sharetheknowledge

The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada) recently had an article about the re-make of libraries in the last few years.  One library is even mentioned as having opened an on-site bar – a new way to enjoy a good book and a glass of wine!!

Following on Mary’s comment about libraries (see my post on Learning Organizations) I thought it was interesting that our great public institutions are making a real effort to move into this century.   The article also reinforces the concept that information is something other than urban myth or opinion, and that we all need to rely on  solid, peer-reviewed research to learn and gain better understanding of things.  We seldom get that on the internet (without paying!), which means we are continually absorbing someone else’s summary of what may or may not have been good information to begin with.  As the volume of content explodes, we need to work at improving the quality of the information resource that we are creating for the world.

How do we do this?

I think it is time for all of us to begin to do a few of things:

• when we find an article, a page or a post that is presenting incorrect content as fact, comment on it!
• if you have depth of expertise in a subject, tag accurate and useful material to make it easier to find good content – wherever it comes from!
• understand the risks of relying on written words on teh web – maintain a healthy level of disbelief!

What do we get by doing this?  We will be able to sort the gold from the dross when we need information.  We will take back control from spam content that is all over the internet, and reward the people who are posting credible and accurate content.  We will reduce the risk that some small group of people can use collaborative tagging and linking to direct us to the places thay want us to go.

What’s this got to do with wine?  Lots – try to sort out which blogs, forums and sites can acutally give you information about that 15 year old cab franc you have been carefully preserving!  Then again, who could trust a post about a wine that came after sampling a bottle of the grape….   see you at the library!