"We are drowning in information, but starved
for knowledge.." -John Naisbitt, "Megatrends"
Knowledge vs. Technology
Knowledge
Management came into being recently as information professionals and
institutions come to grips with the vast, unsettling implications of
digital information technology which makes information creation,
transmission, storage and access relatively easy. The technology is so
powerful, increasingly available at low or modest cost, widely deployed
and, therefore, as Nicholas Carr argues in the Harvard Business Review
article "IT Doesn't Matter," so ubiquitous that by itself it no longer
provides a distinguishing competitive advantage in business.
A number of management theorists have contributed to the evolution of
knowledge management, among them such notables as Peter Drucker, Paul
Strassmann, and Peter Senge in the United States. Though viewing KM in
different perspectives, many of the proponents reach a similar
conclusion: they recognize that what really counts is people's creative
use of information rather than the technology to create, transmit, and
present that information.
