Posted by Martyn R Jones on February 16, 1998 at 02:07:12:

In Reply to: Information & Knowledge Workers posted by Ross Hall on February 09, 1998 at 13:34:48:

Hi Ross:

I would be very cautious about taking on face value the answers you get to your interesting question.

"What is the difference between an Information Worker and a Knowledge Worker"?

There are multiple streams of thought regarding the use and abuse of the terms Information Worker and Knowledge Worker, and the ground work of many a major thesis may have been set on these grounds. However, I wouldn't be so quick to look for a marked distinction in the profile of the Information or Knowledge Worker. The term Information Worker, in the main, has come from the IT industry. When we wished to distinguish users of MIS systems from users of OLTP systems we used the denominations "Information Workers" and "Operational Workers" . In the early 80's we found there was a need to differentiate the market for OLTP, Information Center (MIS) from users of Knowledge Based Systems (mainly Expert Systems) so we arrived at a new denomination, i.e. the "Knowledge Worker", to distinguish them from the "Data" and "Information" workers.

Take a look at the Data Warehousing industry right now. If you believe that a Data Warehouse turns data into knowledge as if by magic, then you'll believe anything. What people seem to forget is that the only thing in the DW is data, and the only way that this data becomes information or contributes to a knowledge function is to include a human in the process. Even knowledge that is structured, codified and transformed beyond all recognition has at best the equivalent usefulness of raw data - so what is that knowledge that no one understands, but data.

So, if you look for anything too profound in the terminology they you may be misleading yourself and other people in the process - there's no such thing as a "information" or "knowledge" worker, only peoples need for empowerment, information and knowledge. To assume that the use of these terms, has, in the past meant anything profound is to be beguiled by marketing.

Martyn Jones
HP GCC

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@ibm.net

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• Re: Information & Knowledge Workers Ross Hall 10:21:39 2/22/98 (0)

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