Foucault 2.0: power as knowledge in use

I have been reading some quite interesting stuff lately, about the changing nature of the net... did you know people are Already tolling the bells for Google's search engine?  It probably (hopefully) sounds as absurd to you as it does to me, but they are offering quite valid points.

As it turns out, I don't want to write about that at all. (Though it is on-topic.)

One particularly interesting quote - which I will dig up if anyone actually wants it - made an 'obvious' point about the power of knowledge.  They were foregrounding the importance of online structures (e.g. searches like Google's) in the practical value of the information available online. The point that was raised was that the huge resource of the mass of info on the internet might be 'accessible' to anyone, but it is completely useless if it can't be organised, found and used appropriately.  Knowledge, in other words, is not 'power' unless it can be applied.

Foucault's knowledge-power simbiosis is almost arbitrary in its method of interconnection.  Like the rhizome, it tends to connect everything to everything else, with knowledge determining the nature these connections take.

That last paragraph, you will have noticed, was full of shit.  (I'm out of practice - unable to fool myself.)

Regardless, it is important to recognise the way emphasis on application of knowledge refocusses attention away from 'knowing' things, to being able to organise information.  And in a world of increasing abundance of information, we are falling behind if we don't recognise that what is actually important is structing information to be useful, not the creation of that information in the first place. A website with a million and one useful tips is of no value if nobody reads it.  Nor is the expertise of an organisation of excessively knowledgeable professionals taking advantage of its potential if that knowledge can not be applied where it is needed.

The creation of new ways of application of knowledge will become increasingly important - corporately - and increasingly people will realise the value not of knowing, but of being able to apply.

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@JohnSBaxter

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