WEEK 01

INTERNAL TRANSFORMATIONS OF CUSTOMERS

Overview: The continued penetration and use of digital technologies and the internet into every aspect of current day work practices is transforming the way in which knowledge is constructed, evaluated and exchanged. This transformation of work itself is impacting the ways in which media and publishing organisations relate to their customers.

The services provided by the media and publishing sector

Digital technologies are disrupting and revolutionising the nature of work across all industries – customers and suppliers alike. It will become increasingly important for all service and content providers within the media and publishing sector to understand where their products become part of the business systems of their customers. In other cases, the customer may no longer have any need for the conventional services or products they have used in the past. To achieve this type of understanding it is necessary to understand the nature of knowledge work itself.

What is knowledge?

In a sense, knowledge can be regarded simply as “solutions to problems”. The focus on solutions is critical because the focus is on “identifying what works”. Knowledge therefore involves the deployment of solutions that work; that have an impact in the world.

The use of knowledge

The use of knowledge is premised on three inter-related activities. First, knowledge is constructed via interactions and conversations between people that relate in diffuse networks of relationships. This process of constructing knowledge occurs when people talk and share ideas about how best to find a solution to a particular problem. New knowledge may or may not be written down or codified. But when a particular claim is made – in other words a particular solution to a problem is proposed, the new knowledge claim has to be evaluated. So second, with knowledge, evidence is used to test whether a new knowledge claim actually is of use – or has the potential to have an impact. Third, if a new knowledge claim is shown or agreed to have merit, then this new knowledge claim has to be exchanged with other parties, to ensure the solution to a particular problem is taken up in appropriate ways.

The use of technologies to support knowledge work

Digital technologies and the internet increasingly provide crucial support infrastructure to draw upon the collective intelligence of a widely dispersed network of knowledge workers. Some examples of how digital technologies are used in each of the three broad areas of knowledge work as described above are as follows.

ELEMENT OF KNOWLEDGE WORK	EXAMPLES OF DIFFERENT SUPPORT SYSTEMS TO ENABLE KNOWLEDGE WORK
Construction and articulation of individual knowledge	Aids for network formation such as skype conference calling. Aids to discovery - web and database search, e.g., Google, Web of Knowledge, etc., Aids to articulation - word processing, graphics, mathematica, CAD, etc., Aids for storage and preservation - content management systems, etc.,
Knowledge quality assurance	On-line infrastructure to support the reviewing of draft publications; Creation of project orientated web sites to manage project information flows and lessons learned. Document management systems, including Digital records management and archiving systems. Data processing systems that help monitor and evaluate the impact of practice management over a period of time by interpreting trends made evident from the analysis of data sets.
Knowledge exchange	Aids for dissemination - push systems (e.g., publishing, RSS feeds, etc.), pull systems (web & database search). Note the semantically closed, cyclical nature of these systems. Web publishing infrastructure systems, including web blogging. Commercial print and print on demand infrastructure systems. Graphic design and enterprise publishing systems. On-line and print based cataloguing systems. Content management infrastructure systems. IT networks support systems.

Challenges associated with knowledge work

The rise of digital technologies is resulting in more data and information becoming embedded within digital content and organisational workflows. The problem is that the entire process of creation and distribution of content is becoming more autonomous. The challenge for media and publishing organisations is to create and deliver new kinds of services and infrastructure that replace outmoded processes. These new services need to be provided in ways that do no cut across the informal and conversational exchanges that are vital to effective knowledge flows that occur within people-networks.

KEY IMPLICATIONS

With an increasing focus on knowledge work across all sectors, the need for different skill sets is emerging within the media and publishing industry.
These new skills need to be defined by how services are linked to the knowledge and communication functions of customers. A focus on knowledge involves a focus on solutions to problems – with the problems and solutions defined according to the needs of customers.
Many skills within the media and publishing industries are very relevant to these emerging needs. For example, many organisations are beginning to explicitly recognize the need to embrace enterprise-wide publishing systems and the role such systems play in supporting knowledge work and the exchange mechanisms that support innovative knowledge work.
Graphic designers will play a crucial role in the development of new design solutions associated with knowledge work. Design solutions are required to support and not cut across the ability for workers to engage in informal exchanges (such as those contained in doing people favours or engaging in work conversations). In other words, design solutions that require that everything is made explicit are not likely to service the interest of users and user behaviour.
There is an emergence of new business-system service models which may be fully in-sourced or which may be selectively purchased. These are discussed under the headings content and document management; enterprise-wide publishing; graphic design and in-house printing.

One of the most interesting issues for the future will be to observe how these emergent services in turn converge with the IT and content management sector. This is a crucial business space for the media and publishing sector as a whole.