Information Technology (IT) is very popular today. According
to A.T. Kearny, 30% of recently surveyed CEO's said that IT
was a key issue facing their company.
But these CEO's are behind the times.
To help make my point, let me compare the meanings of 3
words often used interchangeably:
- DATA - Statements of fact (John has blue eyes, Mary is a
dreamer)
- INFORMATION - Data organized for ease of presentation or
discussion (tables, charts, presentations, reports, books)
- KNOWLEDGE - Information so well organized that people
use it for making decisions. You can't work with, buy or
sell knowledge. You can, however, do these things with
information so well organized that it comes close to being
knowledge. Real knowledge exists only in the minds of
people.
Which brings me to THE key word:
- LEARNING - The process of gaining information and
integrating it with your previous experience to grow your
knowledge.
With these definitions in mind, I make my point with the aid
of a little computer history. At the beginning, the computer
was so big, complex and expensive, we had a special computer
room. Once we got going, we instituted departments that did:
- DATA PROCESSING - Arithmetic and other operations on
data
- INFORMATION PROCESSING - This included storage and
retrieval, search and display. Control was under the
Information Systems Department. Now we call the department
IT, because of networking, communication and other
technologies involved.
The next stage, as you would expect, was knowledge
processing, in the form of expert systems and artificial
intelligence. But we found that these systems did not handle
true knowledge. We need to switch our focus to people. The
latest stage is:
- LEARNING COORDINATION - Helping everyone in the company
gain the knowledge he needs to reach peak performance. It
involves more than processing, more than technology, more
than internal company operations. Which is why I call this
new department LEARNING CENTRAL.
The basic idea is to integrate all learning activities of
the company. This is of great importance for effective
Learning Fountain Marketing. Specifically, integration is
needed among the company, the Internet and non-Internet
media to:
- Learn about new technology and business approaches
- Collaborate with colleagues in your field
- Anticipate trends in technology and society
- Form and sustain learning communities to serve clients
For a larger company, LEARNING CENTRAL is of greater
importance, because it needs to:
- Learn how to integrate all company functions to enhance
client service.
LEARNING is key. Not data, information, or knowledge.
A LEARNING CENTRAL is indispensable for Learning Fountain
Marketing.
