Results tagged “mobile computing” from KM Edge: Where the best in Knowledge Management come together

Continuing the theme of my last post on digital devices, I really enjoyed the PBS.org documentary Digital Nation, which talks about the growing dominance of digital media and interaction on all our lives.   My husband and I had to pause the TiVo every five minutes to process what we were seeing. Both the entire documentary and short segments are available at this link.

My last two sentences are an ironic commentary on the message of the documentary itself: Are all our digital devices making us dumb, prompting us to think in sound bites instead of essays and willing to settle for just good enough instead of great when it comes to knowledge and information?

Or is the current transformation just a case of a new generation finding its own way? After all, every generation in recent memory has been more productive than the last.

However, that tide could be reversing.  Even though each generation of Americans in the past century has lived longer and been healthier than its parents, the next one promises to be sicker, given the unhealthy quantity and quality of food we eat and the emergence of gaming over playing. And paradoxically, this decline is all a result of our affluence and access to "the good life".

I'd love to hear your thoughts. Are we doomed to dumbing down, or just taking some time to get used to this new world?

If you read my last KM Edge post, you know that I was quite taken with the new world that video opens for KM. Now the smart phone has captured my attention as a KM tool. The quip "we have an app for that" has entered our lexicon, and everyone seems to be perpetually in a "Crackberry" prayer mode or immersed in their iPhone to the exclusion of all else.  No longer a computer company, Apple is now defined by Steven Jobs as a mobile devices company--in fact, the largest in the world.

So what? Smart phones have been around a long time. There are well-established company policies and precedents for how to manage security; who pays for the device and its text, voice, and data charges; and how IT can establish, manage, and integrate the whole system.

What is not well-established is how KM professionals can capitalize on this ubiquitous, addictive pocket computer. What is appropriate to share through that tiny screen?  How much do people want to know, and when do they want to know it?  What can we learn from Twitter, RSS, and alert systems such as Continental Airlines telling me whether my plane is on time?