[ba-ohs-talk] DKR Progress on Context, Meaning
Eugene, (01)
I agree with the explanation in your letter today, shown below, that "context"
is stuff, and linking is an enabling agent for meaning, but what does "meaning"
mean in the context of a DKR? (02)
Some authorities explain "meaning" as associating conduct with values, beginning
with life and death and working our way up to rock concerts. What do you mean
by "meaning" and how does knowledge and a DKR help us get it? (03)
Some authorities flesh this out by relating context to causality, so that a link
showing traceability to original sources enables people to place current
understanding in the context of prior related action and subsequent follow up.
This tends to strengthen "knowledge" of cause and effect about things that
impact values, like life and death, attending a rock concert and so on. Linking
to objectives, requirements and commitments, in addition to history, adds
another dimension to context that gives meaning to information, for example, as
conveyed in this letter. Sometimes meaning drifts away from original
understanding, because the mind recodes information, like the telephone game,
and this causes conduct to drift off course. Your idea about linking sounds
like it might help maintain alignment to avoid mistakes and focus efforts on
objectives to get things done on time and within budget, which could help the
economy and national security by linking conduct into patterns that show people
mean to cause trouble in the future under similar context. (04)
Of course, I am by no means an expert on meaning, but there may be people on the
team who can contribute on this tricky subject. (05)
Rod (06)
***************** (07)
Eugene Eric Kim wrote:
>
> On Sun, 9 Dec 2001, Rod Welch wrote:
>
> > Good to hear from you. Analysis of linking in your letter on December 8, shown
> > below, indicates progress toward DKR planning in the link you provided. Any
> > progress to report on applying ideas you and Doug mapped out at SRI for a DKR
> > that manages problems through learning and experience. Seems like a fruitful
> > approach. Gil Regev once talked about context and Eric worried recently that
> > this is important. Has context management been worked into the DKR plan for
> > linking?
>
> What's your definition of "context," Rod? Do you have something in
> particular in mind when you ask about working context management into
> linking?
>
> I would define "context" as "stuff that gives other stuff meaning." In
> this sense, knowledge management is all about context management. And in
> this sense, links are, by definition, something that give context to data.
> So, link management itself is a subset of context management.
>
> -Eugene
>
> --
> +=== Eugene Eric Kim ===== eekim@eekim.com ===== http://www.eekim.com/ ===+
> | "Writer's block is a fancy term made up by whiners so they |
> +===== can have an excuse to drink alcohol." --Steve Martin ===========+ (08)