We are now somewhere into the third or fourth generation of serious efforts to better manage the relationship between knowledge and organizational performance, depending on how you choose to count. I've put together a table summarizing these eras of knowledge management as a separate story.

Before that time, there were a series of seminal events that constitute the roots of today's knowledge management. Since context is such an important aspect of effective KM, it's worth spending some time looking back to these roots.

1945 - Vannevar Bush - As We May Think

1967 - Doug Engelbart - Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework

1973 - Ted Nelson - Hypertext/Xanadu

1976 - Alan Kay - Personal Dynamic Media

1987 - Ray Ozzie - Lotus Notes

1990 - Tim Berners-Lee - WWW

1999 - Shawn Fanning - Napster/P2P

Granted, a bit of an idiosyncratic list. But it does provide some useful starting points.

3:08:50 PM •  • comment