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Period: Jan 1, 1400 to
Evolution of Information
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Jan 1, 1440
Gutenberg's Printing Press
The Printing Press
The invention of the printing press brought the spread of knowledge and information a well needed boost, making it possible for news to reach anyone in a manageable, concrete form. It made it easier for people to stay in touch with what was going on, and marking the beginning of the evolution of media. -
Fritz Machlup - Knowledge Industry - 1962
The Knowledge Industry
At this point, knowledge and information started being separated into categories according to the purpose which they served, making it easier to define both the contents aswell as the people who received them. -
Tacit Knowledge
Tacit Knowledge
The term of tacit knowledge, brought up by the chemist Michael Polanyi, brought up the theory that there is more knowledge that one could possibly transmit, and that not all knowledge can be transmitted through conventional means, the rest of it being up to 'demonstration and imitation'. -
Technology
Technologically Determinist
Marshall McLuhan foresaw that, unlike events in the 'Mechanical Age', in the 'Electrical Age' people would be shaped by technology and its advances rather than technology itself being shaped by people. The direction is plainly seen today as technology is the driving force behind people, not the other way around. -
The Knowledge Worker
The Knowledge Worker
Peter Drucker foresaw the way in which knowledge was gaining importance in society, and thus dubbing the future generation of 'knowledge workers', he went on with teaching that instead of being liabilities, the knowledge workers were an asset, as each was an 'executive' on their own. -
The Information Age
The Information Age
The Information Society, a term coined by Daniel Bell, was a radical, new concept based on the prediction that the constant evolution of information and knowledge would evolve into a society driven by the constant networking provided by the evolution of technology and telecomunications. -
The Third Wave
The Third Wave
The third wave of society's evolution, as depicted by Alvin Toffler, is a concept relying on the constant evolution of society from a generalist, cyclical group towards a more and more specialised and narrowed field of focus, as more knowledge and information were generated by the constant discoveries and sharing of those. -
Information Society
The Information Society
The information society constantly evolved to the point where information became a predominant power, where as the knowledge to understand and assimilate that information began to dwindle. The concept of too much information and too little knowledge to understand it seems more predominant in today's world. -
Hypercard - Dynamic Programming
HyperCard - Dynamic Programming
Apple Computers generated the first form of hypertext, the basis on which the internet and everything in today's world, technology wise, is constructed upon. The fact that information and knowledge could be digitised in stacks and accessed from everywhere, by everyone, broke all boundaries which previously limited the flow of information. -
Defining Knowledge
Defining Knowledge
John Locke provided the world with the first hint at defining knowledge and allowed us to better understand how the aquiring and storing of knowledge works. The concept that 'ideas of reflection' are formed as our senses are stimulated sits at the foundation of creating, assimilating and distributing knowledge. -
The Internet
The Internet
The success of the experiment started in the 1960's has yet to be fully comprehended as we today live in a world driven completely by it. The success and vital role played by the internet in providing information, knowledge and making the world a smaller place would easily be defined as the most succesful (for now) step in global unity. -
Community of Practice
Community of Practice
The concept of a Community of Practice developed by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger is based on the gathering of diverse groups under the common banner of similar interests, noting that knowledge is produced by the constant interaction of members from whithin those groups, establishing the transmission of further information. -
The Knowledge Spiral
The Knowledge Spiral
Ikujiro Nonaka & Hirotaka Takeuk's concept of the Knowledge Spiral, a theory that the creation of knowledge is the result of a continuous cycle of four integrated processes: externalization, internalization, combination, and socialization. -
Intellectual Capital
Intellectual Capital
A radical new way of determining a company's value based on a number of indicators developed by Karl-Erik Sveiby, in which the difference between the market value and real value is set to sit on the sum of the company's values and efficiency. -
Twelve Themes of the New Economy
The Twelve Themes of the New Economy
Knowledge, Digital, Virtual, Molecularization, Internetworking, Disintermediation, Convergence, Innovation, Prosumption, Immediacy, Globalization, Discordance. -
Velocity and Viscosity
Velocity and Viscosity
Velocity - the speed with which knowledge moves through an organization.
Viscosity - the richness or thickness of the knowledge transferred.
