_posts/2015-06-24-thomas-vander-wal-event.md
---
title: "Imagining a water cooler for the digital age"
date: 2015-06-24
layout: post
authors:
- emileigh
tags:
- events
- design
- speaker series
excerpt: "Last week, information architect Thomas Vander Wal came to 18F to lead a discussion on his research into social and internal collaboration in the workspace."
description: "Last week, information architect Thomas Vander Wal came to 18F to lead a discussion on his research into social and internal collaboration in the workspace."
image: /assets/blog/vander-wal/email.jpg
hero: false
---
William Shakespeare invented more than 1,700 English words. For
example, *swagger*. Also, *bedazzled*.
*Folksonomy* and *infocloud* — language innovations of Thomas Vander
Wal — haven’t yet reached Shakespearean fame, but they’re shaping up to
be major players in the world of technology. And last week Vander Wal
chatted about these concepts, and a few others, as a speaker for an 18F
Design Presents event.
The information architect’s Friday discussion highlighted his research
into social, internal collaboration in the workspace. While “water
cooler conversations” fostered knowledge sharing in the past, digital
platforms like email and Microsoft Lync have allowed employees in modern
offices to share information and generate ideas.
“This idea of having hallways with memory was absolutely brilliant,”
Vander Wal said during his lecture. But many companies don’t save
instant message conversations. And email buries data in an archive
that’s inaccessible to most.
*An illustration of closed-node communication, from Vander Wal’s
presentation*
“Email is essentially where knowledge goes to die,” Vander Wal said.
“Think of it as a tombstone.”
Closed-node communication, like email, is slow to spread and slow to
change. By contrast, open digital interaction is adaptable and
shareable. Slack and other similar tools allow users to ask questions
and collaborate via instant message in a variety of open channels. Those
messages are archived, and all users can search them, “which is insanely
valuable,” Vander Wal said.
“If one person has the question, more often than not, many people have
the question.”
We’ve certainly found this to be true at 18F, and we’ve blogged before
about the [value of
documentation](https://18f.gsa.gov/2015/06/15/building-a-better-welcome-wagon/)
when training new hires. We emphasize [open, digital record
keeping](https://18f.gsa.gov/2015/05/28/18F-guides/), and — whenever
possible — we illuminate our processes, hopefully [to the benefit of
the larger tech community](https://pages.18f.gov/guides/).
*Open-node communication allows members of the same community to share
institutional knowledge deftly and painlessly.*
Alongside his cutting-edge ideas, Vander Wal is known as a liberator of
data. One of his pivotal career contributions was making vast swaths of
Department of Transportation information searchable, a task previously
deemed impossible.
He mixed, matched, and married information from myriad data sets, which
allowed users ranging from scientists to junior high students to study
transportation information in new ways — for example, comparing how many
federally funded stop signs exist in two neighboring counties.
Vander Wal rounded out his Friday talk with a discussion about choosing
the right social tools for work.
“One size does not fit all,” he said. Many groups use three or four
different platforms, each with different features and functionality. And
companies must keep in mind that employees may not immediately embrace
this workplace sharing.
Our culture is not openly social as a norm, Vander Wal said. In spaces
with permeable walls, people need to be allowed to make mistakes and
openly share.
Watch the entire lecture
[here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvKxoJJ7-ns). Tweet Vander Wal
at [@infocloud](https://twitter.com/infocloud). And keep an eye out
for more 18F speaker events, resuming this August.