This document discusses how knowledge is becoming networked due to new technologies. It provides four examples of knowledge networks: (1) the networking of science through sites like Arxiv.org that allow rapid sharing of research, (2) Wikipedia which allows collaborative knowledge building, (3) open source software projects which make code freely available, and (4) online markets which provide a form of collective knowledge. Networked knowledge has properties of being messy, inconsistent, and non-hierarchical like the Internet, which better reflects how humans try to understand a world larger than any one person.

1. Letʼs begin with two curiosities of knowledge...
Systems biology is a new science, a little more
than ten years old. Itʼs interested in how
chemicals interact across the cell wall, among
other things.

2. This signaling across cell walls is so complex
that it takes a computer to manage all of the
relations. Humans cannot understand it without
a computer.
Eureqa derives equations from data. The
equations and formulae work, but we donʼt
understand them.
So, at least we have the technology to let us
scale up our knowledge. But, we sometimes
get knowledge without understanding.

3. Two quick consequences. First, this traditional
diagram expresses the Westʼs basic strategy
for dealing with knowing a world that is too big
to know: We reduce knowledge at every step.
But now that we have technology that scales,
we are able to have knowledge without
reducing what there is to know
Second, if we have computers by which we
know things that we cannot understand,
imagine youʼre a government minister (or a
CEO) who asks the computer a question such
as how to solve the current economic crisis,
and it comes back with this answer. How do

4. A quick reminder of what knowledge has been
in the West.
(a) Knowledge has been rare: It winnows out
the true from all those mere opinions.
(b) Settled. We donʼt say we know something
unless and until all reasonable people agree
on it. (cc) thomas23 @ flickr

5. (c) Traditional knowledge is orderly. Everything
has its place, and to know what something is is
to know itʼs place in this order. This now
sounds medieval, which it was, but itʼs certainly
something we believed all the way through the
19th century and well into the 20th. To deny it
was to declare oneself either a heretic or
Itʼs not an accident that the traditional properties of
knowledge are the same as the properties of libraries.
Paper, books, and libraries have been the medium for
the preservation and communication of knowledge.
Knowledge winnows because the economics of the
paper publishing system and the limited space of
libraries meant we were forced to winnow, curate.
Knowledge is settled because its medium didnʼt allow for
Knowledgeʼs new medium is the Internet. Just
as knowledge picked up properties from its old
paper medium, itʼs now picking up the
Internetʼs properties. Knowledge is becoming
networked. Letʼs look at four familiar
knowledge networks.

6. The first example is the networking of science
((cc) Howzey @ Flickr
When scientists discovered data that indicated
neutrinos might travel faster than the speed of
light, which would have overturned Einstein’s
relativity theory, this very important research
was not published in a peer reviewed journal.
It was published at Arxiv.org where any
scientist can post work at any stage of
readiness, without any editor or peer having to
They posted there because it gets the
information out quickly. And Arxiv includes
some social tools.

7. As a result, a web of responses emerged
quickly, filling every niche of the knowledge
ecosystem. This is where knowledge is
happening because paper doesnʼt scale. I think
itʼs fair to say in some sense that knowledge is
living in these networks now, not in paper and
not in individual nodes. This web has value
On the hopeful side, weʼve seen the
emergence of ways of living together in
disagreement. For example, scientists in the
19th century lost a lot of time arguing over how
to classify the platypus.
And we have many different names for it.

8. E.g., Encyclopedia of Life scientists can ask to
see information using whatever name and
taxonomy they want. This enables
collaboration across differences.

9. If you need to get started there are thousands
of tutorials
if you have a question you can get it
answered, and then iterated on.

10. If you want to build on someone else’s work.
100s of thousands. Heading toward half a
million.
For example, mbostock created d3, a fantastic
set of visualization libraries, free and open to
anyone.
Public learning: Education should be a public
act that makes the public sphere smarter.

11. Weʼre very good at organizing things, but not
just so that we can find them again.
In the West weʼve assumed that to know
something is to know itʼs unique place in the
order of things.

12. But take a look at Flickr. The Library of
Congress posted some color WWII photos
there and let users add metadata. Messy.
Inconsistent. At times even in error, although
those errors can be helpful. We are no longer
stuck with coming up with a single “right” order.

13. We all know about the power of customer
knowledge. This is collective knowledge.
Markets now are networks. Together they
provide a type of networked knowledge.
And they are the best source of knowledge for
many types of questions

14. Networked markets are smart because...
What holds these networks together is human
interest. Every link expresses something that
people care about.

15. These are properties of the Internet and are
becoming properties of knowledge too.
Theyʼre also properties of humans trying to
know a world vastly bigger than them.
Networked knowledge is thus much closer to
our situation as humans.