Knowledge mobilization and open access to up-to-date, trusted knowledge can positively affect every individual, organization, and institution in the world. From best practices in education and wellness, to scaling successful social programs in rural communities, to upgrading industry skills & knowledge, to shared planning and support during emergencies and epidemics, access to knowledge plays a critical role.
To better understand the impact of collective knowledge, we've divided it into three areas as presented in the following sub-sections.
Bridging Knowledge Gaps & Mobilization
There is an increasing gap between the knowledge being developed by experts, researchers, and policy makers and how it is transferred to practitioners and the public. In practical terms, there are things that we now "know" -- the effectiveness of vaccinations, global warming -- that have still not reached a level of "common knowledge". In every knowledge category and industry there are millions of pieces of knowledge that are not being effectively transferred from labs, educational institutions, and governments to the people who need to put them into practice. Bridging this gap requires a better way to communicate (practical guides) and a connected network to distribute them effectively.
Similarly, organizations are increasingly creating knowledge gaps as workers become more transient, remote working becomes more common, and global partnerships become more complex. The need to capture and share evolving knowledge becomes critical for organizations to operate and grow.
Bridging this gap and putting knowledge into practice can have dramatic social implications from improving individual health and wellness, reducing mortality rates, improving public safety, and increasing productivity and growth.
Sharing Best Practices & Skill Development
1969 witnessed the greatest technology disruption in the financial sector with the introduction of a new form of banking: the automatic teller (ATM). When they were introduced, banks didn't bother training existing staff on the new technology - there was no point, by the time they would be implemented, most employees would be retired and new employees learned about them already in school.
This remains the predominant approach to "industry transformation" - train young / new workers through formal education and they bring new skills into the workforce. We believe that this is wrong. The pace of change today is too rapid to wait for a generation to implement. Many of the new skills learned by graduating students are meeting resistance in industry. Skill Development and improved processes need to be learned by existing workers, and it needs to be done "on the job" to reduce the impact on productivity.
Similarly, workers and organizations of all kinds need better access to best practices which are developed through building connected communities of practice that can share lessons learned and "what works". This applies as much to community programs, institutions, and governments as it does to businesses.
Putting workers into classrooms doesn't work anymore. In an age when we "look up" everything whenever we do anything, practical information needs to be accessed on-demand and in context. Creating a platform that enables lifelong learning, skill development, and implementing best practices empowers individuals, increases success rates, and reduces "reinventing the wheel" and potentially costly mistakes.
Crisis & Emergency Management
Emergencies and crises often leave us feeling powerless and lost. This may be the most obvious and visible impact of guides. They provide people with the practical information they need at a time they need it most. Guides can range from step-by-step medical help, survival information, emergency procedures to finding shelters and support.
In the event of a large scale emergency, like an epidemic, having a large, connected network already in place is crucial to sharing best practices and emergency procedures quickly and accurately.