the 61,000 `preferred terms' in the Corbis thesaurus for those that best describe the content of the image, typically attaching 10 to 30 terms to each one."

The system uses 33,000 synonyms (so that a search for `beach' would turn up images labelled `seaside' as well), and five lakh `permutations of names of people, movies, artworks, places, and more'. That way, Corbis manages to put its images `in every place where people might look for them,' and turns more of its images into productive assets.

It is possible to move further down the third-order path, says Weinberger, citing the case of Flickr, which has `over 225 million photos already uploaded by users and almost a million added every day.' Unlike Corbis, Flickr has no professional cataloguers. "It relies solely on the labels users make up for themselves, without control or guidance. Yet it is remarkably easy to find photos at Flickr on almost any topic."

More businesses are recognising the glory of the miscellaneous. The new order is also changing the way "how we think the world itself is organised and — perhaps more important — who we think has the authority to tell us so." As a result, we are questioning the need for a culture in which "truth means accuracy, effectiveness requires adherence to clear lines of command and control, and knowledge is power."

Now, it's not what you know, not even who you know, it's how much knowledge you give away, explains Weinberger. "Hoarding knowledge diminishes your power because it diminishes your presence. A topic is not a domain with edges. It is how passion focusses itself."

Powerful messages... for those who care to hear.

Currents `running fast and wild'

Trend spotters Marian Salzman and Ira Matathia open with `the age of anxiety' in Next Now (www.palgrave.com). Their audit of the now recounts how we are continuing to lose faith in institutions, be they the governments, corporations, media or the United Nations, and how "it feels like nothing is sacred anymore."

The authors cite a survey by the World Economic Forum, which found "that trust in both large national companies and global companies recovered to pre-Enron levels in 2004, but again declined; trust in global companies specifically is now at its lowest level since tracking began five years ago."

Does Mother Nature offer solace? Doubtful, because after being at the receiving end of centuries of abuse, nature has become a force we can't take for granted. "Many scientists believe global climate change has reached a pace at which surprising and sudden effects are possible."

Pushed by complexities of modern life, people are seeking more personal control, find Salzman and Matathia. "Local grass-roots groups intend to take matters into their own hands and become the real `first responders' in the event of a terrorist strike. We self diagnose our ailments online, disillusioned with the medical establishment."

Terrifyingly for the manufacturers and marketers, "the Internet lets the most proactive consumers seek detailed comparisons and reviews before making a purchase, blog about their experiences with products, then hound brands that have let them down." Blogistan or the blogosphere is also giving repressed citizens a way to speak out. "There are more than one lakh active blogs in Iran... Iraq too has bloggers, often providing a window into places reporters can't go." Technorati estimates the blog space to be 60 times bigger than it was three years ago, and `doubling in size every six months'.

With currents `running fast and wild,' trend spotting has become a trend, say the authors. `Cool-hunting' is now mainstream in advertising, marketing and pop culture, even as age-old certainties are yielding place to bewilderment. "The basic markers of life no longer feel so concrete," and fundamental questions are doing the rounds. Such as: "What's a normal family? How old is old? What's a job? What constitutes rude behaviour? How much is enough? Whom can I trust?"

Some find a sense of firmness in organised religion, but the majority looks for solution in `one of the world's most popular participation sports', namely shopping.

Just when you'd spot the trendy book too!

We don't need roads

Todd G. Buchholz, who earlier brought us insights from `dead economists', is back with New Ideas from Dead CEOs (www.harpercollins.com). "There are no stupid people in this book — though if I someday decide to write New Ideas from Dead Politicians, there may be room," he writes in the intro.

Focussing on CEOs whose lessons continue to be valid today, Buchholz begins with A. P. Giannini of Bank of America, `the gladiator of banking' who realised that small business owners, family men, and housewives could be entrusted with money. "Before A.P. came to San Francisco, banks were only for rich people."

In a chapter on the Watsons of IBM, the author pictures Tom's business model as a two-looped symbol for infinity. "On the one loop ride the customers; on the other loop rides the sales force. The intersection is IBM." Thomas Watson could `inextricably, seamlessly, and smoothly' tie the customers to the sales team. He invested in his people. "By the 1930s, half of IBM's factory workers were taking at least one of the 24 courses offered in the Education Department... "

From computers, move on to cosmetics, to meet `the world's most successful female motivator since Queen Victoria' — Mary Kay Ash, whose plan `married monetary incentives and psychological inspiration'. Long before the Internet, Mary Kay realised that with each additional sales recruit, she could multiply her outreach, explains Buchholz. "There is an old sexist joke that asks what are the three fastest means of telecommunications: Telephone, telegraph, and a telewoman (tell a woman). This was no joke to Mary Kay... "

Okay, are we going to have more of great CEOs? In answer, the book wraps thus: "What road will we take next? As a futuristic movie once put it, `Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads.' We just need people made of the right stuff."

Right reads for a busy week, on or off the road.

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