Mass digitalization
Description:
As data warehouses are becoming more common, companies are employing data mining experts and systems, digital forms or communication are replacing paper and in-person meetings, the need to make paper into digital form is increasing. Many companies are also implementing vast knowledge systems to contain and maintain all the tacit and explicit knowledge that passes through the company, all to increase corporate learning. Knowledge, if it is not already in digital form, must first be made digital. Tacit knowledge must be noted, journaled, or elicited from those holding the knowledge. Explicit knowledge on paper has to be scanned in. Already mass scanning devices are at work to convert whole books (Google) into digital form. Amazon.com offers a previewing function which allows buyers to preview many pages from a book before buying, this is only possible through the digitalization of the books in the first place.
As more documents are digitalized, access to documents becomes faster and easier.
Enablers:
- Scanning machinery progression
- OCR algorithm improvement
- Stock market floors going digital
- Knowledge system implementation
- Data mining use
- Information load increasing
Inhibitors:
- Privacy law
- Non-disclosure agreements
- Copyright law
Paradigms:
Old: Massive stacks of papers. Underground file storage space. Digital catalogs starting to bring order to paper files.
New: Information at the press of a button. Direct access to full papers without a middle man. Physical independence of documents.
Experts:
Dr. Ikujiro Nonaka - "Father of knowledge creation"
Hansen, Nohria, & Tierney - Authors of "What's Your Strategy for Managing Knowledge?" in the Harvard Business Review, March-April 1999