Knowledge Push, and Knowledge Pull

One of my continuing themes in this blog is the concept of Knowledge Push and Knowledge Pull (see here, here, and video here).

Here is a list of distinguishing factors between the two approaches

Knowledge Push

• “I have knowledge - I will publish it” 
• Knowledge Supply
• "Learning After"
• An answer, looking for a question
• "Just In case" knowledge capture
• Re-use not guaranteed
• Driven by the desire to share
• Initiated by the Knower
• Big effort, delayed payback 
• Knowledge captured in written form, or in presentations 
• Builds explicit knowledge 
• Processes include Retrospects, Learning Histories, Knowledge Assets

Knowledge Pull 

• “I need knowledge - I will go search/ask for it”
• Knowledge Demand
• "Learning Before"
• A question, looking for an answer
• "Just in Time" knowledge transfer
• Guaranteed re-use (if the answer is good enough)
• Driven by the desire to learn
• Initiated by the learner
• Little effort, instant payback 
• Often dialogue based - knowledge may be transferred in tacit form
• May not build the explicit knowledge base
• Processes and technologies include Peer Assists, Q&A forums, Communities of Practice and Search Engines