About a Dynamic Knowledge Ecosystem (DKE) 0

Overview 1

A knowledge ecosystem refers to the whole ecosystem of practices and technologies supporting a knowledge-intensive effort. The more complex, urgent or far reaching the effort, the more important it becomes to give special attention to having a particularly supportive, real time enabling knowledge ecosystem – aka a dynamic knowledge ecosystem (DKE). 1a

Your DKE determines the Collective IQ of participants by enhancing and facilitating the concurrent knowledge processes (CoDIAK), as well as the emerging dynamic knowledge repository (DKR). 1b

Dynamic Knowledge Repository (DKR) 2

Most people think of a repository as a static archive of published documents. A dynamic knowledge repository is a living, breathing, rapidly evolving collection of all the stuff accumulating moment to moment throughout the life of a project or pursuit. This would include successive drafts and commentary leading up to more polished versions of assorted postings, documents, including brainstorming insights, concept pieces, insights, rationale, design notes, plans, work lists, contact info, all the email and meeting notes, research intelligence collected, annotated and circulated, emerging issues, timelines, etc. In a software project, the DKR would also include all the successive versions of source code, bug reports, change requests, fixes, version release notes, documentation, etc. Aerospace friends tell us that the documents it takes to design, build, test, fly and maintain a plane will more than fill the plane. 2a

Concurrent Processes (CoDIAK) 3

The key determining factor of any group's Collective IQ is how effectively it can engage, surface, coalesce, assess, exploit, and advance all the iterating knowledge from the swirl of disparate concurrent contributions. Doug distilled the basic knowledge processes into the concurrent development, integration, and application of knowledge – for which he coined the term CoDIAK – reflected in the purple boxes at right. Examples of CoDIAK in action include the ease and speed with which the group engages to hammer out a shared vision, establish roles, form teams, pursue their mission, interact with the outside world, identify and track needs, issues and opportunities, iteratively plan and implement, adjust on the fly to changing forces, incorporate feedback and learnings, pull together as a team, etc. CoDIAK includes the Human System elements of capability augmentation. High or low Collective IQ depends on the quality of all these interactions between people and the emerging knowledge. The DKR is the evolving collective record of all this activity captured on the fly – the collective vision, know-how, memory, where the dots are connected and the right hand knows what the left hand is doing. 3a

Improving the DKE 4

To boost Collective IQ, improve the DKE. Pay special attention to the ease and quality interaction among participants, their tools and knowledge assets (CoDIAK), as well as the ease and quality of capture, integration, organization, and exploitability of the rapidly evolving collective knowledge repository (DKR). Enabling technology must facilitate the ease and quality of both. See About Open Hyperdocument Systems (OHS) for more. 4a

Supported by a particularly enabling DKE, participants become increasingly faster and smarter at collectively identifying and assessing problems and opportunities, realizing extraordinary outcomes, while integrating new input, feedback and lessons learned. Either way you slice it, the DKE is key to significantly enhancing the vision, agility, speed, and effectiveness with which people can collectively pursue their mission. 4b

DKE for Innovation 5

This whole piece is a core enabler for boosting your Collective IQ and innovation capacity. It is the quality of the work environment – the shared values, vision, modus operandi, as well as the agility and awareness of the group brain – that determines whether brilliant ideas will be inspired, embraced, coalesced, and successfully deployed, or discouraged or derailed. Improving the DKE is a key part of increasing innovation capacity. See our Bootstrapping Brilliance Toolkit for more. 5a

Further Inquiry 6

  Press Articles 6a

  • Doug Engelbart's Design for Knowledge-Based Organizations, Patricia Seybold, in Paradigm Shift - A Guide to the Information Revolution, Vol. 3, No. 8, Feb 12, 1992. Makes the case for a dynamic knowledge ecosystem and enabling tools as a point of leverage in the larger strategic context for organizational transformation. 6a1

  DEI Articles 6b