A knowledge sharing approach is one that advances the interactive, iterative process of how we deal with information. Often, people who are forced to make decisions outside of any social or broader context will make poor decisions — even though they may have the correct information. Knowledge sharing is certainly more about providing people with the connections to quickly and simply contextualize and sort through information. Thanks for your very insightful comment.

On the other hand, knowledge sharing solves that problem immensely. That is, if you get a reference from someone you trust recommending or endorsing a product, an idea, a project, a thought, or whatever, you’re that much more likely to lower your filters and give it a shot. I guess it’s the idea behind the semantic web and such: I can find a gazillion sites that match a search query on Google, most of them with information that, though relevant, will not be precisely of use to whatever purpose I have at the time. But at the same time, I can look for references through my del.icio.us links, by following the chain from what I’ve tagged before, to what other people have tagged under the same concepts. That carries the guarantee that a human forged that semantic link, and is, in turn, much more likely to be relevant (moreover, a human who applied the same criteria I did before). Our filters are lowered, our decisions and information consumption made simpler (at least a bit).

I hope I’ll be able to develop those points further sometime. . .