[ba-ohs-talk] Manhattan Project to establish the Knowledge Sciences
John, (01)
As we have discussed, a "knowledge" sciences effort indicated in your
letter on July 8, is important, but has proven elusive over the past
few years, as reported by Dave Snowden at IBM in the paper you cited
in a letter on 020608... (02)
http://www.welchco.com/sd/08/00101/02/02/06/08/193547.HTM#ZN6I (03)
You may recall that on 991217 we attended a KM event in San Ramone
where the attendees did not know anything about KM... (04)
http://www.welchco.com/sd/08/00101/02/99/12/17/090006.HTM#9030 (05)
Subsequently, on 991221 you sent a suggestion to work with Doug
Engelbart and the people at SRI on an effort to advance KM... (06)
http://www.welchco.com/sd/08/00101/02/99/12/21/230502.HTM#0001 (07)
...like the Manhattan project called out in your letter on 020708... (08)
On 991222 review of Doug's writings and discussion with Doug showed
interest in supporting KM... (09)
http://www.welchco.com/sd/08/00101/02/99/12/22/104523.HTM#0897 (010)
On 000120 the central dilemma of KM was presented to Doug's group
about defining
a meaningful distinction between information and knowledge... (011)
http://www.welchco.com/sd/08/00101/02/00/01/20/080146.HTM#5063 (012)
On 000212 Eric Armstrong made some progress on this issue... (013)
http://www.welchco.com/sd/08/00101/02/00/02/12/193428.HTM#G49J (014)
On 000324 SRI reported other KM projects had failed... (015)
http://www.welchco.com/sd/08/00101/02/00/03/24/160030.HTM#4877 (016)
...presaging Dave's report two (2) years later. (017)
On 000407 Doug's SRI group was reminded about the need to define
knowledge, as previously suggested on 000120.... (018)
http://www.welchco.com/sd/08/00101/02/00/04/07/115815.HTM#2805 (019)
However, on 000503 Eric reported this task is too difficult... (020)
http://www.welchco.com/sd/08/00101/02/00/05/03/191727.HTM#5033 (021)
A month or so later, the entire team adopted the same position... (022)
http://www.welchco.com/sd/08/00101/02/00/06/15/160030.HTM#6271 (023)
Since that time there has been a lot of discussion about ontology,
Wiki, SOAP, dialog maps, IBIS, C++, Java, collaboration, semiotics,
topic maps, et al, for two (2) years or more. (024)
On 001025 Doug Engelbart made a simple request for people to put a
link or two in communications that show alignment between current
perspective and related information in order to provide context.... (025)
http://www.welchco.com/sd/08/00101/02/00/10/25/095632.HTM#00VU (026)
...that helps grow a culture of knowledge by giving people experience
working with connections of cause and effect. Doug's request reflects
good management practice calling for an audit trail showing
traceability to original sources, reviewed on 950721.... (027)
http://www.welchco.com/sd/08/00101/02/95/07/21/134937.HTM#1740 (028)
This request has not been met, as Dave Snowden relates in his paper
which you submitted on 020608... (029)
http://www.welchco.com/sd/08/00101/02/02/06/08/193547.HTM#ZN6I (030)
People revert to calling things "Manhattan" in hopes of creating
sufficient attention for empowering improvement, following the model
of WWII, where the bombing of Pearl Harbor and fear of German success
with nuclear ordinance focused attention on solving a complex problem. (031)
In that case, the people working on the problem understood the
underlying science, but had to work out technicalities of
implementation (according to the movies I have seen). The difficulty
in the case of KM, is that the design seems to be a secret. The
people at Microsoft, IBM, Yale, Stanford, and so don't have an
underlying concept to follow because the distinction between
information and knowledge is unclear because it can only be grasped
based on experience, and nobody has time to gain the experience, as
evidenced by the lack of response on Doug's request on 001025. (032)
Moreover, once the secret is discovered a new set of social problems
arise, because the light of knowledge brings the burden of
responsibility, under the rule so and so knew, or reasonably should
have known. (033)
As a result, fear of accountability makes the light of knowledge a
greater burden than the darkness of ignorance under the legend of
Prometheus reviewed on 991108.... (034)
http://www.welchco.com/sd/08/00101/02/99/11/08/191947.HTM#XP53 (035)
This record seems to suggest that a Manhattan project can be effective
for KM.
I was just curious whether anyone has focused on these thorny issues
that have persisted for several thousand years. (036)
Rod (037)
*************** (038)
> John Maloney wrote:
>
> Greetings,
>
> The Behavioral Computational Neuroscience Group and The
> OntologyStream are proposing a Manhattan Project to establish the
> Knowledge Sciences:
>
> http://www.bcngroup.org/area3/manhattan/sindex.htm.
>
> The BCNGroup Founding Committee asks that we forward information
> about this Project to a wide audience!
>
> The link at: http://www.bcngroup.org/area3/manhattan/sindex.htm. has
> a button and Java script to automate the sending of e-mail about the
> Manhattan project to e-mail addresses that you enter.
>
>
>
> Cheers,
>
>
>
> -jtm (039)