Seth’s sensemaking on the web
You can think of the act of sensemaking as discovering the new terrain as you are inventing it. A man who is certainly mapping and creating new terrain is Seth Godin. Seth has stated quite clearly his vision for the next version of web technologies.
I BELIEVE THAT WHEN YOU GO ONLINE, you don’t search. You don’t even find. Instead, you are usually on a quest to make sense.
To facilitate this sensemaking Seth is launching a new technology called Squidoo. The interesting thing about this new technology for facilitating sensemaking is that Karl Weick queried this in his book Sensemaking in Organisations . Weick says that “…perceptions of information technology might undermine the ability of that technology to facilitate sensemaking”. Maybe this is something for Seth to think about in his marketing strategies…
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My interpretation of Weick’s statement is that if the perception of the information system is one where it is highly credible, perhaps the definitive, source people will rely on this channel as the primary mode of sensemaking (or least think they can) and discount simplier methods such as getting together and having a conversation. Will Squidoo lull people in thinking that sensemaking is best at the lens? I hope not but I have seen many organisations totally enamoured with technological solutions and I hope they don’t see a lens as THE answer to sensemaking.
I’m keen to see what a Godin Lens looks like. I think without an active collaboration component where people are conversing about the lens content the effort will be in vain.