READIT-2007 - Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research

If our human filters are all too much like ourselves in background, if they are all
saying the same sorts of things, then it may be time to risk indulging in a little
overload. In addition to human filters, we also need to learn how to use the
increasingly large and effective array of automated filtering tools. Search engines
such as Google now make it possible, as a matter of routine, to winnow out billions of
pages of irrelevant information in an instant and to home in on the one or two pages
that matter. Similarly, by carefully slicing, dicing and auto-filtering syndicated news
feeds, it is now possible to set up highly focussed streams of incoming news tailored
to one’s particular requirements.
Second, we ourselves need to learn how to act as filters for others. Whether it
is in the context of a money-making business or simply "for the good of the cause",
central to what knowledge workers do is to collect and filter information and pass it
on to others as knowledge. Often, simply sorting bits of disconnected information into
commonly accepted (or novel) classification schemes already adds sufficient value to
count as a desirable knowledge product. In other cases, we need to process the
information in more profound ways to make it into something that others will want to
use in their own knowledge projects.
Third, we need to keep up to date with new developments - tracking both
broad political and technological trends and specific developments in particular fields
of interest. This requires maintaining a constant watch on a variety of ‘popular’ and
scholarly news sources - including academic journals, newsletters, weblogs and
syndicated news feeds - and participating in networking events, such as conferences
where information about the latest advances (and the latest gossip) is exchanged.
Fourth, we need to learn how to rapidly develop and deploy knowledge
products before the window of opportunity within which they can be effective closes.
While there will probably always be a market for painstaking empirical and
theoretical work that unfolds over periods of many months and years, most often the
type of knowledge that matters is that which can be brought to bear quickly. For
example, the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek has in the last decade become one of
the most influential and sought after cultural analysts in academia. In part he has
achieved this status as a result of his closely argued and startlingly original academic
writings ♣ , but in part it also results from the constant stream of almost instantaneous
commentaries he provides (via magazines, newsletters, conference presentations,
radio interviews and the like) on unfolding world events. To create and deploy
knowledge quickly we need to learn the skills of rapid knowledge assembly, such as
using ready-made components as building blocks for larger products, collaborating
with others to make projects more manageable, and making use of techniques such as
rapid prototyping (11) to speed development. We also need to learn to resist the
temptation of ‘over engineering’ our products and to recognise when good enough is
indeed good enough.
Fifth, we have to become more skilled and strategic in managing time as the
most valuable resource available to us. For some, this might mean careful project
♣ Zizek, S. (1992). Enjoy Your Symptom! Jacques Lacan In Hollywood And Out.
London: Routledge.
Zizek, S. (2001). Did Somebody Say Totalitarianism? Five Essays in the (Mis)Use of
a Notion. London: Verso.
I-12