The "open sourcing" of information is upon us.
It is a sea change, requiring thinking about information and media in terms of surplus, reach and spread and NOT in terms of scarcity and friction.
It assumes that, just as a rising tide lifts all boats, when a resource shifts from scarcity to surplus, tremendous wealth creation opportunities will emerge.
Pragmatically speaking, it also suggests an opportunity for organizations to get systematic about knowledge cultivation by codifying best practices and deploying model-driven systems around these same practices.
Two areas, in particular, that scream out for this type of model-driven approach are:
- INTERNAL employee-centered communities that perform the job of knowledge exchange, and provide 'workgroup containership' boundaries.
- EXTERNAL customer-facing communities that provide the conversational sandbox for marketing, support and ecosystem cultivation endeavors.
The good news is that there is nothing futuristic or overly complex about deploying either of these models. The requisite digital/social media modules are at the proverbial "3.0" stage, and source-able from multiple vendors and technology acquisition paths.
No less important, there are very clear use cases and well-formed workflows in terms of how the various 'chicken parts' integrate to form a living, breathing 'chicken' (metaphorically speaking).
Make no mistake. There is a sense of inevitability to the trend towards the open sourcing of information.
To think otherwise is to ignore the lessons of the music and print news media industries.
Related Links:
- Online Community Building: three critical ingredients to a successful community building initiative.
- Envisioning the Social Map-lication: on connecting the dots between me, my content and my network.
- Breadcrumbs and Conversations: social media and how it works explained.
