Tacit Knowledge in Internet Communication: Interface as a Machine for Tacit Knowledge Production
Authors:   Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow, Russian Federation), Maslanov Evgeniy V. , Feigelman Artem M. ,   Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod (Nizhny Novgorod, Russian Federation)
Published: March 2021

The article aims to analyze the use of tacit knowledge in Internet communication. The authors note that the use of new information and communication technologies and communication platforms plays a special role in modern Internet communication. To identify the specifics of the formation of Internet communication, the authors consider communication platforms as “hybrids”, which include actions of many actors existing in different registers: actions of programmers and various participants in the communication platform; lines of program code; many servers; communication devices of individual users; wires and electromagnetic waves, making it possible to transmit a signal; content that exists at the platform. On this basis, the authors infer that platform users participating in communication are always limited by the mechanisms of its functioning. The analysis of the functioning of interfaces, carried out on the basis of the concept of instrumentality by M. Heidegger, made it possible to conclude that interfaces act not only as tools. They become structures that allow the formation of the users’ “lifeworld”, as well as their behavioral habits. This conclusion was confirmed by a study of the functioning of such communication platforms as Facebook, VK, Instagram. A case study showed that the most important condition for the successful creation of ICT “hybrids” is the formation of user habits and skills of interaction with the interface. As a result of the analysis, the authors infer that the use of tacit knowledge plays a special role in this process. In the analysis of this knowledge, the authors rely on M. Polanyi’s concept and its development in G. Collins’s works that specify “relative” implicit knowledge, “somatic implicit knowledge” and “collective tacit knowledge”. The authors reveal the specifics of the use of implicit knowledge in Internet communication. As a result, they infer that “relational” implicit knowledge is always present in ICT “hybrids” in an explicit form. At this stage of technological development, “somatic” tacit knowledge is not represented in hybrids at all because a person does not yet have a specific experience of being physically in such digital spaces. However, based on the analysis of communication platforms, it can be concluded that the interface can be represented as a “machine” for the production of “collective tacit knowledge”, which allows transforming the experience of participants in Internet communication. A convenient interface for the production of “collective tacit knowledge” helps users to create new meanings and values, while a poorly perceived interface forces users to look for other ways of Internet communication. Hence, the authors conclude that the interface in communication platforms forms the mechanisms for transforming user experience and enables them to independently establish rules of behavior and problem solving within the framework of Internet communication, that is, to create specific conditions for the production of “collective tacit knowledge”.