Snake Oil, KM & the Practice of Law
Tim Berners-Lee has the following to say about the parallels between how our brains work & the Web:
A piece of information is really defined only by what it's related to and how it's related. There is really little else to meaning. The structure is everything. There are billions of neurons in our brains, but what are neurons? Just cells. The brain has no knowledge until connections are made between neurons. All that we know, all that we are come from the way our neurons are connected.
Knowledge management is all the rage again in law practice management circles, and rightfully so because it is an important topic. But we are all babes in the woods in this space and I can assure you that KM is more about connections (most importantly of the people-to-people kind), context, and story telling than about any technology de jour: document management, wiki's, Web 2.0, Intranets, etc. While all of these technologies are important enablers, they are no substitute in and of themselves for a culture of sharing and contribution. Vendors that are peddling technology centric solutions are selling pure snake oil & throwing in the snake for free. The heavy lifting requires changing the culture, so ignore cultural issues at your own risk, otherwise this snake bite is likely to be both painful & expensive!
Comments