Writing and knowledge sharing.
There's been some good discussion recently on the interplay between knowledge sharing via weblogs and comfort with writing in most business organizations. (Phil Wolff, David Gammel, Pete Harbeson, Al Macintyre, Alison Fish, Sébastien Paquet, Ron Lusk) The consensus appears to be that fear of writing is one relevant barrier to tapping knowledge in organizations.
Lowering or eliminating those barriers is certainly a worthy effort. I want to explore a deeper issue that this raises. Writing is not simply a mode of expression; it is also a tool for thinking. What's the relationship between facility with writing and the quality of thinking in organizations? Has this discussion of knowledge sharing revealed more important needs in the organization?
These questions started rattling around with some other ideas hanging out in my head and the result grew into "Writing comfort and thinking styles," which I've posted as a longer story using Marc Barrot's activeRenderer.
