With his new book, "Knowing Knowledge", now available online, he puts his ideas into practice. On the one hand, he has enabled readers to take part in the development of the book and on the other, by creating a website where he offers additional content to "Knowing Knowledge", as well as space for dialogue and discussion. Siemens actually adopted a democratic, end-user-controlled process. His intent with "Knowing Knowledge" was to initiate a conversation, which is why the book was created and published online.


"Much of what I claim in the book centers on the changing context and characteristics of knowledge. Instead of seeing knowledge as only a product like a book, a course, or formula, I suggest that it is more of a process; we should understand knowledge as a river, not as a reservoir. It didn't seem sensible to state that knowledge is moving too fast to be held in traditional products and then write a book in traditional form. I opted to write the book through a fairly open, transparent model and enable readers to revise, update, or re-write the text in a wiki. In a world where knowledge is continually being updated and rewritten, many books risk obsolescence by the date of publication."


In addition to the book, George Siemens has developed yet another approach to creating and sharing knowledge: He invites the attendees at ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN to help "build" his conference keynote speech by contributing their ideas and thoughts on a special wiki site. His keynote at ONLINE EDUCA will present visitors with an opportunity to extend their conversation with the author.