Recently there have been a number of layoffs in software companies, news outlets, and other white-collar organizations here in the U.S. The laid-off are information workers. On the face of it, that seems laughable. Isn’t this the Information Age? Why remove skilled knowledge workers from the team when the whole point of the game is developing information into leverage?
Sigh…Well yes, thank you for your interest in our society, but you don’t appear current on how the marketplace turns information into leverage. To do that you must understand the opportunities in hiring and firing knowledge-workers, from the perspective of upper management and those who hold equity positions in companies. Then the apparent paradox of eliminating knowledge workers will make sense. For the sake of clarity, let’s pick on a journalist in a news company. Let’s call this journalist, this knowledge worker, Commodity1.
Event: Commodity1 is canned.
After canning, if Commodity1 has value, it will soon find a better revenue stream–and management will have made a mistake. That mistake is either management missed the best revenue stream associated to Commodity1; or, management has let go of a valuable resource without understanding its value proposition. If Commodity1 goes begging, life turns upside down, and revenue falls, then management has not made a mistake. Pat on the back, good job you saved us money. Go render more fat. Here is a bonus. It’s cold-blooded, but understanding the equity-holder’s viewpoint will make this easier in the end. So how does Commodity1 solve its ongoing problem: Recognize the game and declare the value of a trusted content-creator?
Hard knock: We are in the Information Age and there is plenty of information around. Basic math: Plenty equals commodity.
With cameras and phones, keyboards and mice, those who gather information are everywhere. It is an epidemic of information spawning two information castes: privately controlled information, and free or mass information. Here is where it gets messy. The value of information has become chaotic due to this split. The privately controlled information retains a linear valuation. While mass information does not.
Today, once information disperses to anyone, the information becomes less valuable to its owner and Commodity1’s management–sometimes known as the evil empire–just kidding. So newsgathering is a commodity; however, if management has a method for leveraging the information before dispersal, it is more than just news. It is revenue, then force, then supremacy. This progression is a key concept for Information Age workers like Commodity1.
This also means management’s best use of information is to keep it closely held, for as long as possible, until the data can be used for manipulating perception. Then it delivers proceeds to one, or many, organizations. (BTW–sorry if you thought this was going to be another woe-is-us climate change piece. I’ll do better next time.)
In the past, the mass dispersal of information had been highly prized because so few had access to information. This class of records had value in the market as something called news. Its delivery made people thirsty for more news. This hunger translated into increasing value–generations ago–for newsgathering entities. The news delivered more and more revenue, force, and supremacy as it developed a reputation of trust. Ironically, it is this reputation of trust that delivers the value to the privately controlled information–upon its dispersal. This is a second important concept of the Information Age for workers like Commodity1.
Event: An earthquake in San Francisco.
This is a valuable news event and it seems to contradict some of my commentary. The incident would be so widespread and time-sensitive; it would apparently supplant the ability to control the component contents of the event–which is normally where the value lies in information. So at first glance, it appears some kinds of news cannot be manipulated because it is so relevant to so many–in both scope and timing. On the other hand, if you know an event is going to occur, and the information is manipulated, before the event happens, then the same linear progression to supremacy can be gained from the episode.
And yes, I did leave out the impacts that controlled information might have on mitigating death, destruction, and suffering. Don’t get mad at me. I don’t make the news. I just report it. It’s all about the economy, Stupid, remember?
Today, the highest valuation of information–to management–is as a system for adjusting the population’s perception of events and garnering leverage from that perception. That means the worth of unregulated mass information appears to be marginal when compared to its highly leveraged counterpart. Even while the public’s trust of unregulated mass information provides the glue that makes privately held information a force.
Really, I was kidding about this being notes on the evil empire.
Anyway, there is your answer: If you are a knowledge worker, prove your skill set is more than a commodity in the revenue stream. Your skill is a resource–to management and equity partners–so is your admittance to data sources and the skill that delivers it to…
Wait. Wait. Wait.
Why would we deliver valuable information to someone else? Shouldn’t we each use our knowledge to generate revenue–for ourselves–gosh darn it? They do.
Congratulations, you are now current on the Information Age.
Or rather, current on drivers of this early stage of the Information Age, the ones that have declared that relevant information should only see the light of day when its value has been distilled–either by event, by scope, or by manipulation–to naught.
By and by, this gets us to the real influence that Commodity1 has on the Information Age: First, Commodity1 updates its obsolete view of information dispersal, keeping an eye on the corporate-marxian-mash-up: “From the manager’s capabilities to the equity holder’s needs.” Then, using this new framework of information, Commodity1 works to antiquate management’s current information model: Trust the News!
Management knows budgets. Equity partners know leverage. Knowledge workers know information by source, impact, domain inter-tie, and result–better than anyone else does. Last step, Commodity1 works to leap-frog the present information dispersal model. Nothing else will add more to a Commodity’s bottom line–other than sets of highly destructive storms. (There I injected some climate-woe in this article. I feel much better now.)
The evolving Information Age is a challenge for Commodities, sometimes known as people. Even so, Commodities can take control of the Information Age by forcing it to evolve faster. One way to do that is through the widespread dispersal of germane information on important topics.
Event: Cogent news reporting by plucky domain experts matures the public perception of information manipulation. This will result in novel information processes–so some notes can become archaic.
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