I caught a talk this past weekend on Book TV by John Palfrey on his book, Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives. The talk was given at the headquarters of Google last September. (Here is a link to a similar presentation since I cannot find the one which aired online) The author basically argues that people born since 1980 who have been exposed to digital technology from a very young age, have developed new ways to live on a ubiquitous, online universe. This is not new territory but Mr. Palfrey brings a new twist to the idea as a law professor, not a technologist or sociologist. While he outlines several points to describe his ideas I focused on two while I watched. The first was on formation of online identity. Anyone who knows a modern student probably knows of the profile/blog sites they use such as FaceBook or MySpace. Using these sites a user creates a persona which is exposed to an online community. The other point Palfrey makes is about how digital natives use search tools such as Google to research and how they filter the information they find. This is where a the digital generation fractures with techniques ranging from simply copy and pasting source material to a more sophisticated use of the material as a starting point for their research.
This got me thinking of an idea for a knowledge management tool. A good search tool should be intelligent enough to review the user’s online persona and form some assumptions about their learning style. The LinkedIn site has moved this a bit further by adding a reading list module to the profiles there. As online profiles capture more facts about the user, such as music taste and communications style, that data should be used to help the user find appropriate information when using online material. While there would be privacy issues other “clues” about an individual’s learning style can be discovered through online buying patterns and even college transcripts. As long as a users is recording information about themselves in their profiles that data should be used to help them in the digital universe.