What's a good learning culture?

In What's a good learning culture? George presents a very informative and interesting personal experience about satisfying information seeking needs.

Apart from the fact that "information need" seems to be used interchangeably with/for "need for knowledge" (I'm of the opinion that information does not equal knowledge, and perhaps as such the processes to satisfying information needs would differ from those for satisfying knowledge needs), I agree with George that informal means of seeking information have become part of our lives indeed.

In what George has written, few parameters emerge: structured vs. unstructured content, structured vs. unstructured communication (for content delivery), formal vs. information contexts.

Depending on the particular information need at hand, some combinations of the above parameters is applied in the process of information seeking. If we are to identify the tools that help us carry the information seeking process, a distinction will be apparent. For example, e-mail communication is not a structured content. One to one e-mail communication does not appear structured and yet there might be an underlying communication structure (not necessarily apparent) because of the common background between the participants. On the other side, many-to-many communication (i.e. discussion lists) may presents a semi-structured communication process and semi-formal context, depending on how the discussion is run (moderated, semi-moderated, etc.).