Browsing my shelves gently, nibbling at books, I picked up for the first time in ages [amazon_link id=”0875847625″ target=”_blank” ]The Social Life of Information[/amazon_link] by John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid (2000). I’ve loved this book for providing me with the insight, so often validated by life, that while everyone thinks computers are predictable and people are unpredictable, it’s actually the other way round.

The book is about the social context in which digital technologies are used, my preoccupation since the mid-1990s. Today I came across this passage contrasting information (which we hold and can pass around) and knowledge:

“Knowledge is something we digest rather than merely hold. It entails the knower’s understanding and some degree of commitment. Thus while one person often has conflicting information, he or she will not usually have conflicting knowledge. And while it seems quite reasonable to say, ‘I’ve got the information but I don’t understand it’, it seems less reasonable to say, ‘I know but I don’t understand’, or ‘I have the knowledge but I can’t see what it means.’” (p120)

Machines do information, knowledge needs people, they conclude.

[amazon_image id=”0875847625″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Social Life of Information[/amazon_image]