Algorithms are not human.
Your question for Google feeds the algorithm keywords that it matches to pre-determined information. Your conversation on the Web, however, engages a human being who is making new connections, indeed creating new infomation — dare we say it, learning — all the time. She imagines what you’re thinking — essentially recreates the scenario as if she were you — and uses her better-than-your understanding of the system to offer an answer to your question..And it all happens in real time.
The new knowledgebase
And because we’re writing all this down, the knowledge shared is documented. Like the best knowledgebase, a popular wiki is growing at the speed of thought (assuming you can type that fast.) The new knowledge management is more flexible, more authentic, and best of all, more usable than the traditional structured approach. It’s searchable with keywords that emerge organically from the conversation.
“The wisdom of the crowd?” you ask.
No. We’re talking about a network of good minds. The Web is simply a medium. Much like the brain is the physical basis for the life of the mind, the Web provides a medium for human interactivity on a scale never before available. When COP (communities of practice, right?) harness that potential for interactivity among people with similar expertise and vision, the result is brilliant.
What Al Gore had in mind
Al Gore imagined the World Wide Web would create this brilliant result for everyone on the planet. The Web began with email among research geeks: doctors, PhDs, engineers, space technicians and government think tank types. These people depend upon each other for information because “knowledge” in R&D is like breaking news. Learning in real time is all you can do, just to keep up.
Teach technology
In Learning & Development the next wave is teach technology; because what there is to learn is most efficiently shared on the Web. Indeed, technology has created infinite opportunities for learning at our fingertips (literally, at the keyboard.) As L&D professionals, we teach technology in order to make it easy for knowledgeworkers to learn from each other. This site is designed to make it easier for us to learn from each other.