Communication String Theory

Upon reading the Jenkins piece about “knowledge community,” I knew I should write about my work at Onyx Group. Not only is our staff a knowledge community, there are also many communities within the design and marketing industry that I interact with on a daily basis. Jenkins’s defines a knowledge community’s collective intelligence as “no one knows everything, everyone knows something.” This is especially true in the workplace. Everyone is there because they bring something different to the table. Our diverse cultural and educational backgrounds help to reinforce the concept that everyone brings a unique perspective to the table.

Within our office we exchange ideas constantly. With Skype I can communicate with coworkers down the hall or ask my colleague in California for web design advice. We share inspiration with our team through Facebook and Twitter links. To initiate a new brainstorm we send out company wide emails and everyone comments back with inspiration and creative insight.

In the design community this constant multi-platform communication is even more apparent. With site’s like Behance the creative community can share work they’ve done and receive feedback. And in forums like OpenIDEO design becomes an open collaborative process allowing multiple creators to contribute toward a single project. I both agree and disagree with Jenkins’s concept of an “expert paradigm [resulting] in an ‘exterior’ and an ‘interior’ […] there are people who know things and others who don’t.” Yes there are tricks of the trade which designers and marketers keep to themselves, however through blogs and tutorial most of their knowledge is made available to the community at large.

Within the industry there are even more knowledge communities. From industry bloggers who share their knowledge through tutorials to designers who update their twitter feeds with inspiration, the design community has astoundingly broad reach. For example two of my favorite sources of inspiration are companies located thousands of miles away. I love Bruce Mau Design’s tumblr, the Canadian based design studio shares inspiration and design industry news. And my other favorite blog is the Behance fostered think tank the 99% which provides industry insight and organizational advice.

This reading from Jenkins’s book has made me consider which knowledge communities I am involved in and how they are all intertwined. My theory of a knowledge community a ‘web of string theory,’ individuals are connected through many sources at all times. Each social media link, blog or email is a string tying the community together and regardless of distance knowledge is transferable at the speed of light.