Mary, I like the metaphor but not for the reason you used it! We’re not “swimming” in information/knowledge. We’re drowning in information. Knowledge is the random life preservers tossed out by experts to save a few of us. Social media, on the other hand, is a whole group of people tossed overboard – some of whom are pretty good swmimers and others of whom are dog paddlers, all of whom are treading water together while not gagging on too much useless information…err…water.

The logical extension of your premise that “bottled” knowledge is futile is that treatises, textbooks, professional journals – i.e., old media – is also futile. Obviously, when you look at any one book or formal KM application, you’re bound to conclude that it’s breadth and overall value is limited – an old coke bottle floating in the ocean. That isn’t to say, however, that the particular medium of publishing knowledge is invalid. The trick is to minimize the effort involved in creating/updating any given formal solution and to identify the areas in which that particular mode of knowledge capture and sharing can do the most good. Social media has its place but it isn’t a panacea. – Brent

Brent –

As with most things in life, the secret is in how we strike the right balance. Tossing out all old media would be foolish. However, focusing exclusively on captured (or bottled) knowledge doesn’t seem sensible either. I’d suggest that we tilt the balance in favor of social media as a means of widening and enriching access, but still set aside a reasonable amount of time and effort for knowledge capture — keeping in mind that the act of capturing knowledge distorts and diminishes that knowledge. (See D. Snowden’s 7 principles of knowledge management.)

The concern that led me to write this post was that many law firms focus primarily on bottling knowledge and miss the valuable opportunities web 2.0 presents to broaden access to information and deepen understanding.

- Mary