From Information Gateways to Knowledge Gateways

It was really great to present my paper to the Unconferencewa 2008 as I had first floated the ideas at the 2007 Perth Unconference event and than wrote them up into a paper and presentation for ALIA Beyond the Hype Conference.

The show of interest in the topic indicates that perhaps there are quite a few of us interested in the idea of enhancing the role we can play in supporting society in general in acquiring knowledge or understanding.  Maybe it was just a vague intrigue in the topic.  In anycase it was great to get peoples feedback on some of the ideas raised.

For me it's the underlying experiences of working in the NGO sector and trying to respond to peoples desire to become more involved in environmental and human rights issues and to do that they need and want to understand the context and arguments that inform these issues.  I think libraries will have to be brave to venture into trying to provide this for society in general but I think there is a lot of value to it and their couldn't be a better time for it when so many of the problems we currently face in the world need for everyone to be motivated to take some action.

If you are interested in having a look at the ideas put forward in From Information Gateways to Knowledge Gateways please follow the link.  I have set up the slide presentation and paper on a new wiki site - netcipia - I am experimenting with (it has bought wikis and blogs together in an interesting way). 

Also here is the page I set up on this wiki after last years presentation trying to articluate some early thoughts.

Cheers Lucia