What's Wrong With KM Software?

One of the problems we've got with social software is that it relies on a large architectural model. But this doesn't serve goal-oriented groups terribly well. I'm beginning to think that a better model is shipbuilding, where the goal is to provide groups with a place to gather and go somewhere together. It provides a way to say "We're going to use this medium, this vessel, to accomplish this goal." Ships are part space and part tool. The ways they work are quite obvious: They divide roles among the people on them. So it's much less of a generic idea than architecture. it assumes, among other things, that in many cases the group is going to come together, use the tool and then leave.