It's always boggled my mind how disorganized most companies are with written information. It's always a wiki here, 7 different file shares over there, most of the latest data is on workers' desktops named "mgmt report 04032023 latest jb edits 2.0.doc". Constant stream of "can you send me the thingamajig file?"
And yet, we've all been to a library. Information organized by topic, then by author, and inside the books everything is further organized into chapters, and then there's an index referencing all of that (plus a card catalog/search system).
I use something similar to the Johnny Decimal system described at work, except the high level is by project not by topic. I find chronological filing split into projects (i.e. chunks of time/money/effort) matches my workday better.
Libraries have a physical common place where everything always is.
Seems like better tech could improve this.
Arguably Whatsapp history already has, because at least stuff tends to collect in one place and be searchable, as opposed to being on desktops sent to individuals on request and forgotten.
The thing with libraries is that they're full of librarians. For some reason, it has fallen out of vogue for all but the oldest/largest companies (and government agencies) to hire librarians to work outside their libraries.
And, librarians are professionals who are trained specifically in the challenges around managing info, etc...Like many other areas, many corporations don't value long-term attention to things that will help them the most...in the long term. Its just too much short-term thinking...as well as, "oh hell, we don';t need to hire librarians...that takes money away from stockholders...Everyone in the company will just figure out how to manage the data at some point in some fashion on their own...etc." :-p
And yet, we've all been to a library. Information organized by topic, then by author, and inside the books everything is further organized into chapters, and then there's an index referencing all of that (plus a card catalog/search system).
I use something similar to the Johnny Decimal system described at work, except the high level is by project not by topic. I find chronological filing split into projects (i.e. chunks of time/money/effort) matches my workday better.