Too Big to Know
“Knowledge is now the property of the network.”
This quote assumes that knowledge is something tangible. That we can all define it as the same thing and assign an owner to it. However, as the author also mentions, there is not one way to define knowledge. How can we give ownership to the network if some of us don’t agree on what knowledge is.
“In the past we used filters to limit the amount of information and gain knowledge.”
According to this idea, filters were a one-way street where knowledge was limited by the material that filtering groups allowed to enter society. Later on, the author breaks this rule by comparing this method with today’s filtering practices. Filters today do not limit the amount of information available. They simply give priority to certain terms and places them in front of a list (ie Google searches).  The material that was filtered out is still available on the Net.
“Knowledge has no shape/foundation”
Since the Net is always growing in different shapes and configurations it is difficult to imagine it has a shape. The author mentions that knowledge has no foundation this means there is no groundwork for it. If there is no base he believes the Net will never stop growing nor have a definite shape. This might contradict the idea that knowledge can be a property since we cannot define the boundaries of knowledge.
Technical Writing 101
“Have a basic grasp of the technology you are writing about” and “Ignorance is bliss.”
The author is giving contradicting ideas when he explains the basic skills a technical writer needs. At first he says that you should know the basic workings of the technology you need to write about. This assumes that this skills is required if you want to be a successful technical writer. However, in another paragraph he says that knowing little about a new technology is an important tool to write a good guide. In this second idea the author assumes that the writer can successfully imitate the mind of a regular user.  However, it is not possible to forget the technical background the writer possesses therefore this approach might not be as effective as his first suggestion that we need at least basic knowledge of the technology we are writing about.
EJBailon, I one hundred percent agree with your point when you say “How can we give ownership to the network if some of us don’t agree on what knowledge is.”. In today’s world we have so much at our fingertips because of the internet and our mobile devices. Anyone in today’s world can say they are knowledgable of a certain subject because its basically at their fingertips. A quick google search on whatever they are looking and its there. I believe knowledge is not only the ability to know something but to also do something. For example, i think everyone knows how to change a tire, but not everyone can do it. Knowledge should expand from knowing to also doing. Then when people agree on what knowledge is, knowledge will truly be the property of the network.
Nice post EJBailon, I also agree with yourself and cbayas^ as to that quote ” How can we give ownership to the network if some of us don’t agree on what knowledge is”. Like Cbayas said we can all be knowledgeable with our fingertips because we all basically know how to google and research information and come up with an answer to a question but the real question is, is the answer you get the right one? See the internet may make it real easy for us to get a fast and quick answer but it only takes knowledge and brains to actually know if the answer your getting is correct.Once people realize that then we may all be able to agree on what knowledge really is.
I would actually leans towards that once you have the technical aspects down, it would possibly reinforce towards writing a better technical manual. I for example play fighting video games, on the instruction manual it tells you a certain move set by pressing at a certain direction on the directional pad. Let’s say on the directional controller, pressing down, down forward, forward or quarter circle forward specific by the manual would initial a specific action by the character. Once you have play long enough you will soon realize that by pressing down and forward would initial the same action as the one before, it’s that this time you made a shortcut by using two inputs opposed to three inputs. I believe that having technical knowledge through experience is much important than asking an expert yourself.
SORIBA,
As my friend point out a discordant idea about this affirmation “Knowledge has no shape/foundation, however, it a property of network.”
I support his point of view, because it’s a paradox to classify something without knowing it.
We cannot classify knowledge if we didn’t define what it is. The knowledge has been classified by the scientists in the domain. For example biological knowledge is different to mathematical ones. Even in a scientific research we cannot elaborate mathematical research in the biological research lab neither vise verse. That means the knowledge has multiple directions but they all are well defined. Even we all agree that the knowledge is belonging to net. That means we know what it is, otherwise we will not be able to find its ownership. Therefore, we cannot deny that knowledge has no shape/foundation.
In other hand, since we can distinct knowledge from ignorance. Therefore, we know the limit of the knowledge. No matter how many shapes it will growth, we will always be able to determine its shape and foundation because at least we have ignorance as point of reference.