Jack Park wrote:
[snip]
Rod Welch is fond of pointing out here (and, imho, rightly so) that
knowledge management requires a massive effort on the part of those who
participate. My take on that: you get back what you put in. In a
collaborative environment, you get back a bit more than you put in.
</Jack Park>
[Garold L. Johnson] I agree with both points. The question that I raise is
not ‘if’ the effort is put in, but when and by whom. When I generate
information I should invest the effort to link it to the material that is
relevant. When I absorb information that is closely related and well
structured, I should take the time to form the links. At other times, the
information is presented to the groups with scarcely more than a link, with
local context providing the only link.
As an example, consider the chaordic site that Bernard referenced in the
earlier message. There is a lot on that site that is of definite relevance
to the bootstrapping process that Doug is advocating, and that is possibly
also relevant to the attack on “complex problems”.
Should Bernard (in an ideal world) have been expected to cross link all of
the relevant information on that entire site into the structure of our total
discussion on the process of bootstrapping and the solution of complex
problems? That seems to be a totally unrealistic expectation.
More realistic is what actually happens here – we now have a link. Several
people will look at the material and comment on various parts of it (which
they would link into the system). This gradually ties the material into ever
more places as it is digested by those collaborating on it. Assuming that
the information continues to prove relevant, it will eventually be woven
into all sorts of places in the knowledge structure. Every now and then
someone will undertake to do a more thorough job of integration and link
large amounts of information into the structure.
It still doesn’t seem reasonable to me to expect, much less require, a high
level of integration at the rime of introduction for large amounts of
external material.
Thanks,
Garold (Gary) L. Johnson
DYNAMIC Alternatives <http://www.dynalt.com/>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Apr 15 2001 - 11:58:11 PDT