digital

A backbone framework: Information work, challenges and the digital advantages

You will find in several earlier posts that I am trying to identify tools and methods for people to become more effective and more efficient in handling information. In information-intensive economies where value in particular depends on the processes of adding value to information, more people than ever before can profit from the insights gained. What I am interested in covers, among others, three areas: First, I am interested in the processes of perception and information or knowledge work per se. Second, I try to find out where the challenges are to become more effective and more efficient at processing information. Third, finally, I try to look at how knowledge workers can leverage a digital environment to produce better results and to reach more people who can profit from them. This post here gives you a brief introduction in how I structure my work.

The backbone of the framework for knowledge workers that I am currently working on consists of four layers: strategy, management, knowledge and output.

Facing the digital natives

Individuals compete for work in labour markets. Gaining a competitive advantage over other knowledge workers that compete in the labour market is increasingly about how effectlively and efficiently we manage our digital resources. Whether word-files, pdf-files, or more complex data queries - what we produce is increasingly captured, stored and transmitted in digital form.

Looking at how the “young” generation is handling digital resources one becomes aware how much more efficient this generation handles digital information. I have recently watched a documentary on the BBC where schools with distributed learning initiatives were documented. The interviewer asked some of the kids an interesting question: whether they prefer reading traditional books or books on digital devices. The answer of almost any child was straight forward: e-books on digital devices, of course! On these devices, there is much more information, not just one book but rather full libraries. The kids even prefer reading text on a screen rather than print-outs on paper! This is suprprising, because all of the people I have ased that are about my age (in their mid and late 20ies) prefer a printout over a digital screen in order to work with data. This made me realize: we are in for a quite fundamental change!

The significance of digital information

I should have posted this a while back, but now the new vid has been released and amazed me just as much as the first one. So here is the classic from February of this year:

and here is the one released this month

The Networked, Data-Driven Era

The O’Reilly Radar on Web2.0 Best Practices includes an interesting section about the value of digital data. In the past decades, IT has created value through function: Software has been developed to particularly serve certain specific interests and to make businesses as well as individuals more productive.

The Greek philosopher Heraclitus coined the phrase: “Nothing endures but change” which in particular can be claimed to hold in the information (technology) market. O’Reilly says that with the changes that emerge by online networking it increasingly becomes evident that “the value is the data itself.”

The point is a valid one I believe: Software is not merely standalone but rather exists as a combination of modules that function in a predefined way. In many cases software is combined in numerous ways and thus serves customer needs more individually than traditional large-scale software. This modular lightweight architecture of software changes the competitive landscape. In a digital economy, value is created through information: Having the right information at the right time in the right place in the correct form is important. Value is thus created from informed action on information.

O’Reilly speaks of three sources of competitive advantage (CA): First, from using software as a service (SaaS), second from leveraging network effects and third from the data and the control of data.

When talking about CA the next step is naturally to talk about strategy. CA is a state in which a person or organization is able to provide a service or good at a better input/output cost-efficiency level than all current competitors. Another option is that a person or organization can identify a relevant service or good better than competition in order to better serve customer needs thus attaining a unique leadership position in the market.

I will talk about strategy in my next post

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