Industrial Age begat the Information Age, which is begetting the Connected Age. I was going to write some well-thought-out, provocative ideas about this, but Anne Zelenka really explains it best:

Knowledge Worker (Information Age) vs. Web Worker (Connected Age)

The Information Age is the age of the knowledge worker. The Connected Age is the age of the web worker. Knowledge workers create and manage information, massaging it into intangible knowledge goods. Web workers create and manage relationships across knowledge goods, hardware, and people. The table below, taken from Web Worker Daily’s upcoming book “Connect! Web Worker Daily’s Guide to a New Way of Working” contrasts knowledge work and web work. Of course, in practice individual workers may take a hybrid approach, combining aspects of both.

From The Information Age To The Connected Age – GigaOM.

And, check out a review of her most recent book, Connect! A Guide to a New Way of Working from GigaOM’s Web Worker Daily:

When I was at Intel [Gia’s note: I and others are currently in the throes of persuading Intel about the value of Lotus Connections], the focus was more on knowledge work, but I am noticing that at my current employer, the focus is on web work as Anne defines it with collaboration, openness, and relationships being of utmost importance.

Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: Connect!: A Guide to a New Way of Working from GigaOM’s Web Worker Daily.

The reviewer goes on to say:

Busy vs. bursty is also a common theme throughout the book. Busy work is based on work hours, email, company relationships, inflexible long-term planning, and web surfing as a time waster, while bursty work is about getting the job done regardless of hours worked, collaboration tools instead of email, relationships that are broader than just your company, agile planning, and web surfing as fuel for ideas.

I’m a bursty Web worker. How about you?

Slowly but surely, the idea that HUMANS are really who you’re working with, and not “resources”, is taking over. Knowing how an individual feels and thinks – and their quirks and preferences – is just as important as knowing what their competencies are. And understanding how to relate well to someone is critical. How else can you gain their tacit knowledge?

This is really what happens when you create trusted relationships via social networking software – you gain the potential to access their tacit knowledge, and vice versa.

One of my customers has the following pain point. I’ve IBM-ified it for easier understanding.

Facilitate Introductions to Clients – Who Knows Whom?

1. Ron Espinoza, an IBM Seller, would like to establish contact with someone (or a named individual in particular) at Acme Corp., one of IBM’s customers.
2. Ron initiates a ‘who knows whom’ search – “Who in IBM knows Natalie Olmos at Acme Corp?”
3. The system responds that Simone Dray knows Natalie, and that Vijay Gupta and Heather Reeds know other people at Acme Corp.
4. The system asks Ron if he wants to request more information from Simone, Vijay and Heather.
5. He does. He figures that if he cannot get to Natalie, the other contacts might be the way “in”.
6. Simone, Vijay and Heather receive a request for information and can choose to respond.
7. Simone and Heather respond.
8. Ron receives the responses and contacts Simone to help him establish communication with her contact, Natalie, at Acme Corp.

Now, the system will never be able to make Simone trust Ron enough to share her network, i.e., the details of her relationship with Natalie at Acme Corp. So, Ron and Simone hopefully already have knowledge of each other.

If Ron and Simone don’t have an established relationship, Ron could use his existing network to get “connected” to Simone, so that he can ultimately get connected to Natalie at Acme Corp (this is what Atlas for Lotus Connections can do for you).

If I could somehow leverage the customer contact information in Siebel, and display a visualization of which IBMer knows which customer – and the majority of IBM Sellers somehow change overnight from entrepreneurial, lone-wolf mavericks into people who readily share their precious customer contact information – then we might have something here.