Chapter 3. Knowledge
"Error 1: Not Developing a Working Definition of Knowledge If knowledge is not something that is different from data or information, then there is nothing new or interesting in knowledge management."
—Liam Fahey and Larry Prusak (1998)
We don't know how many knowledge workers there are in the world today, but in 2003 Bill Gates claimed there were over 95 million such workers in America alone. So we know that there are a lot of knowledge workers. However, while we talk about knowledge a lot, it isn't always clear just what we're talking about.
Software engineers are accustomed to shunting bits and bytes about. We call this data, and we may even accept that this represents information, but is it knowledge? In fact, are there any real and important differences between data, information and knowledge? And are these differences of any importance to us when we develop software?
Unless we develop an understanding of what knowledge is, how can we even attempt to understand software development as a knowledge industry?
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