One of the endless information science/knowledge management debates is on the value of connection versus collection. For anyone unfamiliar with this debate, it’s basically this: is collecting information all in one place better than providing connectors among the people who share that information (or knowledge, if you like that word better). Or vice versa?
Obviously, there’s no one right answer (or maybe even an answer at all) to which is of more value. It always depends on the specific context we’re talking about, as well as the type of information or knowledge. But even more importantly, if you only do one, how do you how valuable the other approach could have been? You can’t measure what you didn’t do.
I’ve noticed a growing trend toward lists of things in people’s blog posts — something like this list of 83 beautiful Wordpress themes. My own list of knowledge management sites has also been by far the most popular post on this site. Digg users also love these lists, and they often get thousands of Diggs.
So while blogs provide a connective link between individuals and create communities of people interested in the same topics — there also seems to be a trend toward collecting information all in one place. I know some people absolutely hate these lists, but they seem to be mostly bloggers who feel it’s not original writing (perhaps someone should put together a list of reasons why they hate lists).
What do you think? Does collecting information in a blog post defeat the whole connectivity element of a blog? Or does it enhance that connectivity?
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April 8th, 2007 at 3:26 am
I find that I generally like lists if they are created by trusted bloggers. They can provide a wealth of information in an easily digestable form and save the reader countless hours of research. Just yesterday, I changed over my guitar blog to Wordpress and it wouldn’t been a far more painful process without lists of plugins from some trusted sources.
April 9th, 2007 at 7:14 am
Very interesting. Having a place to go for information is great (a list like you mention, google, wikipedia, etc.). Having connections that can weigh in as subject matter experts is critical. Because of time constraints I go to the Internet to find info (knowledge, etc.) first, and if something strikes me as odd I tap into my network.
But I also have a very open line with my network and find I’m blog-relationshiping, chatting, e-mailing or on the phone most of the day!
Jason Alba
CEO - JibberJobber.com
April 12th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
Both very interesting points. Trust is certainly a very important element in the weight we give to information — and we all like things put in a way that are easily consumable. Some people seem to feel that these lists are lazy presentations of information, but I really don’t see what’s wrong with presenting something in a way that people enjoy and find useful.
Jason — I read something a while ago about somehow who predicted that with the advent of the web, that jobs like lawyers and other jobs that are largely about consultation and information-provision (I can’t remember where I read it unfortunately) would disappear. It seems that quite the opposite as happened — more information means people need more guidance on how to interpret it.
I think most people do exactly what you do — they use a trusted non-human source, and then when they see something they don’t trust, they go to a trusted human source who can hopefully make sense of it for them.