Eras Of Knowledge Management

I've been trying to place the weblog/k-log phenomenon in context with previous efforts in the realm of knowledge management. The following table is an early effort to get a handle on this.

I've chosen to start the analysis back in the days of expert systems. Prior to expert systems would be something you might call the pre-KM era.

Era	Expert Systems	Document Management	It's On The Web	Managing Knowledge Work
Motivating Issue	Scarce Expertise	Leveraging Dispersed Content	Connecting Scattered Community	Coordinating Distributed Talent
Metaphor	Expert in a box	Library	Yellow Pages	Commonplace Book
Iconic Technology	Rules Based System	Document Repository	Portal	Weblog
Key Role	Knowledge Engineer	Librarian	Webmaster	Individual Knowledge Worker
Archetypal Example	XCON	Knowledge Exchange	Yahoo	Scripting News
Gating Factor	If...Then Rule	Taxonomy	Search	Newsfeed
Metaphorical Quote	"Only the Shadow Knows"	"The Bible says..."	"Where is...?"	"Look what I'm doing"
Lesson Learned	Experts can't decode tacit knowledge	Libraries are a necessary but not sufficient condition for effective knowledge use	Signal/noise ratio overwhelms search engines. Self-organizing isn't	Augmentation works better than automation