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Share knowledge, don't just move it, says Xerox's Wasilov

In the concluding session of the IT World '98 / Comdex India conference, Alex Wasilov briefed delegates on the emerging technologies from Xerox.

He is Xerox Corporation's president in charge of emerging markets.

"Xerox," Wasilov said, "would be moving from the business of 'moving knowledge' to the business of 'sharing knowledge'. This, Xerox proposes to do by developing new technologies that will make it easier for people to access, manipulate and retrieve bits of information from different databases and combine them into a new one to share knowledge through access to databases once again."

"Knowledge has become the most important resource for corporations and people today," said Wasilov, "and we are at present pretty much in the dark ages when it comes to sharing knowledge."

Wasilov spoke of the concept of the "virtuous cycle" that would involve the development and use of copiers with 'intelligence', scanners and devices that will enable documents to be directly downloaded into the computer.

Despite digitisation all around, Wasilov pointed out that "We are in an age when more paper docs exist than ever before!"

"Electronic paper, reusable one side or the other, that can be used just as regular paper, is one of the new developments we can expect in the near future," Wasilov promised. "We would even possibly have the capability to retread our daily newspaper," he said.

"Simplicity is the core competency for Xerox Corp," said Wasilov, "and the effort is to put a 'big green button' on even the most complex technologies to allow any user to just press and get the job done."

"The trend in Xerox in terms of reducing complexity is just the opposite of that in the PC industry," he commented.

Smart retrieval capability would be a critical factor in the future, he pointed out. "There already are a 100 million pages on the Web today. Technical complexity must not blur the cause of people's benefit. Sharing knowledge would present a huge business opportunity ahead and allow for 'conversation knowledge', as different from mere 'knowledge management'," he said.

"In Xerox huge savings have been effected through putting technology experiences of the various technical reps into a common accessible site called 'Eureka'. The rate of learning for the technical reps went up 40 per cent. Massive labour savings resulted too. This virtuous capital results in economic capital," Wasilov explained.

Documents are the DNAs of knowledge. As people and knowledge are inseparable, the virtuous ever-replenishing cycle will present total knowledge solutions that will reduce complexity and avert total chaos.

"Unleash knowledge," Wasilov concluded.

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