Just Do It! Web 2.0 and the Breaking of the Tacit Dimension for Knowledge Acquisition

Does Web 2.0 facilitate the conversion of tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge? Prior research has focused on the conversion of tacit knowledge to explicit within the context of organizations and builds upon assumptions made during the period when information technologies were not readily available and accessible to the general population. Recently, there have been dramatic changes to the information technology landscape due to the advent of Web 2.0. A unique characteristic of the Web 2.0 era is the dissemination and absorption of knowledge and information by almost anyone at any time. This conceptual research in progress builds upon the theory that explicit and tacit knowledge are dichotomous constructs on a continuum scale. We use this theory to examine how features of Web 2.0 convert increasing kinds of tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge; allowing for greater dissemination and acquisition by the layman and artificial intelligence agents. For the layman, we discuss the current limitations we face in empirically documenting and measuring this phenomenon and the benefits of a randomized digital field experiment. We conclude with the implications of the research for academia and practitioners.