HotTopics: Real Data, Real Time, Real People: “Wisdom Of One” Fuels Knowledge Funnel

This HotTopics looks at the Knowledge Pyramid that has long been used as a model in the information industry. In Outsell's opinion, the Web has literally turned the information world upside down, and companies that are willing to embrace the brave new world of 'the wisdom of one' will enter unfamiliar information neighborhoods in order to survive and prosper. The old information world was built on a hierarchy of information in which experts at different levels

- journalists, editors, scholars, analysts, market researchers, and consultants

- each added something to the information they began with. The new model has many of those experts less sure about their place in a pyramid that has been flipped over. Now, thanks to the power of search and the Web, individuals have access to information at all levels of the pyramid; information providers are moving from mass markets into 'markets of one' and very specialized audiences. Data, once the humble minion at the bottom of the pyramid, is now king, because data collection and aggregation have become so much easier and more flexible

- individuals can access and understand raw data more readily without the intervention of experts. Information providers struggle to find new ways to add value in order to avoid being bypassed by do-it-yourself end users. As usual, a both/and model is emerging, as providers continue to supply core value, while using technology and innovation throughout their organizations, to meet the new demands. This HotTopics concludes with a list of essential actions for information providers that want to harness the new Knowledge Funnel.