I'm reading B.J. Fogg's new book, Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do, alongside my masters coursework and professional workload. So this will likely be the first in a running, occasional series of posts that will amount to a book review at some point. I've argued in prior posts (e.g., here and there) that information design and KM are interdependent fields.
Good information design will help us notice useful information when it first comes to our attention. It will make it easier to retrieve when we need it later.
But in the end, it doesn't matter how much you know, or how efficiently you can collect prior knowledge, if you can't communicate the results effectively.
So the following observations from Fogg's preface and introduction resonate for me:
"I discovered an area that pulled together the interests I'd been developing since I was a child. That area was document design. ...[D]ocument design was all about making information 'accessible, usable, and persuasive.' "
And,
"We are still in the early stages of persuasive technology development. The potential for using (or, unfortunately, abusing) such technology is enormous. Those who are early to understand this emerging field will be in the best position to benefit from it, personally and professionally."
Fogg promises to help us recognize both the power and the danger in using technology to persuade. That seems the essential first step in using and defending ourselves (and our clients) from abuses of persuasive technology. I'll keep you posted as I work through the book and look forward to your thoughts, as well.
As an aside relating to information design, for those who subscribe to Knowledge Aforethought through Bloglet, I would gently suggest when you get the e-mail, you might enjoy the posts more by clicking through to the blog and reading in your browser. Bloglet - at least as I receive it - strips out all formatting and delivers a single, running paragraph of text. That makes the information nearly impenetrable to me. I try to use the limited formatting tools in TypePad to make the posts easy to read. And I'm determined to learn how to incorporate graphics and more elaborate formatting, as I learn this new medium.
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