Not so long ago, businesses kept records on paper. Whether handwritten in ledgersor typed into documents, business data was analog. If you wanted to gather or shareinformation, you dealt with physical documents — papers and binders, xeroxes, and faxes.

Then computers went mainstream, and most businesses started converting all of thoseink-on-paper records to digital computer files. This is called digitization: the process ofconverting information from analog to digital.

Finding and sharing information became much easier once it had been digitized, butthe ways in which businesses used their new digital records largely mimicked the oldanalog methods. Computer operating systems were even designed around icons offile folders to feel familiar and less intimidating to new users. Digital data wasexponentially more efficient for businesses than analog had been, but businesssystems and processes were still largely designed around analog-era ideas about howto find, share, and use information.