Web users generate two kinds of information, explicit and implicit. Explicit is what you set out to create: blog posts, tags, wikis.
But it’s the information you create without thinking as you make your way across the Web that may be far more important in the long run.
As defined by Harvard Business School professor Andrew McAfee:
Implicit user-generated information is information that people unknowingly generate as they work online. It’s the digital fingerprints or traces that people leave as they follow links, look at content, consider one product then buy another, etc. This data can be aggregated to show what’s popular, what’s related, who has a good reputation, etc.
McAfee ruminates on the differences between explicit and implict user content in a recent blog post.
Does it matter if content is explicit or implicit? Web 2.0 pioneer Tim O’Reilly tells McAfee that implicit will turn out to be far more valuable. McAfee encourages the safe play. By fostering explicit content you’ll also be encouraging implicit content as a byproduct.
McAfee is interested in hearing from readers about what they and their organizations learned from explicit and/or implicit information that wouldn’t have been known otherwise.
