THE WELCH COMPANY
440 Davis Court #1602
San Francisco, CA 94111-2496
415 781 5700
rodwelch@pacbell.net
Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2005 11:28:40 -0800
03 00050 61 05011501
Mr. Henry van Eyken
Webmaster
Bootstrap Institute
6505 Kaiser Drive
Fremont, CA 94555
..
Subject:
Fleabyte, DKR, Collaboration and civic journalism
Innovation Loop DKR Used Planning
Dear Henry,
Eugene makes a good point in his letter on 050114, shown below,
on conducting a professional event that aims for synergy between
a DKR and collaboration.
..
An initial question Fleabyte can address might define the
purpose of a DKR that augments thinking and facilitates
collaboration, and which also grows through collaboration and a
wide variety of other means.
..
For example, Eugene plans to generate a DKR for an upcoming professional
event, which will yield lessons learned for doing future events,
and which in turn will contribute to the DKR. Does a DKR then
relate to particular subjects, like learning to conduct
professional events; or, might a DKR provide guidance on matters
presented during a professional event? One can imagine that
experience and lessons learned on conducting professional events
would indeed bear directly on future similar events, but what of
the content in the events? Can we truly say that "learning"
occurs from a presentation, and if so is it "knowledge" or is it
mere awareness that someone said something and offered evidence
relevant to particular contexts? This seems like a critical
factor applying lessons stored in a Dynamic Knowledge Repository
(DKR). What makes it "dynamic" and what makes it "knowledge."
Eugene's letter offers that continually adding new information
from follow on events makes a repository "dynamic." Sounds "good
to go."
..
To illustrate, on 000518 Jack introduced Professor Marry Keeler
during a meeting at SRI to define "knowledge" toward designing a DKR.
Professor Keeler cited the work of Charles Peirce, who developed
semiotics in the early 20th century. Peirce's work on semiotics
has recently gained renewed interest for guidance on the
philosophy of using technology to aid "knowledge" formation. How
so? Earlier, on 000517 Jack submitted a paper Mary prepared on
her study of Peirce which disclosed that experience drives
formation of knowledge, and this means the accuracy of knowledge
in the human mind is continually refined by new experience.
..
Eugene's model of using experience from past professional events
to refine knowledge for conducting future events appears to
align with Peirce's ideas on human mental metrics. Might this
be a good model for a DKR, i.e., we are all equipped
to grow knowledge, and so can we configure technology to
augment the intelligence process for dynamically generating,
connecting, storing, and retrieving knowledge, in the same way
that an automobile augments physical strength to move about
with heavier loads by some significant order of magnitude?
..
How then to expand the model for using a DKR to collaborate on
professional events to include content of such events, and all
other events?
..
One way would be to triangulate new information in a professional
event with related experience from all events, like reading a
book, attending meetings, getting and sending email, seeing a
movie, etc. The challenge becomes how to make dynamic
connections between disparate events that accumulate evidence
with sufficient weight that justify a conclusion of a "lesson"
which can be relied upon for future conduct? This suggests a DKR
supports dynamics between learning and taking action, described
as "thinking" and "doing" in POIMS....
.. http://www.welchco.com/03/00050/01/09/01/02/00030.HTM#2050 ..
The suggestion that a DKR requires input from experts is not
entirely supported by experience. Mark Twain defined an "expert"
as "Some guy from out of town." Setting humor aside, while
credentials are helpful and important, ultimately the critical
factor that grows "knowledge" is experience, also called
history. The notion of an "encyclopaedia" that organizes
experience based on the structure of knowledge, some might call a
taxonomy, or ontology fits this model. It should seek out
experts, analyse their input, and make appropriate attribution,
but conclusions must ultimately be grounded in experience that
establish reliable belief in causation. Thus, in my view, an
effective DKR requires a generalist, not an expert. This means
that people like Eugene and Henry are ideal for the task of
growing knowledge using skills of reporting, and journalism.
Other skills are also needed, but history begins with writing
the story.
..
Fleabyte then might look for tools that generate Dynamic
Knowledge Repository (DKR) by empowering people to work
intelligently by "connecting the dots" with dynamic links from
daily experience that continually refine the accuracy of
knowledge in their personal encyclopaedia.
..
This requires a method of defining an organic structure for
navigating the repository.
..
Of course merely accumulating a lot of experience does not yield
lessons learned. Human reasoning tends to make conclusions of
cause and effect based on chronology, as in the popular question
-- "Then what happened?"
..
People yearn to have information
presented in sequence because time imparts causation, which can
be applied for decisions on future events with similar context,
i.e., planning.
..
Of course, merely having a lot good ideas in a
dynamic repository does not comprise useful "knowledge" without
precision access based on situational awareness to draw on
relevant knowledge when needed to "connect the dots" for
understanding current events in relation to objectives,
requirements, and commitments. With these capabilities, a DKR is
positioned to augment intelligence for getting things done on
time, within budget and correctly to save lives, time, and money,
while further disclosing the secrets of nature, commonly called
"creativity."
..
How can intelligence for getting things done creatively be
applied?
..
Eugene notes in his letter how a DKR can help plan future
professional events. Additional application to education,
government, business, health care, science, and other areas
driven by knowledge are listed in the record on 020708....
http://www.welchco.com/sd/08/00101/02/02/07/08/104022.HTM#MZ6O ..
On 000120 Eric Armstrong and others discussed creating a DKR to
solve world problems. People posed the prospect of eliminating
poverty, war, pestilence, ignorance, decadence... That may be.
A DKR can further support daily routine tasks described by Doug
in his 1972 paper, which he cited on 000327....
http://www.welchco.com/sd/08/00101/02/00/03/27/094001.HTM#3971 ..
Perhaps learning to use a DKR for personal and organizational
tasks that save lives, time, and money will lead toward larger
societal goals, as civilization takes another leap, noted by Doug
Lenat, cited in Jack's letter on 010622...