Anyone with a computer and network connection can be an instant expert on nearly anything. In an informal chat with Mark Deuze and some of his students we tried to figure out what makes someone powerful in 2011.
Is it still knowledge? Maybe. Is it information? Probably not. Is it having access to major networks? Flooding the market with your message (re: Koran burning, Balloon Boy, Tea Party)? No. It’s connections.
Your network is power.
Through your network, digital connections and otherwise you can share information that already has been filtered for value. In the age of information (overload), we haven’t found a filter or algorithm to sort through everything there is to know in the world better than the people we know. The people in our lives know us like no computer can. Computers also know us like no person ever can.
Sites like Amazon, Netflix and iTunes (ahem) are trying to harness the power of the network which I mentioned in my previous post about collective community idea sharing and the debatable need for editors.
From The New York Times today:
The trust factor of friends’ suggestions can make a big difference. Mr. Altman said Loopt’s users are 20 times more likely to click on a place their friends had liked or visited than a place that simply ranked higher in search results.
So-called recommendation engines on sites like Amazon and Netflix try to guess what customers might like by comparing their previous purchases or rentals with those of others with similar tastes. But that approach often does not offer much insight as to why a particular film or restaurant is being recommended, said John Riedl, a professor of computer science at the University of Minnesota.
Social networks, he said, “do a richer job of constructing recommendations.” For example, seeing that a friend is frequenting a new pizzeria can have a lot of influence over whether you go.
4 replies on “Is knowledge still power in the information age?”
I would say that you are perhaps partially correct. In the fact that information is much easier to obtain, many more people can obtain that information and change it into knowledge. However, having information does not equal knowledge. Knowledge comes with experience and practice. It can not be gathered through the internet alone.
Secondly, I do believe that people’s networks are very powerful these days. Networks can really do a lot for you, and can give you a vast resource from which to pull actual knowledge instead of just information.
However, what about my own experience and sensibilities. With experience and knowledge you start to gather a better judgment and intuition. I might argue (though I’m not sure) that judgment, sensibility, experience, and some intuition and more ‘powerful’ than a person’s network. But, if you have a great network full of people with these skills perhaps that’s extremely powerful as well.
Good thoughts here. You’ve certainly raised some questions and opinions in my head.
Currency is still the ultimate power, in my opinion. I would think Networks would be second after $$$, and then knowledge. Since knowledge is essentially the comprehension of information. You can access and distribute lots of information as it is so readily available, but if you do not understand it, at some point, your “power” will be taken away when you are asked to interpret the information.
However, those with great knowledge that use their networks could be more powerful than one with only $$$. Knowledge also garners trust and can build networks. Trust is power. If people trust you, that’s a win. Funny thing however, is you may not trust all in your “network” as your network grows large.
Perhaps the ultimate equation of power is a balance of all of the above: Money, networks, knowledge, and trust. In our social scheme, these 4 things are the elements of power.
What I find interesting about these 4 things is the distributional and directional relationship. i.e. How does $$$, network, knowledge and trust flow, and influence eachother. The relationship btw these elements would make for a very interesting social graph. Maybe with this we can unlock the secret to success 😛
End note: Knowledge is still a function of power.
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