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Jan 1, 1440
The Gutenberg Printing Press
Source - In about 1440, German goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg developed a movable type, using seperate pieces of metal for each character that was to be printed. With this, printers could easily make many copies of a book, and the same pieces of type could be reused to print different books. This was the first of it's kind in Europe, and printing quickly became the first means of mass communication. -
John Locke's Theory of Knowledge
Source - John Locke created his theory of knowledge in 1689. He theorised that people have senses which produce "ideas of sensation," which our minds turn into "ideas of reflection." He thought that ideas are derived from experience, and we cannot have knowledge beyond our ideas. He also seperated knowledge into three categories: intuitive, demonstrative, and sensitive. -
Knowledge Industry (Fritz Machlup)
SOURCE - Fritz Machlup worked in international economics and industrial organisation. In 1962 he wrote the book "The Production and Distribution of Knowledge in the United States," in which Machlup specifies that knowledge is a commodity. In this work he also divided the use of information into thee categories; intelectual, instrumental, and pastime knowledge. He also establishes five distinct types of knowledge. -
Tacit Knowledge - Michael Polanyi
SOURCE - In 1964, scientist-turned-philosopher Michael Polanyi created the theory of 'Tacit Knowledge," knowledge that cannot be spoken or put in databases, but demonstrated. Tacit knowledge can be pulled together to create new theories, and eventually led to Polayni exploring connoisseurship and the process of discovery. -
Marshall McLuhan "Technologically Determinist"
SOURCE - Marshall McLuhan was termed as 'Technologically Determinist," as he believed that technology shaped humanity, rather than seeing people as having control over it's uses. He is also famous for having stated that the medium of the technology is the real message. However, later in his life he changed his views, believing people actively create their own environment. -
"Knowledge Workers" - Peter Drucker
SOURCE - Peter Drucker theorised that information would bring about major changes in society. He stated that "knowledge workers" will become the largest working group. He put forth the idea that workers were valuable assets, and that knowledgeable workers are essential for modern economies, and that workers should be trained and developed by their managers rather than placing them in strict hierarchies. -
Daniel Bell - The Information Age
SOURCE - Daniel Bell was the first person to put forth the idea of a "post-industrial society," later re-named the "information society." By this, it is meant that people move from producing goods and manufacturing to services, and that information would become valuable. While information is costly to produce, it is easy to reproduce, and those who can create will become more valuable than labour. -
Alvin Toffler - The Third Wave
SOURCE - Alvin Toffler theorised in his book "The Third Wave" that human society came in 'waves;' the first wave started in 2000 BC, and was an agricultural society. The second wave, beginning in 1750 AD, was the industrial society. The third wave began in 1950 AD, and is the information society that we live in today. -
Information Society - John Naisbitt and Patricia Aburdene
SOURCE - Naisbitt and Aburdene theorised that we are shifting from an industrial society to an information society in their book 'Megatrends.' They proposed ten 'trends' which show a society is in transition, including national economy to international economy and hierarchies to networking. -
Apple Hypercard - Dynamic Programming
SOURCE - In 1987 Apple made a 'Hypercard' application for the Mac, introducing hypertext to the public. The app works by utilizing a system of cards, each of which can be written on and connected to others, just like hypertext online. This invention inspired the creation of both HTTP and Javascript. -
The Internet
SOURCE - The internet originally grew out of experiments from the 1960s, but it was truly created in 1991 when the CERN networked hyperlinks. It is argued that the internet provides information moreso than knowledge, due to a lack of context and one-on-one communication in a learning environment. -
Community of Practice - Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger
SOURCE - Lave and Wenger theorised that knowledge can be gained through social communities that are driven by common interests. This concept is called 'community of practice,' and states each society is defined by what it is about, how it functions, and what capability it has produced. They go through five stages, and give members a sense of identity. -
Intellectual Capital - Karl-Erik Sveiby
SOURCE - Sveiby argued that the market value of a company does not adequitely measure a companies worth, and proposed a new reporting concept, the Navigator, to measure intellectual worth as well as monetary worth. However, the system is often considered 'faddish' due to unrelated principles adding to intelectual capital (e.g. the number of female employees). -
The Knowledge Spiral - Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuk
SOURCE - The 'spiral process' theory was originally suggested in Nonaka and Takeuk's book "The Knowledge Creating Company." In it, they theorise that knowledge is created by a cycle of four processes; externalization, internalization, combination, and socialization, which change according to context and sequence. -
Twelve Themes of the New Economy - Don Tapscott
SOURCE - Tapscott's theory states that there are twelve themes which show a difference in the new economy from the old one. These include knowledge, globalisation and inovation. -
Velocity and Viscosity - Thomas Davenport and Laurence Prusak
SOURCE - In their book "Working Knowledge," Davenport and Prusak introduced the ideas of velocity, the speed in which knowledge moves throughout an organisation, and viscosity, the amount and quality of knowledge transferred.
