Information is not knowledge*

That anyone, whether academic or student, would choose to read the article by Moria Levy 'Web 2.0 Implications on Knowledge Management' (Levy, 2007) except under obligation, would be surprising. The abstract alone is enough to indicate that the English grammar leaves much to be desired, and whilst this may be because the author is writing in a language other than her mother tongue, it reflects badly on the journal, that they were not able to have it edited to even make proper sense. It is very long and rather technical, and deciphering the often incorrectly constructed sentences makes for hard going, but she does none the less raise some interesting points.

The main issue of the paper is the question of whether adoption of the principles and tools of Web 2.0 can help in the attempt to make Knowledge Management more effective.

This questions discussed in an extremely through manner through three sections, consisting of lengthy descriptions and discussions of the following:

1) Web 2.0: the guiding principles at work in the creation, marketing and use of Web 2.0 applications, and the different levels within Web 2.0 classification of an application, from functioning independently through to having no functionality without the network connections of the internet
2) Enterprise 2.0, which describes when Web 2.0 principles are used in organisations (such as Group Intelligence, and tools such as blogs and wikis)
3) Knowledge Management 2.0, which Levy defines as the application of Web 2.0 principles within an organisation, as opposed to marketing, when the concepts may be broadened to include users and clients.

The conclusion arrived at is that as the principles of both Web 2.0 and KM are very similar, it would appear that there is much to be gained from organisations adopting Web 2.0 ideas in knowledge management. To give two examples: the perpetual beta concept, wherein “potential is learnt via use” (Levy, 2009, p. 130) leads to change and improvement; and content as core, which in the early days of KM was overlooked, as knowledge managers of the 1990s did not realise that without content, knowledge has no reason to exist.

Levy's oversight is that she has not considered whether her model of KM existing within organisations has any relevance for libraries, in their central position in knowledge management, existing primarily as a service for users external to the organisation. This structure may have both similarities and differences to the model she proposes.


*Quote from Albert Einstein (cited in Quotes Related to Knowledge Management or Collaboration, n.d.).

References
Levy, M. (2009). WEB 2.0 implications on knowledge management.
          Journal of Knowledge Management, 13(1), 120-134.
          doi:10.1108/13673270910931215

Quotes Related to Knowledge Management or Collaboration. (n.d.).
        In NASA Knowledge Management Team National Aeronautics and
          Space Administration. Retrieved from
          http://km.nasa.gov/whatis/KM_Quotes.html