A few days ago I found a paper from Alison Kidd, titled "The marks are on the knowledge worker". It's a paper from 1994, which may look old (what is old?), but still looks relevant. Apart from that she probably hadn't heard of weblogs at that time!
First, characteristics of knowledge workers are given (based on interviews):
1. Diversity of output: output is very personal and the variation is key benefit to the organisation.
Knowledge workers are highly amotivated (and indeed are often paid) activly to learn and change their thinking throughout their careers.
2. Low dependece on filed information: knowledge workers tend to keep what they know in their heads instead of writing it down. This is probably most characteristic of knowledge workers (and most mentioned in papers), and problematic for companies. Besides that, they rarely consult stored information. I recognise that, I consult my notebooks but far less documents in our document management system. In my notebooks I find my ideas and reminders, not how others
3. Importance of spatial layout and materials: look at the desk and you can tell who is a knowledge worker: desk (and floors!) cluttered with papers, books and so on. Roles that this 'muddle' plays, according to Kidd, are:
a. as a holding pattern, for temporarely holding inputs and ideas before they can be categorised.
b. as a primitive language, as a sort of model of the world which the knowledge workers are constructing in their heads. Could be, I don't see this point very well.
c. as contextual cues, to help sort out what one is doing.
d. as demonstrable output, to make visible what one is doning (ha, where did we read this before)
For each characteristic, Kidd looks at if and how software fits. The conclusion is very often 'no'. So, for example, softaare programs aim to standardise differences (except for word processors), which doesn't fit the first characteristic.
Weblogs are suitable according the second characteristic. The author doesn't mention them, she probably didn't know about them. But weblogs could replace the note taking, pieces of papers that are now only accessible to the owner.
However, a lot of attention has been paid to storing information in (large) databases: "... the more information you can store or ship, the better off you or your organisation are" (p. 189). This static storage is different from the dynamic way of dealing with knowledge and information as knowledge workers do.
Kidd concludes that computer support for human information processing needs reconsideration. "True knowledge work cannot be automated", is the author's conclusion. Or, when it can be stored it is no knowledge work. I think weblogs can play a role in this new support for knowledge workers, as 'knowledge organiser'.
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