Knowledge Center

[EQguys]

I had an interesting discussion today with my boss about how to be confident about the designs and develop a knowledge center (if you will) about things you learn at work on a daily basis. He was recommending me to maintain a word document about technical knowledge that I gain EVERYDAY. I want to know from you people that has anybody practiced this sort of thing. I also want to know if it would really help me in the future. Please advice me.

"Does the man make the journey or does the journey make the man" - Mark Twain

 

[prc]

I am one who is doing such collection and collation of knowledge nuggets from my area of specialisation.I started during my paper days and now does mostly in word files.My area is transformer engineering and all information can be divided in to some major titles say history,applications, magnetic circuit,conducting circuit, dielectric, cooling,accessories, production,testing,Installation-commissioning-maintenance etc.When a major issue is resolved with hundreds of pages, most often, all that can be distilled in to a couple of pages and then stored in proper folders for later use.Then you need not overload your head with all the data which may be lost with tiime!

 

[ornerynorsk]

Can you imagine all of the knowledge human-kind would have at this moment if all cultures and civilizations had been able to put their daily obtained wisdom into a written journal. Of course, it might take a while to read through. If men like Tesla and Leedskalnin had been able or had wanted to further elaborate on their writings. The thought is staggering.

 

[leakyseal]

I used to keep notebooks and binders of articles as described, with inconsistent results. My latest method is to use Evernote (

http://www.evernote.com)

to keep my activity notes and c&p vendor info and articles on the fly (either directly from the web or from a locally open copy of something, or even an image or scan).

Evernote's real power is that it can search within images and notes, even some cursive handwriting (although not my normal scratch. Block cap headers are no problem though.) I have different notebooks for project activity and general learning curve stuff (e.g. I've recently had to start thinking about scrubbers after a long time away from them, and drop thoughts and article clippings etc. directly into evernote). There are browser and OS plugins that make the info clipping transparent and very fast.

There's a free version to try, I recommend giving it a look.

I'd like to set up an office wiki or other brain-content-management-system, but I rather suspect that usage will be erratic and not ultimately too useful. Save that battle for another day.